Barnabas Powell's Blog, page 7
July 21, 2023
True Healing at Jesus’ Feet
There is a story about a great man. He had searched the world over for wisdom. He had gone to gurus and sought out great religious leaders and learned philosophers. But still, his heart ached for more. Sure, he learned great and awesome ideas and heard wonderful words, but still, he felt empty from the searching. Discouraged, he cried out to God “Lord, where is true wisdom? Where is true knowledge of…
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July 20, 2023
The Temptation of Shallow Self Awareness
“Shove me into shallow waters, before I get too deep.” This was a popular song in the 1980s espousing the “virtue” of shallow living. “I don’t want to get too deeply insightful about myself. I’d rather be shallow.” I get it. Doing the work to truly know yourself is hard and scary! Because IF you put the humble work in to explore the vast universe that is your own soul, you are…
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July 19, 2023
The Poison of Doing Right with a Wrong Heart
“Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?” You can almost hear the sneer in this question to Jesus in the passage for today! And, frankly, it’s a good question. You see, as a Church, we Orthodox place a great deal of confidence in the consistent witness of the Faithful through the centuries. And we get that honesty, as my grandmother use to say. We inherited that attitude from the…
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July 18, 2023
The Merciless Mastery of Undisciplined Passions
I know it is a bit “old-fashioned” and it may be hard for those of this generation to understand, but the timeless message of the Faith is that we are called to battle and tame the passions SO THAT they are our servants and never our masters! So what are the passions? Some may say “I thought being a passionate person was a good thing.” Well, as usual, it depends on definitions.…
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July 17, 2023
Woman, Go In Peace
Listen to this quote from Fr. Alexander Schmemann, of blessed memory, “Man was created priest of the world, the one who offers the world to God in a sacrifice of love and praise…Priesthood, in this sense, is the very essence of manhood, man’s creative relation to the “womanhood” of the created world.” Notice the “gender” language, and stay with me here, notice the implications of this understanding of God creating this binary…
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July 14, 2023
The Church Is The Answer
Our modern age is suffering a crisis of meaning. This, of course, is a natural consequence of decades of the proactive dismantling of the timeless wisdom that had been shaping our culture for centuries. You can’t tear down something and not have chaos during your attempt to reconstruct something else. Anyone who has lived through the traffic during interstate construction can relate! Part of this chaos has produced an interesting and very…
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July 13, 2023
Living Temporary Lives
Orthodox Christianity is an eschatological religion! O, Mr. Fancypants with your big words! 🙂 Ok, Orthodoxy is the Faith that keeps eternity in mind and the ultimate victory of Christ over all darkness. Is that better? Ok, let me add more: Orthodoxy is the Faith, the Way of Life, that always reorients me and my life towards Eternity and not enslaved to the temporary. Orthodoxy insists I stretch my perspective and focus…
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July 12, 2023
Ordinary Men
I love this quote from C.S. Lewis: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We…
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July 11, 2023
More Than Flirting
“There’s no time like the present.” This and many other “time” quotes really get to a pearl of central wisdom we humans have learned: Timing is everything. I have a dear couple who are dating. And, on top of that, they are exploring becoming Orthodox. Talk about a double whammy! Their relationship is growing with each other and the Faith. They recently asked me a question I get a lot from folks…
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July 10, 2023
Note The Troublemakers
There’s a strain of thought in modern society called “good trouble.” It started gaining more widely known during the Civil Rights era of our societies move away from this notion of “separate but equal.” Of course, this notion was easy to dismantle because “separate but equal” is ridiculous on its face! But I was intrigued by the notion of “good trouble” because I think it holds some important insights into human interaction…
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