One of the most common biblical descriptions for the commandments of God is the image of the path or the road. To “walk in the commandments” is to be on the path to the Kingdom of God, the right way. Of course, the idea of being on a path implies one way and not another. It means to be going this way on this path or road, not going just anywhere by any old way. Our Lord highlights this sense of there being only one way when he describes the path of his Commandments as a narro

The Scriptures are not unlike the great catch of fish Peter made when, even after coming up empty handed all night long, he obeyed Jesus and set out into the deep. Like him we can read and hear the same passage again and again but, at Jesus’ command, it yields up treasures new and fresh. This very thing happened to me on Thursday morning at Liturgy reading Luke 6:17-23. We hear this quite a lot in Liturgy because it is the reading for venerable monastic saints. The reading is

Friends, the following is from the modern Orthodox theologian Fr Dumitru Staniloae, a brilliant theologian and a confessor of the 20th century, who was imprisoned under the communists in Romania for several years. This is from his Dogmatic Theology, volume 5, pp29-31. Through His Incarnation the Word of God has introduced the Holy Spirit once again, and to the highest degree, into communion with creation. By bringing Himself hypostatically within the framework of creation

The feast of Theophany has several interconnected themes running like motifs through the Church’s hymns and iconography. Some of these are obvious, such as light, water, and, of course, the manifestation of God as the Holy Trinity (the word Theophany means “manifestation of God”). Another motif which might escape our notice, though, is the open heavens: "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him....” (Matt.