Entries Tagged as 'christian'
One year ends another one starts, second after second, since the beginning of the world, the clock is ticking. What is the significance of time? Why are we so obsessed with it and why we celebrate again and again the passing of another year with parties and fireworks?
One explanation may be that the New Year that comes brings with it a wind of hope, a belief that maybe we’ll do better than in the year past. Resolutions are a must at the bridge between years, but most of them are trivial things like loosing weight or stop smoking, nothing substantial. We see clearly however that after a certain age new year celebrations and particularly birthdays become a bitter-sweet… Continue reading
Tags: christian · new year · redeeming · repentance · resolution · time
The slogan “Work hard, play hard” has been in iconic standard for corporate culture for years. It initially meant to be as involved in your daily work as you are in your extra-curricular activities, but was rapidly transformed into a great excuse for irrational and destructive behavior in the after hours like alcohol abuse, recreational drugs, heavy partying etc. More so the idea has infiltrated from the initial corporate environment to our homes rendering even our everyday life into a two dimensional universe of work and play; everything we do falls into one of these two buckets.
The Holy Grail of a happy life becomes therefore finding the balance between carrier and leisure. A plethora of… Continue reading
Tags: attitude · christian · hard · life · orthodox · pray · Work
When I was still living in Romania I was going for confession to a hieromonk in a monastery not very far from my hometown. One day I took Maria, my daughter, with me. We participated in the services, got a blessing from the elder and on our way home she asked me, after being very silent and observant all the way: Dad was that man Jesus?
A similar confusion happened to St. John the Baptist when the people of Israel confused him with Messiah: “this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the… Continue reading
Tags: christian · identity · mistaken · orthodox · theft
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine” (Mat 7:6)
When I was a kid I had a pet, a cat, and loved it dearly. It slept with me every night and in my teenage years felt at times as my only true friend. But there was no moment during the time we had together, that I confused my pet pal with a true human friend; it remained a cat the entire time. There seems to be however a lot of confusion nowadays about animals and their role in our lives. People treat their animals as family, take them to beauty salons and spas, leave them fortunes in their wills and expect to be joined by them in heaven… Continue reading
Tags: Adam · animals · christian · Communion · dog · Eastern · humans · man · orthodox · saints
I’ve recently stumbled upon two blog posts addressing the donor artificial insemination from a perspective that goes against the grain of the society trends, acknowledging a problem that is often dismissed. Here are the links:
Orphaned at conception:
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/deadbeat_donor_dads/
Who did I come from? The children of donor dads grow up:
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/who_did_i_come_from_the_children_of_donor_dads_grow_up/
I also wanted to give the readers a personal Orthodox perspective, both as a priest and as a medical doctor; so here we go.
There is a great number of problems with the issue of sperm bank donors that rank from practical theology to human psychology. I will try to put my thoughts in a coherent stream.
The “harvesting” of the… Continue reading
Tags: adultery · artificial · bank · christian · church · fornication · insemination · marriage · orthodox · sperm
You have done well for repenting right away. God has left repentance for salvation. If that was not the case, not even the Apostles would have been saved, far less other people. You have sinned with the tongue, repented with the heart. You said an evil word against your neighbor. As if you threw a spark into dry straw. The whole village heard it and made a mockery of it. The neighbor was bitter and sued you. You paid a lot, and became more miserable. You are bitter with yourself. It is not so hard for you that the court has punished you, but it is hard that your offended neighbor keeps punishing you. He does not… Continue reading
Tags: anger · christian · gossip · orthodox · repentance · St. Nikolai
The Seven-Day Commemoration In The Orthodox Church “The Week: A Seven Day Holiday”. The Greek Orthodox ecclesiastical year (Indiction), begins in September, and is marked with events and holidays of our religious history. In addition to the annual cycle, the seven-day week…
Tags: angels · apostles · calendar · christian · commemoration · Cross · day · departed · martyrs · orthodox · Resurrection · Theotokos · week
Another school year started this week. Future scientists, engineers, doctors begin their journey today, a journey through rationality and logic in the hope of pushing further away today’s science barriers. During the following school years these children will be taught mathematics, physics, chemistry and other subjects that will reveal to them, step by step… “how Continue reading
Tags: Augustine · christian · education · knowledge · orthodox · reason · school
I recently posted a status on Facebook referring to the fast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. A few minutes later I got a reply from a non-denominational protestant friend: “I did not know that God had a mother”. This is a very typical response from this audience since they do not have any particular place for the Virgin Mary in their theology or worship. Continue reading
Tags: christian · orthodox · Theotokos
I was very skeptic when Amazon has issued their “paper like” e-reader device. Beside the technology shortcomings I was sure this would be used to promote airport bestsellers and other reading material ready for the intellectual garbage bin. However, I have to admit that the success of the device, which is nice by the way, has attracted some serious publishers… Continue reading
Tags: book · christian · kindle · orthodox
One year ends another one starts, second after second, since the beginning of the world, the clock is ticking. What is the significance of time? Why are we so obsessed with it and why we celebrate again and again the passing of another year with parties and fireworks? 
