My beloved Masters, Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, and Friends in Christ,
I commit sins every day, all day long. In the six months since Orthodoxy in Dialogue went to press, I have offended very many people in very many ways. I also commit countless sins against the people in my personal life.
Forgive me, a sinner, and pray that the Lord our God may forgive me.
Your unworthy brother and fellow servant of Christ,
Giacomo
We are going to do violence now, with fasting and forgiveness.
Romans 13:11-14:4 and Matthew 6:14-21
Today is the Sunday of Forgiveness; the Great Fast begins tomorrow. Why is it that we fast? We have a blueprint for our life, and why we fast, in the Gospel today.
Our Lord once told us:
…[T]he kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. (Mt 11:12)
We are going to do violence now. We are setting out on a path of doing violence to the violent one. We are tearing out that which is corrupt within us, and the Church has given us a path, and tools to do so.
Today’s Gospel says:
If ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. (Mt 6:14)
To forgive is to be like God. God forgives all and loves all, without any respect for persons. When we forgive, we are participating in the energy of God, because we are acting like God, since, in the Psalms it says, “Ye are gods” (Ps 82:6). We are to acquire virtue, compassion, holiness, yea, even perfection, because the Scriptures also say, “Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). One must become like unto God, and the first step is to forgive. Read More
Prince of Peace Abbey (Oceanside CA)
The last two years have been a fractious time. It is as if E.M. Forster’s famous dictum, “Only connect” (from Howard’s End), had been stood on its head, to be replaced by division, separation, walls, and barriers. In the United Kingdom, a slim minority chose in a referendum to withdraw from the EU, propelling the country towards a future that is not yet certain but will probably leave the country poorer and more isolated (assuming, that is, that withdrawal actually takes place!). In the USA, a president was elected who promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico, ban immigrants from certain Muslim countries, and round up undocumented immigrants for deportation. Both the UK referendum campaign and the US election pandered to two strong, primordial emotions: fear and resentment, directed primarily towards immigrants. The Leave campaign exploited voters’ ignorance of the EU, and their campaign was clinched by the lie that 350 million pounds a week paid to the EU could be diverted to the National Health Service if Britain left the EU.
Fascist and anti-Muslim parties have been quietly rising to prominence in certain European countries. Meanwhile, after several years where dictatorships and military governments have been yielding ground to democracy and liberalism, it looks as though this trend has gone into reverse. In several countries, human rights and privacy are under attack, with authoritarianism on the increase. For years Putin has been silencing dissent and forging a state where the rule of law is selectively applied if not largely absent, where wealth disparities have assumed grotesque proportions, where corruption is widespread and journalists who denounce it are murdered. Eastern Europe is also looking increasingly fragile: Russia makes inroads into Ukraine, while Poland and Hungary have taken an authoritarian turn. Further east, Egypt is a virtual dictatorship, while in Israeli-occupied Palestine the wall and checkpoints show no signs of going away. Read More
On January 7 Orthodoxy in Dialogue issued this invitation to Orthodox bishops, priests, monks, and nuns to write a brief reflection for one of the preparatory Sundays, one of the Sundays of Great Lent, Lazarus Saturday, or Holy Week.
We are deeply grateful to the bishop and eight priests whose reflections we have already published or are scheduled to publish in the coming weeks. See “Lenten Reflections” near the top of our Archives by Author for a list of past and upcoming reflections.
The following spots are still open:
ORTHODOXY IN DIALOGUE 