439. Saint Photios the Great, twice Patriarch of Constantinople, and not the cause of what is falsely called the Photian Schism

Commemorated on February 6 That rather complicated title above is fitting for a man who led an extremely complicated life. Poor Saint Photios. What he wanted was a scholarly, contemplative, perhaps monastic life. What he actually got was a lot of trouble. Caught up against his will into the midst of great turmoil in the […]

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429. Prophets: True and False, Old and New – Part One

  A prophet? Not. I suspect this is the popular idea of a prophet: a fortune-teller, a sooth-sayer. No. Prophets are spokesmen for God, through whom God has had all manner of things to say, often in judgment, and also often warnings about the future. Why a Post about Prophets today? 1 Because during December our […]

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426. Israel and the Palestinians, November 2023 – Part Two

In Part One, Post 425 we tried to grapple with the present situation in the Holy Land, Scriptural teaching about the place of the Jews and of the Christians, and  concluded with asking “What should be our attitude towards the Jews?” Now let’s proceed to the next obvious question: What should our attitude be towards […]

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424. Evil Spirits

“boo” Only a little tiny “boo…“? from something that looks as scary that? Really? Well, that’s what the Orthodox Troparion/Apolytikion for martyrs tells us. Please take note of the portions in italics. From the Greek Archdiocese: “For since they possessed Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption.“ From […]

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