Apr 18, 2012

I feel a calling to help people know a lot less so they can know anything at all.

Jan 11, 2012

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...

May 27, 2009

At the time of acute self-consciousness at the birth of adulthood, when the soul is still innocent and open, has not been hardened, everything is poured out freely, sometimes too freely, and there is no attempt to guard one's inner world from being trampled on. The child who has never been hit by a car, if he is not told of the dangers, will have no fear of walking into a busy street.

May 18, 2009

It is the nature of things that Christ did not come to make bad men good, but to make dead men live. This is to say that the nature of our problem is not moral but existential or ontological. We have a problem that is rooted in the very nature of our existence, not in our behavior. We behave badly because of a prior problem. Good behavior will not correct the problem.

Dec 6, 2008

The Walla Walla Roastery serves more than a good cup of coffee. An icon of the Virgin Mary hanging on the wall in the kitchen reminds the brother and sister who own the coffee shop that their role in life is to serve people. Co-owners Thomas Reese and Mary Senter invite conversations with and among staff and customers, foster interest in coffee growers and their countries, and help coffee drinkers raise funds for nonprofits. Integrating their family legacy of service and their Orthodox faith, these siblings’ influence extends beyond the doors of their business.

Nov 5, 2008

It's Sunday morning. I am wondering what it will be like to meet Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain and a man regarded by many as nothing less than a modern-day saint. In a time when organized religion seems to have fallen into disrepute and spiritual authorities in general are regarded with suspicion and mistrust, what is it that attracts this man's parishioners to Christian Orthodoxy...

Sep 24, 2008

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...

Sep 18, 2008

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...

Sep 16, 2008

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...

Sep 4, 2008

Elder Porphyrios said: Our aim is not to condemn evil, but to correct it. A man can be lost through condemnation, but through understanding and help he will be saved. We must treat the sinner with love and respect his freedom.