Clarion

“Testing the Spirit” – Lazar Puhalo

May 26, 2022 |

6a00d834890c3553ef0278801fb76f200d-320wiQUESTION: Vladika, can you say something about the meaning of "testing the Spirit." What does that mean and can you give an example?
 
REPLY: One of the surest ways in our regular experience to "test the Spirit" is in the Divine liturgy. Ask yourself if, when the priest exclaims "let us depart in peace," has he left you in a condition where you can do that? The Divine Liturgy will always bring you to a spirit of peace, hope and joy. If you find yourself driven into an unpeacefulness during the liturgy it will be because of the sermon that the priest has given.
 
We have priests who would try to imitate the fanaticism of certain Evangelicals, raving, shouting preaching in an agitated and very unpeaceful manner, often gesticulating, waving their arms about and pacing back and forth like a man possessed or with some kind of mental illness.
 
But even without all the theatrics, if a priest is regularly preaching sermons that agitate your soul and agitate you against other people, then he is not preaching the gospel, rather he is preaching from his own passions, out of the fullness of his own heart, out of his own agitation of soul and unpeaceful spirit.
 
Too often, some of our priests who have forgotten for the moment that they are Orthodox rather than fundamentalist sectarians, will preach "culture wars," and secular politics rather than the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Did Christ preach the "sermon on the Mount" with agitated unpeaceful shouting, waving of arms and pacing about in an agitated manner?
 
The Divine liturgy brings us to the threshold of that "peace that passes all understanding," and while the priest may preach in a strong and firm manner, if he is truly Orthodox he will not be preaching in a raving, hysterical, gesticulating and unpeaceful manner. He will remember that the sermon is a part of the liturgy and is, therefore, liturgical in itself.
read more…

“Come with me.” – by Brian Zahnd

Apr 29, 2011 |

The knowledge of God’s mystery is Christ.–The Apostle Paul Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.–Saint Augustine I dreamed I saw St. Augustine, alive as you or me.–Bob Dylan A bit of autobiography, because we are our storiesAnd we are known in...

Easter Reflections by John Van Vloten

Apr 24, 2011 |

Song of Solomon 2 “11 See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.  12 Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.   13 The fig tree forms...

The Children of Cain – by Brian Zahnd

Apr 19, 2011 |

This post consists of an excerpt from chapter nine of All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque was a German veteran of World War I. (He later became an American citizen.) Remarque published All Quiet On The Western...

The Heretical Commentary: Essay 1 — Alfred Sergel IV

Apr 18, 2011 |

The Heretical Commentary: Essay 1 "Why do you live like you're going to die, Alfred?" Heresy comes to mind when I think about the insanity of actually making this internal inquiry public. I'm either losing my mind or actually beginning to get it back...

Give ’em hell Harry — by Brian Zahnd

Apr 11, 2011 |

Artwork "Way to Hades" by Sanjay Sonwani Thinking. Preface: I tend to see a lot our evangelical ills as connected with the seduction of empire. (Or as I call it in public these days, “superpower.” Because people who reject the notion that the United States...

Of Hitler and Lilies — by Brian Zahnd

Apr 3, 2011 |

eonard Woolf (1880-1969), the English writer, political theorist and husband of Virginia Woolf, wrote a book entitled Downhill All The Way. Published in 1966, it is an autobiographical account of the years leading up to World War II.