s i l o u a n

Christ the Conqueror of Hell

Posted by Silouan on Mar 12, 2012

The descent of Christ into Hades is one of the most mysterious, enigmatic and inexplicable events in New Testament history. In today’s Christian world, this event is understood differently...

Don’t assume you are good soil

Posted by Silouan on Nov 1, 2011

I'm reading Matthew 13 tonight. In one parable Christ describes people who hear about the Kingdom and genuinely, joyfully believe -- but they fail to bear fruit and persevere to the end. In the next parable He says that not everybody in the church is His, but we won't see who's who until the final Judgment...

Where Two or Three Are Gathered in My Name

Posted by Silouan on Sep 8, 2011

An encounter with Life in a Soviet death camp. During one of the winters, a young man was assigned to Father Arseny's barracks. Still young, he did not fully understand what lay ahead of him...

Pascha in Jerusalem: 375AD

Posted by Silouan on Apr 20, 2011

In the latter half of the fourth century, a nun named Egeria, from what is now Spain, went on a pilgrimage to the sites of Biblical history in Egypt and Palestine. Here she recounts the Holy Week from Palm Sunday to the feast of the Resurrection.

The Confession of Saint Patrick

Posted by Silouan on Mar 17, 2011

Patrick in his own words.
There is no other God, nor ever was before, nor shall be hereafter, but God the Father, unbegotten and without beginning, in whom all things began, whose are all things...

The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis

Posted by Silouan on Feb 23, 2011

In 1859 Benjamin Jowett argued that "Scripture has one meaning-the meaning which it had in the mind of the Prophet or Evangelist who first uttered or wrote, to the hearers or readers who first received it." But is that hermeneutical theory true?

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Mental imagery in Eastern Orthodox private devotion

Posted by Silouan on May 7, 2012

Saint John Climacus writes in The Ladder that the beginning of prayer consists in chasing away invading thoughts…

The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, Revised Second Edition

Posted by Silouan on Jan 12, 2012

Good news! Holy Transfiguraton Monastery has published a new edition of The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian. I’d like to describe the differences between the two editions...

Basil on traditions

Posted by Silouan on Dec 27, 2011

“Of the beliefs and practices which are preserved in the Church, some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received by the tradition of the apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force.”

Nemesis wanted

Posted by Silouan on May 19, 2012

Nemesis wanted

May 19, 2012

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May 7, 2012

Saint John Climacus writes in The Ladder that the beginning of prayer consists in chasing away invading thoughts…

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May 1, 2012

Kitchen with a view. Feels like you’re cooking outside under the trees! (via green renaissance)

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Apr 29, 2012

Live without pretending, love without depending, listen without defending and speak without offending. Source: floating about the Internet for years.</>

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Apr 25, 2012

Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow...

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Apr 25, 2012

Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion...

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Scots village Dull to officially twin with US town Boring

Apr 25, 2012

Today at STV: In a move which is unlikely to set pulses racing, the Perthshire village and the Oregon logging town are discussing linking to become Dull and Boring. Locals from around the Dull area became aware of equally-unfortunately named US town and decided to pursue a formal link-up. More info and dull...

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The Therapeutae of Philo, and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius

Apr 25, 2012

In his De Vita Contemplativa the Alexandrian Philo makes an extremely remarkable description of an ascetic community with which he was familiar and which was settled not far from Alexandria...

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