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There are several problems with this idea---just me and Jesus, without "dead" rituals, sacraments, a Church, etc. First, it's not what Jesus said He came to do: on Peter's faith He did not found a relationship, or a group of buddies, but a Church. Second, On the Mount of the Beatitudes Jesus...

And let's remember too---the words aren't mine, but are oft-quoted---that as Orthodox we are afforded the opportunity to eat God's Flesh and drink His Blood at every Liturgy: it's difficult to conceive a more personal relationship than that!

Regarding evolution it is crucial to define terms. If by evolution it is meant that the world came into being by accident; that the world emerged from some kind of primoridal "soup"; if the role of God as the creator ex nihilo is diminished or denied, then I think it safe to say that No...

Welcome to TAW! You ask very good but very difficult questions for most of us, simply because we are mostly lay people, many converts to the Faith, and not trained theologians. Let me attempt an answer, confident that those more knowledgeable than I here at TAW will correct me and fill in any...

GDE--- I don't think we should say that the body is evil---it is part of God's creation, and everything He made is, by His own words, "Good!" Besides, the body only really responds to the temptations that occur first in my mind and heart: it is those images that lure me to sin. IMHO, any...

GDE--- Just one point related to fasting. Everything I have read from the Orthodox perspective insists that since our bodies are God's creation---they are, as the Lord Himself proclaimed after each day of creation in Genesis, "good!" Fasting ought to be seen, all the Church sources say...

Oblio is absolutely correct---but I think this needs airing, if only because I object so strongly to the phrase---"through his alliance with the Church Stalin murdered 40 million" etc. The Church had nothing to do with Stalin's murders---except be the victim of many of them. The entire...

Scripture makes clear that Our Lord died on the cross---and that none of His bones were broken. As to the original question---most scholars I have read would say that one of the reasons Our Lord's Crucifixion was comparatively brief---in some cases, the crucified were supposed to have survived...

Plus, medicine doesn't work if you don't use it properly. The sacraments can't do magic in the sense of saving me if I don't want to be saved---if I don't couple my sacramental life with attempts to cooperate with God, then as we often remind others in TAW, even the Holy Eucharist can be "unto...

GDE Metropolitan Anthony's Beginning to Pray;and The Mountain of Silence; are two that come to mind.

I couldn't agree more with the posters on the thread. Bishop Kallistos is one of the main reasons I became Orthodox. I had the great good fortune to meet him once at his home in Oxford twenty years ago---it remains one of the highlites of my life! As I understand it, His Grace is seen (by...

As usual, the Orthodox answer is---it depends. Why didn't the person confess the sin? Did he forget? Or deliberately hold something back? The prayers of Confession said by the priest warn the confessing person to "hold nothing back," lest, I think the prayer runs, "you depart from the...

Confessions are heard in the church (nave) usually in front of the icon of Our Lord. The location is important, because in our theology, one confesses to Christ Himself; as the prayers of Holy Confession remind, the priest is but a witness of our repentance. Confession is "public," in the...

Matrona: Not your fault---but you just darkened my day. My overwhelming reaction to reading the initial post (besides disgust) was---"thank God they don't know about us!"---Should have known this would not be true. I think the only reaction we can have is to a) ignore them and b) pray for...

I would only add to these excellent answers that they all fit into the Orthodox concept of salvation: it's a process, not a moment, so Baptism in no way assures our salvation. It does, however, bring special graces, helps that hopefully will assist the child to continue on the Way...

But what's so neat about this is that there is (usually) a point: take ufonium's excellent post for example. They do sound strange, the words of the Liturgy, when you first hear them. I think the point of the prayers of the Anaphora is to remind us that while Christ was "given up" unto death...

Aria: Your Greek Orthodox priest says it all: if transubstantiation merely means the transformation of the Holy Gifts into the Savior's Body and Blood, there would be no problem. But transubstantiation means much more than that. It would be unwise and unfair for me, a non-Catholic, to try to...

With respect, the nature of the question and response provided indicates why this is a question we shouldn't get into. Orthodoxy doesn't like the word "transubstantiation" precisely because it gets almost immediately into the thickets of scholastic philosophy. As defined by our Western...

Another way to look at the problem is to start by getting your friend to define what is meant by "faith." If faith is defined simply as some sort of intellectual assent, or as a certain moment when one accepts Christ, then the Church would say that we are not saved by this---because these...

There is much discussion about all this in Acts. Starting with the conversion of Saul in Acts 9, the problems and potentialities of the Jewish and Gentile Church are discussed. Everything culminates, however, in Acts 15. Pharisees who were also Christians (15: 5) asserted that Gentile...