A police community support officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham.
Sure, that’s bad. This is worse:
A police community support officer (PCSO) interrupted the conversation and began questioning the ministers about their beliefs.
They said when the officer realised they were American, although both have lived […]
Know that there are big sins, like some large rocks, and little sins, but countless.
Your soul is like a boat, traveling on the sea of this life. By confessing, you throw easily the large rocks. But watch the little rocks. These are gathered in subtle ways.
(thanks, Marian)
Nothing like your friends complaining to make you post something, huh?
Happy Pascha, Christo Anesti! We’ve just celebrated our first Lent/Holy Week/Pascha in the Orthodox church. Too wonderful for words, and many other Orthodox bloggers have written about it better than I would. So, how about a general update?
The symphony has a concert tomorrow night. You […]
A boy once approached his father, ‘Old man, why do you fast?’
The father stood silent, bringing heart and mind together, and then:
‘Beloved boy, I fast to know what it is I lack.
For day by day I sit in abundance, and all is well before me;
I want not, I suffer not, and I lack but that […]
April 15, 2008 – 10:42 pm
My work dumped about 140 people from its corporate office in the last week, so the day job has been a little more exciting than normal.
Pascha is next week, so this week is (supposed to be) all about the preparation.
I’m playing the spring musical with one of the local high schools, so all the non-day-job […]
This past Sunday was the 4th Sunday of Great Lent (also known as Sunday of St John of the Ladder). Benedict Seraphim has a nice write up of it here.
Taken from an OrthodoxOnline class:
St. John of the Ladder is a Saint whose feast is celebrated on the Fourth Sunday of Lent (also March 30.) […]
March 25, 2008 – 10:14 am
and God’s the father. What do you do? How do you react?
Orthodixie has a great post today on today’s Feast of the Annunciation, marking the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary.
As the people of God, the Body of Christ – the Church – our salvation begins with Mary. Salvation for all men was wrought by the […]
Triumph of Orthodoxy.
Each of the Sundays of Great Lent has its own special theme. This Sunday’s theme is that men can become divine through the grace of God in the Holy Spirit. It was St Gregory Palamas who bore witness that by prayer and fasting human beings can become participants of the uncreated light of […]
This post isn’t in direct relationship to Great Lent, as is most of what I’ve posted lately. Instead, this is something that came up during a visit to family over the western Easter Sunday. Why doesn’t the Orthodox church teach anything about the Book of Revelation?
As with most questions of this type, its complicated. The […]
From an email sent by an uncle:
Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
Here’s the interesting info. […]
From Orthodoxy in America
First Sunday of Great Lent.
The First Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to the final triumph of the Church over the iconoclasts and the restoration of the Holy Icons to the churches, which took place on the First Sunday of Lent, March 11, 843. Thus it is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy. […]
A single article on fasting could go forever. Very long, at least. Instead, let’s consume this in bite size morsels (um, yeah, I’m currently fasting).
St. Gregory of Sinai gives these directions:
You who strive after salvation should be satisfied with one litra [3/4 lb.] of bread and three or four cups of water or wine […]
From the OCA website, a couple of poignant paragraphs regarding Great Lent:
The season of Great Lent is the time of preparation for the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, It is the living symbol of man’s entire life which is to be fulfilled in his own resurrection from the dead with Christ. It is a […]
Last time, we talked about the wide range of dates on which Easter/Pascha can fall.
Now we ask the question, “why?” Why is there such a variation of dates for Easter/Pascha? At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 it was decided that all Christians would celebrate Easter on the same day, which would be a […]
