Glory to God for All Things
Negative Thoughts and the Communion of Prayer
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To pray for someone else means that, because of the good disposition of our heart towards him, we help him to resist the negative thoughts that he may have, and not without cause, about us. On the contrary, not to pray for someone else means that we justify by our lack of love the negative thoughts he may have against us. Let us preserve unity in prayer around Christ’s chalice, and we…
Glory to God for All Things
The Kindness of Strangers
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I am sitting in the Dallas airport, waiting for my departure time, tired and ready to return to Tennessee. As always, my time in Dallas has been largely spent in Church and has been more than I could have imagined. This year (or at least this visit) I have been increasingly aware of the “community” of faithful readers. I met many people who are regular readers of Glory to God for All…
Glory to God for All Things
The Price of the Liturgy
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We celebrate the Liturgy together. But we must pay what this costs: each one must be concerned for the salvation of all. Our life is an endless martyrdom. The Elder Sophrony +++ The Divine Liturgy (the Holy Eucharist) is not a ritual action of the Church which we attend, as though it were some sort of program. It is one of the greatest manifestations of the Divine Life that God has given…
Glory to God for All Things
The Communion of Saints
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We are told in the book of Hebrews that our struggle here is “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses,” the saints who have gone before us. This Divine reality is probably not what many modern Christians would expect. I recall the question being put to me some years ago, by a young widow (not Orthodox). I was serving as a Hospice Chaplain. When her young husband died, her question…
Glory to God for All Things
What Is My Life?
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I have written often on the subject of “personhood,” drawing to a large extent on the writings of the Elder Sophrony, and to a lesser extent on the theology of Met. John Zizioulas. The heart of their thought is to direct us to the reality that to exist as “persons” is precisely the same thing (or similar) when we speak of the “persons” of the Holy Trinity. And further, that this is…
Glory to God for All Things
Going Home - A Personal Journey
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I do not know enough languages to gauge how universal is the concept of “home.” It has very strong connotations in English – and is particularly strong in its usage within the Southern United States. I suspect much of this is rooted in family and place – and requires a fairly stable culture. The culture in which I grew up was reasonably stable – though I experienced major upheavals in my surrounding world…
Glory to God for All Things
On Behalf of All and For All - A Family Reunion
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As a child one of my more common experiences was the gathering of my extended family. My mother was one of twelve children, my father one of five. Their siblings largely settled in the same South Carolina county that was home. There they settled into their careers and set about having their own families during the time known as the “baby boom.” Theresult of this stability was a very large extended family.…
Glory to God for All Things
The Bells
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I can never begin describing the layers upon layers of Orthodox Tradition when I am writing or speaking with others. This is true, at the very least, because the Tradition is itself also the “life” of the Church (in Orthodox understanding). A life – particularly a life that is Divine, cannot be described. It can only be experienced. Description, at best, only offers a small glimpse. One of the elements of Orthodox…
Glory to God for All Things
Conversion to the True and Living God
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I grew up in a culture where religious conversion was frequent as well as often short-lived. Religiously, the only remedy to many of the ills of life was conversion. On the face of things I could hardly argue with that now. However, the deeper problem within that particular religious culture was a very truncated view of conversion. For many, conversion was accompanied by emotion (it should be truly “heart-felt”) as well as decision. But the only action…
Glory to God for All Things
Living a Personal Life
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In the common use of the English language, it would seem strange or impossible to say that someone was living an “impersonal” life. And, even in our classical Christian vocabulary, we would say that God (Who is Person) has created us in His own image and that we are inherently “personal.” And yet, the Church also recognizes that it is our personhood that is most effected by the fall. In theological terms,…
Praying in the Rain
For fear of the Jews
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One of the phrases that repeatedly appears in the biblical and liturgical texts surrounding the death and resurrection of our Lord is “for fear of the Jews.” This is a very misleading, though accurate, translation of the text. It is accurate because, well, that is what the text says. It is misleading–and, I might add, has been used to justify terribly inhuman behavior to Jews throughout Christian history–because it gives the impression…
Glory to God for All Things
What Matters - Still True
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Perhaps I am in an introspective mood – but I find myself lately going back and reading my earliest posts – they only go back to October of 2006 – though there have been nearly a thousand of them. It is an exercise in consistency and in growth. Would I have said something differently now than I said then? This is among my earliest efforts and remains as true to me now…
Glory to God for All Things
The Presence in the Absence - A Timely Re-posting
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This short post is among the first to appear on this blog – dating back to October of ’06. In the light of conversations here over the past few days, it seemed timely to bring this back to our attention. I I have written on the topic of the absence of God (or our sense of it) since the beginning of my work. And even though conversations with contemporary non-believers can be…
