One difference I see between Orthodox and Protestants is that Protestants think hard about who is saved, whereas Orthodox think hard about what is salvation. So I was embarrassed last night when someone asked me what it meant to be saved, and I gave a poor answer. I replied it is union with God. That […]

Spending time with Alethia shows me one part of what it means to be a child of God: there is so much I don’t understand. Often with a child, there are things you just can’t even begin to explain: in explaining you find two more things to explain, and in those yet more. Her mind […]

George Macdonald, in his sermon “Our Heavenly Father,” offers a reading of John 20:17:
Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
μή μου ἅπτου, οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβεβηκα πρὸς τὸν πατέρα.
The King James Version renders this, “Touch me not.” The Vulgate is the same: “noli me tangere.” That is how I’ve always […]

How long I have wanted to write, and been scarcely at home! It has been a joyous Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha. A few people reminded me that it was my last at St. Mary’s. I didn’t think much about that, but when I did it made the services sad and yet dearer.
Friday night we […]