From the must visit blog “OrthoGals“
Author: Fr. John Chagnon
On Holiness…
The thing about holiness, though, is that the point of it is not to steer clear of all that is unholy; it’s not about retreating from “the world” and existing in some perfect space untainted by temptations and immoral sights and sounds. This only leads to legalism and a neutered, irrelevant witness.
Rather, the point of holiness is positive: to live in the world, reflecting Christ and his holiness outward in the way that we live our lives. Holiness is more complicated than just abstaining from a checklist of vices. Does holiness require us to avoid certain activities? Certainly. But fleeing from potential hazards is only part of the story.
Written from an Evangelical Christian perspective this article asks questions worth the consideration of Orthodox Christians as well. Read more here.
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On Weddings and the “Me” Culture…
Today, to most Western couples the concept of merging two families sounds like a tribal ritual rather than a marriage blueprint. “In-laws, ugh,” this generation might say. By focusing on our personal preferences we get more wrapped up in what our future mother-in-law is going to wear or say at the wedding than in the bigger picture of what a wedding symbolizes: how you will coexist and interact with your new family for the rest of your life…
It’s no accident that the culture of catering to the bride has fueled the burgeoning wedding industry, and vice versa. Peggy Olson or Don Draper couldn’t have conceived a better marketing slogan than “This is your day”—the kind of tagline that so deeply, and reliably, influences consumer behavior. That simple phrase alone drives the billion-dollar wedding industry, pushing the cost of the average wedding in the U.S. in 2012 to $28,427, according to TheKnot.com…
Written from a Jewish perspective this article, and its take on the current marriage as a celebration of “me” and “us” is worth reading.
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Yes…
What a strange culture we live in, in which people are expected to approve of everything those they love believe in and do, or be guilty of betraying that love. I have friends and family whose core beliefs on politics, sexuality, religion, etc., are not the same as my own, and it would not occur to me in the slightest to love them any less because of it. I hope it would not occur to them to love me any less because they don’t agree with me. People are somehow more than the sum of their beliefs and actions.
Read more here.
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From St. Seraphim…
St. Seraphim of Sarov describes the whole purpose of the Christian life as nothing more than the receiving of the Holy Spirit: “Prayer, fasting, vigils and all other Christian acts, however good they may be in themselves, certainly do not constitute the aim of our Christian life; they are but the indispensable means of attaining that aim. For the true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, vigils, prayer and almsgiving, and other good works done in the name of Christ, they are only the means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God… Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and simple, strong and weak, healthy and suffering, righteous and sinful. Great is the power of prayer; most of all does it bring the Spirit of God and easiest of all is it to exercise.”
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Church Bells Orthodox Style…
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Worth Considering…
“The fundamental distinction between what the Saints have written and what Protestants write is a category confusion which creates an opposition between the scriptures and church leadership. Scripture *is* the primary source and norm of the theological enterprise of the Church. That is all the patristic sources admit. A second principle is implied in the patristic writing that is denied by Protestants which is: the theological activity of the Church, which has Scripture as its primary norm and source, is governed by Church authority. The category confusion on the part of Protestants is that, since Scripture is ontologically primary to Church authority it is therefore against Church authority. This is a simple category confusion: scripture and the episcopacy are different kinds of authority, which are not opposed.”-Nathaniel McCallum
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An Interesting Video…
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Indeed…
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On Father’s Day…
My father has been with the Lord for almost twenty years. His own father passed away when he was a young boy and times were tough for my father growing up. Everything about being a dad he had to learn while we were arriving because there had been no one to teach him. I remember my dad sacrificing for us, riding the bike to work instead of the car to save money, wearing shoes for years, fishing trips with each of us, all kinds of little things so that we would have some of the things that eluded him in his childhood. My dad worked hard, maybe too hard, but we were never hungry, always had a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, all the things that were not so certain when he was growing up. My prayer is that on this day, like all the others, he has found his rest in the arms of the God he loved, because when he prayed and spoke of heaven with tears in his eyes we saw the man he really was.
The Beautiful Path 