New Skete Monasteries News

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” At Orthodox funerals it is customary to sing, as we did, the gospel Beatitudes. This I believe is because those who have fought the good fight and died in good conscience by the grace of God have experienced something of these blessings... Philosophers like Kierkegaard and spiritual writers since St. Paul have struggled with the Beatitudes, especially “Blessed are the pure of heart.” Some have written that purity is the single-minded focus with their whole heart and mind on what is most important in life, that pearl of great price someone would sell everything to gain. Many have simply reduced it to the physical. Others say the "pure of heart" are those who have been cleansed from the inside out by great suffering or great love. Like gold or silver that has been refined by fire, they have come to terms with the traumas of life and have become whole and spiritually mature. They often show a certain innoc...

Some Background on the Up-coming Great Council of the Orthodox Churches The pontificate of Pope Francis has created an atmosphere of genuine inclusivity and spontaneous affection that recalls, for the seniors among us, John XXIII’s jovial demeanor and openness. It was his successor, Paul VI, whose historic meeting with Patriarch Athenogoras of Constantinople, the senior-most primate of the Eastern Orthodox Church, took place in Jerusalem in 1965. This event, half a century before instant media coverage, nonetheless implanted the ideal of ecumenical rapprochement and understanding throughout the Christian world. This movement flourished in succeeding decades only to be muffled, ironically, with the fall of the Soviet bloc governments. Those Orthodox Churches formerly behind the Iron Curtain no longer needed international attention (in the World Council of Churches, for example) that kept the full weight of state atheism at bay. Sadly, many of these Churches turned inward, some with xen...

A Renaissance Pope, Julius Caesar, and Izni St Constantine and the 318 Fathers of Nicea I holding the Creed, or “Symbol of Faith”  in Greek People, Places, and Events that Influence the Easter - Pascha Calendar   Modern commercial calendars have a citation that will generally read “Eastern Orthodox Easter.” Typically, this citation falls a week after the Western Easter.  You may find it as advanced as five weeks later into the month of May. The reasons for the differences in the calendar can be found by looking back over the past seventeen hundred years at the people, places, and events that influenced this occurrence. When the First Ecumenical Council met in the city of Nicea, now known as the town of Iznik, Turkey, the Council’s main focus was to refute Arius and hammer out the basics of Christology and produce an agreed-upon Creed.  The 318 Fathers assembled had a secondary task: to arrive at a common date for Easter. At that time, ...