Becoming a Saint
Today, on the first Sunday after Pentecost and the empowering of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, we celebrate All Saints Sunday as we honor all the faithful people throughout history who have...
View ArticleThe Habit of Wickedness
‘Never do something bad as a joke. It often happens that people do something bad as a joke in the beginning, but later, they unwittingly become slaves to it’. These days, wickedness makes us laugh and...
View ArticleThe Parish Church: Family or Restaurant?
The clergy friends I know are a diverse lot. Some are Orthodox, some are Protestant, some are Canadian, and some are American. But when I talk to them of late, I find that they all tell the same...
View ArticleWhat Is Rejected Becomes the Cornerstone
I stood in amazement. It had been announced that I was leaving to become Orthodox. I expected a lot of theological questions, but instead my clergy peers had questions like how I would earn a living,...
View ArticleWhat Is our Call?
The story of Jesus in the Gospels includes many references to His calling fishermen as disciples, preaching and teaching by the seashore, crossing the sea and calming its winds and waves. This body of...
View ArticleTwo Kinds of Confidence
In Homily 27, St. Isaac the Syrian speaks of two kinds of confidence. The first kind of confidence is what we generally mean when we say someone is confident. That is, the person is sure about what he...
View ArticleFocusing On God Instead Of Ourselves
How blessed we are to have the privilege and joy of hearing the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ each and every week, or if we choose, each and every day of our lives. Is anything more beautiful, more...
View ArticleFinding God Amidst the Noise
If I say one hundred prayers a day in the silence of Katounakia and you say three prayers amidst the tumult of the city and your professional and family obligations, then we are equal. St. Ephraim of...
View ArticleDegrees of Faith
The degree of faith is a specialization in the psychology of religion and applied cognitive psychology. Where a degree of faith is influenced by the psychological effects of motives, desires,...
View ArticleOn Secular Churches and the Mystical Sacrifice
A headline caught my eye several days ago: “They Tried to Start a Church Without God. For a While, It Worked.” While the concept of a church without God is beyond doubt bizarre, it nevertheless also...
View ArticleSaving My Neighbor – Just How Connected Are We?
If you are in the “helping professions,” confronting problems in people’s lives, it doesn’t take long to realize that no one is purely and simply an individual. The problems we suffer may occasionally...
View ArticleGifted Only to Give: You’re More Important Than You Think
A man, sharp but insouciant, drives a long stretch of rural highway beneath waning daylight. He sees ahead a car parked on the shoulder, eventually slowing his Pontiac to a stop behind her Mercedes....
View ArticleCowardliness In The Spiritual Life
St. Isaac the Syrian says that there are several ways the devil attacks a person. The goal of these attacks is to make us pull back from our pursuit of godliness. Transformation into the image of...
View ArticleHow Does One Become a True Orthodox Christian?
How to develop true faith in others? The post How Does One Become a True Orthodox Christian? appeared first on A Russian Orthodox Church Website.
View ArticleAbraham, the Righteous, and the Prayers of Our Holy Fathers
Many services of the Church conclude with this prayer: “Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and save us!” Since we ourselves are praying directly to Christ,...
View ArticleThe Everyday Miracles We Don’t Notice
Saint Sophrony in Essex said that we still have not a few ascetics (whom the Lord has hidden) who don’t perform obvious miracles, though great miracles occur every day in their souls, unobserved by...
View ArticleNot Only What We Do But How We Do It
The word for the day is “with.” As long as the job is done, does it matter how we do it? Does our attitude make a difference? If we give a meal to someone who is hungry but do with disdain, doesn’t the...
View ArticleUniversal Lack of Common Sense
It’s very important for people to have common sense. Everybody says so, but how many actually possess ordinary, common sense? As psychosomatic beings, people receive stimuli and bodily and mental...
View ArticleThe Freedom to Choose How We See Life
Janet Hourihan Brooks is an amazing woman. She is the mother of one of my son’s best friends. She has suffered through aggressive metastatic pancreatic cancer for the past six years. Yet she is one of...
View ArticleWhat Is the Lord Jesus All About?
What was the Lord Jesus all about? What were His aims? What were the essential traits of His ministry? How is His life and work connected to our own lives today? A verse from today’s Gospel reading...
View Article
