Oak of Mamre

When at last I’ve crossed that blessed bar And my bones are long buried in the dust, I trust that they will become The sturdy roots of some ancient oak; That gives his branches to the birds.   This is the way of things in this becoming world; Between being and nonbeing, Between the first […]

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Roadside Memorial

For a young woman killed on the road near my home.   All things return to dust and carry in them the memory of primordial stars, Memory of the river pressed through concrete in the power lines beside the road Memory of the forest in the telephone pole.   In this world there is no […]

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Jesus re-creates humanity with a Cry

Originally posted on AnOpenOrthodoxy:
Watching the sunrise this morning on this Good Friday, I had a thought inspired by recent discussions of Jesus’ Cry from the Cross – “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Here’s the thought I had. God creates ex nihilo or out of nothing. This ‘nothing’ isn’t a certain sort…

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The Harrowing of Hell

This post is related to the ‘To Hell With Them? series (Part 1 and Part 2) I am working through. However, I will take a more aesthetic approach here and share a brief but important section of my upcoming novel The Damned May Enter that deals with the Harrowing of Hell. In the Harrowing of […]

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Thoughts on the ‘Logos asarkos’

Originally posted on Jacob G. Hanby:
(an excerpt from a paper I recently wrote for Theopolis Institute) Athanasius speaks of the pre-existence of the Word; the Son is “by nature bodiless and existing as the Word;” in time He “appeared to us in a human body for our salvation.” (Incarnation, 1) Yet Athanasius also speaks frequently…

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What Lies Between Storm and Shine

The Oxbow – Thomas Cole (1836) *See Note on the composition of this poem below. What Lies Between Storm and Shine For Eva and Eloise and those beloved who have departed to at last find peace.   So odd I always thought how light like a pacifist drifts away on the winds before the storm […]

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Four Quartets over at Eclectic Orthodoxy

[The Above Image ‘The Fire and the Rose are One” by Makoto Fujimura is a work inspired by Eliot’s final Quartet ‘Little Gidding’. To see more of Fujimura’s work inspired by Eliot, see his Four Quartets Gallery at makotofujimura.com] Fr. Aidan Kimel is back to his meditations on TS Eliot’s Four Quartets. This work by […]

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Fr. John Behr on the Gospel of John

I am currently reading the Gospel of John for Lent out of David Bentley Hart’s New Testament. Hart, belongs to Eastern Orthodoxy, and is one of the most important theol translation is a landmark work that has far reaching implications and it is well worth reading. Fr. John Behr, also an Orthodox scholar, is one […]

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Lenten Hymn

(See sources below) Lenten Hymn Midwinter frost on the predawn window peers out into darkness through the mists of time to Sinai’s mountain; where the darkness of God roars from the secret place of thunder, the sound of boulders crack and tumble over the cobblestones of a storm-tossed shore. Moses recalls the consuming Fire of […]

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