Lost in New Year’s Resolutions
Every New Year countless resolutions are sworn into completion: I want to be more fit, I want to lose weight, I want to quit smoking, I want to speak Spanish, and so on. Most of these ambitious dreams, however, remain just that, dreams left behind together with the prepaid fee...
Honey, what shall we do with our kids on Halloween?
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. (1 Co 10:23) Spending all my childhood and early youth in native Romania, I have to admit that I am not (yet) emotionally involved with all the...
Man and Woman Reflected in the Original Meaning of Creation: Part 3
The Passions And The Justification Of Sin Fr. Dumitru Staniloae asserts that at the foundation of passions are natural affects and instincts that initially support life. “In this animal characteristics we find both their lack of guilt and their inferiority, because just like the animals are not guilty of the...
Man and Woman Reflected in the Original Meaning of Creation: Part 2
Part 2 of 3 Sex and Sexuality At the time of his creation, the name Adam was used as a generic name and was not meant to designate any specific sex, but only describing the matter from which it was taken. (See the word play in Hebrew between אדם (Adam)...
Man and Woman Reflected in the Original Meaning of Creation: Part 1
*This article is part 1 in a series of 3. Before we start discussing anything, we have to recognize that there is a difference, an enormous difference, between the state of Creation before the Fall and after the Fall. We also have to acknowledge that we only know, through our...
Pascha is Over—Now What?
In the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, at the end of the anamnesis, the remembrance of the Mystical Supper, the priest says “Commemorating this holy commandment and all that had to pass for our sake: the cross the tomb, the third day resurrection, the ascension into heavens, the throne at...
Icons and Lent: Orthodoxy in Action
We, the Orthodox, like our processions. The First Sunday of the Great Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, makes no exception, as flocks of priests and faithful carrying icons circle around their churches, singing hymns and proclaiming the victory of the Orthodox and the restoration of the icons. But why is it so important today,...
Christian Athletics or the Struggle for the Kingdom
The classic image of the Christian as an athlete of Christ is a little overplayed nowadays, in a culture obsessed with sports. I personally like very much this metaphor, but if we push it too much, we may end up with a very simplistic view, as the priests become coaches,...
Embracing Life Eternal Both Now and Ever…
The first of January is the beginning of the New Year, and at the same time, the end of the old one. The Romans named this month January based on Janus, one of their pagan deities, the god of all beginning and all ends. He was represented with two heads,...
Child Versus Gorilla – Living Together with the Animal Kingdom
The recent child versus gorilla controversy has brought up an older moral question about the status of human life versus animal life. When one is faced with the decision of saving a human life endangered by an animal life, what should one do? In our story the zookeeper clearly stated...
The Nativity: An Icon of the Christian Family
Everyone’s favorite time of the year is the period before Christmas, when the air is filled with joy, peace and expectation. We are blessed to live in a country that looks forward to Christmas although we might seem to have lost some of its meaning along the way. We...
Thankful for a Perfect Gift from Above
Every year on Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks to God for our wonderful life. We rejoice in the fruits of the earth (with or without feathers) gathered around a table of abundance. A good thing indeed! Saint Basil the Great advised us to do this as early as the...
