Category: Theology

  • Hidden Martyrdom: The Furnace of Prayer

    Hidden Martyrdom: The Furnace of Prayer

    Prayer, pastoral care, and perfection “Make the following a rule—first of all, anticipate trouble at every moment and when it comes encounter it as something expected. Secondly, when something happens that conflicts with you will and is on the point of irritating and upsetting you, hasten to bring your attention into your heart and strive…

  • Search the Scriptures

    Search the Scriptures

    Noah, the Prophet, and the Word of God “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. “I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that…

  • A Return to Center

    A Return to Center

    prayer, parenthood, and perfection “Prayer signifies man’s turning toward God, the creature’s reaching forth to receive the light of the Uncreated… prayer is the most precious and indispensable means for man’s communion with God… By means of prayer, the energy of the true God penetrates man’s being and endows him with the strength to strive…

  • Recovering Sight

    Recovering Sight

    A final reflective essay This is an essay I wrote for my Mysticism: East and West course. It’s essentially a final exam. I spent a lot of time on it and thought it’d be good to share as an example of reorientation: moving beyond pure reason and abstraction, and taking steps toward re-enchantment. Praxis is…

  • Beauty Will Save the World

    Beauty Will Save the World

    A reflection on my name day “Nothing is greater than a pure heart, because such a heart becomes a throne of God. And what is more glorious than the throne of God? Of course nothing. God says about those who have pure heart: ‘I shall dwell in them and walk, and shall be their God,…

  • The Way is the Word

    The Way is the Word

    Recovering the lost memory of God and eyes to see Him I’ve been writing weekly essays on theories of religion and, more recently, mystical texts for about a year now. What follows is part formal summary, part exploration. I’ll indicate when the shift occurs. While the summary specifically looks at the comparisons and contrasts between…

  • If A, Then A

    If A, Then A

    Law of Forgiveness “For if ye forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their transgressions, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions” (The Gospel According to St. Matthew 6:14-15). The Sermon on the Mount changed my life. Nothing compares. While Pentecost restored what was broken…

  • Under the Paschal Light pt. iii

    Under the Paschal Light pt. iii

    The Light, Calling from the Dark Part i Part ii Liturgy brings people together where each participates in a mutual self-offering, every joy and sorrow of the week recapitulated in the eternal self-giving of Christ, caught up in His Cross and Resurrection—eros and agape—glorifying Him glorified, and partaking of His glory by the Mysteries of…