PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

On Turning Sixty-One “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalm 116:15 The Church has always had a curious way of keeping time. The world counts the years from birth. It celebrates beginnings, youth, promise, achievement, and the accumulation of experiences. We gather around cakes and candles, wishing one another many more years, as though length itself were the measure of blessing. The Church, however, teaches us another arithmetic. With only a few

On obituaries, ossuaries, and the end of our illusions “All flesh is grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls.” — First Epistle of Peter 1:24 There is something almost unbearable about an obituary if you linger over it long enough. A human life, decades of breath, struggle, love, compromise, hidden sacrifice, is gathered up and reduced to a few paragraphs. A name. A date. A list of survivors. A handful of accomplishments. Perh