March 3, 2009 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Andrew of Crete, ascesis, asceticism, Christianity, church, church services, compline, daily prayers, deification, Divine Energies, Divinization, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, fasting, glorification, good works, Great Canon, Great Compline, Great Fast, Great Lent, Hours, Lent, Lenten services, liturgical services, liturgies, Liturgy of the Hours, night prayer, night prayers, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, orthodoxy, prayer, prayer services, prayers, religion, salvation, services, Theosis, Uncreated Energies
That’s the upshot of these words of the late Fr. Alexander Schmemann (OCA). (Link may break after this year; I don’t know if it’s tied to today’s date, as Clean Monday or Pure Monday, the first day of the Great Fast this year, or not.)
An important liturgical and devotional tradition of Byzantine Christianity during the [...]
October 17, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Christianity, deification, Divinization, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, glorification, Hesychasm, noetic, noetic prayer, nous, Orthodox Christianity, prayer, purification, religion, salvation, spirituality, Theosis
No, I wasn’t one of those kids who enjoyed reading dictionaries (much) … but you may do well to pray the O Heavenly King before reading this essential, profound definition-list ‘in a nutshell’ from Metropolitan HIEROTHEOS of Nafpaktos, courtesy of this website:
O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and filleth all things, [...]
October 9, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: apatheia, Christianity, deification, dispassion, Divine Energies, Divine Energy, Divinization, Eastern Orthodoxy, fools for christ, glorification, Hesychasm, hesychia, humility, indifference, Macarius of Egypt, Macarius the Great, Makarios of Egypt, Makarios the Great, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, purification, religion, spiritual discipline, stillness, Theosis, Uncreated Energies, Uncreated Energy, Uncreated Light
From St. Feofil, the Fool for Christ’s Sake, courtesy of this blog:
If you are praised, be silent. If you are scolded, be silent. If you incur losses, be silent. If you receive profit, be silent. If you are satiated, be silent. If you are hungry, also be silent. And do not be afraid that there [...]
September 22, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: apocryphal gospels, ascetic theology, asceticism, Bible, Blessed Mother, Blessed Virgin Mary, Christianity, deification, Divine Energies, Divine Energy, Divinization, doctrine, early Christian writings, Early Church Fathers, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, Fathers of the Church, free will, glorification, grace, Gregory Palamas, Hesychasm, hymns, Immaculate Conception, liturgy, Mary, Mary of Nazareth, monasticism, Mother Mary, mother of Christ, Mother of God, mother of Jesus, mysticism, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox liturgy, Orthodox Tradition, orthodoxy, Palamism, Patristics, prayer, religion, religious controversy, religious doubt, religious questioning, Russian Orthodoxy, saints, salvation, Scripture, Scripture and Tradition, Second Temple, sin, spirituality, St Gregory Palamas, Temple (Jerusalem), temptation, Theosis, Theotokos, Uncreated Energies, Uncreated Energy, women saints, worship
I know nothing about the recent controversy over this, referenced at the beginning of this article from St. Tikhon’s Monastery in Pennsylvania (anonymous), and was surprised to hear about it. But this article seems to address it well, briefly, and Orthodoxly. It also highlights the misinterpretation or misunderstanding of Patristic writings that is possible unless one [...]
September 18, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Anthony Bloom, Antony Bloom, Christianity, deification, Divine Energies, Divine Energy, Divinization, Eastern Orthodoxy, glorification, glory of God, God, Gospel, Hesychasm, illumination, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, purification, religion, salvation, saved, Theosis
More from Metr. Anthony Bloom:
…we must remember that ‘to glorify’ in Greek does not mean what we understand so often – to praise or applaud; it means that his splendour, his unutterable beauty is revealed….
So how do *we* glorify God? Preliminarily by struggling to unite with His Uncreated Energies, His Glory, through all the means [...]
June 25, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: angels, asceticism, Christianity, deification, discipleship, discipling, Divinization, Eastern Orthodoxy, Faye Flam, glorification, heaven, John Romanides, marriage, monasticism, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, philosophy, religion, saints, salvation, self-discipline, self-restraint, sex, sexuality, Theosis
I just ran across local newspaper science columnist Faye Flam’s old article (PDF) about speculation around, let’s say marital relations, in the afterlife. She does remind us that the Lord Himself reported that in Heaven the saved do not marry [and therefore do not have sexual relations], but live as the angels. (In fact Orthodox Monasticism [...]
June 11, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Christian spirituality, Christianity, Church Fathers, church history, deification, Divinization, Early Christian Writers, Early Church Fathers, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, Evangelicalism, Fathers of the Church, glorification, heartland, kansas, Middle America, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, Patristics, Protestantism, religion, Roman Catholicism, salvation, spiritual guidance, spirituality, theology, Theosis, wichita
Says an Antiochian Orthodox bookstore owner in Wichita, Kansas,* in this 2002 Publishers Weekly roundup / preview of then-new Orthodox books entering the mainstream book market (in English in the United States).
(*–For the record, home of 5 Orthodox churches, visible at orthodoxyinamerica.org.)
