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A Beautiful Heart – The Acquisition of Grace
Read more: A Beautiful Heart – The Acquisition of GraceFinally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Phil 4:8 +++ Some people tell me that they are scandalized because they see many things wrong in the […]
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The Verbal Icon of Christ
Read more: The Verbal Icon of ChristAny number of times, the late Fr. Thomas Hopko recounted how his predecessor as Professor of Dogmatics at St. Vladimir’s, Serge Verhovskoy, extracted an oath from him prior to signing off on his assuming that position. The oath was straightforward: never to present his own opinion as the dogma of the Church. If you’ve ever […]
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Stumbling Toward Salvation
Read more: Stumbling Toward SalvationOn occasion I have written on topics that seem to scandalize readers, or certainly cause difficulty for many. Some of those topics have been articles on the wrath of God; the radical forgiveness of everyone for everything; the commonality of our life and our salvation; and various posts on giving thanks always for all things […]
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“Make It So!” vs. “Let It Be!”
Read more: “Make It So!” vs. “Let It Be!”Abba Poemen said, “Teach your mouth to say that which is in your heart. +++ Some years back, while driving through the mountains here in Tennessee, with an out-of-date GPS system in my car, I was instructed to take a particular turn and cross a bridge. Something inside me (guardian angel?) whispered a word of […]
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This Is My Body
Read more: This Is My BodyThe most fundamental experience of being human is biological. We enter the world in a state of biological dependence, having left an utterly symbiotic existence in the womb. Parents’ first thoughts about a child are consumed with biological issues. Nursing, digestion, sleep, and various discomforts rightly occupy the often sleep-deprived parents of newborns. Conversations among […]
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Knocking Down the Gates of Hell
Read more: Knocking Down the Gates of HellThe Swedish Lutheran theologian, Gustav Aulen, published a seminal work on the types of atonement theory in 1930 (Christus Victor). Though time and critical studies have suggested many subtler treatments of the question, no one has really improved on his insight. Especially valuable was his description of the “Classic View” of the atonement. This imagery, […]
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The Bridegroom and Judgment
Read more: The Bridegroom and JudgmentBehold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse […]
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Lazarus Saturday
Read more: Lazarus SaturdayLargely ignored by much of Christendom, the Orthodox mark the day before Palm Sunday as “Lazarus Saturday” in something of a prequel to the following weekend’s Pascha. It is, indeed a little Pascha just before the greater one. And this, of course, was arranged by Christ Himself, who raised His friend Lazarus from the dead […]
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The Limits of Holiness
Read more: The Limits of HolinessI saw a commercical recently that proclaimed, “Freedom has no limits!” It sought to capture the modern imagination with what is a patently absurd statement. Everything in creation has limits – that is the nature of created things. It is nonetheless the case that we can imagine our life without limits – a shameless existence […]
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The Mythic Character of Reality
Read more: The Mythic Character of RealityThe friendship between CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien is well-known, as is Tolkien’s role in bringing Lewis to Christ. Less well-known (unless you dig a bit further) is Tolkien’s role in bringing Lewis out of a rigid and flat understanding of the world and into the rich possibilities afforded by “myth.” Without this conversion, Lewis […]
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Father, I suffer because of my concerns that my ‘illness’ infects others. As we have discussed in a previous blog…
Holly, I think surely you’re correct – love above all else. It explains why the outcasts (those whom society loves…
I think the sick came to Jesus because they felt His love. At least that’s why I came to the…
Thank you Fr. Stephen. This blog space is helping me to see what it means to be and to live…
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Also, Father, I’ll mention briefly that I’m reading “Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives” by Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica. His words…