Glory to God for All Things
Orthodox Understanding of Anger
·
Glory to God for All Things
The Forty Days of Christmas
·
My title is slightly misleading. There are not “forty days of Christmas” in the Orthodox Church – but there is a major feast that marks the fortieth after Christmas: the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, sometimes called the Feast of the Meeting (February 2). It occurs forty days after Christmas in accordance to the requirements of the Jewish Law. Tradition holds that Joseph and Mary brought the child to Jerusalem before…
The Morning Offering
The Monastery's Central Plaza
·
Friday, January 30 / January 17 (Church Calendar) Saints of the Day January 17 / 30. St. Anthony the Great. Emperor St. Theodosius the Great. St. Achilles the Confessor, hermit of Egypt. St.Anthony the New, of Berrhia in Macedonia. St. Anthony of Dymsk (Novgorod). St. Anthony of Krasny Kholm, monk. St. Anthony of Chernoezersk, monk. St. Anthony the Roman, of…
Glory to God for All Things
Understanding Anger
·
The anger of man does not work the righteousness of God (James 1:20) I have occasionally read discussions or heard conversations in which the subject of a “righteous anger” is brought up. I understand the concept. I will say without fear of contradiction that I have never seen a single case of human “righteous indignation.” Just as I have never met a man who was pure in heart, neither have I man…
Glory to God for All Things
Lawyers and Demons
·
In the hour of prayer, when our mind wanders to thoughts of bad things, or if these thoughts come without our wanting them, we shouldn’t wage an offensive war against the enemy; because, even if all the lawyers in the world joined together, they wouldn’t make any headway with a little demon. Only through ignoring these thoughts can one chase them away. The same is true for blasphemous thoughts. The Elder Paisios…
The Morning Offering
A Word from the Patriarch-elect
·
29 January 2009, 14:10 Christian shouldn’t look gloomy – the newly elected Patriarch speaking about Orthodox fashion and smiles Moscow, January 29, Interfax – A believer can’t look and feel gloomy, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the newly elected by the Russian Church Local Council Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, used to say at his meetings with youth.…
The Morning Offering
Thursday, January 29 / January 16 (Church Calendar)
·
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever! Chains of Saint Peter Saints of the Day January 16 / 29. Veneration of the Precious Chains of the Holy Glorious Apostle Peter Martyrs Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus the brothers, their grandmother Leonilla, and with them Neon, Turbo, and the woman Jonilla (Jovilla), in Cappadocia.Martyr Danax in Macedonia. New Hieromartyr Damascene of…
The Morning Offering
Wednesday, January 28 / January 15 (Church Calendar)
·
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever! Saints of the Day January 15 / 28. St. Paul of Thebes in Egypt, and St. John Calabytes (Hut-dweller), monks [Gal 5:22-6:2; Matt 11:27-30].Monk-martyr Pansophius of Alexandria. St. Gabriel, founder of Lesnov Monastery in Bulgaria. St. Prochorus, abbot in Vranski desert on the river Pshina in Bulgaria. St. Maximus of Nola. Scripture…
The Morning Offering
We have a new Patriarch!
·
Glory to God for All Things
Loving an Angry God
·
I am both opposed to theological systems that have at their heart an angry, wrathful God whose justice much be satisfied – but I am also understanding of those who, having been raised or nurtured in pious settings, take theHoly Scriptures pretty much at face value and are thus discomfited by people like myself who seek to give an account of God that does not include God angrily and wrathfully punishing the…
The Morning Offering
Tuesday, January 27 / January 14 (Church Calendar)
·
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever! Saints of the Day January 14 / 27. Apodosis of the Theophany. The Holy Fathers slain at Sinai and Raithu: Isaiah, Sabbas, Moses and his discipleMoses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergius, Domnus, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, Macarius, Mark, Benjamin, Eusebius, Elias andothers. St. Stephen, abbot of Chenolakos Monastery near Chalcedon. St. Theodulus, son of…
The Morning Offering
Monday, January 26 / January 13 (Church Calendar)
·
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever! Saints of the Day January 13 / 26. Afterfeast of the Theophany. Martyrs Hermylus and Stratonicus at Belgrade. Martyr Peter of Anium, at Hierapolis.St. James, Bishop of Nisibis. Martyr Athanasius. Martyrs Pachomius and Papyrinus in Greece. St. Maximus of Kavsokalyvia Sketeon Mt. Athos. St. Irinarch of Rostov. St. Eleazar of Anzersk Island…
Glory to God for All Things
The Kingdom of God is Within You
·
Again, some thoughts from Kalomiros’ Nostalgia for Paradise. This particular selection is on the reality of the Kingdom of God within us – and the particular importance of Hesychasm, the practice of inner stillness and the knowledge of God dwelling within us. I have written myself about the utter centrality of communion with God. His work underlines and expands this in a marvelous way. God is the place, the means, and the…
The Morning Offering
The Morning Offering
·
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever! Sunday, January 25 / January 12 (Church Calendar) Sunday after Theophany Saints of the Day Commemorated Today Martyr Tatiana of Rome. St. Sabbas I, Archbishop of Serbia. Martyr Mertius of Mauretania. Martyr Peter Apselamus of Palestine. St. Eupraxia of Tabenna in Egypt. Virgin Martyr Euthasia. St. Martinian of Byelozersk, abbot. Blessed Galacteon,…
