I don’t think I can repeat often enough that the one Greek word peirasmos means both a trial and a temptation. These two concepts, trial and temptation, are quite distinct in English and so it’s hard for us English speakers to understand statements in the Fathers such as “this sickness is a temptation.” How can a sickness be a temptation if I don’t want to be sick? It doesn’t make sense in…
This summer I had the privilege of serving two Orthodox youth camps, one in Idaho, USA and the other in Alberta, Canada. The spiritual theme of both camps was the same: “What’s in Your Toolbox?” The idea was to talk to the youth about the tools the Orthodox Church provides to help them grow spiritually and morally. On the first day of the first camp, I asked the group—there were about fifty,…
Several years ago I was leading a book study on St. Theophan the Recluse’ The Spiritual Life and How To Be Attuned To It. I had read the book at least twice before this study, so I was going through it a third time as I prepared for my talks. As I read, I was excited to discover that I seemed to be understanding his broader ideas and not getting so lost…
St. Theophan the Recluse has a wonderful commentary on Psalm 118 recently (2014) revised and published by St. John of Kronstadt Press. I’m being both inspired and stretched by it. I got to thinking about what the Church means when it talks about forgiveness by some of St. Theophan’s comments on verse 31 of Psalm 118. I have cleaved to Your testimonies, O Lord; put me not to shame. St. Theophan’s commentary touches…
I have developed an on-line acquaintance with someone who works full-time with homeless people in a large city in Canada. She sometimes asks me theological questions. Sometimes she tells me a sad story and asks for my prayers. She says of herself that she is Protestant on the outside and Orthodox on the inside. I get that. Lot’s of people feed from the crumbs that fall from the Orthodox table. I like…
One of the problems with reading the story of the Last Judgement as recorded in Matthew 25 is that it’s almost impossible to do so without missing the deeper meaning of the story. The story of the Last Judgement is more commonly known as the “parable” of the sheep and the goats. Interestingly, this story is not actually a parable. Throughout the Gospels, most of what Jesus says about the Kingdom of Heaven,…
In the middle of Homily 54 of St. Isaac’s Ascetical Homilies, he begins a set of paragraphs with the question, “Do you wish to take delight in the psalmody of your liturgy and to understand the oracles of the Spirit which you recite?” In the following three paragraphs, St. Isaac gives specific advice on how to do this, how to take delight in psalmody. He begins by saying that one should disregard…
You will often hear people speak of the importance of having balance in our lives. And generally speaking, it is a good idea to have a balanced life. This is especially true if by having balance in our lives we mean that we try to avoid extreme attitudes or behaviours. However, the trouble with the concept of having balance in our lives is that it is not a Christian concept. That’s not to say…
I’ve just had a very merry Christmas. It was about as perfect as they come. My daughter and her family came for a week (five children, including eleven-month old twins). The services were beautiful and well attended. And it snowed enough to feel Christmassy, but not so much that you couldn’t get out of the house and take the kids to the zoo, or McDonalds, or whatever might give mom a break…
Spiritual Letters is a collection of letters written in the early part of the twentieth century by a Roman Catholic priest—and I highly recommend it to English speaking Orthodox Christians who want to be encouraged in prayer. The priest, Abbot John Chapman, was a very well educated Oxford graduate and devout Anglican who converted to Roman Catholicism in his mid twenties. As a Roman Catholic he became a Benedictine monk, then a…