On Saint Ignatius

I credit St. Ignatius of Antioch as being very instrumental in my becoming Orthodox, so I decided to write a blog post about why I feel that is.

On Women's Ordinations

I decided to go ahead and write a whole blog post about the issue of women's ordination since I mentioned it briefly in my post on Holy Orders.

On Drinking Tea and Smoking Pipes

It has been quite a while since I've updated my blog, just like always. I have a lot of ideas that I want to blog about, and series that I want to follow up, but life just seems so busy. But I remembered that the title of this blog is Life of an Orthodox Soldier, not Some Orthodox Convert Writes only about Religious and Political Things, and so I thought writing about my life more than just a quick update was called for.

The Use of Candles in the Orthodox Church

Question: Why do we light candles in the Orthodox Church?

Answer: There are typically two types of candles that Orthodox are familiar with. First there are the genuine pure beeswax candles made from the combs of hives. Secondly, there are the paraffin wax candles made from petroleum. When the Fathers of the Church speak of the Orthodox use of candles, they are referring to the pure beeswax candles and not the latter. Paraffin wax produces carcinogens and soot when burned. In fact, one air quality researcher stated that the soot from a paraffin candle contains many of the same toxins produced by burning diesel fuel.

With this information in mind, we can better understand the six symbolic representations of lit candles handed down to us by Saint Symeon of Thessaloniki:

Read more at Mystagogy

Christianity without Repercussions: Faith Pt. 1

In my last post in this series I touched upon the difference between the Orthodox view of Salvation and the Protestant/Evangelical view of Salvation. I still have a lot to delve in to on the salvation end of things (such as the difference in the views of atonement), but I'm going to leave those alone for right now and focus on the Faith aspect of things.

Why I Don't Believe in the Rapture

I don't believe in the Rapture, and quite frankly I'm a little tired of seeing and hearing about how we all need to make sure our lives are in order if we want to avoid the Tribulation.

The Holy Bible: Divinely Inspired or Human Construct?

The following is one of the papers that I wrote for my first religion class. Quotes from the Pope and some other sources appear throughout since I had to use some Roman Catholic sources as required by my instructor. I actually got an "A" on this paper... I only thought I would maybe get a "C."

Annunciation of the Theotokos

Icon of the Annunciation

Every year, on March 25th the Orthodox Church celebrates the Annunciation of the Theotokos. OrthodoxWiki has this to say:

Life of an Orthodox MP

No, I am not using MP to refer to the Moscow Patriarchate, as is the norm in Orthodoxy.

The Septuagint

In this post I am going to attempt to explain why the Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint as the basis for its Scripture instead of the Masoretic text used in most Bible translations today.

Why Tradition?

So... have you ever wondered why we Orthodox are all about our Traditions? What is the deal with our Church and Tradition? Why do we place so much importance on Tradition?