Gregory Palamas taught that we can respond to what life throws at us at three different levels, what Klara Kobelyukh calls three kinds of experience. The first is the experience of evil in all its forms, which includes temptation, sin, and death. The second (and here we need to remember that Gregory was a monk …
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we …
When Paul is interpreting scripture allegorically, as he does in 2 Corinthians 3, it’s always worth going back to refamiliarize oneself with the text he is allegorizing. In this case, it’s Paul’s take on the story about Moses and his veil found in Ex. 34:29-35. Moses began with the best of intentions. He came down …
I ran across a surprising twist on the idea of transformation. St. Silouan (d. 1938) changes the direction of transformation. Yes the Christian is transformed by the Holy Spirit, but he said that divine grace is also transformed by the Holy Spirit. He speaks of the Holy Spirit as "transformer" in the electrical grid sense. …
Another great insight from Moby Dick (this one from ch. 16, "The Ship"): Captain Peleg asks Ishmael why he wants to go sailing. Ishmael's answer is that he wants to see the world. Cap'n Peleg tells him to "take a peep over the weather bow." What did Ishmael see over the weather bow? "Not much," …
Just Another Jim 