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The Second Thursday after Pascha. CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN! Martyr Christopher of Lycia

The Holy Martyr Christopher lived during the third century and suffered about the year 250, during the reign of the emperor Decius (249-251). There are various accounts of his life and miracles, and he is widely venerated throughout the world. Saint Christopher is especially venerated in Italy, where people pray to him in times of contagious diseases. There are various suggestions about his descent. Some historians believe that he was descended from the Canaanites, while

The Twenty-Fourth Day of Great Lent. “. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part II)

What then is fasting for us Christians? It is our entrance and participation in that experience of Christ Himself by which He liberates us from the total dependence on food, matter, and the world. By no means is our liberation a full one. Living still in the fallen world, in the world of the Old Adam, being part of it, we still depend on food. But just as our death—through which we still must pass—has

Persons in Communion: The Justification of the Good

But sin turns this diverse unity into a hostile multiplicity, so that space becomes a separator, time a murderer, and language good only for expressing juxtaposition or possession. Whence the slogan of May 1968, ‘Love one another’; this is facile blasphemy, because the erotic encounter itself is given us as a symbol, a foretaste of personal communion. In the universe of sin solitary individuals devour one another. There is a besetting tendency today, when faced

Members of one another (Part VI)

In the monk’s relationship with the world, St Silouan distinguishes a double movement. First, through prayer the monk withdraws into himself, shutting out the world, gradually liberating himself from visual imagery and discursive thinking, and so entering into the image-free stillness of the heart. But then, within the depths of his own heart, he rediscovers his solidarity with all humankind and with the whole creation. So the monk’s flight from the world turns out to

The Thirty-Sixth Day of Christmas Advent. The Voice Calls Out to Us.

EVEN NOW THE VOICE CALLS OUT TO US, asking that we turn, bidding us again to prepare the way of the Lord. And most of us, most of the time, will break our hearts trying to respond as we should. Repentance—that turn of heart and mind—is not so easy to accomplish, nor do our preparations of “the way” ever feel quite complete. Still and always, the voice calls to us from the wilderness and calls

The 9-11 Cross at Ground Zero

When someone says 9-11 almost everyone in America will know that it refers to September 11, 2001, the day of the infamous attacks on the United States by 19 hijackers who flew two airline passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon near Washington DC, and one that crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, while it was undoubtedly bound for the Capitol or White House. 9-11 became a

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

Wednesday of the Third Week of Great Lent: Sobriety, the Guardian of the Spirit. Let your Soul keep a Good Look-Out.

Sobriety, the Guardian of the Spirit Sobriety is a guardian of the spirit. It stands on guard day and night at the gates of the heart, to sort out the thoughts that present themselves, to listen to their suggestions and to observe their intrigues. In the first place, control the imagination strictly: it is the only route by which Satan can slip thoughts into the mind to deceive it. Then preserve in your heart a

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part VII). Virtues (Part III): Discernment and Discretion (Part II)

The Christian, then, must be on guard against doctrines and scriptural interpretations that lead to ruin-she must develop discernment to see such ideas for what they are. But perhaps even more pressing, according to the Conferences, is the need to develop discretion. According to the fathers of the Conferences, discretion is an intellectual virtue much like discernment, except a Christian applies discretion when considering not which ideas, doctrines, and scriptural interpretations to embrace, but when

Friday of the Second Week of Lent. The Story of Job

And the Lord said to Satan, ”Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord, ”Does Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions