“Thoughts in Christ”

On the icon of the First Ecumenical Council we observe the fathers of that seminal assembly large and filling the central frame in an imitation of the apostles on the Pentecost icon. Beneath their feet, huddled in a twisted form, is their turbaned adversary, the infamous Arius, leader of the opposition to the champions of the Nicene Creed’s…

Now and then a young person will say to me that he or she would like to make a career of service to the Church and to Jesus Christ. I listen for a sign of radical commitment to their intention, and I try to explain the implications of what they feel they want to do with such a vocation. Regardless of what I may say or suggest, nothing can make the…

Moses alone was spiritually prepared to meet the Lord. The people were caught up with their immediate concerns, the trauma of having left everything behind in Egypt to follow Moses to a place that he himself was not sure he would find. Nobody can blame them; in fact, they’re much like us. At the moment, our nation is plunged into economic mire that…

The hidden child within each of us goes on in search of fulfillment of what are clearly affirmations of those elements in experience that verify his or her instinctive awareness of the good, right, enjoyable, happy discoveries in the world outside of himself. That happens throughout our lifetime. They even continue beyond death, as St. Gregory of…

The glorious promise comes to us as the last words of Jesus Christ in the gospel of Matthew. All who are baptized in His name shall never be alone. This guarantee gives meaning to the theology of covenant. In a gospel written by a Jew about a Jew, the message is to the Jew and Gentile alike—whether you grasp the meaning or not, nevertheless, it is…

In reading certain theologians, you find them consistently referring to Jesus Christ as the God-Man. They do it to stress the actions of our Lord God and Savior to be that of the Father and the Holy Spirit in consort with Him. Nothing He does, says or intends is accidental, arbitrary or impulsive. All is part of the mystical plan for the salvation…

We hold palms and pussy willows, celebrating the Palm Sunday procession from Bethany hill across the Kedron valley through the eastern gates of Jerusalem; we reenact the joy of our Lord’s followers on that glorious proclamation of His claim to leadership as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. We are full of joy, even if, unlike the disciples on that…

To evaluate the world’s major religions in light of their relation to the world, Hinduism is not concerned to spread its beliefs, since it’s not a matter of trying to convince others of what is more philosophy than religion. All life is an eternal river, and living things are born, carried along in the stream and at some point die and return to the…

This short phrase of simple words describes the battle continued on earth through history between good and evil, Christ and Satan, cosmos and chaos. KJV is the familiar and now somewhat obsolete King James Version, the English translation of the Bible many Protestants consider the only true text. The RSV [Revised Standard] offers this rendering:…

Was it just pique, a way to get back at the Jewish religious leaders who forced the hand of Pilate to give in to their demands to put our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ to death on the cross, that he had His inscription written as it had been? In that bit of irony, Pilate proclaimed the very truth that the chief priests called blasphemy. Indeed…

In Croatia I was handed a cookie wrapped in cellophane with a printed paper that sealed the opening. On the paper the name of the cookie: PAPRENJAK, with the explanation: “Foreign invaders and aggressors enter our land. They come after our honey and leave us the pepper. We are pepper to the enemy but honey among ourselves.” I reach for the cookie…

If today seekers are out searching for Jesus Christ, where shall they go to find Him? Many who are lost among the plethora of competing places of worship are turned off by them all. They want to wade through the words of those promoting a brand of Christianity that does not satisfy the deep waters of the soul. Like Andrew and John, they know what…

In my first year of seminary I discovered volumes of a Russian Orthodox layman, Nicolai Berdyaev in the shelves of our library. I devoured them because I found him addressing so many spiritual questions that were on my own mind. He had a way of getting to the core of so many problems that any serious Christian—indeed, every moral human…

It appears to be a contradiction—Jesus first tells us that He came for judgment, and later in the same gospel He said that He did not come to judge to world but to save it. How can He judge without judging, or not judge and yet judge? Even earlier in John 5:22 we read: “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.” Compound all…

Most if not all of the holy fathers of our faith have been translated into English; however, it takes several more stages of effort in order to squeeze the sweet nectar of their meaning into the juice of modern Christian understanding. This great spiritual genius, St. Maximos the Confessor, has to be interpreted from his time to ours and from…

This is what’s happening in our world at present, starting in our America blessed by God of which we so proudly sing, and passing like an invisible tsunami covering the entire world in a bath of economic disaster. The economic system “So perfect that no one will need to be good” made millions dream of an unending cornucopia of funds. People could…

What does it mean, to “appear in glory”? Will not your face shine with the light of that glory, so that your personality will come out and express itself by the radiance of your face? Consider the fact that those who should have recognized the Lord Jesus instantaneously following the crucifixion, burial and resurrection were not able to do so. Mary…

The definition of a doctor who is actively at work as a healer is termed a “practicing” physician. Practicing, as opposed to “retired.” We could borrow the term for all Christians. None of us is ever retired, not even after death. The church fathers never cease reminding us that the wisdom of God is never complete in us, because by nature God is who…

Traditions develop rapidly, and the protest against Roe vs. Wade right to abortions has become an annual tradition in the nation’s capitol where Orthodox Christian leaders and people join with like-minded opponents of that ignoble Congressional decision to rally and to protest against legal abortions, praying that it be overturned but, alas, so far…

Returning home on a long flight, I could not help but watch the TV monitor two rows ahead of me. My volume was shut off; however, my eyes were raised to the program intended to keep children from boredom. The main figure was a roly-poly panda. The entire world is entranced by their innocent beauty, but this animal was punched about by a variety of…