Category: Orthodox Christianity
-
The Luminous Eye
Blessed is the man who has acquired a luminous eye with which he will see how much the angels stand in awe of Thee, O Lord, and how audacious is man. St. Ephrem the Syrian The Seraph could not touch the fire’s coal with his fingers, but just brought it close to Isaiah’s mouth: the…
-
Apophaticism
It is impossible to know God – but you have to know Him to know that.
-
The Soul as Mystery
Readers would not be surprised to know that I am particularly drawn to the writings of Dostoevsky and of Solzhenitsyn. What draws me is the Orthodoxy that underlies them – especially their treatment of the human soul. Both authors have a reverence for the human soul that allows their characters to be more than words…
-
Waking Up
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10). This fear descends on us from on High. It is a spiritual feeling, firstly of God and then of us ourselves. We live in a state of awe by virtue of the presence of the Living God together with awareness of our own…
-
Memory Eternal!
His Holiness, Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and of All Russia, fell asleep today in his home near Moscow. He was elected as Patriarch in 1990 at the critical moment when the winds of freedom were at last blowing through the Orthodox Church in Russia. The nearly two decades since that event have been years…
-
What Shall This Man Do?
From the Desert Fathers: A brother asked the abba Poemen, saying, “If I should see my brother’s fault, is it good to hide it? The old man said to him, “In what hour we do cover up our brother’s sins, God shall cover ours: and in what hour we do betray our brother’s shames, in…
-
Don’t Do That
A dear friend, who is a Russian monk, was among the earliest Orthodox clergy to visit in our mission in its first two years. Most of my parish had never met a monk, much less one who was as serious in demeanor. My son (now an adult) was then 11 years old and served in…
-
Sitting in a Cave
During my pilgrimage to the Holy Land in September, I had the opportunity to spend time at the Monastery of St. Saba in the Judaean Desert. Clinging to cliffs overlooking the Valley of Jezreel, it is the oldest continually-functioning monastery in the Orthodox world. It is hot (particularly in the summer), and even the caves…
-
It Is But A Small Thing
I have noticed in my daily struggle that most of the things that are of importance turn on very “small things.” The decisions that set me on the course of prayer or kindness are made not with fanfare or even large efforts, but on a moment’s turn. By the same token, the decisions that set…
Father, Dana and Matthew, I live and work in a spiritual desert. Your kindness and kind responses are a cool…