As many will remember, before the Winter feasts I was sharing information about the development of the major feasts of our Church. As I shared, the Nativity was introduced into the East from Rome around 385 CE. Around this same … Continue reading
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Although I already referenced the Hymn to the Mother of God that appears in the Anaphora of St. John’s Liturgy, it was only introduced in the seventh century by St. Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. This was after the Council … Continue reading
In the last issue of this article, I suggested that there are several very important questions that we, in my estimation, must attempt to answer if we wish to respond to the call that God is giving to us to … Continue reading
This weekend we celebrate the great feast of the Theophany as a spiritual community. It is truly recorded as one of the “theophanic” or “God-revealing” events in the life of Jesus and in human history. In Matthew’s version of the … Continue reading
In the last several issues of the article, I have been considering the 28th Step on Climacus’ Ladder of Ascent. That step deals with PRAYER. St. John has much to say about prayer. When we are still learning to pray, … Continue reading
Again I would interrupt my thoughts on the Divine Liturgy to draw your attention to the prayers that are special to the feast of Theophany. The proper prayers for the feast (i.e., the Tropar and Kondak) are magnificent statements of … Continue reading
I shared, in the last issue of this article, that the Cappadocian Fathers used ancient Greek thought to clarify the ideas of Athanasius about who Christ is. They accomplished this by using Greek, philosophical vocabulary as a tool, changing its … Continue reading
Acquiring the “mind” of Christ requires us to first develop the habit of prayer. If we are to start the task of prayer, we must immediately begin and not procrastinate. We should not be motivated by a lot of excitement … Continue reading
In the Book of Genesis, we read that creation began when the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. (Gen. 1:2) Throughout the Bible, water plays an important and a ‘mystical role’ in human existence and in … Continue reading
A real part of the call to holiness is a call to our personal recognition of God sharing His life with us. The call to holiness is a call to a deeper awareness and belief in the revelation that God … Continue reading