Exploring the paradoxes of suffering and salvation in Orthodox Christian spiritual life. +++ Suffering Hell for the Sake of Heaven Part 1 Suffering Hell for the Sake of Heaven Part 2 … [Read more...]
The Most Important Question
What is the most important question of human existence? If we have not yet discovered this, then we can be assured that we are not very far along toward answering the question. My six-year-old grandson Collin suffers from severe asthma. When he heard that asthma was a condition that made people more vulnerable to the COVID virus he was worried. … [Read more...]
For the Love of Tuna II
On the Greek island of Kefalonia in the Church of Markopoulo, every year on August 6th, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the “snakes of the Panaghia,” as they are called, make an appearance. They move freely throughout the church especially favoring the icon of the Panaghia, remaining until the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy on the feast of the … [Read more...]
Isha’s Voice is in English!
Isha heard melodies everywhere she went and loved to sing. Her daddy loved to listen. What happens when Isha loses her voice? How will her father be able to bring singing and joy back into their lives? What path will the journey take? Isha's Voice is a story about loss and reunion between a father and daughter and most importantly, how our … [Read more...]
Treasure in Earthen Vessels: Prayer and the Embodied Life
Treasure in Earthen Vessels “In the following pages, Fr. Stephen Muse provides us, not with a manual of prayer, but with an opening into the life of prayer by unveiling for us “the mystery of embodied life and the uncreated divine life.” He provides an entryway for us, as human beings with all our brokenness, weakness and fear, to dialogue … [Read more...]
Transfigured by Love for Love
St. John the Theologian, beloved to Christ, in his first letter to the Church, pointed straight to the heart of the Gospel that unites heaven and earth when he wrote: We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of … [Read more...]
Created for a Communion of Love
It is written, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”[1] What is a “living soul”? Moreover, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him? [2] The ancient Hebrew word translated as “living soul” is nephesh. It is the same word used for all “life” brought … [Read more...]
