From 1997: America is quickly becoming Buddhist! It is, to be sure, a quiet, unwitting conversion process conducted by the high priests of nirvana like Dr. Jack Kevorkian, while Christians, Eastern and Western alike, remain distracted by our less momentous internal squabbles. When Orthodox Christians celebrate Pasca (“Easter”) next month (once again, alas, a week
Continue Reading »
Nothing Else Benefits Humanity As Much As Pain
How good it would have been if we did not let pain go to waste! One way or another we will suffer. But our whole torture and struggle will go down the drain, unless we make good use of pain, unless we exploit it. We make good use of pain, we exploit pain when we
Continue Reading »
The Much-suffering Job and the Grace of Tribulations:
Why God Sends Us Tribulations and Why It’s Useful to Learn Patience from Job the Much-Suffering and St. Job of Pochaev St. Job of Pochaev: St. Job would conceal himself for many days or even a week in the caves carved into the Pochaev cliffs, where he could neither sit nor lie down comfortably.
Continue Reading »
The Hypostatic Principle and Its Illumination of the Meaning of Suffering
“Through the fire and water the Lord brings us to a place of abundance….it is through pain and suffering that our “unseen and hidden depths of being come to light.” Elder Sophrony’s Life and Ministry Reflects an Important Truth for a World That Desperately Seeks Meaning and Purpose: Christ, as the True Person, Is the Full-ness of Being, and
Continue Reading »
PARALYZED ICONOGRAPHER SERGEI KOZLOV: “MY DISABILITY IS AN INVALUABLE GIFT FROM ABOVE”
An accident … Sergei is totally paralyzed except for his head, neck and shoulders. By our hero’s own admission, nothing remained for him but to learn how to do something with the muscles that still had some potential for movement. This desire proved to be enough to find his calling in life. His sole
Continue Reading »
The Sacrament of Holy Unction
BODILY SICKNESS, THE RESULT of sinfulness, is inextricably intertwined in human life. Part of the mission of the Apostles and of the Church is the liberation of the children of the Kingdom from the bondage to sickness, sin, and death which is a consequence of the Fall. So it was that the Apostles “went out,
Continue Reading »
CHRISTIANITY: A PERSECUTED RELIGION
For New Zealand’s Christians, of course, Christmas is an important religious festival commemorating the nativity of their Man-God. It is the end of the penitential season known as advent and a time of great celebration. The accoutrements of the season are more than quaint customs and traditions to these people: they are symbols of intense
Continue Reading »
THEOSIS – THE TRUE PURPOSE OF HUMAN LIFE – Part 10 of 10 – Consequences of Guidance for Theosis
Consequences of Guidance for Theosis The guidance that our Orthodox Church offers, with the Holy Services, Patristic theology, Monasticism, is theanthropocentric guidance. Its centre is the God-Man Christ, and it leads to Theosis. This brings great joy into our life when we know what a great destiny we have, and what blessedness awaits us. To
Continue Reading »
Spiritual Counsels of St. Nikon of Optina
We honor the memory of the Optina Monastery holy confessor Nikon. St. Nikon (in the world, Nicholai Mitrofanovich Belyaev) was a great example of patience and obedience—from his youth to the end of his life, he good-heartedly endured everything sent to him by God. Even in his childhood, there were events that were like signs
Continue Reading »
I DON”T BELIEVE IN GOD – IT DOESN’T MATTER – A LETTER TO A PRISONER
Dear in Christ …..: I am getting behind again, so I hope to get some letters done. I was disappointed you were on lock down, but “that’s baseball”. It was just as well. I had a ton of stuff to do before I went to our diocese celebration of “Prokrov”, the “Protection of the Mother
Continue Reading »