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Please pray for me, I'm going for a trip in a dangerous city through a difficult road. Also for the repose of Vanessa and the welfare of Hegumen Pedro, Marina, Maria and Amanda, while we're at it. Lord have mercy.

The taking up of serpents must be taken both literally and spiritually. Both being safe from literal serpents (Acts 28:3-5), and from spiritual serpents, that is, men who plot openly against us (as opposed to spiritual scorpions, who plot in secret, like in Luke 10:19). One should not, however...

There were differences between West and East other than the Filioque clause that, fueled by the doctrine of universal jurisdiction of Romes, could have catalysed the schism, such as leavened bread, clerical celibacy or Saturday fasts.

I'm interested in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series. I've bought the Psalms one and I'll soon buy the Proverbs + Ecclesiastes + Song of Songs, and the Revelation one. Fr. Tadros Malaty has commented on many books of the OT and all of the NT, I recur to him extensively...

The damned can benefit from our prayers, their torments may be relieved and we can even hope for a personal apocatastasis: And so can the saved, since they can be more and more deified:

On the Philistines, I personally believe evidence that they were an Illyrian colony to be sufficient. So Gheg Albanians and Serbo-Croatians would be the nearest descendants.

Psalms 69:9 is seen by commentators as a prophecy for Christ's indignation in the temple. See the wording: the zeal was consuming him, eating him. The Psalmist is clearly talking about anger, so we must assume Christ was angry if we believe this verse to to actually mirror the cleansing of the...

I believe the prodigal son's indignation mirrors Prophet Jonah's indignation at God's mercy toward Nineveh.

We must use anger in our spiritual struggle. Ephesians 4:26 I like how this text from Fr. Lawrence Farley deals with anger:

Actually, "biblos" made its way into the Bible, just not in the sense of "compilation of Scripture". Sometimes it means individual parts of it (Mark 12:26, Luke 3:4, Acts 1:20...)

Esau prefigures the Jewish nation (the firstborn of the heritage), while Jacob prefigures the Church (which usurps Esau's heritage for his hard heart). Rebekah wears Jacob in Esau's clothes, just like the Church "wears" the promises mades for the Israelites.

Do read this short book if you have time, it explains theosis in very simple vocabulary and goes on a lot about doctrine. A total must-read.

The idea of many "Apostolic Churches", including those outside Orthodoxy, is foreign to mainstream Orthodox thinking across the centuries (although some recent documents have implied different). There is only One Church: the Orthodox Church. In our conception, apostolic sucession doesn't survive...

In Orthodox Christianity, canonisation means including the deceased in public veneration. Yes, every saved Christian is a saint, but when the Church declares one's sanctity, it's the official statement that they are in heaven, and for such they are: great models of holiness for the faithful...

My chrismation. I had just gotten a job so I was beardless.

He is fine, and grateful for everyone's prayers. :)

Memory eternal! May the Lord grant repose to his servant Lea. Matheus is better. However, I ask you for prayers for the repose of our fellow parishioner Sérgio.

Thank you very much, this is much more helpful than I even expected. :)

Yeah, I imagine people may have a hard time translating theological language into heavily analytic languages like the ones you mentioned, or even Chinese. Maybe one would use paraphrasis (e.g. "church" in Chinese is literally "meeting to teach"), maybe one would just pick up native terms (e.g...

I believe the three of them are useful, depending on what you'll need it for. My favourite translation in my mother language isn't the best one in neither of the three philosophies yet I read it for its fine language.