On Choosing A Spouse
What a pleasure and a joy it is to see a family where love and peace prevail between husband and wife, where the husband and wife share each other’s joys and sorrows, thus mutually lightening all life’s difficulties. By contrast, how sad it is for a husband and wife when dissension exists between them – when no tender feelings attract them to each other. Unfortunately, there are today not a few marriages where, instead of mutual respect and peace between husband and wife, [Read more...]
On The True Cross
According to pious tradition, the size of the Cross of Christ was fifteen feet in height and eight feet in length. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (444 AD) writes: “The whole world has now been filled with pieces of the wood of the Cross” (Catachesis 4:10). He makes this statement no less than three times in his lectures to the catechumens of Jerusalem. St. John Chrysostom in the same century tells us that fragments of the True Cross were kept in golden reliquaries, which [Read more...]
A Christian Understanding Of Freedom
by Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas and the South (of Blessed Memory) People generally use the word freedom in order to describe two things: the first and perhaps most persistent meaning of the term is simply lack of subjection to any kind of ownership or tyrannical authority, the lack of restriction of one’s actions, the absence of obstacles to self-determination or personal choices, the right to make up one’s own mind with regard to occupation, speech, assembly, religion and so on. Naturally, this kind [Read more...]
Sociologist: Every 5 Minutes A Christian In Martyred
A sociologist representing a European security organization says that the number of Christians killed each year for their faith is so high that it calculates to one martyr’s life being taken every five minutes. Massimo Introvigne of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported this data at a conference on Christian-Jewish-Muslim interfaith dialogue, which concluded today in Hungary. The conference was sponsored by the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union, and included a variety of high-level representatives [Read more...]
Being American… Being Orthodox…
“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, and unto all the inhabitants thereof.” Leviticus 25:10 As Orthodox Christians our primary action is worship and our principle act of worship, eclipsing all others, is an act of Thanksgiving (eucharisto – giving thanks). We Americans should love their country and be grateful to live in America! Liberty is a Biblical theme, as you can see from the quote above from Leviticus. Why should we be grateful to live in America? These are historic reasons. 1. America [Read more...]
On How Your Dog is Morally Superior To You
by St. Basil the Great from the blog, Lord I Have Cried Unto Thee. Another patristic witness of the sentiment and wisdom behind the words of Abba Xanthios. “A Dog is better than I because he loves and does not judge.” So I just recently referred a friend to St. Basil the Great’s Hexaemeron – his fourth-century commentary on the six-day creation of the world found in the book of Genesis – and I started re-reading and came across the passage that will [Read more...]
How To Pray For Enemies While At War
In the encampment of the Saracens they asked St. Cyril the Equal to the Apostles: “How could Christians wage war and at the same time keep the commandment of Christ about praying to God for their enemies?” To that, St. Cyril replied: “If two commandments were written in one law and given to men for fulfilling, which man will be a better follower of the law: the one who fulfills one commandment or the one who fulfills both?” To that, the Saracens replied: [Read more...]
Journey Into Orthodox Great Lent
by Frederica Matthewes-Green The Orthodox Church’s ‘Rite of Forgiveness’ is an exhilarating kick-start for a time that just gets harder. I had to apologize to someone Sunday night. In fact, I had to apologize to about a hundred people–one at a time, face to face. It was great. For Orthodox Christians, Lent begins differently than it does for Protestants and Catholics. The observance of Ash Wednesday is dramatic and beautiful but is not in the Eastern tradition. For us, Lent comes in gradually [Read more...]
Orthodox Christians Encouraged To Participate In March For Life
From Antiochian.org His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, will once again lead Orthodox Christian faithful at the annual March for Life here on Monday, January 24, 2011. Joining Metropolitan Jonah will be His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania; His Grace, Bishop Michael of New York and New Jersey; His Grace, Bishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania; Archimandrite Matthias, Bishop-Elect of Chicago and the Midwest; students from Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA and Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Crestwood, NY; and hundreds of [Read more...]
Formed In The Tradition
by Fr. Stephen Freeman Thinking of raising Christian children (in the light of St. Silouan’s family experience), I offer these few thoughts. The Nativity season offers many opportunities for families to be guided by Holy Tradition – just as we are also swamped by the distorting demands of commercial culture. May God guard our children and keep us all by His grace. +++ Sometime back, I watched a group of linguistic-psychologists (of varying sorts) in a panel discussion (CSPAN). All of them were [Read more...]
