The Veneration of the Holy Virgin in the Ancient Church All the early reformers, including Luther and Calvin, believed Mary to be Ever Virgin. The practice at the time was to refer to all cousins as siblings, and none of the early Christians believed Mary had born any children other
Category: The Morning Offering
The decline of Christianity in America Some thirty-two years ago our monastic brotherhood arrived on Vashon Island, establishing ourselves in a rental house near the Village of Dockton. This little village had two churches, built by the original founders of the community. Dockton, in the 1880’s, had the largest dry
How we can acquire true humility We have a fairly clear idea of what humility is, for we’ve all met people who are truly humble. Metropolitan Laurus of blessed memory, the saintly man who’d led the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia as her Chief Hierarch, was such a man.
Lengthy debates and fruitless discussions do nothing for truth “For it is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men (1 Peter 2:15). Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic tells us in The Prologue from Ochrid that we are better off if we do
Bishops serve as Christ among us, and priests as the presence of the bishop among his people The bishop is to be both a servant to his people and father to his flock. He represents Christ in the midst of his diocese, and must be compassionate, sweet, longsuffering, humble, and
Let us allow this pandemic to be the force that transforms the world Entertainment has come to take on a central role in many people’s lives, becoming so important as to have replaced personal interaction with neighbors and friends. I’m old enough to remember the day when neighborhoods were filled
We must not allow the passion of anger to take root Most people, when angered by someone, think the best way to deal with the anger is by avoiding the person who offended us. The problem with this approach is that it allows the anger to take root in the
When we humans respect all of God’s creatures, we advance the Kingdom of Heaven A few days ago we were forced, as a community, to decide what must be done regarding one of our ducks. The drake, named “Sir Francis Drake” by Monk Peter, whose job it is to tend
Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. The Divine Liturgy begins with the words, “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever,
The Tradition of the Paschal Egg There is a beautiful tradition within the life of the Church for believers to have as their last meal before beginning the Great Lenten Fast, a hard boiled egg, white in color. This egg represents our sinful nature, and we eat this egg with