Pagels Decoded

Father Paul Mankowski, SJ begins his critical account of Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels, The Pagels Imposture, with the following precis (I have added the hyperlink to the ANF book and chapter cites of the texts in his citation):
I am going to demonstrate that Professor Pagels’s media reputation as a scholar is undeserved, her reputation [...]

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The Dawning of Bright Week and St. Thomas

Lent this year has been among the most difficult times of my life, and that of our household. Never would I have chosen the sorts of disciplines we have been experiencing. Nor has the Paschaltide brought swift deliverance and resolution. Things seem to be brightening, but the tendrils of darkness still remain. [...]

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Check Out Fr Joseph’s “Notes for Pascha and Bright Week”

Some of the tidbits from Notes for Pascha & Bright Week:
• We greet one another during the entire Paschal season (which lasts 40 days) with the words: “Christ is risen!” and the response to the greeting is: “Indeed, He is risen!” . . .
• During Bright Week, our prayers in church and at home are [...]

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Orthodox Images of the Christ

A nice webpage of Orthodox icons of Christ at Elpenor:
Orthodox Images of the Christ

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Fr Patrick Reardon: The Legacy of Charlemagne

Our priest, Fr. Patrick, has an article in the Winter 2006 issue of Christian History & Biography: Turning Point: The Crowning of Charlemagne:
Few moments in world history proved to be of greater significance than what transpired in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Christmas Day in the year 800.
All eyes in the basilica that day [...]

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Iconographer of the Famous “Holy Trinity” Andrei Rublev Remains Found

Remains of Russian painter found in monastery:
More than 500 years after he is thought to have died, Russian experts believe they have found the remains of the inspirational medieval icon painter Andrei Rublev, and intend to use them to build up a better idea of what he looked like.
During the course of restoration work [...]

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‘Holy Fire’ Ceremony Held in Jerusalem

‘Holy Fire’ Ceremony Held in Jerusalem:
Pilgrims celebrated the Orthodox Easter ”holy fire” rite Saturday as a flame believed by some to be miraculously ignited illuminated thousands of torches and candles at Christianity’s holiest site.
Security was tight as visitors from around the world flocked to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where tradition says Jesus [...]

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Thoughts on Providence

[Please continue to take these ruminations as explorations of someone who doesn't know much, however dogmatically I state my ignorance.]
There is that verse from Psalm 118 (119 in Hebrew) which is prayed in St. Basil’s Divine Liturgy:
. . . for all things serve thee.
As has been evident to my readers I have been much in [...]

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Fetuses and Pain

A great little post over at The American Thinker: Fetuses and Pain. From the post:
The study of fetal and neonatal pain is an evolving discipline. In 1987 a landmark article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Pain and its effects on the human neonate and fetus,” forever changed the perception that newborn [...]

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The Prayer of St. Ephrem OLIC Podcast

Our Life in Christ has finished up the series on the Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian. Here are the mp3 links to each program dealing specifically with the prayer. I cannot recommend highly enough this entire series. It is the absolute best I have encountered not only from OLIC but from [...]

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