Part One: The Questions and a Broad Answer When we discuss the altar in the Christian tradition, meaning the Catholic and Orthodox Churches (what is sometimes called the “Great Church’), […]
Read more
Author: Joseph Azize
Do not Consider the Difficulty, only the Effort
This comes from the group meeting of Thursday 25 November 1982. Together with one of the contemplative exercises, each person was asked to make three hourly appointments, for example at […]
Read more
Nicephorus the Solitary on the Prayer of the Heart
The last post considered the Prayer of the Heart and the shorter version of it known as the Jesus Prayer. I said that, as I saw it, there were nine […]
Read more
The Wordless Echo of the Jesus Prayer
The roots of the “Jesus Prayer” go right back, of course, to Our Lord Himself. The usual words, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,” […]
Read more
Churton, Deconstructing Gurdjieff
There is a new book, Tobias Churton’s Deconstructing Gurdjieff. I can’t pretend I think it’s worth reading. I don’t like his writnge: it’s rather a smart-aleck style – “that particular […]
Read moreThe Virgin Mary in Ancient Christian Tradition
An essay of mine, “The Virgin Mary in Ancient Christian Tradition,” has been published in the book Mariology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium. The book, edited by Kevin […]
Read more
An Introduction to the Maronite Faith
Well, my eighth book has now been published, An Introduction to the Maronite Faith. Here is a link: http://www.connorcourt.com/catalog1/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=423#.WU32lIVOLIW It is, as the titles suggests, an introduction. It is not […]
Read more
When God Spoke Greek (Part 1)
What is the history of the Bible, and how did the Church’s view of it, especially its view of the Old Testament change over its first four hundred years? Why […]
Read moreThe Education of Personality (Part 5)
The last of this series on the education of personality will mention, appropriately enough, Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson (although I am more and more warming to the title The […]
Read more
Boris Ferapontoff’s Constantinople Notes
Boris Ferapontoff was one of Gurdjieff’s most important pupils. He is one of the few whom Gurdjieff mentions in any of his books. Gurdjieff terms Ferapontoff his (Gurdjieff’s) “personal translator,” […]
Read more