Selections from Seminary

Ukraine's top Church leader, Metropolitan Onufriy, not only called on his people to pray, but gave them a prayer rule. It is short and simple, and he asked them to pray it at least once a day. Pray Psalm 90 (91) with twelve prostrations or bows.  "He who dwells in the help of the most high shall abide in the shelter of heaven's God."... Bishop Daniel of Santa Rosa (California), who spoke to one of the Ukrainian bishops in the past few days, suggested we all join them in their prayer rule, as well as fasting for them. All these events are happening just on the verge of Great Lent, and with such a disruption of daily life, Ukrainians will not be able to fast as they normally would. So, this is an opportunity to take up our brother's burden and carry it for him. And if you want to pray more specifically for the situation in Ukraine, you could either add some of the psalms below or occasionally  use them instead of Psalm 90, above. Below, you will see the "Peace ...

  In the gospel passage today, on the Sunday of the Last Judgment, our Lord relates what the Last Judgment will be like: as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats . Clearly, the Church prescribes this focus on the Last Judgment right before Lent to help aid us on the path toward repentance. But when we think of repentance, we often think of a list of “don’ts”. That is, we have done some of the don’ts , and need to repent . In my training as a teacher, it was highly suggested that I not have a sign of class rules full of don’ts: No talking. No eating. I nstead of telling the students what not to do, I was encouraged to tell them what behavior was expected: Please be respectful when others are talking. Water is allowed in the classroom, but eating needs to be in the cafeteria only. As a result, student behavior was less rebellious and more cooperative. In the same way, instead of thinking of a list of don’ts for the Christian life, w hat would be our list of dos ? In fact,...

In one of St. John Chrysostom’s homilies, speaking of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in the third chapter of John’s gospel, he made a connection I had never thought of. He notices a mention of two great “benefactions” in this passage, Baptism and the Cross, and he understands their mention so close together to be significant. There is a clear reference to Baptism when Christ says to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” And then, the Cross is very intentionally referenced just a few verses later when he says, “just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, thus it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up.” In his homily, Chrysostom mentions where Paul also sets these two together when writing to the Corinthians: “Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” Of course, just mentioning these two together, in and of itself, is not terribly significant, but ...

One day last year, during a dogmatics class, the verse in St. John’s Prologue where he says Christ came and dwelt among us came up conversation. I forget why it came up, but what caught my attention was the little preposition: εν (“en”). That is what is normally translated as ‘among’ in most English translations, but to my knowledge it had more of the meaning of the English word ‘in’. ‘Among’ and ‘in’ have two very different meanings in my mind. Orthodox theology is very clear about God taking on human nature and deifying it. ‘Among’ sounds more like God coming, living alongside us, maybe the same place and same time, but still as something other than us. But I only have a feel for these words in English; what I really wondered was what the feel of the Greek word εν is in Greek, that is, to a native Greek speaker. When we were discussing this, Bishop Alexis happened to be right down the hall, and he spent more than twenty years living and breathing the services, the Scriptures, and the...

The "Prologue" of the Gospel of John employs a chiastic structure. Indeed, biblical writers of the Old and New Testaments used this structure to help lead our attention to their main point. The only problem is that we moderns are almost completely unacquainted with "chiasmus". "Chiasmus" is named for the Greek letter X (chi). To help explain, here is an example from 1John 4:7-8 (an example borrowed from the The Shape of Biblical Language by John Breck): A: for love  is of God ,    B: and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.    B': The one who does not love does not know God, A': for God  is love. A and A' relate to each other, and B and B' relate to each other. If there were more phrases, the order would be something like A, B, C, D, E, D', C', B', A', working toward the center and then working back out from it, with similarities in D and D', the C and C', and so on. Maybe you can see why the X is us...

Whole theologies have been formed and rampant misunderstandings have deeply entrenched, all on account of this one little Greek word: δικαι- [dikai-]. In Greek, this one root word forms the verbs, nouns, and all other parts of speech, which are then later translated into various words in English: justification, justice, justify, to judge, righteousness, the righteous ones, upright. Our understanding of St. Paul will increase dramatically simply by finding a way to read him with his original word choice, not using two words in English for one concept for St. Paul. In the passages below, all from Romans, every time St. Paul chooses a word built on that Greek root, it will be replaced with “DIKAI”, instead of using an English word, so we do not fill in our English nuance of the word; any lowercase additions on the front or end of DIKAI are to indicate the verb tense or a prefix. I have found it quite beneficial to understanding St. Paul's meaning. [Commentary in red. In verse 4, Paul ...

“Hypocrite”, Jesus says. That’s a hard word. It is so easy, when reading the gospels, to see that hard word spoken to others, and so hard to hear it as a word to us. We, too, are hypocrites. The hypocrites in this lesson (Luke 13:10-17) followed all the rules, but missed spirit of the Law. We, in the midst of the fast, focus on the fasting rules. Maybe we follow them and maybe we don’t, but, still, our focus during the fast is on the rules. So easily, we lose sight of why we are fasting. Fasting is exercise. Like the athlete who disciplines himself, who diligently shows up everyday, who pushes himself: in the same way, we show up. We exercise. And better than that, these are more than random rules the Church has passed down to us; this training regimen is time-tested and proven. Do this...and you will find eternal life. Fasting is exercise. Fasting also... acquires the Holy Spirit . St. Seraphim of Sarov explains this when he says, "Prayer, fasting, vigil, and all other Christian ...

