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The Ninth Day of Christmas. A Worthy Epitaph for a Life Well Lived

As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already on the point of being sacrificed, the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and

The Thirty-Ninth Day of Christmas Advent. Why Do I Need a Savior?

“For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord” -Luke 2:11 Are you saved? We hear this question a lot in religious circles. What it mean for us? In order to be found, one has to have a sense that he or she is lost. And in order to be saved, one has to have a sense that he or she needs saving. The questions

The Thirty-Sixth Day of Christmas Advent. What Is Joy?

And the angel said to them, ”Be not afraid, for I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people.” -Luke2:10 What is joy? Have you ever stopped to think about the meaning of this word? Joy is the feeling that a child has on Christmas morning when he or she tears the wrapping paper off of presents, not knowing what treasure lies inside hue knowing they will like

The Fourteenth Day of Christmas Advent. God is with Us

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and His name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife but knew her not until she had borne a Son; and he called His name Jesus. -Matthew 1:22-25 It’s amazing how

The Cell, Meeting God and Ourselves (Part I)

The Path to the Desert “A brother came to Scetis to visit Abba Moses and asked him for a word. The old man said to him, ‘Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.”‘ [1] The roots of desert monasticism lay in distractions the desert elders experienced in the inhabited world. They withdrew to the desert where more intense dedication to God was possible. It is tempting to see this as

Mary-Mother of God (Part I)

GOD’S KENOTIC LOVE St. Paul had grasped the essence of God’s self-giving love as a kenosis, an emptying. That Greek word contains a great mystery for us. God’s outpouring did not begin only on the Cross when He, whose state was divine, did not cling “to His equality with God but emptied Himself to assume the condition of a slave … even to accepting death, death on a cross…” (Ph 2:6-8). God’s kenosis began when

Mary the Contemplative (Part VII)

MARY THE WOMAN TOWARD OTHERS It was at Pentecost that Mary received an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that enabled her, more than any of the Apostles, to understand the universal love of her Son and Savior for all human beings. By the Spirit of Jesus Christ she burned to surrender herself even more completely to serve His Body than she had done at Nazareth or at the foot of the Cross. With new awareness

Meditation and Worship (Part VI)

The outward beauty of the liturgy must not seduce us into forgetting that sobriety in prayer is a very important feature in Orthodoxy. In the Way of a Pilgrim a village priest gives some very authoritative advice on prayer: ‘If you want it to be pure, right and enjoyable, you must choose some short prayer, consisting of few but forcible words, and repeat it frequently, over a long period. Then you will find delight in

The Remembrance of Death (Part II)

By Father Steven Kostoff Taken in isolation, “remembrance of death”—especially among those who “have no hope” [1 Thessalonians 4:13]—can have a horrible effect upon the soul. It only makes sense to forget about it!  The Christian practice of the “remembrance of death” needs to be the result of a lively faith in Christ, the Vanquisher of death, for it to be the spiritually positive practice it is meant to be.  Saint Paul has said it

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! The Fifth Wednesday of Pascha: The Descent of Jesus into Hades (Part VII)

By Father Thomas Hopko We all become the bride of Christ, and we all relate to each other. We do not cease being who we are, because even the risen Christ, when He is raised, is still Jesus of Nazareth. In John’s Gospel, and in the Gospels generally, he even shows the continuity by showing the wounds in His hands. That causes some difficulty for some people, because they say, if He is raised into