CNA: Papal encyclicals expected on faith and poverty, bishop reveals

CNS: Icons: A creation story

The Unknown Mission of Sts. Cyril and Methodius by Sergei Milov
An interview with Anatoly Arkadyevich Turilov

io9: If Earth Had a Ring Like Saturn

Elder Zacharias regarding the Spiritual Life

Should Pro-Lifers Be Anti-Death? by John Zmirak
Defending the innocent doesn't mean foregoing justice

What Is It?

Huge submerged mystery structure in Sea of Galilee stumps dry-docked Israeli archaeologists
Ancient Structure Under Sea of Galilee

Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia on Elder Sophrony of Essex

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware - Orthodox Catholic Relations

From Feb. 2011

Photographs of various Byzantine-rite monasteries (most of which are Orthodox, one is Catholic) taken by Father Anthony Falsarella: Father Anthony's Monastery Journal

A Conversation on the Philokalia with Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)

Renewing the Presence of Love in the World (Metropolitan Merkury of Rostov and Novocherkassk)

This is not because God is retreating from us. God’s presence among people is becoming impoverished because people are not open to God and to one another; man’s will often opposes God’s will and he is not in a condition to accept God in his life. This is because, by accepting God in his life, man accepts an enormous responsibility before both God and his neighbors. It is much easier to live irresponsibly, because nothing will disturb you apart from your own evil, your own personal pleasures, needs, and prosperity. When one’s entire human core is directed towards this, then of course one becomes removed from God, since one is not in a condition to accept God in one’s life. Accepting God into oneself means that one will have to change the vicious structure of one’s life.

If we do not seek to live in friendship with others, we should understand that this is not "normal" but rather a sickness that requires an intervention by the Divine Physician. Most people are not completely anti-social, but they do need to open their hearts more to those around them.

Dr. Marcus Plested: Aquinas, between East and West.

He is the author of Orthodox Readings of Aquinas.

Graduate Christian Union, University of Oxford

The Feast of Pentecost