Eastern Christian Insights
Gratitude Gives Rise to Faith: Homily for the 29th Sunday After Pentecost & the 12th Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church
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Colossians 3:4-11; Luke 17:12-19 There is a lot of evidence that writing down five things for which you are grateful each day is good for your health, both mentally and physically. Doing so is associated with lower rates of depression, anxiety, and pain and with a higher sense of well-being. Perhaps that is because it is the very nature of the human person to be the recipient of God’s blessings. …
The Morning Offering
The Orthodox Temple
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The Link between the Old and New Testament Temples Orthodox temples have kept to the same form and function since ancient times. Using the Old Testament Temple model, Orthodox churches are divided into several courts or spaces peculiar to their function. The Holy Table, upon which is celebrated the Eucharist, is situated at the east end of the building behind…
The Whole Counsel Blog
The Geography of the Underworld
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When the Scriptures speak about the underworld, the realm of the dead, they use identical terms to those used by the surrounding culture. This includes the names Sheol or Hades, as well as references to the realm under or beneath the earth. This is not just the use of certain borrowed words or terms or even analogies. In the ancient world, there was a well-developed sense of the underworld, of places in this world in which it became present, and of points of access in this world which led there. Again, this sense did not consist of an ever-increasing series of metaphors and analogies or of cleverly-spun symbolic tales. The ancients firmly held that their descriptions of the underworld in…
A Light So Lovely
Day 5: The Hero's Journey as a Reflection of Reality
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Welcome to Day Five of my new blog series on “accepting the world.” Catch up on the idea for the series and the first four posts on this dedicated page. In two weeks, Artefact Institute is presenting our first workshop/event in Louisville, KY. It’s our first event, but already there’s been a lot of interest, and we expect several hundred people in attendance at various points of the weekend. That interest has…
The Morning Offering
Deceitfulness
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We must strive to always be truthful In our daily encounters with our spouses, family, friends, and coworkers, we must always strive to be truthful. Deceitfulness must never be allowed to be a part of our life, for deceitfulness in relationships with others will always translate into being untruthful with God. Our relationships with others and our relationship with God…
A Light So Lovely
Day 4: Little Women and "Secular Three"
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Welcome to Day Four of my new blog series on “accepting the world.” If you haven’t had a chance to read my previous posts, or if you’re confused about what “accepting the world” even means, click here to see all my posts up to this point. Yesterday I had the “capital!” pleasure of seeing Greta Gerwig’s take on Little Women. (If you’ve seen the movie, you’ve already gotten the reference). This won’t be a…
Father Bill's Blog
163. The Divine Liturgy 3 - How to Prepare Ourselves
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Preparation for Holy Communion We covered The Proskomidia Service (Priest’s Preparation for Divine Liturgy) in Posts 151 and 152. The moral of this was that all of us, not only the clergy, should make special preparations if we’re going to receive the Holy Eucharist – which I hope you do regularly, unless you’re in sin and unrepentant, God help you. You should, of course, approach the altar with a spirit of repentance. If you have any…
Glory to God for All Things
A Parable of A Kingdom
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There was a wicked kingdom in which there lived a large number of slaves. The kingdom fought wars, built cities and was extremely successful in growing its economy. Its achievements were the envy of all the other kingdoms. The slaves did well, too. They were not given low jobs or manual labor. Instead, they were “helping” slaves. Their task was to help the people of the Kingdom get by. If life in the…
Faith Encouraged
Take His Lighter Burden!
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Listen to Elder Joseph the Heychest: “Therefore, don’t despair when you fall, but get up eagerly and do a metanoia saying, “Forgive me, my dear Christ. I am human and weak.” The Lord has not abandoned you. But since you still have a great deal of worldly pride, a great deal of vainglory, our Christ lets you make mistakes and fall, so that you perceive and come to know your weakness every…
The Morning Offering
A Mass of Sinners
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Committed to living as the presence of Christ According to Saint Ephraim the Syrian (306 – 373), “The Church is not the assembly of saints, it is the mass of sinners who repent, who, sinners though they are, have turned towards God and are oriented towards Him.” As a people whose focus is on God, we are sinners who are…
A Light So Lovely
Day 3: Is the Distracted Mind a Spiritual Liability?