Glory to God for All Things
Icons and Scripture
·
The great summary statement of theology at the Seventh Ecumenical Council is succinct: Icons do with color what Scripture does with words. The first time I read this, I was a graduate student at Duke University, studying Systematic Theology. I wound up writing my thesis on the “Icon as Theology.” What was new for me – and the thought that became central in my mind – was the inherent possibilities in the…
The Morning Offering
The Morning Offering
·
I’ve been told that some of you may be missing The Morning Offering, because your computer is removing it as “spam”. As well, it has also come to my attention that my whole daily offering could be sidelined, should I reach an email list number that would cause the whole thing to be deleted as spam. I’m thus creating a…
The Morning Offering
Introducing my new blog
·
I’ve been emailing The Morning Offering to almost five hundred individuals each morning, as a way of providing a way for those who’ve subscribed to my list, to start their days with the daily Scripture readings, quotes of the Fathers of the Church, and photos. Since the list has become rather large, I am now offering this on my own…
Glory to God for All Things
The Smashing of Images
·
I have a quote on the sidebar from an earlier posting. It is about the need we have for proper images and the danger inherent in “image smashing” or “iconoclasm.” We have to renounce iconoclasm. In so doing, we inherently set ourselves against certain forces within modernity. The truth is eschatological, that is, it lies in the future, but we also believe that this eschatological reality was incarnate in Christ, the Beginning…
Glory to God for All Things
Kalomiros on the Orthodox Life
·
Dr. Alexander Kalomiros, author of the River of Fire and other well known Orthodox writings, offers these simple thoughts on the Orthodox Life. They are taken from the small book, Nostalgia for Paradise. When the ascetical life of a Christian and the privations that he imposes upon himself are beyond the measure of grace that he has been given, a void is created in his soul. Either it will lead him to…
Glory to God for All Things
Rethinking Reading
·
Someone commented on the last post that “Icons do with color what Scripture does with words.” This, of course, the the formal teaching of the seventh ecumenical council. I offer a reprint of an earlier article I wrote entitled “How to Read the Church,” which understands the Church as the interpretation of Scripture. It’s another way of saying some of the same things I’ve been suggesting about Scripture and the Old Testament.…
Glory to God for All Things
Is The Bible True?
·
There is a fundamentalist anxiety that I hold in great sympathy. My sympathy is driven by the fact that I lived for many years under the burden of that very anxiety. It is the hidden fear that possibly, despite all faith exercised in the opposite direction, the Bible may not, in fact, be true. A great deal of energy is spent in maintaining the integrity of the dike that withstands this anxiety.…
Glory to God for All Things
The God of the Old Testament
·
Old habits are hard to break. For years as an Anglican Christian, and a conservative, I battled with academics in the Anglican world whose primary agenda seemed to me (at the time) to be the destruction of Scripture. Their historical method generally resulted in students being told that this that and the other thing didn’t happen. This was most disturbing, particularly for those who chose to extend their scepticism to the very…
Glory to God for All Things
God's Wrath
·
What shall we make of the wrath of God? We have this quote from the Gospel of St. Luke: And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him,…
Glory to God for All Things
Of Whom I Am First
·
In the Divine Liturgy, it is customary for this prayer to be offered by all who are coming to receive communion. I quote a portion: I believe, O Lord, and I confess that Thou art truly the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Who camest into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first. Of course the prayer is a reference to St. Paul’s self-definition as the “chief of…
Glory to God for All Things
Dostoevsky on the Individual
·
The following passage from The Brothers Karamazov is taken from one of the “Talks and Homilies” of the Elder Zossima – one of the key characters in the novel. His thoughts echo earlier articles here that contrast man as “individual” (isolation) to man as Person (brotherhood and communion). Look at the worldly and at the whole world that exalts itself above the people of God: are the image of God and his…
Glory to God for All Things
Salvation in a Cloud of Witnesses
·
Perhaps more than any culture in history – America has championed the individual. The context for this cultural development was the nation’s historic resistance to the class structures of 17th and 18th century Europe (and later) as well as a positive response to certain intellectual concepts that were popular at the time of the nation’s independence. The European settlement of America in its early modern history was largely accomplished by individuals or…
Glory to God for All Things
Understanding the Incarnation
·
Of words that have been important in my life in Christ I cannot omit “incarnation.” Of course, the word refers to the doctrine of God become man, the Word made flesh. I wrote previously about the importance of reading St. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation and its impact on my life as an Orthodox Christian. Of course, Orthodox Christianity does not have a patent on the word “incarnation.” It is a favorite as well…
