Texas Issues Tim Cole, Who Died in Prison, Its First Posthumous Pardon – AOL News

Texas Issues Tim Cole, Who Died in Prison, Its First Posthumous Pardon – AOL News. Back in October of 2008, I blogged a series on the increasing failures of our national crime and prison policies. At that time I pointed out that states such as California were already spending 10% of their budget for prison costs with it expected to go higher. Since then, you have probably been hearing the news... [Read more]

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Roman Catholic and Orthodox differences on Original Sin

In a couple of the last posts there has been an ongoing discussion of the differences in the concept of Original Sin between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. So, let me put a couple of citations from the Wikipedia that may help people to see the differences. Why from the Wikipedia? Well, because they are better at summarizing than theologians.   I am aware that any summary always is insufficient,... [Read more]

Christmas Eve 2009

St. John Chrysostom’s Christmas Homily: BEHOLD a new and wondrous mystery. My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but chanting full forth a heavenly hymn. The Angels sing. The Archangels blend their voice in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt His glory. All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth, and man in... [Read more]

Sunday of the Geneology 2009

Today is what is called the “Sunday of the Genealogy” in Eastern Orthodoxy. Today is the Sunday before Christmas, the Sunday in which we read the genealogy of Christ from the Gospel according to Matthew. We are not the only ones who read one of the genealogies before Christmas. More than one Christian group does. So, why do we read the genealogy? Well, I have read many reasons: 1. Saint... [Read more]

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The Virgin Mary and the definition of an adult

So, how old was Mary, Our Lady, when she became pregnant with Our Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the answer commonly held by the Early Church Fathers was the same as what the totally apocryphal gospel, the Protoevangelium of James says. What does that apocryphal writing say? And when she was twelve years old there was held a council of priests, saying, “Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years... [Read more]

You had better practice what you trumpet!

From yesterday’s post, Fr. Huw made the following comment: But this only attacks half the problem… if there is a place where our (and I speak in the first person here, on purpose) hypocrisy haunts us most, it’s in our trumpeting of “one right set of doctrines” when paralleled with our self-righteousness. Essentially we say “LOOK! I Hold the Right Doctrines unlike you heretics!” and... [Read more]

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The wrong sort of Mere Christianity

Yesterday I received a comment on an older blog post that said that all the Orthodox that this person had met were hypocrites. Of course, I was at first tempted to answer with either snappy comebacks or with philosophical comebacks or by re-defining the term. I finally wrote that I had no way to disprove her statement. You see, all of us are sinners. As a result, all of us behave in ways that are inconsistent... [Read more]

Fools for Christ

Before I became Orthodox, I had heard several sermons about someone being foolish in the eyes of the world in order to serve God. The Scripture most often quoted was from Saint Paul: Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Most often, it had to do with subjects... [Read more]

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Five Types of Christians

Mother Maria Skobtsova, a martyr of the Nazi concentration camps, and an early 20th century intellectual and nun, wrote an insightful essay entitled, “Types of Religious Life.” In it she articulates five ways of being religious: the “synodal,” the ritualist, the aesthetical, the ascetical as well the ideal way, the “evangelical” (or “way of the Gospel.”). While it is easy to point fingers... [Read more]

We have met the enemy and he is us, part 02

. . . drop themselves into the sea. The final enemy is the one to which we tend to historically pay the least attention, and that is the flesh. And here is the key to what kept the monastics and the Amish from straying into the legalism and the lack of balance of the separatist fundamentalist. For too many of us, and not simply for the separatist fundamentalist but for all too many of us, our attitude... [Read more]