peterfarrington
About
- Username
- peterfarrington
- Joined
- Visits
- 69
- Last Active
- Roles
- Administrator
Comments
-
Dear the_least I guess that the difference is whether when we witness it is all about us or all about God? Is it about what I have done or what God has done in my life and the lives of others? If I was to talk about being in Church on Sunday I cou…
-
The Orthodox Church does not believe in a state of being called a fetus. It believes in human life, and that each human life is precious to God. Abortion is never the answer to rape because it takes a terrible wrong and compounds it by adding murd…
-
Dear Searching I would not be so quick to assume that your language and thoughts would be the same whether or not you were listening to this music. Much of our behaviour is rooted in the subconscious habits and environment which we allow to harden …
-
Aidan I have found that if we ask God to give us opportunities to serve Him in evangelism then He gives them, and especially so when we seek to serve Him in humility. Certainly I find it very much more easy to speak about our Orthodox Faith than I …
-
QT. You are right. And certainly in Scotland the Roman Catholic Church has been seeking to do this with all those young women who are thinking of an abortion. They have been criticised by the atheistic press, but it seems entirely the right and Chri…
-
May the Lord have mercy upon them through the prayers of His saints. God bless you Father Peter
-
It is that easy if anyone wishes to make a new start and repent of sin. It does not matter what sins you have committed, or how grevious they are. If you have even a small sense of repentance then God will help a person to become completely repentan…
-
Is it the Lord who has brought you to this stage in your life and service? He is surely aware that as He has brought you through the effort of study to this point in your life that there is a conflict between the service of prayer and the service o…
-
Death is not something a Christian should fear. St Moses the Black was aware that we must all die at some time. It seemed fitting to him that he die in this way. I think you are expecting too much for us to know the inner workings of a saint from …
-
Fortunatus, thank you for a very well thought out and helpful answer. QT. There is an excellent book called 'The Appropriation of Divine Life in Cyril of Alexandria' by Daniel Keating. It's well written and comprehensive and I didn't find anything …
-
It's late here now, but I will try to put together some material tomorrow. God bless Father Peter
-
Dear Ashamed The very fact that you feel sorrow for your sin is a sign that God is at work in you and has not abandoned you. Indeed He became man like us, yet without sin, because He loves each one of us, even though we are sinners. Your feeling…
-
Yes, I have to say that I am also struggling to see what your underlying question is. Do explain what is really nagging at you and then perhaps others can help. God bless Father Peter
-
Dear QT, You really do need to take the time to read St Athanasius. I don't mean that in a negative way, but you really will benefit in lots of ways by reading St Athanasius carefully. If the question is important then it demands some effort to r…
-
Mortality is not the real death we suffer from. We are created mortal by God. The death that we should fear is separation from God and the absence of the Holy Spirit. Christ could not (as far as we dare say what God could and could not do) die simp…
-
And may God give you the grace of His Holy Spirit to overcome this sin, once and for all. Father Peter
-
I am not going to disagree with you entirely QT. There is sometimes a place to point out others errors. But in my experience such places are limited. We have to struggle not to give way to a false pride, or to drive the other person away from facin…
-
The 'how' is not for us to know, in an essential sense. We just need to be silent before the mystery. But in general we can say that as the New Testament writers teach, there are several aspects: i. The punishment due for our sins has been borne b…
-
God is both merciful and righteous. We have sinned and we are dead in our sins. This is just. Adam was warned and he chose to disobey. He preferred to gratify himself rather than to enjoy the glory of God. God will not exercise His mercy apart fr…
-
If sin is the exercise of our will in a way which is turned towards the gratification of self, rather than towards the glory of God, then we can surely see that sin is not a list of things which are wrong, but it is to do with our heart. It might b…
-
I think that the answer is that one celebration is on the fixed calendar, so it is the same day every year, while the other major celebration is part of the Paschal cycle which moves each year. There is a day of the year in which we celebrate Lazar…
-
I agree with GodIsLove that it is good to learn when not to dispute with people who are not wanting a discussion. I was driving up to Scotland with my wife and son today, and I was thinking about this particular thread. If others are just laughing …
-
Heaven, in relation to God, has the sense of being beyond all time and space and is not a 'place' at all. God is not anywhere, in one sense, because He does not exist as a thing but just 'is'. Yet in relation to us created beings there is a place w…
-
Father Lev Gillet, writing as 'a Monk of the Eastern Church' says.. The Lenten Fast originates in the total fast observed in the second and third centuries on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. This two day fast indicated the absence of Christ from the…
-
Let us be a little careful with one another. The reason we fast is not to eat less, that is the mechanics of it. The reason is to offer God a sacrifice of our will. Unfortunately there are a great many people in the world who are forced to fast much…
-
May the Lord have mercy on you and grant you wisdom and patience. Father Peter
-
I agree very much with HisServant. If we wish to be servants then it must begin before we have any visible part of play in the liturgy and organisation of the Church activities. Indeed service in the Church is a responsibility for all, both men and…
-
There are often those who treat us as if we were their enemies, and make themselves, humanly speaking, our enemies. But we are not to treat them in that way. I have worked with people who were unpleasant to me and others and made going to work a tr…
-
Hi Reading the two passages I wonder if Matthew is choosing to give the gist of the events, where the main point is the Centurion's seeking the intervention of Christ, while Luke choose to provide more detail of the event, in which there were a var…
-
There is certainly a place for making practical judgements, especially in the case of employment etc. We would not expect someone flying a plane to have a visual impairment, or the person teaching our children an academic subject to have failed all …