Archive for September, 2008
From the Little Mountain
From the Little Mountain takes you through a year at the Hermitage of the Holy Cross in West Virginia. This is a unique documentary of an Orthodox monastery in the 21st century…
Hymn to St Michael from the Carmina Gadelica
Thou Michael the victorious,
May I travel under thy shield,
Thou Michael of the white steed,
Of the bright and shining steel,
O, Conqueror of the dragon,
Be thou at my back,
Thou ranger of the heavens,
King’s warrior, demon’s bane…
Perichoresis: God and His mother
The Christian faith is not merely a set of beliefs and propositions. It is better described as a “relationship” – and even this modern word is inadequate. It is better to use the old word perichoresis, or “co-inherence.” This old Patristic term describes the current of love which flows within the union of three Persons in the Godhead.
The inverted pyramid
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross…
Monasticism in the 21st Century
A brother went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can I say my prayer rule, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.” This is what monasticism is: a longing for God that knows no limits. It is the beginning of the Age to come, of the Kingdom of Heaven still here on earth…
The relevance of Saint Silouan’s teaching for today
This widespread search for spiritual life, no matter how flawed or misguided, reveals the fact that an innate desire for participation in divine life is basic to the human being. Indeed, this is exactly the reason why man was created. Life in communion with God is man’s natural orientation. When this spiritual need is not satisfied through conventional means, then its fulfillment is sought elsewhere…
September 24: The Feast of Saint Silouan
Saint Silouan was born Simeon Ivanovich Antonov in 1866, of godly parents who came from the village of Sovsk in the Tambov region. At the age of twenty-seven he received the prayers of St. John of Kronstadt and came to the monastic region of Greece called Mt. Athos where he became a monk at the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon, and was given the new name Silouan…
I am a Spiritual Materialist!
God looked upon what He had done and said “It is very good.” This certainly includes matter. Evil often surfaces, not from the material itself, but from the misuse and misdirection of “things” thus differing from the plan of the Creator. The dour, grim, unsmiling deviation which one sometimes finds in neurotic Christians is hardly within our real tradition…
A prayer to my guardian angel
O Holy Angel, who stand by my wretched soul and my passionate life: do not abandon me, a sinner, neither depart from me because of my lack of self-control. Leave no room for the evil demon to gain control of me through the violence of this mortal body. Strengthen my weak and feeble hand, and instruct me in the path of salvation. O holy Angel of God, the guardian and protector of my wretched soul and body: forgive all the sorrows I have caused you, every day of my life. If I have sinned in this past night, protect me during this day. Keep me from every adverse temptation, that I may not anger God by any sin. Pray to the Lord for me, that He may establish me in His fear and make me, His servant, worthy of His goodness…
Plundering Grace
…And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12)
Healing the Heart
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…
Hermeneutics in everyday life
Suppose you’re traveling to work and you see a stop sign. What do you do? That depends on how you exegete the stop sign…
The Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity
One who climbs a mountain for the first time needs to follow a known route; and he needs to have with him, as companion and guide, someone who has been up before and is familiar with the way. To serve as such a companion and guide is precisely the role of the “Abba” or spiritual father…
Pursuing God
An old man was asked: ”How can a fervent brother not be shocked when he sees others returning to the world?”
The Monastic Call
The early monastics flew into the desert not to escape the city and its newly respectable churches but rather to seek salvation at a time when increasing wealth and prestige might have been the undoing of the Church through a subtle (and sometimes not so subtle!) compromise with worldliness. In this manner the Church’s integrity in both desert and city was preserved…
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