Posted in Opinions, tagged Christ became an orphan for us, Christ is an orphan on May 2, 2008 | No Comments »
If this week 40 people would give $25 each to New Futures Orphanage, instead of that same amount spread out over a year’s time, the children could buy chickens, fish, plants, and other sustainable food sources that would last over a long time, and wouldn’t have to eat the small increments of money coming in, [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged Cambodian Orphanage, charity, Christian Charity, compassion, direct giving, Giving Directly to the Poor, justice, the least of these, The Poor on April 30, 2008 | No Comments »
What is direct giving. How is it a means of salvation for the Orthodox Christian?
Posted in Opinions, tagged apophasis, apophatic theology, desert fathers, entertainment, fantasy, fiction, literature, orthodoxy, prose, sci-fi on April 22, 2008 | 6 Comments »
I know people deeply immersed in one or the other, and just a few immersed in both. The thing is, non-fiction gives us a direct dosing of ideas, seemingly without setting or apparatus. Fiction often doesn’t pay off what it promises, in terms of meaning. And our reading, really, is either a search for entertainment [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged charitable giving, charity, christianity, globalgiving.org, kiva.org, orphanages, orthodoxy, oxfam.org, pride on April 21, 2008 | 6 Comments »
A friend and I were recently discussing what’s important in charity or, more specifically, charitable giving. And we came up with some key elements:
consistency: it’s better to give consistently than to splurge once in a way you can’t sustain, and in fact give less, and nothing over time. The same is true of prayer rules. [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged diocese of the South, oca, orthodox on March 2, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in Opinions, tagged suffering, desert fathers, Catechesis, sin, death, passions, zosima, brothers karamazov, pain, sickness, genocide, mass murder, metanoia, the fall, Who killed Christ? on January 23, 2008 | No Comments »
A question was asked “In the Brother’s Karamazov, Fr. Zosima mentions that a man must realize he is responsible for all the sins of mankind. How is this possible?”
Answer: Every time I have sinned, I am again guilty of the entire fall of all creation into Death. Each time. When I sin, I bring death [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged christianity, church, freemason, freemasonry, masonry, orthodox on January 12, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Wherefore clad in the sacred vestments of epitrachilion and omophorion, we say, If any man preach unto you any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, even though an angel from heaven, let him be anathema (Galatians I8:9). As many as are befitting, that pursue after such a diabolical and lawless employment [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged art, faith, film, life, meaning, movies, search on January 12, 2008 | No Comments »
August Rush is a film about the connection that love creates between human beings. Orson Scott Card’s science fiction describes this as “philotic” strands that join anyone in the universe that is involved in someone else’s life. His primary character Ender, in that now classic series, says (to paraphrase) “I think once you know someone, [...]
Posted in Opinions on January 8, 2008 | No Comments »
He who digs a pit falls into it. Numerous Orthodox writers have been correct to challenge the assumptions of Augustinism and to format a critique of Western religion and culture on that basis. However, when this is done as an intellectual fetish, a titillating hobby, or a dilettante’s alternative to pursuing the deification for which [...]
Posted in Opinions on January 8, 2008 | No Comments »
What Dr. Campolo says about budgets at the end could be a lesson for us all. Some more than others.
About Tony Campolo: I really dig Campolo…
Posted in Opinions, tagged art, christian, film, media, movies, zeffirelli on January 7, 2008 | No Comments »
Another unparalleled film that is bursting with Christian content is Zeffirelli’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon. Perhaps no other film gives so much insight into simplicity and ascetic virtues. The soundtrack is Donovan. This excerpt is representative:
One might argue that Jesus of Nazareth is even better, especially this scene from the Sermon on the Mount:
Posted in Opinions, tagged art, becket, christian, film, media, movies on January 7, 2008 | No Comments »
The Mission just remains one of those all time great films teeming with Christian content. If you haven’t seen it, you’re truly missing out.
The excommunication scene in Becket, too, is an amazing piece of cinema. [This is a clip] of a different scene.
Posted in Opinions, tagged christianity, evolution, orthodox, orthodoxy, seraphim rose on January 7, 2008 | No Comments »
Hmmm. I still hold to Fr. Seraphim Rose’s argument, that evolution is rejected in principle, since death is a result of the human fall, and there was no death prior to that.
One can get into scriptural arguments, like the animals eating ‘every green herb’ rather than each other, but I think this is to descend [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged fasting, feast on April 5, 2006 | No Comments »
Between the Feast and the Fast lies Paradise – Eden – with the same choices and the same reasons and effects. In keeping the Fast and keeping the Feast, we get to relive the choices of Adam, and participate in our own redemption, and with Christ undo the curse.
 | V & E on Finding Important Things in… |
| V & E on Adjectives as Idols |
| V & E on Transvaluation of Ethics |
| V & E on Transvaluation of Ethics |
 | [] on Adjectives as Idols |
