More Thoughts on Heresy

I said in yesterday’s post that heresy is cruel because it promises that which it cannot give. It promises life, depth of vision, wisdom and insight. But because it ultimately preaches another gospel it only brings foolishnes and inconsistency, blindness, and, ultimately, if unrepented, death.
We need not go into New Testament word studies [...]

Read Full Post »

Schism and Heresy: There Is No Choice

My task here is not to comment on the present situation within ECUSA as to the formation of a new confessing network, and whether faithful should stay within the denomination or leave for other ecclesial groups.
Nor is it my task to comment on the issues which have been the most recent catalyst for these developments, [...]

Read Full Post »

Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt: Funereal Reflections

So. My stepgrandfather, Wilbur Yelton, died Monday. He was 83 years old. He’d been sick for some time, and at a checkup in February, the doctors told him to put his affairs in order.
I didn’t know Wilbur all that well. He and my grandmother married four months after my wife, Anna, [...]

Read Full Post »

Fr. Seraphim (Rose) of Platina: On the Mind and Living Faith

When I became a Christian I voluntarily crucified my mind, and all the crosses that I bear have been only a source of joy for me. I have lost nothing and gained everything.
–Father Seraphim Rose (Cathy Scott, Seraphim Rose: The True Story and Private Letters, p. 191)
Orthodoxy is life. If we don’t live [...]

Read Full Post »

My Two Encounters with Seraphim Rose at Barnes and Noble

I have had encounters with Father Seraphim on two occasions, now, at the Barnes and Noble in Evantson.
My first encounter was entirely by “accident.” It was 30 May last year, and I had gone to see the movie “X2: X-men United” in the early afternoon. After the movie I had had about an [...]

Read Full Post »

Elder Paisios the New of Mount Athos: On Theology

Theology is the word of God, which is apprehended by pure, humble and spiritually regenerated souls, and not the beautiful words of the mind, which are crafted with literary art and expressed by the legal or worldly spirit. . . .
Theology that is taught like a science usually examines things historically and, consequently, things are [...]

Read Full Post »

Reading the Lives of the Saints

Down the left column of this blog, I have a quote from St. Theophan the Recluse’s The Path to Salvation, which gives a rule for reading. Since the print is somewhat small, I’ll copy a portion of it here:
The best time for reading the Word of God is in the morning. Lives of [...]

Read Full Post »

St Theophan the Recluse: On the Seriousness of Repentance

[A]lthough we must not despair of the possibility for our conversion and salvation no matter how weak [because previously ignored] is the call for conversion to a virtuous life, we must always think timidly and fearfully of our weak condition. Might we have sunk so far that we have reached the final opportunity to [...]

Read Full Post »

Trademarking Christianity

As everyone pretty well knows, trademarks exist to guard the rights of the trademark holder and to ensure the consumer that the article with said trademark is, indeed, authentic. Trademarks exist to eliminate confusion. When Anna and I moved to Illinois more than ten years ago, one of the then-recent news stories in [...]

Read Full Post »

Think Divorce’ll Make You Happy? Think Again

In a USAToday article from more than a year ago, the “common sense” notion in our throw away society is proven empirically false:
Divorce doesn’t necessarily make adults happy. But toughing it out in an unhappy marriage until it turns around just might, a new study says.
The research identified happy and unhappy spouses, culled from a [...]

Read Full Post »