“Thoughts in Christ”

It’s said that the writer of this letter, the youngest of Christ’s apostles and the only one to survive premature death, would be borne by loving hands to the place of worship. More than a hundred years of age, he would...

With each visit to our Cleveland Museum of Art, I make time to stop at the early Christian art exhibit. Inside are several ivory carvings about four to six inches in height. All depict a young beardless Christ. He is...

The greatest joy of my priesthood is to lift up a newborn infant, naked as at birth, holding him above the holy water before plunging him or her down as though in liquid burial and raising the child washed clean and given a...

Whenever St. Paul is writing about life and death – and he does it quite a bit – it’s not so much the vital signs measured by physicians and nurses, such as oxygen levels, blood and brain functions, but rather the...

Wisdom is the requirement not just to listen to the gospel, the normal translation, nor to read it ourselves at home or in the English translation provided in those churches praying in other languages, but to grasp the inner...

All Orthodox Christian theologians return again and again to these phrases from the story of creation. They explain the difference between “image” and “likeness,” they proclaim God as Trinity, they present the Holy...

The great councils of the holy Church would begin by affirming a continuity with past councils, teachings of the holy fathers and sacred scriptures as accepted and endorsed by the Church. We hear it affirmed and proclaimed...

Civilization advances in civility not all at once, not even in gradual progressions of sense and sensitivity, but rather in spasms of shock, outrage, reflection, remorse, regret and reevaluation. These spurts are what make...

In the second decade of the twentieth century, western civilization had its fill of warfare. There was formed a League of Nations to seek ways to overcome separations and to live in harmony. Protestant leaders in Europe felt...

The feast of Holy Transfiguration falls near the end of the liturgical year. Only the Dormition of the Theotokos follows, to complete and close the cycle. Why now? The time of the event comes six days following the...