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In Step With Saints Patrick and Gregory of Tours
A homily given by Fr Seraphim Rose on St Patrick’s feast day in 1977. Fr Seraphim, being an avid venerator of the Western Saints pre-schism, reveals his down to earth approach to the spiritual life and offers a breath of fresh are for so many of us to today who are struggling toward the Heavenly Realm. 1. A PERSPECTIVE ON ST. PATRICK THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK is a very simple document about how he planned to serve God and a few of the trials and sufferings he went through. From what St. Patrick writes, we see that in his lifetime he did not have the universal glory that surrounds him…
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Each One Of Us Is Potentially a Judas
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto Him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on His head, as he sat at meat. But when His disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, “To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.” When Jesus understood it, He said unto them, “Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon Me. For ye have the poor always with you; but Me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured…
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Spiritual Eyes: The Reality of the Unseen
[red_title title=”I SEE YOUR GUARDIAN ANGEL” subtitle=”A shocking encounter with Elder Iakavos of Evia” style=”red-title-centered” ][/red_title] The following is a dialogue between Klitos Ioannidis and Dr. George Papazahos. Dr. Papazahos was a cardiologist in Athens, Greece and was the personal physician of Saint Porphyrios. Klitos Ioannidies is the author of books about Saint Porphyrios. In fact, the book that I used to translate into English was authored by Klitos Ioannidis. In that book about Saint Porphyrios “Elder Porphyrios, Testimonies and Experiences,” there is a whole chapter about the doctor’s personal experiences with the Saint. I found this article especially interesting because the doctor apparently had a very close doctor/patient relationship…
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Apathy Epidemic
“Rouse thyself, thou who sleepest, and rise from the dead, and the Christ shall shine on thee.” +St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (5:14) Too often do we become diverted in the cares of mass and social media, teleporting through computer mainframes and cellular devises to a land sadistically bent on self-worship. It seems these days that at birth we are plugged into a computer grid of ever-distracting chaos, gazing on a vacant throne only occupied by phantoms of our own fantasies. This is something that has been talked about over the last few decades throughout academia and scattered across millions of blogs. We are loosing ourselves in distraction, letting…
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Love Moves: The Life of St. John the Wonderworker
Take a listen to an excellent podcast on The Arena by guest speaker Fr. Irenei Steenburg about Saint John of San Francisco! “Loving God Without Fear” is a free three-part lecture series by Father Irenei (Steenberg), Ph.D., author of “The Beginnings of a Life of Prayer.” Father Irenei, a onetime fellow of Oxford University and Chair of Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds in the United Kingdom, is currently director of the Ss. Cyril and Athanasius Institute for Orthodox Studies and an Archimandrite in the Western American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in America. This is part two.” http://audio.ancientfaith.com/thearena/20141206_Lecture.mp3 (Audio curtesy of Ancient Faith Radio)
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ANTITHEISM IN MY LIFE, PART 1
“The entire devil is found here: in the desire to exclude God, in the desire to always be by himself, to always belong only to himself, to be entirely within himself and always for himself, to be forever hermetically sealed in opposition to God and everything that belongs to God.” + St. Justin Popovich I was never an atheist. I could not, no matter how hard I tried, disbelieve in God. I have always believed, to the point where God’s existence seemed to me to be simple fact (this often contributed to my complete confusion regarding how one could be an atheist at all). This kind of faith can be…
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A Letter to Thomas Merton
By Fr. Seraphim Rose I am a young American convert to Russian Orthodoxy—not the vague “liberal” spirituality of too many modern Russian “religious thinkers,” but the full ascetic and contemplative Orthodoxy of the Fathers and Saints—who have for some years been studying the spiritual “crisis” of our time, and am at present writing a book on the subject. [1] In the course of my study I have had occasion to read the works of a great number of Roman Catholic authors, some of which (those, for example, of Pieper, Picard, Gilson, P. Danielou, P. de Lubac) I have found quite helpful and not, after all, too distant from the Orthodox…
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Letter From Exile
by Saint Theodore of Studios This article was posted because we have learned that the ancient Monastery of Studios (which this great Saint was the Abbot of) is sadly being turned into a Mosque. This great gem of the Christian world once held a beautiful monastic community that gave great treasures to the Church, such as playing a key role against the iconoclast heresy. May the Lord have mercy and may monastic life flourish once again in these dark times. Rejoice, my brethren and fathers so greatly longed for, because the good news is of joy. Once again we, the unworthy, have been found worthy to confess our fair confession. Once…
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Raising the Mind, Warming the Heart
By Blessed Seraphim Rose of Platina Raising the Mind, Warming the Heart 1. Faith and Reason The writings of the Russian philosopher Ivan Kireyevsky contain some basic ideas which are very apropos for us today. The usual argument between faith and reason, he wrote, is not correct. Reason is such a thing that it must be raised up to a higher level, and this is what the Orthodox Church tries to give. By itself, reason does not offer any more than an understanding of this two-dimensional, corporeal realm, with which most of the critics and scholars of the West are occupying themselves. There is something, however, above this. According to…
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The Sacrament (Mystery) of Christian Baptism
by St Cyprian of Carthage. From a Letter written to a new convert, 246 A.D. I promise to share with you the grace God in His great mercy has shown me, and to tell you as simply as I can what I have experienced since I was baptized. Until that time, I was still living in the dark, knowing nothing of my true life. I was completely involved in this world’s affairs, influenced by all its changing moods and troubles, and exiled from the light of truth. I had indeed been told that God offered men and women a second birth, by which we could be saved, but I very…
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On Forming the Soul
By Blessed Fr. Seraphim of Platina The soul that comes to Orthodoxy today often finds itself in a disadvantaged or even crippled state. Often one hears from converts after some years of seemingly unfruitful struggles that “I didn’t know what I was getting into when I became Orthodox.” Some sense this when they are first exposed to the Orthodox Faith, and this can cause them to postpone their encounter with Orthodoxy or even run away from it entirely. A similar thing often happens to those baptized in childhood when they reach mature years and must choose whether or not to commit themselves to their childhood faith. From one point of…
