The Life in the Kingdom to Come will be Eternal The Divine Liturgy begins with the words, “Blessed is the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages”. This kingdom is our true home and our lives as
Author: Abbot Tryphon
I am abbot of All-Merciful Saviour Orthodox Monastery (ROCOR) on Vashon Island, WA. The island is a twenty minute ferry ride from West Seattle, and a fifteen minute crossing from Tacoma.
Surrounded by the Salish Sea, the island is some 87% undeveloped forest, with a rural population of around eleven thousand citizens. If you wish to contact me personally, you can email me at: abbottryphon@vashonmonks.com
The Meaning of Salvation in the Ancient Church According to Protopresbyter George Metallinos, Dean of the Athens University School of Theology, “For we Orthodox the unique and absolute goal of life in Christ is theosis, our union with God, so that man – through his participation in God’s uncreated energy
Arming Our Children With Spiritual Weapons It is essential that we expose our youth to the teachings of the Church, and offer them serious facts about traditional Christianity, while letting them see that faith is not simply a religious expression of the ethnic heritage of their parents, or of keeping
Metaphysical Philosophy and Pure Theology There are only a few Orthodox saints who have been given the honor of being called “theologians”. Saint John the Theologian and Saint Symeon the New Theologian, to give two examples, were declared Theologians by the Church, because their theology was the result of their
The Limits of Human Reason and the Knowledge of God There is the seen, and there is the unseen, the material and the immaterial. That which is material can be scientifically examined and experienced, the immaterial can only be seen and experienced spiritually. These are two worlds that are only
Taking Orthodoxy Beyond the Self-Congratulatory We must guard against noticing when another parishioner seems careless in the making of the sign of the cross, while we go about demonstrating for all around us, the proper way. Making sweeping signs of the cross that are done in such a way as
Avoiding Hypocrisy in our Journey to God It is very easy to live our lives in hypocrisy if we are not mindful of the pitfalls of the spiritual life. We can become Pharisees without even noticing, if we let our Christianity be artificially lived. Living our lives as though we
Just Whose Recipe is it, Anyway? One of the most powerful reasons for embracing Orthodoxy is to be found in the Church’s insistence that she holds to the evangelical and apostolic doctrine of the Ancient Church. In an age when everything is up for change, there is a certain security
The Eucharist is the Greatest Miracle Of all the miracles of Christ, the greatest is the Eucharist. The Gospels are filled with accounts of miracles performed by Christ, but the greatest of them all was when He offered the simple elements of bread and wine, made by man, and transformed