2016

Sharing, Silence, Suffering If the Mother of God at the moment of the Annunciation is a true icon of human freedom, of authentic liberty and liberation, then her actions and reactions in the events that follow shortly afterwards in St. Luke’s Gospel illustrate three basic consequences of what it means to be free. Freedom involves sharing, silence, and suffering. Freedom involves sharing. Mary’s first action after the Annunciation is to share the good news with someone else: she goes with haste to the hill country, to the house of Zechariah, and greets her cousin Elizabeth.8 Here is an essential element in freedom: you cannot be free alone. Freedom is not solitary but social. It implies relationship, a “thou” as well as an ...

Icon of Jesus Pontius Pilate’s cry has been echoed down the ages and it seems that it has a particular resonance today when, intellectually speaking; only science seems to offer the kind of objective truth once claimed by theology itself.  In some ways this shift has been accelerated by our shrinking world and the challenge of meeting those of other faiths.  Of course, Christians knew of the existence of other religions in times past, but they were rarely encountered on home soil and could be just as easily be dismissed by the collective description “heathen” or perhaps “pagan.” Today when your next door neighbour is likely to be a Muslim – at least inEurope- it is less easy for many ...

The Orthodox Patristic tradition and modern pastoral psychology consider self-absorption to be a source of many psychological and spiritual problems. Elder Sophrony, at Essex, called the internal and event he external state of egocentric people demonized spirituality which engenders all the passions and sins. The same saintly Elder, who lived in our own times, considered pride to be the root of all evil, as did the ancient Church Fathers. This ontological truth has practical consequences in our everyday lives, if we think that we’re the centre of other people’s attention. Saint Païsios the Athonite was asked: ‘Elder, if you have the feeling that everybody’s interested in you and your doings, how can you get rid of it?’ He answered: ‘That’s from the temptation ...

“UNBIND HIM” John was coming home after being away for the past five years.  You might think the family would be planning a great party and feast to celebrate the return of their son.  Instead the family was in turmoil about how to handle his return.  You see John had been branded with a capital “F” on his forehead for he had become a Felon.  This wasn’t a literal “F” but the family knew that everyone would see it.  These past five years of his life had been spent in the deep darkness of prison.  Some of the family wished he were moving to another town so they wouldn’t be embarrassed by him.  Other family members wanted him home, but didn’t ...

In continuation of the article by Professor Ilias Voulgarakis on Sin and Love, it might be worth looking at what the English mystic and recluse “Julian atte Norwich” (ca. 8 November 1342 - ca. 1416) had to say on much the same subject in the Revelations of Divine Love: “A constantly recurring feature of all the revelations which filled my soul with wonder as I diligently observed it, was that our Lord God, as far as he himself is concerned, does not have to forgive, because it is impossible for him to be angry. It was shown that the whole of life is grounded and rooted in love, and that without love we cannot live. So to the soul, privileged by ...