The idea that any Westerner has about fasting is strongly linked with renunciation, with giving-up, with sacrificing something for God. In the Eastern Orthodox Church however, fasting achieves a much richer meaning. Fasting is not only about giving-up, but it is actually more about gaining, about being able to reach things that are possible only [...]
Entries Tagged as 'orthodox'
Being Present in the Presence – Archmandrite Meletios (Webber)
January 29th, 2010 No Comments
Yesterday night, January 27 at 7 PM we had the extraordinary opportunity to host a special session of Gladsome Light Dialogues having as guest Archmandrite Meletios, the Abbot of St. John of St. Francisco Monastery in California.
Archimandrite Meletios (Webber), of Scottish background, was born in London, and received his Masters degree in Theology from [...]
Tags: heart · Meletios · mind · nous · orthodox · presence · rayer · steps · Weber
Concerning Angels by Metropolitan ISAIAH of Denver
January 26th, 2010 No Comments
Due to a series of unfortunate events I recently watched the super Holywood production “Legion”. Five minutes into the movie I wished I was not there and by the end I concluded that nothing is sacred to the film industry. The movie is an apocaliptical thriller about the destruction of humankind by God that got fed-up [...]
Tags: angels · Archangels · Orders · orthodox · Tradition
Into the lion’s den – The passions of Fr. Gheorghe Calciu Dumitreasa
January 8th, 2010 2 Comments
I recently found this article on the wonderful website http://www.orthodoxphotos.com. Fr. Gheorghe Calciu spent 21 years in the communist prisons and was a symbol of freedom fighting for all Romanians. I knew Fr. Gheorghe personally in the last few years of his life. He went to meet his beloved Lord in November 2006. The story he [...]
Tags: comunist · fight · freedom · Gheorghe Calciu Dumitreasa · orthodox · priest · prison
To a modest man who is repenting for some of his words – by St. Nikolai (Velimirovic)
November 24th, 2009 1 Comment
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 [...]
Tags: anger · christian · gossip · orthodox · repentance · St. Nikolai
Heavenly Crosses – The Master Yuri Feodorov
November 13th, 2009 No Comments
In one of my pilgrimages I happend to arrive at the great Lavra Pecerska in Kiev, Ukraine and there I found in a small flee market, organized at the entrance of the Monastery, a gentlemen who was selling the most beautifull crosses I’ve ever seen. I liked them so much that I’ve spent all my money [...]
Tags: art · Cross · feodorov · gold · orthodox · Russia · silver
On the spiritual Struggle – by Archbishop Averky (Taushev)
November 11th, 2009 No Comments
On the first Sunday of the Great Fast our Church celebrates the triumph of Orthodoxy, the victory of true Christian teachings over all perversions and distortions thereof- heresies and false teachings. On the second Sunday of the Great Fast it is as though this triumph of Orthodoxy is repeated and deepened in connection with the [...]
Tags: askesis · averky · bishop · orthodox · podvig · spiritual · struggle
How can God be inside man? – St. Nikolai (Velimirovic)
November 9th, 2009 No Comments
To a soldier of a student’s brigade who asks how God can be inside man
You asked somebody, “where is God?” And you got an answer that God is inside you. And you marvel at this answer. How can that be?
Kind of like light in a room, or like fire in a; stove. When you are [...]
Tags: Eastern · God · Holy Fathers · inside · man · orthodox · saints
“To be” or “to know”, that is the question
September 24th, 2009 No Comments
Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, from William Shakespeare’s synonymous play, starting with the memorable phrase “To be or not to be, that is the question”, is a reflection that profoundly resonates with the Eastern Orthodox theology. Let me explain this.
Tags: God · hesychasm · knowledge · orthodox · prayer · reason
