The first ecumenical council which took place at Nicaea in 325 AD, was particularly concerned with the Arian controversy. This heresy had denied that the Word of God was properly God, and considered him some lesser and created divine being. Later, the second ecumenical council took place at Constantinople in 381 AD, in the context […]
Luke 1:26-38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” The verse I would like us to think about for a few minutes in this reflection during the Fast of the Virgin occurs at the end of the well known account of the Annuciation, and […]
On this seventh day of the Fast of the Virgin Mary I am posting a video programme about the Virgin Mary which I recorded in Egypt in 2015 for CYC.
It has often been suggested that veneration of the Virgin St Mary, which is the respect and honour due to a human, and not worship which is due only to God, developed very late, after many pagans had joined the Church for convenience, and represents only the introduction of the worship of a semi-divine female […]
If we return to the Proto-evangelium of St James, we will remember that the Virgin St Mary had been left in the Temple by her parents, Joachim and Anna when she was three years old, and she had entered the Temple with joy and gladness. We now read of her time there, described in the […]
In this post on the fourth day of the Fast of the Virgin I would like to turn away from the Proto-Evangelium of St James for a moment, though we will return to it in due course, Today I would like to reflect on one of the many hymns written by St Severus which speak […]
On this third day of the Fast of the Virgin we read in the Proto-Evangelium of St James, a very early Christian writing… And when the child was three years old, and Joachim said: Invite the daughters of the Hebrews that are undefiled, and let them take each a lamp, and let them stand with […]
On this second day of the Fast of the Virgin we can turn again with value to the Proto-evangelium of St James. It teaches us that Righteous Anna, the mother of St Mary, had dedicated any child which God might give her to the Lord. From the beginning this holy couple had in mind the […]
The early Christian writing, the Proto-Evangelium of St James tells us that the parents of St Mary, the Righteous Joachim and Anna, were grieved in their hearts because they had no child and were in their old age. It is said of Joachim… He retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted […]
In this 6th post considering the issue of Orthodox women receiving communion I would like to reflect on the teaching of Scripture and the Fathers about ritual purity. Sometimes other words are used, such as physical preparedness, to exclude women, and men in some situations, from receiving communion at certain times. This is different from […]