Glory to God For All Things

August 29, 2018

Love and Freedom

The most difficult aspect of love is the freedom it inherently requires. Love, in its ultimate and proper form, only exists between equals. There can be a sort of benevolence and nobility towards another who is not equal, but never love. This makes it difficult to understand the God-who-is-love. It will quickly be said […]
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Incarnation, Knowledge of God, Personhood, Reflections
August 24, 2018

Irony and Belief

Irony is probably too much to ask of youth. If I can remember myself in my college years, the most I could muster was sarcasm. Irony required more insight. There is a deep need for the appreciation of irony to sustain a Christian life. Our world is filled with contradiction. Hypocrisy is ever present even […]
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Forgiveness, Knowledge of God, Mercy, The Church
August 20, 2018

A Mediated Presence – Thank God

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, (1 Tim. 2:5) There is no way to adequately explain priesthood without reference to mediation. A priest is a mediator between God and Man. From time to time over the years, I have had the verse from 1 Timothy […]
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Knowledge of God, Liturgy, Modernity, Reflections, The Sacraments
August 13, 2018

Why Mary Has Always Been Honored

This Wednesday (August 15) is the Feast of the Dormition, the Falling Asleep of the Virgin Mary. I offer this article as a reflection. The most difficult part of my Orthodox experience to discuss with the non-Orthodox is the place and role of the Mother of God in the Church and in my life. It is, […]
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Mother of God, Orthodox Christianity, Reflections
August 6, 2018

Transformation and Forgiveness

There are various applications in our culture directed towards “feeling good about ourselves.” In contrast to being shamed and condemned it is an improvement. But it also misses the truth of things. Pretending that everything is ok does not make it so. There is within this, a kinship to the Penal Substitution Theory of the […]
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C.S. Lewis, Morality, Reflections, Repentance, Salvation
July 30, 2018

The Singular Goodness of God

It has long seemed to me that it is one thing to believe that God exists and quite another to believe that He is good. Indeed, to believe that God exists simply begs the question. That question is: Who is God, and what can be said of Him? Is He good? This goes to the […]
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Cross, Hell, Interpretation, Pascha, Personhood, Reflections
July 22, 2018

Consent to Reality

Catholic philosopher, Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue), has presented perhaps the most cogent account of our modern cultural landscape. It is not an account of how one set of ideas gave way to another set of ideas, but how a once-upon-a-time consensus gave way to our current collection of competing truth-claims and world-views. Indeed, he demonstrates […]
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Knowledge of God, Modernity, Orthodox Christianity, Reflections, Tradition
July 16, 2018

Face to Face – Without Shame or Fear

We are apparently living in the age of the face, and I don’t think it’s necessarily bad. I know all the complaints about our culture of “selfies,” and there are certainly many things in that to make us wonder, but our fascination with our faces long predates the technology of our phones. In the usage […]
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Communion, Icons, Personhood, Reflections, Salvation
July 11, 2018

Beyond Narcissism – To Behold the Face of God

Perhaps the most difficult personalities encountered in anyone’s life are those that can clinically be labeled “narcissistic.” It refers to a very describable disorder that can be diagnosed but treated only with difficulty. The narcissist is critically handicapped when it comes to recognizing and respecting boundaries. They want to run your life (and will). Everything […]
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Knowledge of God, Personhood, Reflections
July 9, 2018

Politics and the Princes of This World

The tenth chapter of Daniel records the prophet’s final vision, one that contains a very interesting tale: Now on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, that is, the Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose […]
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Liturgy, Modernity, Reflections, Secularism

Mallory, Living in a new place, I am now seeing new doctors. Today, was my first visit with my new…

Margaret Sarah, I tend to think that when a story “bothers me” that there’s something I’m not seeing or understanding.…

Dee, This might be an obvious observation, but I recently heard it pointed out the Jesus cursing the fig tree…

Matthew, I laughed when I saw how succinctly you asked “…why don’t we see more of these experiences and miracles…

Thank you so much, Father. Your words help.