We continue with our series on the Beatitudes. Today we examine our Lord’s words, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”.A comparison with the Lukan version of this Beatitude reveals its...
We continue with our series on the Beatitudes. Today we examine our Lord’s words, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”.The English word “meek” is not a happy word. It conjures up images of spinelessness, moral...
We continue with our series on the Beatitudes. Today we examine our Lord’s words, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”.It is safe to say that the secular world today does not have much time for mourning. It rejects...
We now begin our series on the Beatitudes. Today we examine our Lord’s word, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”.We have said before that the Beatitudes should not be read as moral maxims applicable to...
I was introduced to the Beatitudes very early in life—in my Protestant Sunday School class, we were given memory work (yep; I’m that old), and one of the things we had to memorize was the Beatitudes. For successfully reciting them, I was...
I remember in the balmy days before the pandemic struck and shoved every other news story out of the journalistic limelight that there was a lot of attention paid to the environment. Up here in Canada, for example, one day the news was...
Recently I was talking with a dear Christian friend of mine about the challenges presented by the Covid pandemic and he opined that the pandemic is winnowing all the churches. I couldn’t help but agree.For city-slickers like myself who...
Every week I meet with our catechumens, inquirers, and other faithful for a time of instruction, which includes a Q & A session. Lately we were talking about how Christians were to live differently than the world around them, and...
In an issue of the Road to Emmaus journal I read a wonderful interview with Fr. Artemy Vladimirov, a priest in Moscow, in which he spoke at length about the sacrament of confession. In it he spoke of the well-intentioned but ultimately...
The 1962 edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer is very interesting. Along with the usual services of Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion is a complete version of the Psalter. It is arranged for daily recitation at both...
Recently I read that a prominent Orthodox bishop spoke at the Democratic Convention, giving the benediction and endorsing the Democratic candidates for the next American Presidential election. Given the Democratic Party’s emphatic...
Recently the Public Orthodoxy blog published a post by Rodoljub Kubat, entitled, Rebellion at the Heart of the Bible. Usually I would not respond to a piece referencing a revolt spreading throughout a land as far away from our own as...
When I first began to investigate Orthodoxy, my main stumbling block to conversion was prayer to Mary and the saints. My Protestant formation had trained me (well, brainwashed me actually, for it was long on insistence and short on...
To unlock and truly understand the Old Testament one needs a number of exegetical keys, and one of these keys is labelled “Anthropomorphism”. This became painfully clear to me recently when I was asked a question by an intelligent and...
Some time ago I finished reading an excellent book on the extant literary sources for the Dormition/ Assumption narratives of the Mother of God, a magisterial work by Stephen J. Shoemaker entitled, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s...
