What is Man? Series (2)- Male and Female Engaged in the Holy Struggle

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Beloved in Christ,

Before we start discussing anything, we have to recognize that there is a difference, an enormous difference, between the state of Creation before the Fall and after the Fall. We also have to acknowledge that we only know, through our senses and through our rational knowledge, the formal, the fallen world. All we know about the state of the cosmos, before… Continue reading

What is Man? Series (1) – The Abortion Debate

“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.’” (St. Anthony the Great)[i]

Beloved in Christ,

The raging war that is going on in our culture for some time has at its center the understanding of man and his relationship with the Divinity, if one even recognizes one. In other words, it is a problem of anthropology. To understand this, according to the well-known Christian Orthodox bioethicist, Tristram Engelhardt, of blessed memory, one “ought [to] acknowledge that the[se] disputes […] are located in a fundamentally religious conflict: a conflict between a traditional Christian… Continue reading

Man and woman as reflected in the original meaning of creation – complementarity and synergy in the salvation of the family in Christ

In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen!

Your Eminence, Your Grace, Reverend Fathers, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Before we start discussing anything, we have to recognize that there is a difference, an enormous difference, between the state of Creation before the Fall and after the Fall. We also have to acknowledge that we only know, through our senses and through our rational knowledge, the formal, the fallen world. All we know about the state of the cosmos before the fall is through the glimpses of revelations given to the prophets and the Fathers. What we know now as the world, however, is not all there is and, definitely… Continue reading

The Christian Family Suspended Between Tradition and Temptation*

Root of JeseeBeloved Brothers and Sister in Christ,

As you can see, even from my short greeting, this talk about family is actually a talk in the family. I am not here to preach to strangers, but to converse with people familiar to us who will be able to better understand what I have to say, because you are hearing it from within. You hear a lot from the outside as well; there is a lot of talk about family these days, with everyone trying to define, or rather re-define, what family is, many times based on personal thoughts and feelings or ideologies of various groups of interests, creating a lot of confusion. In the midst of all… Continue reading

An Icon of the Christian Family

Everyone’s favorite time of the year is the period before Christmas, when the air is filled with joy, peace and expectation. We are blessed to live in a country that looks forward to Christmas although we might seem to have lost some of its meaning along the way.  We have radio stations that air carols without ceasing, exalting the season, although many of them speak about snow, jolly figures carrying gifts, family time and other things that are all fine, but missing maybe the point of all this festival. It is wonderful that everyone celebrates Christmas, in their own way, and even people that don’t believe in God enjoy the season and try to be “good for goodness’ sake”, as a recent billboard from our atheistic friends reads recently (we… Continue reading

Giving Thanks to God for All Things

Holy 40 martyrsEvery year on Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks to God for our wonderful life. We rejoice in the fruits of the earth (with or without feathers) gathered around a table of abundance. A good thing indeed! Saint Basil the Great advised us to do this as early as the 4th century:
”When you sit down to eat, pray. When you eat bread, do so thanking Him for being so generous to you. If you drink wine, be mindful of Him who has given it to you for your pleasure and as a relief in sickness. When you dress, thank Him for His kindness in providing you with clothes. When you look at the sky and the beauty of the… Continue reading

The Sunday of the Romanian Saints – a universal celebration of all the Saints

An icon of all Romanian Saints
An icon of all Romanian Saints

By Prof. Dr. Rev. Dumitru Staniloae

Romanian Christianity has given fruit to many and wonderful saints, even though, the humility characteristic to our nation, or other unfavorable historical circumstances in which they lived in, have not allowed our Church to canonize but a very few of them and only in 1955.

The Romanian saints were real and they have been recognized by popular piety, even though the Church has not formally canonized them and has not dedicated them certain calendar days; this is why their deeds have not been praised through special church hymns.

Actually, for the longest time, the saints have been… Continue reading

Free time and information overload

5558879546_7f028b3207_bMost probably the inventors of the internet, which modestly started as a small information sharing network, did not hope, even in their wildest dreams, that in less than 50 years their invention will evolve into what is today the greatest information exchange that ever existed. The library of Alexandria? Child play! Think about all that goes through the internet today: websites, e-mail, news, TV, social networks, entertainment, financials, do-it-yourself, phone calls, video calls, encyclopedias, e-books, maps and we’re just scratching the surface. All you want is there waiting to be found at the literal touch of a finger. Nobody asks anyone anything before they “google” the information.

With an internet connection at hand one feels like a kid in a… Continue reading

Are we religious or are we faithful?

Pascha_multitudesI read a very interesting article a few weeks ago that caught my undivided attention. The title was very daring to begin with: “Religious people are dangerous” and, on top of that, it was written by an Orthodox Bishop, so that made it even more thought-provoking.  The following passage summarizes it best: “You who go to church, how has the Church benefitted you? As we said yesterday, we went to the shrines, you saw the fathers, you saw the holy relics, you saw Mount Athos, you saw the Panagia in Tinos, you saw everything, and now we have returned. Ultimately of what benefit will all these things be? Have our hearts transformed? Have we become more humble people? Are we… Continue reading

The Great Fast – by Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver

Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver
Metropolitan Isaiah – photo courtesy of Vladimir Grigorenko

As we enter into the holiest period of the year in preparation for the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we ask ourselves, “Why should we follow the discipline of fasting, which in essence is abstinence?” What is the purpose of it? Obviously the purpose is that we may be ready to meet our Lord and to receive His promise of eternal life in His Kingdom.

We realize, according to Holy Scripture, that we were created to live forever; and that we will live eternally after the return of Christ to the earth, with our resurrected bodies reunited with our souls. The… Continue reading