Glory to God For All Things

September 5, 2017

Food for the Soul

I recently sat in on a meeting between my bishop and a young man looking to attend seminary. After getting the bishop’s approval, he asked a wise question: “What should I be reading to prepare?” I was as interested in the answer as he was. “Read good literature,” was the answer. This advice came from […]
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Beauty, Conversion, Dostoevsky, Reflections, Solzhenitsyn
August 30, 2017

What To Do With What You Know

In a world driven by information, it is more than a little easy to mistake knowing something as important and good in and of itself. As such, the acquisition of spiritual information is something of a going industry. In a Russian novel written back in the 90’s, a woman intellectual encounters a monk who is […]
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Doctrine, Knowledge of God, Mystical Theology, Orthodox Christianity, Reflections
August 28, 2017

Clothed in the Image

Begging my readers’ patience, I will take a small anthropologist tour through our culture. What I want to draw our attention to is the place of the image. We are not only fascinated with looking at images, we place them on our bodies as well: t-shirts, tattoos, hats, shoes, pants – in short, everywhere. […]
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Beauty, Icons, Reflections, Salvation, The Sacraments, Union with God
August 26, 2017

Everywhere Present

Everything you do, all your work, can contribute towards your salvation. It depends on you, on the way you do it. History is replete with monks who became great saints while working in the kitchen or washing sheets. The way of salvation consists in working without passion, in prayer…. May God give you the strength […]
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Reflections, Union with God
August 23, 2017

Before the Judgment Seat of Christ

For a Christian ending to our life: painless, unashamed, and peaceful; and a good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ, let us ask of the Lord. From my childhood, I have memories of the phrase, “Great White Throne of Judgment.” It comes complete with an abundance of frightening images and threats. It […]
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Cross, Forgiveness, Knowledge of God, Last Things, Morality, Reflections, Repentance
August 16, 2017

Humble and Meek and Middle-Class Morality

“He Will Exalt the Humble and Meek” There is an interesting historical pattern that has been repeated any number of times across the centuries. A group of the dispossessed and the poor come together within a religious movement. What begins with great enthusiasm succeeds. As it succeeds, those who were once poor and dispossessed […]
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Conversion, Forgiveness, Heart, Morality, Reflections, Repentance, Salvation
August 10, 2017

Literalism and Another Word

There are many who speak about literalism and see it where it does not exist. The trees of modern theories and habits hide the forest of ancient understanding and use of texts. It is necessary to back away from details and look at a larger context to see what we are actually seeing. In cultural […]
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Allegory, Interpretation, Modernity, Reflections
August 7, 2017

The Struggle Against the Normal Life

Within the Christianity of our time, the great spiritual conflict, unknown to almost all, is between a naturalistic/secular world of modernity and the sacramental world of classical Christianity. The first presumes that a literal take on the world is the most accurate. It tends to assume a closed system of cause and effect, ultimately […]
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Culture, Knowledge of God, Modernity, Reflections, The Church, The Sacraments
August 1, 2017

The End of Time Is Probably Not What You Think

I grew up near the end of the world. It was a generally accepted notion that we were living in the “end times,” meaning that Christ would soon return. We were taught that believers would be “raptured” out of the terrible things that would unfold and be with Christ in heaven. We were also taught […]
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Last Things, Modernity, Reflections, The Sacraments, Time
July 30, 2017

The Truth of the Soul

“Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving, forever?” In the classic film, The Third Man, Harry Lime, a racketeer in post-War Vienna, quizzes his old friend, Holly Martins, about the value of an individual life. They are standing in the carriage of a Ferris wheel, looking down on the […]
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C.S. Lewis, Morality, Orthodox Christianity, Personhood, Reflections

Oh dear, yes Elijah not Ezekiel. I’m working on another biblical related topic. Thank you for that correction and the…

Dee, But, Moses (the Lawgiver) who most famously spoke with God on the mountain. Elijah, I think, both because God…

Father, Why Moses and Elijah rather than King David or Abraham or Samuel or Isaiah or Daniel? You bring up…

Mallory, Such good questions! I think that, even though the Scriptures have many stories of divine encounters, etc., they are…

When I first heard “Before Abraham was, I am” I felt completely and fully at peace and calm, for no…