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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]

handbook

Why don’t we reach out to the inner city?

A fellow blogger has asked the question as to why non-inner city Christians do not do more inner city work. I was going to answer his question, and then I realized that my answer would be too long for a simple comment, so I decided to put it here. There are a complex of reasons why non-inner city Christians do not reach out to the inner city. It does not boil down to just simple sin, although,... [Read more]

Fr. Ernesto . . . take off your shoes

Today I had a “take off your shoes” moment. Through an unexpected series of events, I was suddenly invited at the end of last week to go to Kansas City to attend a convocation of people involved in various Orthodox charities. But, even to say “Orthodox charities” is misleading because it lets you picture a group of social work executives talking shop. That would be very far... [Read more]

research

Travel Day

Today is a car travel day as I return home. May the Lord bless all of you and prepare you for the Lord’s Day. For today, I will simply include a copy of Metropolitan Jonah’s message for Sanctity of Life Sunday. It is one of the most balanced pro-life messages that I have seen. === Sanctity of Life Sunday Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah Metropolitan Jonah January... [Read more]

Ancient faith, ancient monastics, modern methods

I was meandering the Internet when I ran across the blog of a Catholic deacon named Greg. To my utter surprise, he had the video below posted on his site. And, he had received it from someone else. It is a wonderful story of monastics who basically follow the old rules, but have come up with a new way to raise funds, minister to the poor, and even encourage vocations. Congratulations to the monks! podcastSHARETHIS.addEntry({... [Read more]