Archive for August, 2008
The Way into the Kingdom of Heaven
Everywhere you go in Alaska you’ll see Orthodox communities. What kind of evangelism was it that was so successful in converting the Native Alaskan peoples to Christ? Here is an example of the sort of preaching that won the Alaskans, translated from the original Aleut.
Development of Christian Liturgy
When the Lord Jesus Christ, having gathered his disciples round him to supper on the night before he suffered death, solemnly broke bread before them and blessed a cup of wine and gave them to his disciples, he enjoined them to continue this thenceforward as a continual memorial of his death and passion undergone for the redemption of the world. This command was obeyed from the time that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church shortly after our Lord’s ascension into heaven. We are told, of those who were converted by the preaching of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, that ‘they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers’.
Deacons and bishops at the end of the first century
By the time St Paul wrote his New Testament advice to elders and overseers, the Church had been growing explosively for several decades. By the end of the first century, St John’s disciple Ignatius wrote about how the orders of clergy interacted in his experience…
The River of God
There’s a river flowing through the Scriptures. Ezekiel saw it welling up under the temple of God. Zechariah saw the river flowing on earth at Christ’s coming. John saw the same river at the end of time flowing from the throne of God…
The Spirituality of the Celtic Church
If the rich history of the Celtic churches is a fairly recent discovery, their spirituality may be an even more surprising resource for a life-affirming, holistic, and faithful way of life for Christians in this “postmodern” world and, more importantly, the world of the future…
The body of Christ
The body which was born of the Virgin Mary, without any stain, without destruction of her virginity, without opening of the womb, without presence of man, and which was crucified and which arose after three days from death…
Cry Jesus
Try to attain the full measure of this Name [of Jesus], and you will find it on your mouth and in the mouths of your children. When you make high festival and when you rejoice, cry Jesus. When anxious and in pain, cry Jesus. When little boys and girls are laughing, let them cry Jesus. [...]
Consent
A brother overcome by lust went to see a great old man and besought him, saying, ‘Be so good as to pray for me, for I am overcome by lust.’ And the old man prayed to God for him. A second time he went to the old man and said the same thing, and once [...]
A safe journey
An Athonite hermit said: What guarantees a safe journey to eternity is effort, dignity, the sense of being unworthy before God, and hope: the spiritual oxygen, consolation, and certainty. Not misery and compelled obedience and forced prayer; not tears and sadness - these all come from Satan. Yes, I ought to weep for my sins, [...]
Worse than ignorance
Spurious knowledge, or ‘knowledge falsely so called’ (1 Timothy 6:20), is that which a man possesses when he thinks he knows what he has never known. It is worse than complete ignorance, says St. John Chrysostom, in that its victim will not accept correction from any teacher because he thinks that this worst kind of [...]
Star Wars: Another Point of View
Return of the Jedi is positively Dostoevskian in its moral content, and I am convinced that Lucas is familiar with Orthodox teachings and lives of Saints…
Men and Church
In a time when churches of every description are faced with Vanishing Male Syndrome, men are showing up at Eastern Orthodox churches in numbers that, if not numerically impressive, are proportionately intriguing. This may be the only church which attracts and holds men in numbers equal to women…
Pietism as an ecclesiological heresy
Pietism made its appearance as a distinct historical movement within Protestantism, at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, around 1690-1730. 1 Its aim was to stress “practical piety,” as distinct from the polemical dogmatic theology to which the Reformation had initially given a certain priority. Under different forms and in various “movements,” it has not ceased to influence Protestantism, and indeed also the spiritual life of other churches, to this day…
Personal Experience Of The Holy Spirit According To The Greek Fathers
No one can be a Christian at second-hand: such is the frequently repeated teaching of the Fathers. Holy Tradition does not signify merely the mechanical and exterior acceptance of truths formulated in the distant past, but it is in the words of the Russian theologian Vladimir Lossky — nothing else than ‘the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church here and now, at this present moment…
Call no man “Father”
Certain statements made by Jesus have often been the basis of great controversy, both inside and outside the Church. His saying, “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven”, has proven to be no exception…
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