The friendship between CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien is well-known, as is Tolkienās role in bringing Lewis to Christ. Less well-known (unless you dig a bit further) is Tolkienās role in bringing Lewis out of a rigid and flat understanding of the world and into the rich possibilities afforded by āmyth.ā Without this conversion, Lewis would likely not have become a Christian, and certainly would not have authored the fiction that isā¦
Creation has a sacramental purpose: it reveals God. For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made (Rom. 1:20) This is inherently true in things as they exist in nature. However, it becomes another matter as thingsā¦
In 1872, Dostoevsky published his novel, The Demons [ŠŠµŃŃ]. It demonstrated in a microcosm, the insanity that lay within the revolutionary movements of 19th century Russia. That insanity broke upon the world in 1917 and has remained present with us, in one form or another, ever since. The madness that he describes takes place in a small town, away from the great capitals of Russia. It involves a relatively small cast ofā¦
In my last article, I described our personal existence as something that is not self-contained but found only in relation. Who-I-am is seen in the face of the one beholding me. There is an element of this in the perception of beauty that is worth noting. Some years ago, my wife and I visited the Grand Canyon. Its beauty is impossible to describe. I consistently felt frustrated with my camera ā itā¦
We are apparently living in the age of the face, and I donāt think itās necessarily bad. Ā I know all the complaints about our culture of āselfies,ā and there are certainly many things in that to make us wonder, but our fascination with our faces long predates the technology of our phones. In the usage of the early Church, the word for face (prosopon) is also the word for person. It isā¦
Godās being and actions are one. This is essentially the teaching of the Church on the topic of the Divine Energies. When I read discussions about this ā it seems to get lost in the twists and turns of medieval metaphysics or passes into the territory of seeing the āUncreated Light.ā Both approaches are unhelpful for me, and both obscure something that should be far more transparent. Some of the obscurity comesā¦
From my earliest childhood, I always heard the future spoken of in superlatives: the best, the best possible, etc. There was an unspoken assumption that each human being was uniquely suited to something and that if they found that unique thing and worked at it, they could become the best at something. Some of my early successes revolved around the piano. With a bit of work, I was able to excel beyondā¦
The very heart of true prayer is desire, love. In the language of the Fathers this desire is called eros. Modern usage has corrupted the meaning of āeroticā to only mean sexual desire – but it is a profound word, without substitute in the language of the Church. I offer a quote from Dr. Timothy Patitsas of Holy Cross in Brookline: By eros we mean the love that makes us forget ourselvesā¦
A Serbian Christmas Song ā lyrics by St. Nikolai Velimirovich Andjeli Pevaju NoÄ prekrasna i noÄ tija, nad peÄinom zvezda sija, u peÄini mati spi, nad Isusom andjel bdi. Andjeli pevaju, pastiri sviraju, andjeli pevaju mudraci javljaju: Å to narodi ÄekaÅ”e, Å”to proroci rekoÅ”e, evo sad se u svet javi, u svet javi i objavi: Rodi nam se Hristos Spas za spasenje sviju nas. Aliluja, aliluja, Gospodi pomiluj! (deep voice) no matter whatā¦
This article first appeared in 2015. It seems very apropos to our present moment. Glory to God for all things. I do not understand Zombies. When I was a child, Zombie movies were virtually non-existent. The word referred to something like a Golem in Jewish thought ā a creature without a soul. It is properly a frightening thing ā for that which we think of as the soul, is also the seatā¦
