Glory to God For All Things

September 12, 2019

Can You Forgive Someone Else’s Enemies?

My thoughts have been drawn to this topic any number of times in the past few days. As we near the anniversary of the tragic events of 911, I see plaintive postings of that day saying, “Never forget” (or words to that effect). The Orthodox faith teaches us that the remembrance of the departed should […]
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Dostoevsky, Enemies, Forgiveness
September 9, 2019

St. Spyridon’s Shoes – and My Shoes

Earlier this year I was making my way to Antiochian Village for a Writers’ Conference. Walking across the expanse of the Atlanta Airport, I became aware of something odd about my shoes. At first, I thought something had gotten into my shoe, a rock, or some such thing. Then I thought that maybe there […]
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Fathers, Reflections, Relics, Saints
September 4, 2019

What Is Beneath the Universe?

In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. John 1:1-3 +++ Throw a blanket over a chair. In all likelihood, you would recognize […]
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Allegory, Knowledge of God, Pascha
August 28, 2019

Who’s Minding the Kids?

I was sitting in a Sunday School class, and was probably around eight or nine years old. I cannot remember what the Scripture was that day. However, the room was brought into a very serious state of mind as we were presented with something and were asked to sign it. I had never entered into […]
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Asceticism, Family, Morality, Reflections
August 22, 2019

Justice, Temperance, Prudence and the Virtue of “No”

I have sometimes quipped that children are born lawyers. Their cries of, “That’s not fair!” would be at home in any court in the world. Children reveal our instinct for fairness, the root concept in the virtue of justice. Of course, as every parent knows, that instinct is often distorted, with the desire for fairness […]
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Modernity, Personhood, Reflections, Tradition
August 18, 2019

A Crisis of Virtue – The Good That We Need

C.S. Lewis once said that courage is the “form of every virtue at its testing point.” It is easy to forget that figures such as Lewis, Tolkien, and even Chesterton, did not write during a time of Christian ascendancy. Lewis was denied a chair (a full professorship) at Oxford for years precisely because of […]
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C.S. Lewis, Reflections, The Journey of Faith, Tolkien
August 7, 2019

Mary: The Blessing of All Generations

In my childhood, it was not unusual to hear someone ask, “Who are your people?” It was a semi-polite, Southernism designed to elicit essential information about a person’s social background. The assumption was that you, at best, could only be an example of your “people.” It ignored the common individualism of the wider culture, preferring […]
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Mother of God, Personhood, Reflections, Saints, Salvation
August 5, 2019

The Scandal of the Transfiguration

My Archbishop (Alexander Golitzin) shares the story of a young man whom he taught some years ago. He was Orthodox from Estonia. He grew up in the Soviet era and had come to hate all things Russian, including the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, he saw an Orthodox procession in the streets of his city one year, […]
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Forgiveness, Knowledge of God, Liturgy, Reflections
July 30, 2019

Hopko on the Cross of Christ

An excerpt from a commencement address at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 2007, given by Fr. Thomas Hopko. It is deeply worthy of conversation. I first posted this back in June, 2007, when it was “new.” That which is true is always new and timeless. …I can tell you that being loved by God, and loving […]
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Cross, Reflections
July 26, 2019

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 […]
Read more: What’s with the Kingdom of God?
Cross, Last Things, Pascha, Reflections

Thank you Father

Janine, Look at this article.

Matthew, I agree. It is all too easy to judge what is going on in someone else (“cheap grace”) without…

Father, have you written on the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” in light of our present discussion…

Further up and further in … I think that is a good way to describe (in part at least) things…