Tags

The Fast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin (Part II)

By Father Leonidas Contos, LOS ANGELES, August 2, 1962 Orthodox theology refuses to see Mary as only the physical instrument of Christ’s birth. She is seen as a cooperating instrument in the work of redemption. Christ did not save the world, so to speak, automatically. He was not on earth as an alien thrust in, but lived as part of humanity, sharing its weakness, knowing its need. The grace He released into the world became

Why the Orthodox Honor Mary (Part II)

By Father Stephen Freeman, August 1, 2016 John’s gospel seems to me to be marked with a profound understanding of the mystery of Mary. Of special note is his first mention of her. We meet her at the Wedding in Cana. John provides no introduction to her character – he presumes a prior knowledge on the part of his readers. At the Wedding, the wine runs out. And with no explanation of a practical sort, John simply relates

Messiness in the Modern World

By Father Stephen Freeman, January 26, 2015  Salvation can be messy. I believe this with all my heart and so I state it at the outset of this article. As such, it marks me as a heretic in Modernity. I not only believe that salvation is messy – I believe that messiness is pretty much inherent to salvation. And along with that, I believe that our aversion to messiness (in all things) is a peculiar affliction of

Quest for Freedom

It seems to me that the Christian attitude towards this quest for freedom should be above all one of respect. In sin, especially when it is pursued through thick and thin, regardless of the consequences, the whole paradox of human nature is revealed. The divine image is obscured but clear enough to point to its Archetype. We need to be able to recognize the yearning for the infinite, for freedom and communion, the determination not

So-Called “Fathers” of the Modern World

Just as there are Fathers of the Church, there are also what we might call Fathers of the modern world, revered and studied by the intelligentsia, who hope to combine them in a sort of grand synopsis of atheism. We may never have read Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzche or Freud, but our outlook, the spirit of the age, is formed by their ideas. The Marxist theory of social alienation and the reification of humanity the creator

Following Jesus

We should not be surprised or scandalized by the sinful and the tragic. Do what you can to be peace and to do justice, but never expect or demand perfection on this earth. It usually leads to a false moral outrage, a negative identity, intolerance, paranoia, and self-serving crusades against “the contaminating element,” instead of “becoming a new creation” ourselves (Galatians 6:15). We must resist all utopian ideologies and heroic idealisms that are not tempered

Letting Go

It is only when we let go of our own thoughts, ideas, will, that we can live, in all purity, in the ‘atmosphere’ of God. For man, the greatest punishment is when God abandons him to his own will. In our epoch, which has rejected Christ, no one understands such an apparently servile attitude. Pure prayer presupposes the absence of cares. We attain pure prayer when, during whatever work, our mind remains free from thinking

Stillness and Silence: The Practical Dimensions of Silence

Abba Gregory Nazianzus, the theologian, said, “These three things God requires of all the baptized: right faith in the heart, truth on the tongue, temperance in the body.”42 The desert elders taught that there must be a direct flow from purity of heart to speech and action. When words have their origin in the silence of purity of heart they will be congruent with the monk’s behavior. The common vocation of all Christians is to

The Thirteenth Day of Christmas Advent. Looking Like Christmas

By Father Stephen Freeman One of the most striking features of the Gospels is the frequent response of the Disciples after the resurrection of Christ: doubt. I have always been sympathetic to the doubts and hesitations that accompanied their experience during the ministry of Christ. They are almost endearing in their inability to grasp what Christ is all about. However, the same inability to grasp things after the resurrection seems to carry with it all kinds of

Society

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as he is, so are we in this world.  I John 4.17 In many ways the word “society” serves to summarize most or all of that which a non-monastic Christian encounters on a daily basis, but which a desert monk seeks to avoid as a general rule. This includes constant interaction with other human beings, as