Coming to a true knowledge of Reality, we are to die to the dead mode we have inhabited and thus remove the sandals from our feet so we might participate in Life, Christ offered to us in the Eucharist. The ascetic pursuit then is a life of removing the coverings we have accumulated so that we can see things as they really are.
"Come speedily, you peoples, let us go to the spiritual Jordan or the temple of the baptistery in order to honour the God-befitting mystery of the holy resurrection, and let us all in it worship the life-giving death of God who became incarnate and suffered on our behalf in the flesh; which also caused a... Continue Reading →
In symbol and truth Leviathan is trodden down by mortals: the baptized, like divers, strip and put on oil, as a symbol if Christ They snatched you and came up: stripped, they seized the soul from his embittered mouth. St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Faith, 82.10. We too follow Christ in our baptism. As... Continue Reading →
"Christ, though immortal by nature, clothed himself in a mortal body; He was baptized-and raised up from the water the treasure of salvation for the race of Adam" St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Virginity, 7.10. See Theophany – The Spirit Descended and Remained Upon Him for a more indepth treatment of how Christian theology sees... Continue Reading →
In the life of the Church we come to different festal seasons and our attention is directed to various elements and times in the life of the Lord and the life of the Church. After we celebrate the Nativity we soon come upon the liturgical commemoration of the feast of Theophany. For many of... Continue Reading →
"But He calls the live-giving gift of the Spirit, 'living water', whereby alone human nature, though well parched to its very roots, and is now rendered dry and barren of all virtue by the villainies of the devil, runs back to its pristine beauty of nature, and, drinking in the life-giving grace, is adorned with... Continue Reading →
But when the Word of God became Man, He received the Spirit from the Father as one of us, (not receiving it for Himself individually, for He was the Giver of the Spirit); but that He Who knew no sin, might, by receiving It as Man, preserve It to our nature, and might again implant... Continue Reading →
An Ancient Faith For a Modern World 