Glory to God for All Things
In the Cleft of the Rock
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God placed Moses in the “cleft of a rock” and His “glory passed by” and Moses was granted a vision of God. The great protestant hymn, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for me,” makes reference to this story, understanding in proper patristic fashion that the story points to Christ, who is our Rock, standing within Whom we may see the glory of God. These, of course, are the most wonderful of things. There…
Glory to God for All Things
Humility - The Only Path Forward in Orthodoxy
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Humility certainly figures prominently in anybody’s list of virtues, and most people are more than a little aware of pride playing some role in their spirtual failures. However, knowing that pride is a problem and that humility is a virtue is not saying that we know anything about humility. First, humility is not precisely the opposite of pride nor is it merely the absence of pride. It is not an absence, but,…
Glory to God for All Things
St. Silouan on Humility
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From St. Silouan the Athonite. Enlightened by baptism, people believe in God. But there are some who even know Him. To believe in God is good but it is more blessed to know God. Nevertheless, those who believe are bless, too, as the Lord said to Thomas, one of the twelve: ‘Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’ If we…
Glory to God for All Things
The Fathers and Scripture
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This is a reprint – and earlier follow-up on the Orthodox reading of Scripture. I pray it is timely as well. It is easy from the outside to form an incorrect picture of the Orthodox interpretation of Scripture. There is actually quite a bit of variety among the Fathers when it comes to reading the Word of God. Even in the earliest centuries there were noted differences in the approach that obtained…
Glory to God for All Things
John Chrysostom on Romans 9
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Many puzzle about Romans 9 and what some claim to see as a teaching of “double-edged” predestination, that is, that God predestines some for hell. It is useful to see what the Fathers do with such a passage. Here is an excerpt from John Chrysostom’s sermon on Romans 9 that addresses the subject well and demonstrates that God does not predestine anyone to damnation. The question was raised in a recent comment…
Glory to God for All Things
A Brief Excursion
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After Liturgy on Sunday, I fly to California to attend the Baptism of my grandson, Peter Alexis Holste. His father, Priest Hermogen Holste, is Rector of Nativity of the Holy Virgin Orthodox Church in Menlo Park, CA. His wife, my first-born, is Matushka Mary Holste. Many years to all of them on such a great occasion. I fly out after Church on Sunday and fly home on Tuesday. My joy is increased…
Glory to God for All Things
Reading Scripture in an Orthodox Manner
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Recently my site has been visited with questions about Scripture, in particular (to start with) the Orthodox use of the title “Father” when Christ said, “Call no man on earth your father.” Actually I thought the response posted by William amply demonstrated how this verse should be understood. But there is a larger question – that of the use of Scripture and how it may be interpreted. The questioner claimed only be…
Glory to God for All Things
The Most Holy Mother of God
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On August 15, the Orthodox Church (new calendar) commemorates the Dormition (falling asleep) of the Most Holy Mother of God. The feast is considered to be one of the 12 Great Feasts of the year and thus an integral part of the proclamation of gospel of Jesus Christ. Many who are not familiar with Orthodoxy, or its manner of understanding saints, easily see feast days and the veneration of saints as distractions…
Glory to God for All Things
Healing the Heart
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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) St. Macarius If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were…
Glory to God for All Things
St. Silouan and Love for Enemies
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The following is from the writings of St. Silouan, published in Elder Sophrony’s St. Silouan the Athonite. +++ The grace of God is not in the man who does not love his enemies. O merciful Lord, by Thy Holy Spirit teach us to love our enemies, and to pray for them with tears. O Lord, send down Thy Holy Spirit on earth that all nations may know Thee, and learn Thy love.…
Glory to God for All Things
Orthodox Patriarchs Call for Cease-Fire and End of Violence
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Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia Tbilisi, August 8, Interfax – Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia is concerned with the situation in South Ossetia. He urged, “Both Georgian authorities and Ossetians, everyone who values human life and peaceful development of the country to spare no effort to cease fire and solve disputes peacefully.” “Georgian authorities stand for peaceful settlement of the conflict and are ready to carry out the policy of peace.…
Glory to God for All Things
Intercession
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I live in a small town that has a history of very active, civic involvement. It is not unusual to be approached and asked to sign a petition. Generally, I do not sign petitions. Often it is someone else’s issue and I’m not always clear what is being asked of me. By the same token, I am skeptical of democracy, except that everything else seems worse. When it comes to prayer and…
Glory to God for All Things
Many Thanks for Prayers and a Request
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I awoke feeling much better today and am deeply grateful for the many prayers. In my experience, rising from a bed of sickness is among the greatest joys we know in our earthly life. I think it is a foreshadowing of the resurrection when we shall all rise from our beds of sickness (and death) and join in the chorus of heaven. I am baptizing a child this afternoon, no better way…
Glory to God for All Things
On The Day of Solzhenitsyn's Arrest
