Orthodox Form, Orthodox Substance

[Note: This is a response to a comment from my Orthodox brother, Gabe, on my "How to Not be Very Orthodox" video.  I thought I'd make a post for it so the discussion might continue here--if anyone wishes to do so.] Gabe: Well, brother, one of the dangers of satire is that the point will [...]

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Thoughts on Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ

This comes perhaps four years late. But such a tardiness is not without design. I have been quite resistant to viewing The Passion, to some degree from “purist” notions. Not purist in the sense of the silly spats among Orthodox as to whether such a bloody portrayal of the Passion was in keeping with “true” [...]

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The Mystery of the Will of God

I have had Bp Joseph’s words on my mind since I posted them: The sensations of the heart [i.e., the conscious and perceptible experience of God] assume that someone is under spiritual supervision and has undergone substantial purification. Most of us do not acheive this kind of purification except through intense involuntary suffering. So if [...]

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More Orthodox Than Thou (A Protestant Convert to Orthodoxy Rant)

At the risk of engaging the passions–not a good thing to do at any time, let alone Great and Holy Lent–I want to take on this notion going around the Protestant-convert-to-Orthodoxy blogosphere in which Protestant converts to Orthodoxy are criticizing fellow Protestant converts to Orthodoxy about things such converts are doing that just aren’t Orthodox [...]

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Prayer, the Psalter, and Theologizing

O Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life, come and dwell in us and cleanse us from every stain and save our souls, O Gracious Lord. The Orthodox begin the hours of prayer with this prayer. It is [...]

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The Struggle of Silence

O God, my praise do not pass over in silence; for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful man are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue, and with words of hatred have they encompassed me, and they have warred against me without a cause. In [...]

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The Table in the Wilderness

And they spake against God, and they said, Cannot God prepare a table in the wilderness? (Psalm 77:19 [78:18]) Psalm 77 recounts the murmuring of the Israelites, tired of the provision of God in the manna and the water from the rock, how they tested God. They demanded of God a table for their appetites [...]

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