Is mental imagery good or bad in spiritual life? Fr. Sergei answers the question for Orthodox Christians, and anyone else who needs to know, once and for all. By Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov Just as there can be a properly trained voice, there can be a properly trained soul. —Fr. Alexander Elchaninov This presentation is based on the research that I undertook for a book titled Imagine That… : Mental Imagery in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Private Devotion, published in paperback in February of 2009 with the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco. The work is an analytical comparison of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox attitudes toward mental imagery. In this … [Read more...]
Orthodox Worship is Unchanging
by Abbot Tryphon Orthodox worship is unchanging, and grounded in tradition. A visitor to the monastery recently shared his preference of contemporary worship with drums, guitar, etc. He insisted that God doesn't really care how we worship, as long as we offer Him our praise. Knowing this man to be a serious Christian, and an upfront disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, made it clear to me that I could not judge him, or be critical of his views. However, it did leave me with a grateful heart, knowing that I am not convinced that he is correct. Believing, as he does, that God does not care how we worship Him, reminded me of a question I asked my Baptist grandmother, as a boy of twelve. Why … [Read more...]
2026 Western American Diocese – AZ Liturgical Practicum
The Venerable Vigil Valuable , Versatile , Vexatious November 18-21, 2026 $300 in person/$200 via livestream CLICK HERE TO REGISTER The schedule and hotel information will be available shortly. Watch this space! This year’s Liturgical Practicum promises to be a dazzler. Location: All Saints of North America Church 18700 N. 107th Avenue Unit 5 Sun City, AZ This will be a veritable and vital venue for viewing, verifying, and valuing venerable vesperal, and vigil verities. Veteran vicars will vividly verbalize valuable liturgical variations, vocabulary, viewpoints and visions. Vigilant participation will prevent virtual viewers and vested clergy from being left vulnerable, … [Read more...]
Young Adults and Orthodoxy: A Life Built to Last
A crowded calendar, a carefully managed online identity, and a stream of opinions cannot carry the weight of a human soul. Many young adults have learned this through experience. They may have education, work, friendships, and endless options, yet still sense that life has no center. Young adults and Orthodoxy belong together because the Church does not offer another lifestyle accessory. She offers communion with the living God, a rule of life, and a people in whom a person can learn to become whole. This is not a promise of instant peace or an escape from adult responsibility. Orthodox Christianity asks for repentance, patience, chastity, forgiveness, prayer, fasting, and faithful … [Read more...]
The Necessity of Iconography and the Idolatry of Gnosticism
Originally published November 17, 2012 by Fr. John A. Peck How Dogmatic Iconography defends the doctrine of the Incarnation against ancient Gnosticism. Harold Bloom, in his book, The American Religion, rightly comes to the startling conclusion that America is a nation of Gnostics, believers in a pre-Christian tradition of individual divinity. The American propensity to be religious iconoclasts on the one hand, and cultural idolaters on the other is a stark and broken contrast with Incarnational Christianity. Despite protestations to the contrary, it is not the icon which is so offensive to Gnostics and iconoclasts, it is the message which the icon represents which cannot be … [Read more...]
How to Read an Orthodox Feast Day Calendar
An Orthodox feast day calendar is not merely a religious datebook. It is the Church’s way of teaching time to speak the Gospel. Day by day, the calendar sets before us Christ, His Mother, the saints, the martyrs, the fasts, and the saving events by which the world has been redeemed. It calls us out of a life governed only by appointments, entertainment, and anxiety, and into the life of the Kingdom. For someone new to Orthodoxy, the number of commemorations can seem overwhelming. For a lifelong Orthodox Christian, a calendar can become so familiar that it is easy to glance at it without praying. In both cases, the goal is the same: do not treat the feasts as information to collect. Receive … [Read more...]
Are These the End Times?
by Abbot Tryphon We dare not surrender to the temptation of despair, even if these are the End Times. The cultural and spiritual warfare that is taking place because of the pandemic, with the forced separation of mass numbers of people from their extended families, elders, parish communities, and fellow workers, has brought our world to a place not experienced in hundreds of years. Coupled with the polarization of the populous within the United States, and the mass apostasy from Christianity in the West, many Christians are now thinking we must be entering the period of the End Times. Yet when we consider the words of the Our Father, "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in … [Read more...]
Orthodox Deacons and Their Sacred Ministry
When you enter an Orthodox service, you may first notice the priest at the altar, and not the deacons. Yet Orthodox deacons give voice to much of the Church’s prayer: calling the faithful to peace, directing our attention to the Lord, censing the holy gifts and the people, and proclaiming the Gospel. Their ministry is neither decorative nor a lesser version of the priesthood. It is a distinct ordained service of Christ and His Church. The word deacon comes from the Greek word diakonos, meaning servant or minister. This name reaches back to the apostolic Church. In Acts 6, the Apostles set apart men of good reputation as deacons, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, to serve the practical … [Read more...]
The Earliest Hymn to the Virgin Mary
The earliest known hymn to the Virgin Mary is known as “Beneath thy compassion” (Greek: Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν). The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately at least 250 A.D. In 1917, the John Rylands Library in Manchester acquired a large panel of Egyptian papyrus including the 18 cm by 9.4 cm fragment shown at left, containing the text of this hymn in Greek. C.H. Roberts published this document in 1938. His colleague E. Lobel, with whom he collaborated in editing the Oxyrhynchus papyri, basing his arguments on paleographic analysis, argued that the text could not possibly be older than the third … [Read more...]
The Books will be Opened
by St Symeon the New Theologian God is truth and light, God’s judgement is nothing else than our coming into contact with truth and light. In the day of the Great Judgement all men will appear naked before this penetrating light of truth. The ‘books’ will be opened. What are these ‘books’? They are our hearts. Our hearts will be opened by the penetrating light of God, and what is in these hearts will be revealed. If in those hearts there is love for God, those hearts will rejoice in seeing God’s light. If, on the contrary, there is hatred for God in those hearts, these men will suffer by receiving on their opened hearts this penetrating light of truth which they detested all their life. … [Read more...]
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