“Life in Christ”

For a quarter of a century the Orthodox Church in America has been blessed by the leadership, the vision and the prayer of Metropolitan Theodosius. From seminary commencements, to All-American Councils, to Ground Zero and beyond, he has represented and articulated the concerns, aspirations and supplications of our faithful in ways that honor both…

Dylan Thomas wrote some eminently quotable lines on the subject of death. The most familiar and powerful are also the most troubling.

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

This ringing summons to courage in the face of one’s approaching end betrays an all too common attitude toward death. In this…

Miraculously, Orthodox Christianity has preserved the essence of “the faith once delivered to the saints.” By the sheer grace of God, it has maintained the Apostolic Faith in the face of extraordinary pressures, from persecution and martyrdom to Western secularism and pluralism. Without that grace, Orthodoxy would have disappeared before the end of…

In Orthodox liturgical tradition, the rhythm of Great Lent is interrupted, and in an important sense fulfilled, by the Feast of the Annunciation. As we journey with Christ through the last days of His earthly ministry, our attention is focused on His impending crucifixion and resurrection. Yet this mystery is possible only because of another,…

There are questions little children ask that never seem to receive a satisfying answer. The toughest and most urgent tend to be religious, such as “Who is God?” or “Where is God?” In the wake of recent tragic events that have so shaken our country and others, a great many grown-ups are asking the same things.

As adults we may formulate the…

“No need to rush,” my wife assured me as we bumped over ruts and small branches strewn along the dirt roadway that leads through the woods to the main road nearly a mile from our house. “We’ve got plenty of time.” It was early morning and we were headed for church. A wind storm the night before had brought down all sorts of debris, the roadway was…

The Feast of the Meeting of our Lord in the Temple, celebrated on February 2, is one of the twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox liturgical year. Its theme is expressed with particular poignancy by the icon we venerate on this day, as well as by the feast’s liturgical hymns.

The icon of the Meeting places the Theotokos and the Righteous Simeon with…

Over the past few months the media have focused almost exclusively on the continuing threat of terrorism at home, in Afghanistan and elsewhere. As a result, our attention has been drawn away from what is potentially a more dangerous threat to our well-being: the virtually uninhibited manipulation and destruction of human embryos in the interests of…

This is a date we shall never forget. Images of planes hurtling into the twin towers, the collapse of the buildings, the faces of the police, firefighters and other rescue workers who lost so many friends and co-workers, the anguished cries of family members who refused to accept the obvious. Images, too, of the Pentagon in flames, followed by the…