Faith

Many Americans are familiar with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, miraculously imprinted on the cape of a Nahuatl Aztec in sixteenth-century Mexico. Such an image is called “not made with hands,” meaning that its origin is spiritual or even divine. The Guadalupe cape is not the first image of this sort in Christian history. The most famous icon not made with hands is the image of Christ’s holy face known as the Mandylion (sometimes translated as “towel” or “napkin”): Its history is fascinating and not altogether clear. The Image of Edessa From at least the sixth to the…

When we read the Acts of the Apostles we may feel that the apostles had success after success. That wasn’t always the case. St Paul had the following experience in Athens, the intellectual capital of the Greek world, recorded in Acts 17:16-34. He was waiting for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him and continue their journey when, as the Scripture says, “…his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to…

Few Christians have not heard of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. After living in India for twenty years, teaching in a (middle class) girls high school, she received what she termed “a call within a call” to devote the rest of her life to caring for the sick poor while living among them. At her death there were over 4500 sisters in the religious community she founded. Mother Teresa is a modern example of what our Tradition calls “Unmercenary Healers,” people – usually physicians – who cared for the sick without pay, offering their skills back to God as their sacrifice…

The Scriptures are filled with writings of the prophets, particularly the fifteen books named after the most celebrated Hebrew prophets. Nevertheless, the one most revered as “the pillar of the prophets and their leader” (aposticha) seems to have written nothing, except a letter to King Jehoram of Israel, which was delivered sometime after the prophet had left this world (cf., 2 Chronicles 21:10-12). Elijah (Elias) the Thisbite lived in the ninth century BC, in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab. Five hundred years had passed since Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Several generations…

Many Christian Churches in America were founded by a pastor who had a Bible, a microphone and a conviction that God wanted him to preach. So he gathered a few followers (often his own relatives), rented space and scheduled services. Americans see nothing unusual in this – after all freedom of speech and individual initiative are hallmarks of the American way of doing things. Why not in the Church? The historic Churches (those of the first centuries) saw things differently. Many of these Churches had, in fact, been founded by one of the apostles or their co-workers. They emphasized that…

Catholic and Orthodox Christians are sometimes criticized by people because of the reverence we show to the saints. Critics may feel that we ignore the Lord, preferring to pay homage to favorite saints. Seeing how some believers act, we may understand why some Protestants and others may feel as they do. Some devotees of the saints lavish more praise on the saints than on Christ. While such behavior may be misguided, an appropriate devotion to the Theotokos and other saints is not. For us, the saints are the “proof” that the Holy Spirit truly came upon the Church at Pentecost.…

“On the first day of the week we pray standing, but everyone does not know why.” This issue, raised in the fourth century by St. Basil the Great, may be just as timely today. In most Eastern Churches standing is the most appropriate posture for prayer. Sitting is always in order for those who are physically weaker (due to sickness, age, pregnancy, etc). Kneeling, however, is not considered proper on Sundays or during the Paschal season, which ends today. St Basil gives two reasons why we should pray standing on Sunday: the first is that it is the day on…