A man went to Elder Porphyrios: “Geronta, I want your blessing, so that I can take communion tomorrow.” “Do you hate anyone?” “No, Geronta.” “Good. Go and receive communion.” Simple, right? Why do we Orthodox prefer to complicate things, with rules and man-made traditions? Porphyrios was a profound thinker and man of the spirit, but …
The Needed Touch
Jesus called her 'daughter' - θυγάτηρ. I bet no one had called her that in a real face-to-face encounter. Certainly not in the 12 years that she had the flow of blood, which made her untouchable, an outcast from society. She was cured by being recognized, by being loved, by entering relationship. But it started …
A Magnificent Prayer
The Responses to Thalassios is considered by many to be the greatest work of St. Maximos the Confessor, the great Byzantine theologian of the 7th century. The book consists of 65 answers that Maximos wrote in response to Thalassios, a renowned spiritual teacher in North Africa. Question 48 in this book begins with a prayer that …
World Gone Haywire
Amazing words spoken by Dietrich Bonhoeffer on August 29, 1932 - 90 years ago, but just as pertinent today, as the Russian Orthodox Patriarch and several other Orthodox hierarchs in Russia and elsewhere continue to support and even promote Putin's illegal and criminal war against Ukraine. Note especially his statement: "The church forsakes obedience whenever …
Passion Before Commandments
“Are we still of any use?” Bonhoeffer asked in one of his letters from prison before he was executed by the Nazis. I think it was Archimedes who said, δός μοι που στώ και κινήσω την γήν. If a few people really believed the words of Jesus and were guided by him, the world would …
8 Months Later
As I posted earlier tonight I realized that it's almost 8 months since the last time I posted on this blog, whose premium status I did not even renew when it came up for renewal earlier this year. Eight months is a long spell of silence. Except I have not been silent; I have been …
The Truth is in the Wounds
In the Book of Acts, chapter 5, we read: “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women….(The apostles are arrested and imprisoned.) But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to …
Twenty Years Later
May the peace of Christ guide your thoughts and prayers today, as we remember the attacks of September 11, 2001. As I ponder where we are twenty years later, I find myself going back not to 2001 but to the ancient times when David was king of Israel. He wrote Psalm 8 when he took …
Life from a tomb
In the beginning was the Word (Logos) and the Word was with God and the Word was God….And the Word became flesh and dwelt (ἐσκήνωσεν, pitched his tent) among us…. No one has ever seen God except the one who is in the bosom of God, the only begotten Son - he has made God …
Life breeds life
In a Gospel reading earlier this week, we heard Jesus say: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit… And I, …
Ancient Answers 