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PASSIONS AND VIRTUES: The Prayer of St. Ephrem (Part III)

03/04/2015

There are four different Greek words for love: agape (brotherly love), eros (sexual love), philia (friendship), and storge (compassion). The word usually used for Christian love—love for God and our fellow human beings—is agape. However, the other three words can also be applied to Christian love. Philia There is an interesting passage in the Gospel (John 21:15-17) when Christ asks Peter three times, “Do you love Me?” and Peter replies, “You know I love You.”

The Destiny of Eros: Woman, the Bearer of Spices (Part II)

06/24/2014

Every human being, man or woman, according to his or her nature, is called to a degree of virility – remember the strong women of the Bible- and also, in relation to God, a degree of femininity. Progress in the spiritual life leads men as well as women to a quasi-feminine attitude in the presence of the mystery. That is why the incarnation was accomplished through a woman, who is now at the heart of

The Destiny of Eros: Uncertainties

02/28/2014

Nothing touches the mystery of personal existence like this theme of human love, which is why we should show reverence and restraint, and heed even more the evangelical caution against judging. We should remember the attitude of Jesus towards the woman ‘taken in the very act of adultery’ (John 8.3-11). We should remember the other, almost tangibly sensual account of the same Jesus allowing a prostitute to wipe his feet with her hair and anoint

The Destiny of Eros: The Nuptial Way (Part II)

02/13/2014

Marriage is chaste because it integrates the erotic relationship of the two persons into their communion within the Church; as their mutual love is expressed through their complementary natures, each gives the other to the world. For nine centuries there was no distinctive rite of marriage for Christians. The couple would marry, then go together to communion. For a man and a woman whose life is rooted in Christ, their love is something they have

The Destiny of Eros: The Nuptial Way (Part I)

01/24/2014

It is entirely fitting that the first revelation of the consubstantiality, the unity, of human nature, in the Bible should be in terms of marriage: ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,’ says the man when God brings the woman before him. And Genesis adds this comment on what marriage actually entails: ‘Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one

The Feast Day of the Archangels

11/08/2013

CREATION OF ANGELS (5) The Holy Scriptures do not mention exactly when the angels were created, but the Church in its holy tradition, through the writings of its holy fathers, chiefly St. John of Damascus, St. John Cassian, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Dimitri Rostov, St. Dionysios the Areopagite – all of them believe that they were created from “nothing” prior to the sensible material world and

Destiny and Eros: Monasticism, the Fulfillment of Eros, Obedience, Chastity, Poverty

10/23/2013

Like John lying on his Master’s breast at the Last Supper, and later, in old age, seeing the dazzling face of the Lord of the universe, the monk is fascinated by the incomparable beauty of the Risen Christ. In him eros is altogether robed in the beauty of love and light, all the more beautiful because it shines through the disfigurement of the Passion and the Cross. There is no more room here for another

The Destiny of Eros: Monks and Martyrs

10/04/2013

When the emperor was converted, and the ever-present danger of martyrdom disappeared, monasticism arose to take its place. There was a fear that Christianity would be secularized, that, as it stood, it would become the cement of an earthly city. Monasticism was the revolt against all compromise. Monasticism, in its early form, was a steep path, that of ‘the violent, who take the kingdom of heaven by force’. Utter obedience to the Gospel demands the

The Destiny of Eros: Eroticism, Passion and the Gospel

09/27/2013

Today, partly as a result of daring experimentation, but mostly because of a willingness to go along with fashion, sex seems to be everywhere. The mass media, advertising, and a general inclination to rebelliousness, have together encouraged the spread of a sub-Freudian culture which, combined with Marxist fantasies, has even lost the awareness of death which Freud had recovered. The horror of ‘repression’, the shallow sensation-seeking demanded by our jaded nerves and imagination, seem to

The Destiny of Eros: Eroticism, Passion and the Gospel

09/09/2013

Today, partly as a result of daring experimentation, but mostly because of a willingness to go along with fashion, sex seems to be everywhere. The mass media, advertising, and a general inclination to rebelliousness, have together encouraged the spread of a sub-Freudian culture which, combined with Marxist fantasies, has even lost the awareness of death which Freud had recovered. The horror of ‘repression’, the shallow sensation-seeking demanded by our jaded nerves and imagination, seem to

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