Gladsome Light Dialogues – An Orthodox Blog
A journey through our Orthodox faith as we live it every day
Beloved in Christ‚
Glory be to God!
I am very happy to let you all know that we have finished the text revisions to the Paraklesis to the wonder-working icon of the Theotokos Pantanassa from the Monastery of Vatopedi on the Holy Mount Athos.
The text’s meter was updated to better fit the various traditional prosomia. Additionally also find attached a Byzantine music setting‚ inspired from the traditional melodies.
May the intercession of the Theotokos Pantanassa always be with you.
Before we start, I want to qualify my words. This article is just a personal reflection, sparked by conversations I had with a few good friends of mine, to whom I am very grateful. It is not meant to convince anyone, nor to make a dogmatic or political stance, just my two cents for what they are worth.
The pandemic that has engulfed the world in its tiny viral claws has ignited a very vivid discussion in the Orthodox Church, regarding the way we distribute Holy Communion. As scientists, secular governments are attempting, in some places, to impose a change to our centuries old tradition of distributing the Body and Blood of Christ with a silver spoon, the Church is also trying to give a good response to this… Continue reading
“This is a great mystery, and I take it to mean Christ and the church”
(Ephesians 5:32).
Marriage is a beautiful thing. I have been married for 25 years and I cherish every minute of it. I know however that many do not share the same experience. Some say that marriage is what you make of it, but the Church insists that there is an intrinsic goodness in marriage. Marriage is good because not because we humans give it some value, but because God Himself presents it to us as good and useful: “man will leave his mother and his father and will cleave to is wife and the two should be one flesh.” This… Continue reading
On Simplicity
A couple of days ago, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, a very accomplished Byzantine chanter, about the interpretation of various pieces of liturgical music. During our conversation he made a comment that stuck with me: it is actually easier to manage a virtuoso interpretation than to chant a simple, yet profound, rendering of the same hymns. The reason he said is that initially the chanter has a zeal to learn all the complicated items, to discover all the aspects of the music, but later on, when he understands that this is not regular music, but liturgical music, and, when he is finally able to join… Continue reading
The recent child versus gorilla controversy has brought up an older moral question about the status of human life versus animal life. When one is faced with the decision of saving a human life endangered by an animal life, what should one do? In our story the zookeeper clearly stated that their choice was easy because a human life is more valuable than an animal life.[Round of applause from all parents of toddlers] But what does a poor zookeeper know? A recent tweet that condemned the gorilla killing went as far as blaming the entire humanity for the gorilla death saying: “Humans imprison gorilla. Human enters gorilla prison. Gorilla gets shot dead for being near human. Humanity… Continue reading