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Welcome to Day Three of my new blog series on “accepting the world.” If this sounds slightly scandalous (aren’t we Christians supposed to reject the world?), catch up with this intro post. In that post, I explain what Ivan Ilyin means when he says we must accept the world as God’s gift before we can begin the difficult and necessary process of transforming the world, with God’s help, through the medium of…
Faith Encouraged
Make THIS MOMENT Sacred
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We learn how to make all of life sacred by making one moment of our life sacred. While that may really sound paradoxical, it makes perfect sense when you consider that it’s only by a focused effort I can wake up to a wider truth. If I try to take in the whole world, eternity, and all things, I get overwhelmed. Why do you think we are so impassioned by politics and…
The Morning Offering
The Church is Our Nation
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The Church’s purpose is to unite all men as one nation in Christ When the Bolsheviks defeated Imperial Russia, the former government’s close ties with the Church led to the wholesale murder of countless bishops, priests, monastics, and faithful, all seen as an inseparable part of the government. The institution of the Church was seen as so closely tied to…
A Light So Lovely
Day 2: To Accept the World, You Have to See It
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Welcome to Day Two of my blog series about “accepting the world”, in the sense given that phrase by Ivan Ilyin. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s the post that sets it all up.) Instead of over-philosophizing like I sometimes do, I just wanted to share a story with you today. “Blank Page Syndrome” As you might have already heard, there’s a group of us (Artefact Institute) that…
Walking an Ancient Path
My Private Switzerland of the Mind
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As the new calendar year begins, I find myself reflecting on the things I allow into my mind—through images and reading, as well as the thoughts that tempt and assault me. My musings on this subject are a direct result of a month-long “digital fast” that my husband Rob and I began in mid-December. The idea had been bubbling in the back of my mind since last summer’s Ancient Faith Writing &…
Faith Encouraged
The Father's Good Pleasure
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I know, I know, it doesn’t make sense right off the bat. But it really is true; God wants to GIVE you everything He has! AND, you’re going to have to WORK for it! I really do get why this paradox is so confusing and, frankly, off putting. How can both of these truths BE true? God is all powerful. Who can resist Him? No one, that’s who. Humanity is bent toward…
The Morning Offering
Idolatry
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The idolatry of self-esteem Among the contributors to self-worship, is the possibility of falling into a form of idolatry associated with self-esteem. It is easy to fall into this form of idolatry, since our society has placed a great deal of emphasis on the need for self-esteem. The modern religion of psychoanalysis has promoted self-esteem as though it were the…
A Light So Lovely
Day 1: Thank God for the Italians!
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Welcome to Day One of a new series I’m trying out for this blog. As I mentioned in my last post, I was inspired by the daily gratitude practice of a poet and gardener named Rudy Gay. Noting a certain (Russian… ahem) tendency to see the doom and gloom, I’ve decided to take Ivan Ilyin’s advice about accepting the world as a necessary step in creating culture. If you need a quick…
Faith Encouraged
The Temptation of Christ
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What a provocative Gospel Lesson today! This is the passage that recalls our Lord’s 40 day sojourn in the wilderness after His Baptism. You know the story well. The Lord is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to pray and prepare for His public ministry that will eventually lead Him to the Cross, the Tomb, the Third Day rising, the Ascension, and, one day, the Second and Glorious Coming. While there…
The Morning Offering
Committing to Prayer
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God grants the prayer of him who prays There are so many of us who pray only when we “feel inspired”, or when we “want something” from God, but true prayer must originate from struggle. If we do not struggle to become a prayerful person, prayer will remain sidelined, and we will remain as a person who lacks the discipline…
Shepherding our Little Flock
Nurturing Love
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“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” – John 4:7-8 When my eldest was just almost two and verbal enough to talk with me I would put him to sleep with my last question as “Who loves you?” He would list grandparents, me and…
Shepherding our Little Flock
Introducing the Blog & Myself
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My name is Sasha – from Alexandra – and I am an Orthodox Christian and a mom. Definitely, these are the two most important roles in my life. I’m also a daughter, wife, friend, doctor – all cherished and hard come by. But Orthodox and mom are my number one and number two right now. The Basics of this Blog I wanted to tell you a bit about myself in this first…
No Other Foundation
The Lord’s Prayer: The Final Doxology
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For most English speaking people in our culture, the Lord’s Prayer ends with the words, “For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” This is, however, an ecclesiastical and liturgical conclusion, not a part of the original Lord’s Prayer. That does not mean, of course, that the ekklesia should omit the ecclesiastical conclusion in the interest of exegesis or liturgical archaeology. Arguably the Lord gave His disciples…
Glory to God for All Things
Hidden from the Eyes of Modernity
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“No one will know what you’re doing.” I recently took an evening for a movie – a fairly rare undertaking. The movie was Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, which depicts the story of a Catholic man and his family who refused to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler during World War II. He dies a martyr. The story is based in truth. Living in a small valley in the mountains of…
Faith Encouraged
Theology is Meant to be Lived not Just Argued
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Recently a famous Evangelical pastor came out and stated that he is discovering that the history of the Church was plain that the Eucharist was the center of the Church’s life and not merely a sermon. I remember when I learned that the sermon wasn’t the normal center of Christian worship, it opened the floodgates of information about how normal Christianity was practiced for centuries AND the implications of this information for…
The Morning Offering
Repeat Offenders
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When we struggle with habitual and repetitive sins In the Mystery of Confession we avail ourselves before the analoy stand, upon which the holy cross and the Gospel Book rest. The priest stands in as the witness, whereas in the early Church confession was done before the whole congregation of the faithful. After we have confessed before the Lord, the…
Eastern Christian Insights
From the Darkness of Pride to the Light of Holiness: Homily for the Sunday After the Theophany (Epiphany) of Christ in the Orthodox Church
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Ephesians 4:7-13; Matthew 4:12-17 When we celebrated our Lord’s birth at Christmas, the humble and scandalous circumstances of His coming into the world became apparent. He was born in a cave to a family that lived under the oppression of Roman occupation. They had to flee to Egypt at night as refugees in order to escape the murderous plot of a wicked king. These circumstances reflect…
