October 9, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: aphorisms, Christianity, communion, deification, Divine Energies, Divine Energy, Divinization, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, Eucharist, glory, glory of God, Greek Orthodoxy, heaven, hell, humility, John Romanides, liturgy, mercy, mysteries, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, prayers, purifying fire, religion, sacramental preparation, sacraments, salvation, Theosis, Uncreated Energies, Uncreated Energy, Uncreated Light, worship
Every time I made it to Divine Liturgy while he was with my parish, or just about,* the priest who Chrismated me, preceded Communion with a collective reminder about the o/Orthodox understanding of the Mysteries (sacraments) as special encounters with God’s Uncreated Energies. I can’t remember it verbatim, but he said Communion is like a fire that risks [...]
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, church services, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, liturgy, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, Russian Orthodoxy, worship
I thought I made up that word, but apparently not! In any case, I mean it literally as “Divine work,” just as Liturgy means “people’s work.” But I just read this from the late Metropolitan ANTHONY (Bloom) of Great Britain:
…in eucharistic terms we are easily led astray by what we see. We see a celebrant [...]
June 8, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: angels, bumper stickers, Christian humor, Christianity, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, geek orthodox, humor, icons, liturgy, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox humor, orthodoxy, religion, religious humor
One proposed bumper sticker in this compilation of Orthodox humor! Alot of oldies-but-goodies (What else? We’re Orthodox – even Geek Orthodox [sic]!!), but one or two I hadn’t seen before. Funny, wise, ironic, self-deprecating, it’s all there!
Some are insiders, like the last one about the (mostly-Lenten) Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. The actual text [...]
May 15, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: bishops, Christianity, church polity, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, hierarchy, liturgy, mass, Orthodox Christianity, patriarchs, pope, religion, services, worship
Sometimes you will see Orthodox refer to a liturgy as pontifical. Naturally, this has nothing to do with the Pope of Rome, among whose titles are “Pontifex Maximus” and “Sovereign Pontiff.” I believe a more commonly-used synonym among English-speaking Orthodox is hierarchical, as in Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. Actually pontifical has been traditionally used this way [...]
May 13, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: astrology, astronomy, Byzantine, Byzantium, calendars, canonization, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Christianity, computer analogies, computer programs, computers, computus, Divine Liturgy, Easter, Eastern Catholic Church, Eastern Catholicism, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, Eucharist, fasts, feast days, glorification, Gregorian Calendar, High Church, Holidays, holydays, Hours, Julian Calendar, Latin Christianity, Latin Church, liturgical reform, liturgy, Liturgy of the Hours, medieval, Middle Ages, name-day, New Calendar, nonviolence, nonviolent resistance, Old Calendar, order of worship, Ordinarius, ordo, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, Pascha, paschalion, religion, Revised Julian Calendar, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, saints, science, seasons, Second Vatican Council, slava, snow, software, Southern Hemisphere, tradition, Tridentine Mass, Typicon, Typikon, Unia, Uniates, Uniatism, Uniats, Vatican II, weather, Western Christianity, worship
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 [...]
The valuable copy of the Priest’s Service Book that used to be available on the site of Sts. Peter and Paul OCA parish in Meriden, Connecticut, seems fully available via the Wayback Machine.
It’s the Russian-oriented translation (into English) by Archbishop DMITRI of Dallas and the South, including directions (rubrics), prayers, and hymns from very many [...]
November 17, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: deliberation, Eastern Orthodoxy, Fathers of the Church, feast days, gender, iconography, icons, liturgy, OCA, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church in America, orthodoxy, Patristics, relationships, saints, sex, theology, women, women in the church, women saints
What follows is an extended quote (from pp. 9-10) from Women and Men in the Church, a 1980 work/study by a committee of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). I’m still wrestling with all its implications, myself, but thought I’d offer it here as an example of an Orthodox approach to questions and issues:
Sacraments and [...]
October 28, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Catholicism, Christianity, church history, conciliarism, conciliarity, contraception, deaconesses, divorce, Eastern Orthodoxy, economic justice, Fathers of the Church, first among equals, Liberal Catholicism, liberalism, liturgy, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox mission, papacy, Patristics, pope, progressive, religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, sobornost, social justice, spirituality, theology
(Polished and expanded a little on 18 January 2008.)
How can Orthodoxy possibly dovetail with liberal Roman Catholicism?
Collegiality and conciliarity; no Papal Infallibility. While the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has some very supportive supporters, he’s really not supposed to be a worldwide ecclesiastical autocrat, merely “first among equals” among the bishops of the Orthodox Church, permanent [...]
