by Archimandrite Seraphim Alexiev; Wildwood, CA, St. Xenia Press, 1993. 72 pp., $5.00. Also available from Orthodox America (add $1.50 p&h). Mary Mansur The holy Apostle Paul spelled it out clearly in his epistle to the Romans: the wages of sin is death. To the Ephesians he wrote a similar word of admonition: no unclean person…
Editor’s note: It is with great reluctance that we decided to print such a review. I personally owe Fr. Herman a considerable debt of gratitude for his support and inspiration along my own spiritual journey, from the time I moved to Platina in 1977. Nevertheless, the fact that Fr. Herman allowed his personal cup of bitterness to…
Priest Alexey Young As for that Night… (Job 3:6) I first became aware-but only vaguely-of the last Romanovs when the film “Anastasia,” was released in 1956. At that time I knew nothing about Orthodoxy, Russia, or the Romanovs. I certainly did not know enough to recognize historical errors and outright fantasies in the film-and, I later learned, there…
Married Saints of the Church by Monk Moses of the Holy Mountain; translated, edited and with additions by Ryassaphore-Nun Melania Reed and Ryassaphore-Nun Maria Simonsson; St Xenia Skete, Wildwood, CA 1991. Any Orthodox Christian–indeed, any fairminded person–who has ever watched “Entertainment Tonight” or read People magazine; or who is familiar with the gushing kudos shamelessly…
Lives of the English Saints by S. Baring-Gould; Llanerch Enterprises, 1990; 118 pps., illus.; paper, £4.95* Lives of the Northumbrian Saints by S. Baring-Gould; Llanerch Enterprises, 1990; 119 pps., illus,; paper, £4.95* Lives of the Scottish Saints, W.M. Metcalfe, D.D., translator; Llanerch Enterprises, 1990; 113 pps.; paper, £4.95* (all Available from S.G.O.I.S., 64 Prebend Grdns. London, W6…
Fr. Alexey Young Treatise on Prayer by St Symeon of Thessalonike; Simmons, H. L. N., translator; Hellenic College Press, 1984; 104 pps.; softcover, $7. Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments. (Psalm 118:164) The old Latin axiom, lex orandi, lex credendi-“As we worship, so we believe”-applies most particularly to the…
Paternal Counsels, Volume I, by the elder Philotheos Zervakos; translated by Fr. Nicholas Palis; St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite Publication Society, 1991; 63 pps., illus.; Spiritual fathers of the stature of an authentic Elder (in Russian, starets; in Greek, gerontas) are so rare today as to be almost non-existent-at least in the West. Nonetheless, we can…
Report on Communion by Ed Conroy; William Morrow, 1989; 427 pps., illus., hardcv. In OA #88 we took a look at the subject of UFOs, with particular focus on the newest “guru” of this phenomenon, Whitley Streiber, whose books (Communion and Transformation) have become best-selling accounts of his own astonishing on-going contacts with “alien visitors.” Because “the impact Communion has…
by Asterios Gerostergios; Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies; 1982; 313 pps, illustrated; paper. Reviewed by Fr. Alexey Young For such a long time it has been the norm for writers and scholars to speak of Byzantium and her Emperors in lurid terms. We in the West have even made up a whole mythology about that great Orthodox Christian…
A Scriptural and Liturgical Commentary on the Calendar of the Orthodox Church; by a Monk of the Eastern Church; St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1980; 245 pp., When the Apostle Philip asked the Ethiopian Eunuch who was reading Isaiah, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The Eunuch answered, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30-31). Alas, many…
