intellect Archives - Saint Sophia

Holy and Great Tuesday

04/27/2021

On Great Tuesday the Church calls to remembrance two parables, which are related to the Second Coming. The one is the parable of the Ten Virgins (Mt 25.1-3); the other the parable of the Talents (Mt 25.14-30). These parables point to the inevitability of the Parousia and deal with such subjects as spiritual vigilance, stewardship, accountability and judgement. From these parables we learn at least two basic things. First, Judgement Day will be like the

Excuse Me, You Are Not Rational

01/04/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, October 19, 2015 Words have a way of getting hijacked. Language refuses to stay unchanged and the result can be confusion, particularly when language is compared across the centuries. A common sentiment, written in one century, can be taken to mean something completely different in another. Such is the case with the word “rational.” The word was hijacked around the 18th century and has become a chief accomplice in the misdoings of

Christ and Nothing (Part IV)

06/25/2020

By David Bentley Hart, October 2003 The word “nihilism” has a complex history in modern philosophy, but I use it in a sense largely determined by Nietzsche and Heidegger, both of whom not only diagnosed modernity as nihilism, but saw Christianity as complicit in its genesis; both it seems to me were penetratingly correct in some respects, if disastrously wrong in most, and both raised questions that we Christians ignore at our peril. Nietzsche’s case

The Third Tuesday after Pascha. CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Philokalia’s Approach to Salvation

05/14/2019

The spiritual teaching of the Fathers of the Holy Mountain is grounded in the Eastern Church’s theological anthropology. The human being is a fundamental unity of body and soul and should be understood as an “embodied soul” or an “ensouled body.” The Eastern spiritual tradition takes our psychosomatic nature quite seriously, so that worship and prayer draw on our body and all its senses. Even the inward act of repentance is expressed outwardly with bows,

On Silence and Stillness (I)

09/04/2018

On Silence and Stillness (I) Although they are often used interchangeably, the terms “silence” and “stillness” are not synonymous. Silence implies in part an absence of ambient noise, together with an inner state or attitude that enables us to focus, to “center” on the presence of God and to hear His “still, small voice.” To silence, the virtue of stillness adds both tranquility and concentration. Stillness implies a state of bodily rest coupled with the

SHARP TRIALS IN THE INTELLECT (Part II)

07/26/2017

Study and learning are spiritual disciplines much esteemed in the Christian contemplative tradition (as they are in many religious traditions). When this discipline is being strengthened and purified to make the discursive mind a better servant of God, we become aware of a not-so-subtle tendency to show off how much we have come to know in all our reading and study. This need not be a public display; we can look down on people less

WATCHFULNESS IN DIVINE WORSHIP (Part IV)

03/08/2016

The great penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete conceals within it great neptic wealth. Let’s bring to mind some of its precious gems: Instead of the visible Eve, I have the Eve of the mind: the passionate thought in my flesh, showing me what seems sweet; yet whenever I taste from it, I find it bitter (34). Thou hast heard O – my soul, be watchful! – how Ishmael was driven out as the

AWARENESS: SILENCE’S VERY OWN PRACTICE

11/11/2015

The practice of contemplation over many winters into spring often leads to a subtle but fundamental shift in prayer: from using a prayer word as a means of concentration to simple sitting in awareness. Just being. It is much as St. John of the Cross describes it: “Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular thing concerning God.” When inner silence sits in simple repose, its prayer is

The Great and Holy Tuesday

04/07/2015

Sixth Tuesday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

05/27/2014

Through Your Glorious Ascension (Part II) By the Reverend John Breck By His incarnation, Christ deified the flesh, the body with its human nature, and thus He restored it to the perfection and glory for which God originally intended it. As the First Adam, the archetype of all human existence, and as the Last Adam, the Author of Life who gives life to those who dwell in Him, Christ ascends in his “divine flesh,” exalting

Archive

Holy and Great Tuesday

Excuse Me, You Are Not Rational

Christ and Nothing (Part IV)

The Third Tuesday after Pascha. CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Philokalia’s Approach to Salvation

On Silence and Stillness (I)

SHARP TRIALS IN THE INTELLECT (Part II)

WATCHFULNESS IN DIVINE WORSHIP (Part IV)

AWARENESS: SILENCE’S VERY OWN PRACTICE

The Great and Holy Tuesday

Sixth Tuesday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

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