The Cross is our salvation. No one was ever reconciled with God except by the power of the Cross. by St. Gregory Palamas The Cross of Christ was mysteriously proclaimed in advance and foreshadowed from generations of old and no one was ever reconciled with God except by the power of the Cross. After our First Parents transgressed against God through the tree in paradise, sin came to life, but we died, submitting, even before physical death, to the death of the soul, its separation from God. After the transgression we lived in sin and according to the flesh. Sin “is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans … [Read more...]
Weekly Bulletin for Sunday, April 4, 2021
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The Church is Liturgy
On the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas by Priest Ioannis Fortomas Brethren, today we celebrate a great Father of our Church and champion of Orthodoxy: Gregory Archbishop of Thessaloniki, the Palamas. His memorial is ordained by the Holy Church on the second Sunday of the Fast to indicate that, in St. Gregory, the Triumph of Orthodoxy over heresies (which we celebrated last Sunday) continues. St. Gregory did not introduce new doctrines to Orthodox theology; he simply mounted a defense of the treasured, mature, dogmatic tradition. Not everything that is ancient is venerable or honorable—indeed, many heresies are ancient. We must discern the Truth in all things. The Truth is eternal … [Read more...]
The End of the Modern World
by Fr. Stephen Freeman I consider this a must-read post by Fr. Stephen. Please, let us attend! “Welcome to the 21st Century!” Pick your issue, and if its outcome conforms to a popular, desired norm you are likely to hear such a greeting. The greeting also implies that a less than desirable outcome is wrong because it doesn’t belong to our time. It might be characterized as “medieval,” “outmoded,” “out-of-date,” “primitive,” “Neanderthal,” “reactionary,” etc. None of which actually describe anything. Such labels are value judgments and rhetorical devices that dismiss undesirable actions as beneath consideration. We are “modern” people. The notion of “modern” is also deeply linked with … [Read more...]
Weekly Bulletin for Sunday, March 28, 2021
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Watchfulness for Those in the World
Originally entitled, “A Rule of Self-Attentiveness For Those in the World” by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov The soul of all exercises in the Lord is attention. Without attention, all these exercises are fruitless and dead. He who desires to be saved should arrange things in such a way that he can safeguard self-attentiveness not only in seclusion, but also among the very scatteredness into which he is sometimes drawn against his will. On the scales of the heart, let the fear of God prevail over all other feelings: then it will be easy to safeguard self-attentiveness, both in the silence of one’s cell and amid the noise surrounding one on all sides. Prudent moderation in food, by reducing … [Read more...]
Weekly Bulletin for Sunday, March 21, 2021
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On the Procession of the Triumph of Orthodoxy
The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy is celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent. It is the celebration of the victory of the iconodules over the iconoclasts by the decision of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Therefore, the service is to commemorate the restoration of icons for use in services and private devotional life of Christians. Services usually include a procession of icons around the Church. Orthodox Parishes, Monasteries, Cathedrals, and Chapels all over the world will be celebrating this important feast, and will be doing their own processions, just as we will. We at ASONA will be keeping this tradition and having the annual Procession of Icons after Divine Liturgy. … [Read more...]
Why the Holy Church proclaims “Anathema”
By Sergei V. Bulgakov The terrible word anathema, by which the Holy Church punishes those who betray the right belief, means excommunication and exile from the society of believers, cutting off from the spiritual and mystical body of Christ, deprivation of all spiritual rights which the faithful children of the Church are used to. To be cut off from the Church means to lose everything that the Heavenly Father through the incarnation of His Only-begotten Son and that were granted to us through faith in Him, to lose the grace of baptism and adoption by God the Father, the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which we were signed in the Sacrament of Chrismation; to lose the most heavenly … [Read more...]
Preparation for Great Lent
by S. V. Bulgakov The preparation for Great Lent begins soon after the feast of the Theophany of the Lord corresponding to its historical commemoration that soon after His baptism Jesus Christ left for the desert for a fast, in commemoration of which the Holy Forty Day Fast was established. Beginning with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the preparation for Great Lent comes to an end with Cheesefare Sunday. The Holy Church for a long time begins to prepare the faithful for Great Lent as a redemptive time for an all general spiritual cleansing and sanctification. This cleansing and sanctification are possible only under the condition of the complete remission of sins, the … [Read more...]
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