5. Matushka:
A wonderful title, and no real job description?
What does it mean to have
a wonderful title, and no real job description? The position of the wife of a
priest is exactly this. The various languages or every Orthodox country have
titles of honor for the priest’s wife. Some might literally be translated as
‘priestess’, while some mean ‘wife of the priest’, and in at least one language
— Russian — the priest’s wife is ‘mother’ or ‘little mother’…READ
FULL ARTICLE
4. Why Go to Church If I Have God in My Heart?
Each one of us has some acquaintances,
or even relatives, who regard our gathering in church with puzzlement. Profound
lack of understanding is written on their faces, even at times disturbance.
Sometimes this pours out in words such as these: "Well, alright, you've
committed yourself to the Faith, be that as it may. But why go to church, and
waste all that time and effort in doing so?..
3. On Church Singing
"The aesthetic
element in the liturgy: in liturgical poetry, music and rite is not accidental
but essential; ...when deprived of it, liturgy ceases properly to fulfill its
very function, which is not simply to communicate ideas about God, but to
reveal 'heaven on earth.' In our liturgical tradition this aesthetic structure
of worship is absolutely essential...
2. St. Nicholas of Japan on Buddhism
The saint just as
negatively reacted to the idea he heard of creating a hybrid of Christianity
and Buddhism, pointing out the “absurdity of such an endeavor, and the
impossibility under any circumstances of comparing the truth of God’s faith
with human invention” (III, 363)…READ
FULL ARTICLE
1. An orthodox perspective on overcoming anxiety:
Christ, the Church Fathers, and Cognitive Scientific Psychology
In psychology research,
anxiety disturbances represent a variety of mental disorders (American
Psychiatric Association, 2000). The maladies associated with anxiety include:
panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder,
posttraumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, anxiety associated with
medical conditions, anxiety induced by substance intake and generalized anxiety
disorder…READ
FULL ARTICLE
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