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...]

by St. Innocent of Kherson Translation by Jesse Dominick By the grace of God we have, brethren, finished another Holy Lent. Much has been acquired by those who spent it as they ought, but likewise, it’s no small loss for those who didn’t spend it as they ought. The Church doesn’t force anyone to fulfill the statutes, but those who don’t, punish themselves. When those who have labored well in fasting now enter into the joy of their Lord, the weak and disobedient sons of the Church must necessarily feel some deprivation and sorrow. It’s good if God allows them to live again until another Lent to correct the present omission (although it’s no longer possible to fully get back what was lost); … [Read more...]

by Archpriest G. C. Debolsky On the day of the feast of unleavened bread, when according to the Law of the Old Testament a lamb was to be slaughtered and eaten, the hour was come that the Savior should depart out of this world unto the Father (cf. Jn. 13:1). Having come to fulfill the law, Jesus Christ sent His disciples, Peter and John, to Jerusalem to prepare the Passover, which, as the shadow of the law, He wanted to exchange it with the New Pascha—His own Body and Blood. When evening had come, the Lord came with His twelve disciples to a large, prepared upper room of a man who lived in Jerusalem (cf. Mk. 14:12–17) and reclined there. Telling them that the Kingdom of God, which is not … [Read more...]

by St. Ignatius of Antioch “Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God….They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.” Letter to the Smyrnaeans … [Read more...]

by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Originally entitled The Holy Eucharist: A Live Coal Speaking of the Holy Eucharist, the Fathers and early liturgical texts of the Church have recourse to the metaphor of the flaming coal (anthrax, pruna) in reference to the Lord’s body. For instance, with Isaiah 6:7 obviously in mind, The Liturgy of St. James refers to “receiving the fiery coal” (labein to pyrinon anthrax) from the Eucharistic altar. Indeed, even without using this word, those same doctrinal sources regularly appeal to Isaiah’s experience, when they speak of the Holy Eucharist. Thus, in The Liturgy of S. John Chrysostom, when the Christian has received the Holy Communion, the priest tells … [Read more...]

by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon At the beginning of Holy Week, just after the celebration of Palm Sunday, the Church turns her attention to Jesus’ act of purging of the Temple. As our guiding text here we may take Zechariah 14:20-21, the closing verses of that book: “The vessels in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Indeed, every vessel in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a tradesman in the house of the Lord of hosts.” In fulfillment of this prophecy, Mark records that Jesus, when he cleansed the Temple, “would not allow anyone … [Read more...]

by St. Photios the Great Such things the archangel was saying, drawing the spotless maiden to assent. But to this what was the reply of the honored virgin, the heavenly chamber, the holy mountain, the sealed fountain, kept for Him only who had sealed it? “Since,” says she, “thou hast clearly explained that the Holy Ghost shall come upon me, I no longer demur, I no longer object. Be it unto me according to thy word (Lk. 1.38). If I am judged worthy for the Lord, I will gladly serve His will. If the Builder desires the thing built to become a temple to the Builder, let Him construct a house unto Himself as He has pleased. If the Creator rests on His creature, let Him mold in me His … [Read more...]

By Jonathan Pageau There is no ass or ox in the Biblical narratives of the birth of Christ. Yet, besides the Christ Child himself, the ass and the ox are the most ancient and stable elements in the iconography of the nativity. In fact the earliest example of a nativity known to us contains only the swaddled Christ in the manger flanked by the ox at his head and the ass at his feet. David Clayton, on the New Liturgical Movement blog, has written a detailed piece on the subject, and I will go through the basics while adding a few more aspects he does not mention. When reading comments on the nativity (for example in Ouspensky’s “The Meaning of Icons”) one finds that the inclusion of this … [Read more...]