There is something fascinating to me about the moments that Jesus prays. It really challenges me to reevaluate what I think prayer is. What runs through my head is this simple question: Jesus is God...what is he praying about? We see one of these passages in Matthew 14.  At the first of this chapter Jesus finds out that Herod has killed John the Baptist. Jesus's reaction is to go out to the desert places to pray, but as often happens, the multitudes follow him. He doesn't send them away so he can pray, but rather, he has compassion on them he sees their needs, that they have been following him for three days with no food, and he feeds all 5,000 of them.  Then, he sends away the disciples, he sends away the multitude, and finally, he prays. So, what or how does God pray to God? A quote about prayer on this year's St. Tikhon Monastery wall calendar seems to help explain this a little. Two or three months back, it had a quote from St. John Climacus: "prayer is converse an...

The Cappodocians, as well as St. Athanasius before them, had to respond to heretical teachings. As a result, their language was necessarily limited to refutation. That does not leave us with a clear affirmation of how to proceed toward the knowledge of God. Basil’s scriptural references, as well as the homilies and other non-polemical writings from Athanasius, the other Cappadocians, and Chrysostom, can give us a fuller picture, using more affirmative language, of how we can begin to know God. The Apostle Peter, at the end of his second epistle, leaves us with a very clear and affirmative charge to continue on into the depths of the knowledge of God: You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Peter also builds a connection between our own works and the revelation of Christ: rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts , as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct . Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. Here, St. Peter brings up the corruptible/incorruptible theme, which in context, when taking both his epistles together, is referring to the life in Christ, the process of uniting ourselves to him, which ultimately is knowing God. And again, we see St. Athanasius making the connection between our own works and participation in God, and like the apostle, us...

In reading all these responses to specific theological problems, we all too easily lose our way trying to understand how much of God we will know and how the whole process works. St. Gregory the Theologian brings us back to the right path: “What God is in nature and essence, ... In my opinion it will be discovered when that within us which is godlike and divine, I mean our mind (νοῦν) and reason (λόγον), shall have mingled with its Like, and the image shall have ascended to the Archetype, of which it has now the desire.” In other words, he is saying, ‘I think we will find that out some day’. However, immediately following those words, he warns that this way of thinking, “as it seems to me, is altogether philosophical speculation ” (Καὶ τοῦτο εἶναί μοι δοκεῖ τὸ πάνυ φιλοσοφούμενον, ἐπιγνώσεσθαί ποτε ἡμᾶς, ὅςον ἐγνώσμευα). The Cappadocians, when speaking affirmatively of the life in Christ and knowing him, see no disconnection in their teaching from that of the Gospels, the Apostles, or ...

Out of necessity, St. Basil the Great responds to the Eunomian teaching primarily to negate the fallacies. Meaning, in those responses, and those of the other Cappadocian fathers after him, they are stating more of why those teachings are problematic and less setting forth a full and affirmative understanding of the knowledge of God. St. Basil, himself, mentions the need for a “more accurate” approach to combat Eunomius: “Now marveling at the beautiful things is not difficult, but attaining an accurate comprehension of the things at which one marvels is hard and nearly impossible.” In Basil’s homily on the first two verses of the Gospel of John, he boils down his argument to what the people would need to hear to avoid confusion about such teachings. He points out how St. John’s statement, He was with God in beginning , places “he was” in perfect apposition to “in beginning”, leaving no room for misunderstanding. However, when speaking directly against Eunomius, that is, back in the lan...

The one common thread seen in all three of these readings ("lessons") is the living martyrdom of monastics. Every single reference to these verses among the Church Fathers which have been presented here refer to non-monastics...funny for readings chosen for monastics, huh? The clear message is that this living martyrdom is not only potentially attainable by all Christians, but as St. Symeon the New Theologian says, we are without excuse if we do not emulate them: "When God brings his hidden saints to light, it is in order that some may emulate them and others be without excuse. Those [of us] who wish to remain amid distractions as well as those [of us] who live a worthy life in [monastic] communities, in mountains and in caverns, are saved, and God bestows on them great blessings solely because they have faith in him." In other words, both the monastic life and life "in the world" are fitting to work out our salvation. When we hear of the life of a monasti...

  READING FROM THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON [4:7-15] But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be in rest. For honorable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. He pleased God, and was loved of him: so that living among sinners he was translated. Yea, speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind. He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time: for his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked. This the. people saw, and understood it not, neither laid they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect unto his chosen. Gray Hairs Are Not Wisdom A comm...

  READING FROM THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON [5:15-6:3] But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord's hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them. He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armor, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well-drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark. And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them. Yea, a migh...

  READING FROM THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON [3:1-9]. But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect. When St. Au...