Search results for: “church as cross”
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The Great Fast
Read more: The Great FastMonday (tomorrow) marks the beginning of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church (which liturgically begins at Forgiveness Vespers on Sunday). Though Great Lent is kept with rigor in Orthodox Tradition, there is nothing unusual asked of believers – nothing that we do not do on many days throughout the rest of the year. We fast; […]
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A Sermon on Repentance (after St. John Chrysostom)
Read more: A Sermon on Repentance (after St. John Chrysostom)This sermon was written by Fr. John Parker, Rector of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in Mount Pleasant, SC. It is modeled on the well known and beloved Paschal homily of St. John Chrysostom. It offers an interesting echo of the end of the Fast here at its beginning. A recording of Fr. Thomas Hopko reading […]
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The Journey to Repentance
Read more: The Journey to RepentanceOne of my favorite books comes from the last years of the Soviet Union. It is the story of Tatiana Goricheva, a member of the “intelligentsia” and a Soviet-era dissident. Her book, Talking About God Is Dangerous, offers fascinating insights into both a period of time and the period of a human soul’s conversion by […]
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Why Does God Sing?
Read more: Why Does God Sing?A comment was posted this past weekend about prayer and singing (or “chanting”). This article represents some earlier thoughts I have written on the topic. Over the course of this next week I will be largely engaged in another writing task and will only be able to monitor the blog once or twice a day. […]
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Private Prayer – Thoughts of Met. Anthony of Sourozh
Read more: Private Prayer – Thoughts of Met. Anthony of SourozhThe following is an excerpt from a posting on Orthodox World. It is from the late Met. Anthony Bloom (England). There are many articles of interest on this website. There was a time when I read with great faithfulness all the prayers which the Church offers us in the morning, in the evening and on […]
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Looking for the Self in All the Wrong Places
Read more: Looking for the Self in All the Wrong PlacesA few years ago, a major American magazine dubbed a particular age-group as the “me generation.” It would have been more accurate to describe the whole of modernity as a “me generation.” For it has been a hallmark of our age to fashion a particular understanding of what we mean when we say “me.” It […]
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What’s In The Cave
Read more: What’s In The CaveIt is traditionally understood that Christ’s nativity was in a cave (not in a stable). The cave served as a stable – not unusual for the area of Bethlehem. However, the traditional icon of Christ’s nativity reveals the cave in an unmistakeable manner. The cave of Bethlehem resembles the cave of Hades into which Christ […]
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The Doorway to Bethlehem
Read more: The Doorway to BethlehemAs we draw near to the feast of the Nativity, Bethlehem looms ever larger in my mind. At the same time, the entrance to Bethlehem appears as well. This article, posted on Christmas of last year, draws attention to the unusual feature of the entrance of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. We all […]
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Thanksgiving
Read more: ThanksgivingThis year I will make the annual pilgrimage back to South Carolina to be with family for the (American) Thanksgiving holiday. Fewer of my children will be there – a mark of the maturing of their own families and the difficulty of travel at this time of year. The year is different as well for […]
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In the Shadow of the Grand Inquisitor
Read more: In the Shadow of the Grand InquisitorPerhaps the most famous chapter in all of Dostoevsky’s novels is that of the “Grand Inquisitor” in The Brothers Karamazov. It is a “poem” according to the character Ivan Karamazov, a fanciful tale that embodies all of the cyncism that Ivan can muster. In a previous chapter, “Rebellion,” Ivan had mounted a devastating complaint against […]
Mallory, To a certain extent, martyrdom is voluntary. We do not have a commandment to become martyrs. In the early…