This feast, another of the twelve Great Feasts in the Orthodox liturgical year and a feast in the Western Church falls on March 25th. While the Western church will move the feast if it falls during Holy Week, the Eastern Church never moves it. This feast celebrates the events of Luke 1:26-38, when the angel [...]
The oldest surviving complete text containing the even older oral tradition of the life of Mary is the Protoevangelion of James from the second century. There appear to be some older works that are quoted in later writings, but none of those have survived. The Protoevangelion of James is about the life of Mary up [...]
The next text St. Augustine used, and one which you will hear widely quoted as a text defending the idea of original sin as inherited guilt is Psalm 50:7 (LXX) or 51:5 (Hebrew Masoretic numbering). I’ll start by providing an English translation of each, beginning with the Septuagint rendering (OSB). For behold, I was conceived [...]
During the press of the holidays, illness, and all the rest that has been happening, I’ve fallen pretty far behind in this series. I’m going to work to catch up this week. I find both Fr. Schmemann’s book and Dn. Hyatt’s podcasts on that book fascinating and illuminating. The discussion now moves from baptism to [...]
We now move on to sections 1-2 of the fourth chapter, Of Water and the Spirit, of For the Life of the World. Here is the link to Deacon Michael Hyatt’s first podcast on chapter four. For the Life of the World: Part Nine As the title suggests, this chapter explores Holy Baptism. Fr. Schmemann’s [...]
This post continues with my thoughts on sections 4-5 of the third chapter of For the Life of the World. Here is the link to Deacon Michael Hyatt’s second podcast on chapter three which more or less tracks this post. For the Life of the World: Part Seven Fr. Schmemann now turns from the “day” [...]
Today I’ll blog through sections 7-8 of the second chapter of For the Life of the World. But first, the link to Deacon Michale Hyatt’s podcast if you haven’t already listened to it. For the Life of the World: Part Four Bread and wine: to understand their initial and eternal meaning in the Eucharist we [...]
In this week’s podcast, Deacon Michael Hyatt covers sections 5-8 of the second chapter of For the Life of the World. This chapter walks through the whole of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, so there is a lot in it. First, the link to the next podcast in this series. For the Life of the World: [...]
This brief section of Athanasius’ treatise references another prophecy with which I was not familiar. But what king that ever was, before he had strength to call father or mother, reigned and gained triumphs over his enemies? In the Orthodox Church, the passage of Isaiah which includes the above (Isaiah 8:4) is read at Vespers [...]
This seems like a good place to bring this series to a close. I believe I’ve demonstrated what the Internet Monk called “the historical problem” with the Baptist understanding of the Eucharist. I’ve meandered through the writings of the early church, the church under persecution, from the first century to the third century. Consistently, from [...]