At a teaching group for our Orthodox Dogmatic Theology we were considering why the Word of God became man. We read together in the writings of St Athanasius that the Word came in the love of God to destroy the power of death, to overcome the works of Satan, to raise mankind to renewed life […]
I want to write about how we should view other people when we are feeling that we need to find an intimate relationship with another. I am writing elsewhere about how our relationship with God should inform and influence our emotions and the direction of our life. But in this short post I want to […]
And now I desire to describe to you the excellent history and the great repentance of the blessed woman Thais or Thaisis, for speech concerning her is most excellent, and it is full of encouragement and penitence of soul unto those who love God. Now this woman had a mother who, because her daughter was […]
There was a certain maiden of Alexandria whose name was Alexandra, and she left the city and shut herself up in a tomb until the end of her life; she used to receive her food and whatever she needed through a window, and no man or woman saw her face, nor did she see the […]
There was a certain young virgin [called Potamiaena] who was exceedingly beautiful and she was a Christian. She was the handmaiden of a certain worldly man who was given over to a life of pleasure, and she lived in very great luxury, and her master flattered her greatly, wishing to destroy her. And being unable […]
We can be attracted to lots of people. This is normal, and to some extent is the same as how the aroma of a bacon sandwich is attractive, especially if we are fasting. It seems to hint that it can satisfy all our needs and desires at once in one bacony indulgence. But the reason […]
We should not be surprised that for almost all of us the issue of intimacy becomes important and one point in our life or another. We are complex in our constitution. We are not easily explained. We are not merely animals, though we share some aspects of life in common with other creatures. But it […]
I must have prayed and participated in and celebrated in hundreds and even a thousand liturgies in the 30 years since I began investigating and learning about Orthodoxy, then became a member of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and then became a priest. I have prayed in many different situations and circumstances. I have had the […]
There is no doubt that those who find themselves crippled by anxiety need to draw on a wide variety of therapies and psychological and medical intervention as appropriate. But we must not deny that there is always a spiritual component to our life as human persons, and every aspect of our life both affects our […]
If our faith and hope in God is weak and failing, and we doubt that he will take care of every detail of our life, then there are things we should do. Our faith and hope in God is established in us by a personal relationship and experience of God. If God is remote and […]