Glory to God for All Things
Psalm 50(1)
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Glory to God for All Things
Tuesday - the Day of the Forerunner
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Tuesdays in the Orthodox week, are dedicated to St. John the Forerunner and Baptist of our Lord (to use his full title). For me he is one of the most remarkable figures in all of Holy Scripture. Referred to by Christ as the “greatest of those born of women” (yet “less than any in the Kingdom of God”), he stands as the end of one Covenant and the bridge to the beginning…
Glory to God for All Things
Mission and Worship - America and the Orthodox
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The following post is an expanded version of a comment I wrote in a recent thread. The question to which it responds is the Scriptural mandate of St. Paul (1 Cor. 9:19-23): For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law…
Glory to God for All Things
Monday - the Day of the Holy Angels
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Yesterday I set out to write a short piece on each day of the week. In the Orthodox calendar, each day of the week has its own particular dedication – an aspect of the life and ministry of Christ or of our life as Christians. Monday is remembered as the Day of the Angels. The hymns for this day will always reflect, in some manner, the ministry of angels. The Scriptures are…
Glory to God for All Things
Sunday Morning - Resurrection
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God willing, I offer a set of short meditations this week – on the days of the week. In Orthodoxy each day has its own “dedication,” something which marks the day and its hymnody, etc. Some of those days are more obvious than others. Perhaps the most obvious day of all is Sunday – the Day of Resurrection. This is the day of the central gathering of the community for worship and…
Glory to God for All Things
Safe Return
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Glory to God for All Things
America and the Church - More Thoughts
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Getreligion.org recently drew attention to a New York Times article on modern evangelicalism and the role that various forms of music are playing in their current configuration. The article contained this striking quote and observation from an interview with Tom Mercer, senior pastor of the evangelical church featured in the article: “When you start a church,” said Tom Mercer, 52, the senior pastor, “you don’t decide who you’re going to reach and…
Glory to God for All Things
Thanksgiving Evening - 2007 - America and Christianity
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My Thanksgiving over the past few years has mostly served as one of the few occasions for the gathering of extended family. Somethings are measured in these meetings – the passing of time – I am older; my parents are older – and now the children are increasingly the adults. I am beginning to assume my role as an elder (though not quite “elderly”). I’m sure many places across the world have…
Glory to God for All Things
Happy Thanksgiving (American Holiday)
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Glory to God for All Things
A Little Child Enters the Temple
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The story in the gospel of Christ’s visits to the Temple in his childhood – the first at 40 days of age (marked by the Feast of the Presentation and the occasion of prophecy by the Elder Simeon and Hannah the Prophetess) and at age 12 when He is lost and later found giving instruction to the teachers and scribes, is a reminder of the importance of children in the Temple of…
Glory to God for All Things
What Faith Shall I Defend?
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Contemporary challenges to the Christian faith, whether from children’s writers such as Pullman or various scientific voices in the world of mass media, are frequently not challenges to the Christian faith but attacks on the misperceptions of the Christian faith. By the same token, many professions of the Christian faith are not professions of the faith, but professions of misperceptions of the Christian faith. To some degree, one can beget the other.…
Glory to God for All Things
Where Do the Children Play?
