How can we know God if we do not know reality? There is no wonder why so many lose touch with God? We have lost touch with God’s universe and reality itself.
Four years ago we decided to begin a project. What steps could we take to pull back from frenzied consumerism and start living a more balanced, wholesome, family-friendly, Christ-centered life? Is this too much to ask? Is it worth the sacrifice? We think so.
A Dream to Restore Agrarian & Traditional Orthodox Christian Culture
We are looking for an Orthodox family that wants to be part of a growing, agrarian Orthodox community. Our family has recently acquired a beautiful country farm home on 30 acres of lush pastures and a well-set up farm, available for rent now. Learn more here.
Continue reading “Farm Home for Rent Available in Orthodox Community”
In order to join, please contact: office@saintemmelia.com
Reflections on Prayer
“Forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return
to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning,
watching in prayer, persevering in fasting, beseeching in our
supplications the all-seeing God not to lead us into temptation.”
~ St. Polycarp, 2nd century
Reflections on the Sacrament of Confession
“It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation
of God’s mysteries is entrusted.” ~ St. Basil the Great, 4th century
“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” (Ps 132.1).
Marriage: A Sacred Tonsuring
The sole purpose of marriage and family is the pursuit of the Kingdom
of God. The decision to marry is little different than the decision to
become a monk. It is a sacred vow to pursue holiness and divine love
within a sacrificial relationship, calling us to the pursuit of unceasing
prayer and purity of heart.
“A wedding is to life in the world what a tonsuring is to the life of a
monk. It finalizes a decision and celebrates a call to a particular way of
seeking the kingdom of God” (Opperwall 91).
Reflections on Prayer
“Those who have truly decided to serve the Lord God should practice
the remembrance of God and uninterrupted prayer to Jesus Christ,
mentally saying: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.” ~ St. Seraphim of Sarov
Reflections on the Sacrament of Confession
“[Regarding confession] some flee from this work as being an
exposure of themselves, or they put it off from day to day. I presume
they are more mindful of modesty than of salvation, like those who
contract a disease in the more shameful parts of the body and shun
making themselves known to the physicians; and thus they perish
along with their own bashfulness” ~ Tertullian
We Work Out Our Salvation in Community
Salvation is primarily worked out in our relationships with
others. Our interaction with our spouse, children, fellow
parishioners, boss, co-workers, waitresses, and each and every
person we encounter in the day — this is where we fine tune our
soul. In every scenario, our task is straightforward: to cultivate
love and assuage anger.
Reflections on Prayer
“Put away doubting from you, and do not hesitate to ask of the Lord,
saying to yourself, “How can I ask of the Lord and receive from him,
since I have sinned so much against him?” ~ Hermas, c. AD 170
Reflections on the Sacrament of Confession
“Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an
evil conscience. This is the way of life. . . . On the Lord’s Day gather
together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your
transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure.”
~ Didache 4:14, 14:1, c. A.D. 70
PURSUING ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE DAY TO DAY
THE GOAL AND TELOS
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How Can We Achieve Enlightenment within the World?
“How, we might ask, can a married person learn about chastity from
ancient celibates? How can a wealthy person in the world learn about
charity from people who owned nothing? How can a construction
worker learn about fasting from people who ate little more than a
biscuit every day?” (Daniel G Opperwall, A Layman in the Desert 11).
“If several families, sharing this humble secret, buy old houses on the same slum block and fix them up, they will have restored a kind of Auburn right in the midst of their ruined city and begun the restoration of that ordinary, healthy, human thing, the neighborhood” (John Senior, Restoration of Christian Culture).
Greetings friends!
As you know, we have been gradually building an Orthodox community out here in Northern Texas centered around our parish life and homesteading. It may be far out, but one of my dreams has been to see our neighborhood bought up by friends and family — a sort of American, Orthodox village, if you will. Well, I just noticed a post that a beautiful little farm home and 5 acre lot – lovely setting just around the corner — just went on sell. Anyone interested? Shoot me an email: FatherKavanaugh@gmail.com
“It is time to go back to those conditions in which human beings can grow again… Simplify, as Thoreau said, not by changing governments — a change of collars on a dirty neck; not by denouncing IBM, Communism, the Catholic hierarchy, the Rosicrucians and Jews; but in a single, honest, unremembered act, as Wordsworth said, of kindness and of love. As the first significant act in the change of heart, really — not symbolically — smash the television set, then sit down by the fire with the family and perhaps some friends and just converse; talk alone, even one night a week, will cut your use of energy, and love will grow. Don’t force its growth. The hearth, like good soil, does its work invisibly, in secret, and slowly. After a long time beneath the hearth of a quiet family life, green shoots of vigorous poverty appear; you have become, in a small way, poor” (John Senior).
Author: Zach Boston
“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. …[A]nd there was not a man to till the ground. …[T]he Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed… and the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. ” (Genesis 2: 3, 5-8, 15)
Labor and leisure.
Our modern world has utterly confused the proper places and even meanings of these concepts. The German Roman Catholic and Thomist philosopher Josef Pieper in his “Leisure As The Basis of Culture” points out that – in the exact reverse of the both the classical pagan and pre-Reformation Christian worlds – our world today places labor above leisure and has reduced leisure to mere amusement and relaxation in order to refresh the laborer to better perform his future labors. In his view, we live in a world of “total work” whereby everything is oriented toward work, and any exercise of our capabilities is conceived of in terms of work.
I’m highly sympathetic to the arguments made in Pieper’s book. Yet, the other day I was reading an interesting analysis of the work of both Pieper and of the Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han – who presented views in his “Burnout Society” similar to those of Pieper – that offered a sympathetic but thoughtful criticism wherein their arguments, despite being roused in defense of a contemplative Christian life, may too greatly disparage labor in favor of leisure and so run against the brunt of the historic Christian tradition, which highly values labor.
This provoked the question as to in what the proper relationship between, and the place of, labor and leisure in the Christian life consist. Below is my own amateur attempt to answer that question.
Continue reading “On Labor and Leisure in the Christian Life”
What every church should be doing. Come join us this weekend! Enjoy the good life, and good eating!
