The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, with a 6-3 majority ruling in the Dobbs case that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.” “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly … [Read more...]

by St. John Chrysostom Original translation by Dr. David Ford "He who is wrestling is still held fast in the contest; but it’s enough for him that he has not fallen. The brilliant victory will not be completely gained until we depart to the next life. Consider, for instance, the case of some evil lust. The wondrous thing would be not just to refuse to entertain it, but to quench it completely. But if this isn’t possible, even if we have to wrestle against it continually, if we depart in the midst of fighting that ongoing battle we will be victorious. This is different from wrestling matches in the arena, where if you don’t throw over your opponent, you don’t gain the victory. But in the … [Read more...]

by St. John Chrysostom But why did the Holy Spirit come to them, not while Christ was present, nor even immediately after his departure, but, whereas Christ ascended on the fortieth day, the Spirit descended “when the day of Pentecost,” that is, the fiftieth, “was fully come?”(Acts 2:1) And how was it, if the Spirit had not yet come, that He said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit?” (John 20:22) In order to render them capable and meet for the reception of Him. For if Daniel fainted at the sight of an Angel (Dan. 8:17), much more would these when about to receive so great a grace. Either this then is to be said, or else that Christ spoke of what was to come, as if it came already; … [Read more...]

by Fr. Stephen Freeman Few things are as awkward (and even painful) as “feeling like a fool,” whether it is the mild thing we call “embarrassment,” or the stronger things that make us want to disappear or run away. No one wants to be the fool. Nevertheless, I have come to see God as a “fool,” and those rare saints whom we name the “holy fools,” to be amazing exemplars of this way of being. I do not mean to scandalize anyone by saying that I’ve come to see God as a fool. I mean, rather, to suggest that we seem to constantly ignore His abiding foolishness and, as a consequence, fail to understand His love. St. Isaac of Syria wrote about God’s “manikos eros” (literally, “crazy desire”) for … [Read more...]

by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon When, at the Council of Nicaea, the Church formally determined that Pascha should always be observed on a Sunday, that determination necessarily affected the final day of Pentecost. Thus, beginning and ending on a Sunday, the whole fifty days of Pentecost began to take on some of characteristics associated with Sunday, the day of the Lord’s Resurrection. This adjustment involved two disciplines in particular: the fast days and the posture of prayer. First, because the entire fifty days of the Paschal season was a celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection, Christians began to observe that interval as a non-fasting period. That is to say, from the fourth century … [Read more...]