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I recall an old Cat Stevens song from the early 70’s, Where Do the Children Play? It runs through my head from time to time when I think about the adult world interacting with children. I had the phrase somewhat in mind when I reacted to the recent invasion of Harry Potter’s world by JK Rowling’s world. I stated then that I was sad that children can’t be left out of some…
Glory to God for All Things
Another Milestone - with Thanks
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Sometime tomorrow (here in Tennessee) or this evening (if something unusual happens) Glory to God for All Things will reach another milestone in its young life. We will cross 400,000 “views” since the blog’s debut in October last year. Readership has continued to grow (slowly but steadily) which is encouraging. In general, I think we’ve managed to maintain kindness within the posts and comments, even if both occasionally speak quite frankly. My…
Glory to God for All Things
A Faith Worth Believing
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In the past month of more I have been working from time to time on posts about a “One-Storey Universe” versus a “Two-Storey Universe.” The comments and the readership have said to me that I am writing about a topic that touches many. Perhaps the most poignant responses I have had have been those who have heard descriptions of the One-Storey World, in tales from monastics in which the language is clearly simple:…
Glory to God for All Things
St. Ignatius Brianchaninov on Prayer and the Fire of the Spirit
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St. Ignatius Brianchaninov was an early 19th century Russian Bishop and saint. His teachings on prayer, drawn from the fathers are among the best modern commentaries. His work, The Arena, is a must-read on the subject of spiritual delusion. The following excerpt is from his book, On the Prayer of Jesus, in which he draws from various fathers their teaching on this most classic of Orthodox disciplines. This excerpt is from the…
Glory to God for All Things
The Mystery of the Human Heart
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St. Macarius is famously quoted: The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. But there too is God, the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasuries of grace—all things are there. (H.43.7) This, of course, only opens the mystery of the heart –…
Glory to God for All Things
Confession and Forgiveness in Solzhenitsyn
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My dear friend, Fr. Al Kimel (known to many as the Pontificator) sent me a link to this wonderful excerpt from Solzhenitsyn’s The Red Wheel, including some insightful commentary. The piece may be read in its entirety on the Blog, Word Incarnate (on WordPress). My thanks to the writer, Abbot Joseph (a Byzantine Catholic) for such excellent writing, and to Fr. Al for the head’s up.  The passage describes a young woman who was…
Glory to God for All Things
What Theology Looks Like - Revisited
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This was first posted back in May. It’s subject seemed to me quite germane to the topic of the relationship between theology “lived” and theology as “academic” which has arisen in the comments of the recent post on Fr. John Behr’s work. It recounts a story and reflection in my life that the topic always brings me back to. Theology is, finally, always lived, for all of our books will eventually perish, but…
Glory to God for All Things
Orthodoxy and Scripture - Fr. John Behr's Lecture Revisted
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The earlier attempted debate (in the comments about St. Michael the Archangel) about Scripture and Orthodox understanding of the saints, prayers, etc., is rooted in an understanding of Scripture that is itself the very basis of the Christian faith. Attempts to remove the Bible from its proper Churchly context by the Reformation and modern day Protestants inevitably leads to a misunderstanding of the gospel and an attack on the very Church itself. Fr.…
Glory to God for All Things
St. Michael the Archangel - And Other Angel Stories
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Some years ago, when I was a young seminarian, I served with an Episcopal priest who greatly disappointed me in conversation one day by telling me that he saw “no need” for angels. “There’s nothing that angels are described as doing that the Holy Spirit could not do instead.” This kind of heavenly economy had never been offered to me as a theological reason before. When I thought about it, I realized…
Glory to God for All Things
Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep...
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This delightful old English prayer said by children and their parents at bedtime has long ago been shortened to only its last verse. There is more (as I was taught): Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Bless the bed that I lie on. The are four corners to my bed, Four angels round my head, One to watch, and one to pray, And two to bear my soul away. Now I lay me…
Glory to God for All Things
Thinking of Angels
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This 8th of November is the Feast of St. Michael and All the Bodiless Powers of Heaven. The feast marks its own special occasion, but it seems entirely appropriate that the feast should be so close to the beginning of the Nativity Fast. There are very few Biblical stories where angels do not play a part, and their presence only grows greater with the incarnation of Christ. In the life of the Church…
Glory to God for All Things
The Holy Relics of Sts. Joachim and Anna
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Glory to God for All Things
A Short Good Read
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Glory to God for All Things
Knowledge that Saves
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It is perhaps unfortunate that our English language (as well as the Greek and many other Indo-European variations) do not make a clear distinction between knowing something as a fact, and a different kind of knowing which requires participation in the actual life and reality of that which we know. Thus it is possible for me to know a great deal about the history of bread-making in 16th century France, even though…
Glory to God for All Things
Do We Want to Know God?
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It was remarked briefly in a recent comment that “we cannot know God completely,” and that we should be satisfied with the mysteries of the faith and trust the teaching of the Church (I apologize for using the writer’s honest statement as the point of departure for this post). However, this short quote from St. Silouan: It is given to our Orthodox Church through the Holy Spirit to fathom the mysteries of God,…
Glory to God for All Things
Help Vladik Find a Home
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I am posting this at the request of John Hogg, an Orthodox Christian, who worked in a Ukrainian Orphanage. He’s trying to find a home for a wonderful child, Vladik. If you can be of help then contact John at his website. I have borrowed a picture of Vladik from John’s site as well. If you are able to be of help – send me a note at Glory to God for…
