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The Morality of Christmas
Read more: The Morality of ChristmasYou might be thinking that it’s too early to hear about Christmas – Thanksgiving is yet a couple of weeks away. However, for the Orthodox, the Nativity Fast began on November 15. It is already time to give our thoughts to Christmas – our Winter Pascha. This article (a reprint) reflects on a theme that […]
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Is Everyone Transsexual?
Read more: Is Everyone Transsexual?A recent case put before the Supreme Court (Harris Funeral Home v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) centers around the question of human sexuality, particularly as argued in the situation of those claiming to be transsexual. At issue is whether the Civil Rights Laws that protect against discrimination on the basis of sex should apply to […]
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A Royal Nun Sees Her Angel
Read more: A Royal Nun Sees Her AngelIn the service of Holy Baptism, the priest specifically prays that God will assign an “angel of light” to the life of the child being baptized. In Matthew 18:10, Christ makes reference to the guardian angels of children who “always behold the face of my Father.” Their role is the guarding of our salvation. It […]
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A Patient Joy – Finding the True Self
Read more: A Patient Joy – Finding the True SelfAmong the weakest things in the world of social relations is the truth. That might seem to be an odd statement. However, the weakness of the truth is the limitations placed upon it by its very nature. It cannot say just anything, nor can it ever pretend to be something that it is not. Those […]
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Slowing Down for the Necessary Thing
Read more: Slowing Down for the Necessary ThingI make a weekly visit to a nursing home about an hour away. I have a dear parishioner who has been in that place, or similar places, for about eight years. Our conversations center around the past week, her life and mine, with occasional forays into deeper matters. One of the difficulties of life in […]
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Form and Conformity – How Tradition Saves Us
Read more: Form and Conformity – How Tradition Saves UsWhen C.S. Lewis tried to describe the nature of reality as undergirded with order and discernible principles (The Abolition of Man), he looked for a term that would be more easily palpable to a secularized audience that was already becoming highly resistant to Christian terminology. He chose the Chinese term, the Tao, as a disarming […]
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The Despised God
Read more: The Despised GodIn his On the Orthodox Faith, St. John of Damascus declares: “The Son is the image of the Father, and the Spirit the image of the Son.” Such statements are easily read and passed over as among the more obvious Trinitarian statements. I add to this statement another from St. Irenaeus: “That which is invisible […]
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The Good That Lies Within
Read more: The Good That Lies WithinThe line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. […]
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Making the World a Better Place – Or Else
Read more: Making the World a Better Place – Or ElseIf you lurk around social media, particularly in conservative conversations, you will have undoubtedly seen something about recent statements on the part of a minor Democratic candidate for the Presidential nomination. I have no interest in the politics of the matter. However, the exchange goes to the heart of the modern impulse and serves as […]
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Tolkien’s Long Defeat and the Path of History
Read more: Tolkien’s Long Defeat and the Path of History“Actually I am a Christian,” Tolkien wrote of himself, “and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’— though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory” (Letters 255). +++ History as a long defeat – […]
Amen! Thank you, Fr. Stephen, for these encouraging words.