Search results for: “st mary of egypt”
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John the Baptist and Forerunner of the Lord
Read more: John the Baptist and Forerunner of the LordWe approach the feast of the Nativity of the Forerunner of Christ – a feast noted around my household for also being the birthday of my wife (and of her brother). Thus we celebrate and are sometimes slightly distracted from the ecclesiatical meaning of the day. But a family cannot be faulted for the joy it takes in its mother, nor I in my spouse. But I want to turn my thoughts today to the Forerunner of Christ before our family calendar overtakes the day itself. St. John has always been a fascinating figure – perhaps among the most unforgettable encounters…
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Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev on the Descent of Christ into Hades
Read more: Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev on the Descent of Christ into HadesThis article may also be read at the Website, Orthodox Europe Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev: Christ the Conqueror of Hell The Descent of Christ into Hades in Eastern and Western Theological Traditions A lecture delivered at St Mary’s Cathedral, Minneapolis, USA, on 5 November 2002 The Byzantine and old Russian icons of the Resurrection of Christ never depict the resurrection itself, i.e., Christ coming out of the grave. They rather depict ‘the descent of Christ into Hades’, or to be more precise, the rising of Christ out of hell. Christ, sometimes with a cross in his hand, is represented as raising…
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The Heart’s Door
Read more: The Heart’s DoorIn the summer of 1952, an obscure event took place in London that would have a profound impact on the future of Orthodox Christianity in the English-speaking world. A seventeen-year-old English lad walked through the doors of St. Philip’s Russian Orthodox Church on Buckingham Palace Road (the Church has long since been torn down). Today he is known as Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, one of the most important figures in the contemporary Orthodox world. His own worlds vividly recount his experience: I can remember exactly when my personal journey to Orthodoxy began. It happened quite unexpectedly one Saturday afternoon in the…
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The Communion of Giving Thanks
Read more: The Communion of Giving ThanksWhom should I thank? The question is normally a matter of polite acknowledgement. A gift was given and received. Who gave it? Whom should I thank? It is inherently the nature of giving thanks that thanks must be given to someone. I cannot give thanks to nothing or no one. As such, the giving of thanks is an act of communion on one level or another. Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in the last sermon of his life, said, “Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation and eternal joy.” I would expand that and say as well, that everyone capable of…
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And They Disappeared – Extreme Humility
Read more: And They Disappeared – Extreme HumilitySometime in the year 421 or 530, an utterly obscure woman from Egypt fell asleep in the desert of the Holy Land. Her burial place was intentionally unmarked and remains unknown. However, every year in the Orthodox Church, she is remembered by the name of Mary of Egypt and her life (written by St. Sophronios in the 7th century) is read in the Church. One of the Sundays of Great Lent is dedicated to her memory. She is an example of the many thousands of monastics whose lives and spiritual feats remain unknown to the world in which we live.…
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The Wisdom of Man and the Foolishness of God
Read more: The Wisdom of Man and the Foolishness of GodThe Feast of the Nativity, known sometimes in Orthodoxy as “the Winter Pascha,” is one of the great examples in the story of our salvation where the “foolishness of God” defeats the wisdom of man. It is not the story of an underdog defeating the mighty, but a revelation of who God is, and who we are – and what our salvation is all about. Nothing in the story of our salvation is accidental or incidental. All of it proclaims the Gospel. The story of the Nativity is utterly shrouded in the cloak of weakness. In our own time we…
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The Doors and God
Read more: The Doors and GodYou cannot attend an Orthodox service and not be aware of doors. There are the doors that form the center of the icon screen, opening directly upon the altar. There are the two doors that flank them, one on either side, known as the “Deacon Doors.” Someone always seems to be coming out of one and going into another. One visitor to my parish confessed that the service reminded her of a “cuckoo clock.” “The door opens. Someone comes out and says something and goes back in again.” I have to admit that I have never been able to rid…
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What’s with the Kingdom of God?
Read more: What’s with the Kingdom of God?Thy Kingdom Come Blessed are You on the throne of the glory of Your Kingdom, seated upon the Cherubim; always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. It was You Who brought us from non-existence into being, and when we had fallen away You raised us up again, and did not cease to do all things until You had brought us up to heaven, and had endowed us with Your kingdom which is to come. Quoted above are three references to the Kingdom of God in St. John Chrysostom’s Liturgy (there are a total of 48). The interesting thing…
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The Communion of Giving Thanks
Read more: The Communion of Giving ThanksWhom should I thank? The question is normally a matter of polite acknowledgement. A gift was given and received. Who gave it? Whom should I thank? It is inherently the nature of giving thanks that thanks must be given to someone. I cannot give thanks to nothing or no one. As such, the giving of thanks is an act of communion on one level or another. Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in the last sermon of his life, said, “Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation and eternal joy.” I would expand that and say as well, that everyone capable of…
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What Happens When We Play (Pray)
Read more: What Happens When We Play (Pray)In my previous article I compared children’s use of play to the place of ritual words and actions in the life of the Church. I absolutely did not mean to imply that one thing is like the other. I mean to say clearly that they are very much the same thing. And I say this both to change how we understand play as well as how we understand ritual words and action. Play is far more serious than people imagine – and ritual words and actions are more playful than they dare conceive. The similarities are very instructive. Both have…
After reading your article again, I think I was thinking out loud with my comment and that it was redundant…