May 13, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: liturgy, worship, orthodoxy, Orthodox Christianity, Eastern Christianity, Catholicism, Old Calendar, New Calendar, Gregorian Calendar, Christianity, religion, Revised Julian Calendar, Eastern Orthodoxy, saints, Byzantium, Middle Ages, tradition, Julian Calendar, Pascha, Easter, Holidays, Rome, Western Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church, glorification, Eastern Catholicism, Uniates, Uniats, Uniatism, Catholic Church, Vatican II, feast days, holydays, computus, calendars, seasons, Southern Hemisphere, paschalion, Eastern Catholic Church, Unia, Typikon, Typicon, ordo, weather, medieval, Byzantine, High Church, Latin Church, Latin Christianity, Ordinarius, Divine Liturgy, Eucharist, Hours, Liturgy of the Hours, order of worship, Second Vatican Council, liturgical reform, Tridentine Mass, nonviolent resistance, nonviolence, astronomy, astrology, fasts, canonization, slava, name-day, science, computers, software, computer programs, computer analogies, snow
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
Yes, on the Third Monday of Pascha yesterday morning – May 12 (NS)! - some snow stuck to the ground in higher elevations of southwestern Pennsylvania (link may break), the Commonwealth where I and alot of other Orthodox live!
This discussion goes back to my recent post occasioned by the (Western) Good [...]
April 24, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Christianity, deification, Divine Energies, Divine Energy, Divinization, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, glorification, Orthodox Christianity, prayers, religion, saints, Theosis, translation, Uncreated Light
NEOPHYTE OPINION ALERT
Numerous Orthodox hymns and prayers include the past tenses of the verb to shine, referring in one way or another to light, often God’s Uncreated Energies as Light, as frequently discussed in this blog, whether directly from a Person of the Trinity, or indirectly through a Saint, Angel, or the Theotokos (God-Deliverer).
Allow me [...]
March 15, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: art, basilicas, Blessed Mother, cathedrals, Catholicism, Christianity, deification, Divine Light, Divinization, Eastern Orthodoxy, glorification, iconoclasm, iconography, icons, images, Italy, Mary, miracles, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, painting, religion, Roman Catholicism, Rome, saints, salvation, theology, Theosis, Theotokos, Uncreated Light, Western Orthodoxy
Italy’s former Orthodoxy is attested by the ancient icons and Greek icon-style murals and mosaics to be found in many old Latin churches there to this day. Rome itself has at least one icon said to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist (like a few in Orthodox hands, or rather, graced to Orthodox [...]
March 11, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Catholicism, Christianity, confession, conscience, deification, Divinization, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, forgiveness, glorification, journalism, media, news, obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, OCD, OCPD, orthodoxy, perfection, religion, repentance, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, sacraments, salvation, scrupulosity, scrupulous conscience, sin, social sin, spiritual guidance, structural evil, Theosis, Vatican
OK, OK, now that we’ve all had a laugh over a Vatican bureaucrat-archbishop’s politically-correct-sounding interview, first things first: what he was really about (Latin perspective). For further background, from other sources on the WWW, I gather that what he was doing in the first place was providing advice to priest-confessors / spiritual directors in the [...]
July 22, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: ascesis, asceticism, askesis, deification, Divine Energies, Divine Energy, Divinization, doctrine, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, empirical theology, experimental theology, glorification, John 7:17, Orthodox Christianity, purification, salvation, theology, Theosis, virtue
John 7:17 (NKJV):
If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or [whether] I speak on My own [authority.]
Here was discussed the fact that those who experience Energetic Union with God/Glorification perceive fundamental o/Orthodox Christian teachings therein. Now John 7:17 seems to reinforce that testimony. If [...]
July 16, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Bible, Christianity, deification, Divinization, Eastern Orthodoxy, forgiveness, glorification, Hebrew Scriptures, Job, Job 42:7, Job 42:7-8, Old Testament, Old Testament Church, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, philosophy, philosophy of religion, religion, salvation, Scripture, spirituality, theology, Theosis
See Job 42:7-8 (NAB):
…the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and with your two friends; for you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job. Now, therefore, take seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up a holocaust for yourselves; and [...]
July 6, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Christianity, creed, creeds, Divinization, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, filioque, glorification, Jesus Christ, John Romanides, nicene creed, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, religion, Romanity, salvation, spirituality, theology, Theosis, Trinity
(UPDATED 4 August 2008, clarifying about the Son and Spirit proceeding eternally [ie, Their "existence"] only from the Father, ie, no Filioque in the true experience of God’s Glory.)
From Prophet of Roman Orthodoxy: The Theology of John Romanides, by Andrew J. Sopko, Dewdney, BC, Canada: Synaxis, 1998, pages 41-42:
Lest glorification/divinization be equated with a mystical [...]
July 1, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: apostolic succession, Bible, Catholicism, Christendom, Christianity, church history, churches, conciliarism, conciliarity, Divinization, Eastern Orthodoxy, first among equals, glorification, Great Schism, Holy Spirit, infallibility, John 16:13, Matthew 18:18, Matthew 6:13-19, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, orthodoxy, papacy, patriarchates, pope, religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, salvation, Scripture, sobornost, spirituality, St. Peter, theology, Theosis, Western Christendom, Western Christianity, Western Church
Yesterday was the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the Apostles. The Gospel reading for Divine Liturgy was Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi, Matthew 16:13-19 (here, from the NAB).
13
When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14
They replied, “Some say [...]