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Excerpted from an essay Solzhenitsyn released the day he was arrested. The next day, Feb. 12, 1974, he was exiled to the West. The essay can be found on pp. 556 to 560 of The Solzhenitsyn Reader. +++ I reprint these words here, for a similar version (from his essays in From Under the Rubble) sounded a constant tone in my mind for many years – particularly as the essay meditates on…
Glory to God for All Things
I Am A Mess (Still in Need of a Savior)
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Among my continual reading (I read some books occsionally, and some I read continuously, a little a day), is Dimitru Staniloae’s Orthodox Spirituality. It is one of the finest and most comprehensive books on the inner life of a human being that I know. Generally, such a book could be read like a medical textbook, studying until you had mastered all of the terminology and could lecture intelligently on the various aspects…
Glory to God for All Things
The Ministry of Blogging
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I have come to understand very well that blogging, at many of its best points, is a ministry. Like most ministry, it carries certain limitations. It is not a sacrament of the Church. I trust that when, as a priest, I administer the Body and Blood of Christ, His perfection is everything and I need be nothing. There is a great comfort in that – only the concern that in my own sinfulness…
Glory to God for All Things
Perfectly Ideal
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I am not a friend of philosophical answers – primarily because I think they run the risk of being nothing more than ideas. The same holds true for problems – philosophical problems are often just that – philosophical and little more. For a variety of reasons, God seems to be an easy subject for philosophical speculation, both as answer and as problem. I have yet to meet a human being who lived…
Glory to God for All Things
A Particular Love
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I wrote recently of the genius of both Solzhenitsyn (who is pictured here lying at rest in Christ) and Dostoesvsky – that both refuse to genralize about the nature of the human struggle, but bring the entire struggle for salvation down to the existential level, to the level of the human heart and its encounter with God. This is not simply true of these great writers, but is also true of the…
Glory to God for All Things
A Momentary Lull
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I ask patience of readers for my lack of activity for the last 2 days. I am recovering from a virus and hope to be well enough for work by tomorrow. Your prayers are appreciated. A good feast to all (Transfiguration). What a blessed event as Peter, James and John saw the manifestation of the marriage of heaven and earth in its most splendid form! May God grant us all eyes to…
Glory to God for All Things
Solzhenitsyn and Where the Battle Begins
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A short but insightful quote from Solzhenitsyn. It came to him during his time in the Gulag: …. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through…
Glory to God for All Things
Solzhenitsyn - The Harvard Address
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Alexander Solzhenitsyn, addressing an assembly at Harvard University in June of 1978, offered profound insights on the West and the future of our society. His thoughts were anchored in a vision of man that was profoundly Christian, transcending the limits established in present societies. He issued a call for a deeper pursuit that can only be called “prophetic.” These two paragraphs are only a minor excerpt, but give a sample of his…
Glory to God for All Things
Solzhenitsyn Has Died - Memory Eternal!
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One of the most spiritually significant events in my life was first reading Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. It was not his fiction that first fell into my hands, but a collection of essays, From Under the Rubble. He was, at the time, in the international spotlight as he struggled to maintain his witness to the Truth while remaining out of prison (having already spent a substantial part of his life in the Soviet Gulag).…
Glory to God for All Things
Drawing Lessons from the Maccabees
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I offered yesterday the text of the martyrdom of the holy Seven Maccabees, who refused the violate the commandments of God and suffer death instead. The most amazing character in the story of these great Old Testament martyrs, is their teacher, Eleazar. He was offered an interesting option regarding his martyrdom. The issue that the wicked Antiochus Epiphanes, who was an agent of pagan Hellenism a la Alexander the Great, was focused…
Glory to God for All Things
The Seven Holy Maccabbees
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August 1 is the Feast of the Precious and Life-Giving Wood of the Cross, but also the feast of the martyrdom of the Seven Maccabees. Since Protestant Christians do not include the books of First and Second Maccabees in their canon, they will be unfamiliar with this historically accurate and Godly tale of the courage of these holy martyrs from the Old Testament. In their honor I share the story of their…
Glory to God for All Things
The Absence of Beauty
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We can say without hesitation that God is the ultimate author of Beauty, and what we know and love of beauty is an echo or stronger of our desire for the Beautiful God. It becomes a major problem of sin, largely unrecognized, when beauty begins to recede from the consciousness of people, or something tawdry or ersatz becomes substituted for that which is beautiful. We live, of course, in a culture which…
Glory to God for All Things
The God Who Is Beautiful
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I suggested this as reading in a comment yesterday and decided to re-post it so that it would be more readily available. It belongs with the question of God and beauty that I started in yesterday’s post. Everything is beautiful in a person when he turns toward God, and everything is ugly when it is turned away from God. Fr. Pavel Florensky I come to the end of a day that has…
Glory to God for All Things
Beauty - The Great Mystery
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Having spoken about the world as perhaps not best understood (theologically) in terms of cause and effect – I turn my attention for a short time to the mystery of Beauty. God created the world and said it is good, but both the Hebrew and the Greek translation of that statement in Genesis carry the double-meaning of beautiful. The world is not merely good in its creation, but is as well created…