Glory to God for All Things
Eastern Christian Blog Awards
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Eastern Christian Blog Awards is receiving nominations in a variety of categories. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a category “Best Eastern Christian Blog that Atheists Read”. But here is the web address should you want to nominate a blog. My blogroll contains some excellent blogs – any number of which could be called “best.” This blog won an award last year. Awards may only be a measure of readership, etc., but…
Glory to God for All Things
A Pascha of Incorruption
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I urge readers to follow the link to the website Ora et Labora and read the newly translated article: A Pascha of Incorruption, written by the New Hieromartyr Hilarion (+1929). It is an exquisite commentary on the Orthodox teaching of Pascha, but also demonstrates how the theology of the Church survived and prevailed through its liturgical life and prayers, despite official efforts (in Russia in the 19th century in this case) to…
Glory to God for All Things
Unbelief and the Two-Storey Universe
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I have written extensively about what I have described as a “two-storey universe.” In short, this is a description of how many modern Christians see the world. There is the first floor – the natural world which operates according to naturalist, “secular” rules, and the second floor – the world of God, heaven, hell, angels, etc. The spiritual crisis of much of modern man is the inherent disconnect in these two worlds. It…
Glory to God for All Things
The Unplanned Life
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The following article was first written and posted in March of 2007. I have added a few additional thoughts to the end. One of the geniuses of modern life is the plan. It is certainly the case that if you have a company and a product, or whatever passes for those in these days, there is probably a plan to go with them. Occasionally you hear from Christians, “God has a plan for…
Glory to God for All Things
Everywhere Present
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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 to keep your spirit, your mind, and your heart in the spirit of Christ. Then everything that…
Glory to God for All Things
On Behalf of All and For All
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There is a great mystery in the life of the Christian faith. An example can be found in words of St. Nikolai of Zicha (Prayers of the Lake XXIX). It is this mystery of communion that is so easily missed by those who dismiss Orthodox Christianity, or reduce Christianity to an argument about miracles. The Orthodox faith teaches us the truth about what it means to exist as a human being. We…
Praying in the Rain
Focus North America Ministries
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Glory to God for All Things
A Faith That Cannot Be Defended
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There is such a thing as a Christian faith worth defending (in some sense). However, it seems like those who enjoy attacking the Christian faith find its least worthy representatives for the marshalling of their meager intellectual forces. This often means that atheists attack a faith nobody (virtually) believes, and that defenders sometimes defend something less than Christianity. I have seen several recent articles (most notably in the New Statesman) that have…
Glory to God for All Things
Singleness of Heart
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Perhaps the most scathing reading during Holy Week occurs in the Bridegroom Matins of Great and Holy Tuesday of when we hear Chapter 23 of Matthew’s gospel. There is a refrain which marks many of the verses: “Woe to you scribes and pharisees, you hypocrites!” A single such sentence would carry a punch, but in this particular chapter of Matthew, Jesus says this 8 times (with many other such invectives added in).…
Glory to God for All Things
Relative to Pascha
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If you have attended Pascha services, or served them, it is quite possible to suffer some of the “natural consequences,” which for me means that after a somewhat disordered sleep I am sitting, having coffee and writing at 3:30 in the morning, wide-awake. I have no complaints. I generally like to be up by around 5 or so, so I am only off by a couple of hours…. There is also the…
Praying in the Rain
George Eliot
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Kh. Krista West, in her podcast, The Opinionated Tailor, mentioned once her love for the novels by George Eliot, particularly Adam Bede. Since Bonnie and I are rather addicted to 19th century novels, we are always looking for recommendations. We went out and bought most of her novels (btw, “George Eliot” is the pen name for Mary Ann Evans Cross). I started with Middlemarch and was mesmerized. Bonnie tried to begin with…
Glory to God for All Things
Christos Voskrese
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This delightful youtube video was posted a year ago. One of our readers and occasional commenter, Dejan, (without a doubt my favorite Serb) provided the English translation. The words are from a poem by St. Nikolai Velimirovich who served for a time as the Rector of St. Tikhon’s Seminary – truly one of the great Serbian saints of the modern era. Translation: People rejoice, nations hear: Christ is risen, and brings the…
Glory to God for All Things
Letter from Butyrskaya Prison - Pascha 1928
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Serge Schmemann, son of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in his wonderful little book, Echoes of a Native Land, records a letter written from one of his family members of an earlier generation, who spent several years in the prisons of the Soviets and died there. The letter, written on the night of Pascha in 1928 is to a family member, “Uncle Grishanchik” (This was Grigory Trubetskoi who had managed to emigrate to Paris). This…
Glory to God for All Things
Paradise in a Single Moment
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The Exapostelarian for the Matins of Good Friday is the hymn, “The Wise Thief.” It draws our attention to the mercy of God – who promised paradise to the wise thief, “This day.” Thoughts on the nearness of paradise are also a theme in the writings of Dostoevsky. If paradise is so near – why do we settle for less? During Holy Week, one of my favorite hymns in the Church is…
