Journey Into Divine Intimacy

Before I was received into the Orthodox Catholic Church, I did not spend much time thinking about Mary, the Mother of God. A lot has changed since then. I will share a little how my thinking about her has changed. I divide these contemplations into two categories: dogma (non-negotiable beliefs) and theologoumena (theological opinions). The Dogmas As a pious Orthodox, I have two dogmatic beliefs about Mary: 1) that it is appropriate to venerate her with the title Theotokos, or "Mother of God" and 2) that she retained her virginity for her whole life. These two dogma come from the proceedings of two different ecumenical councils. If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, “The Word was made flesh”] let him be anathema. ( Third Ecumenical Council ) If anyone shall not confess that the Word of God has two nativ...

During Holy Week, we have a lot of public reading of Scripture. For example, over the course of the morning, afternoon, and evening services yesterday on Great and Holy Friday, all of these were read out loud: http://oca.org/readings/daily/2014/04/18 Right after Jesus died, "the tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many." (Matt 27:52-53, ESV). What struck me as I was listening to this passage was the order of events. This remarkable occurrence happened not at the point of Jesus' resurrection, but at the point of His death. In other words, as soon as Jesus died, He descended into Hades and began liberating the captives. And as a sign of this reality, some saints were even anticipatorily raised from the dead! The Church unpacks this mysterious undertaking in many places in her Holy Tradition. First, in a few passages from he...