Our Faith : Religions
Can Orthodoxy Speak to Eastern Religious Seekers?
I recently had a conversation with an Eastern Orthodox priest, whose twenty-six year old son recently left home for an indefinite stay at a Buddhist monastery. The priest was heart broken. His son was not a stranger to Eastern Orthodoxy or to its monastic tradition either, having spent time at several Orthodox monasteries, and even two months on the holy mountain of Mt. Athos.
Jul 26, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Icons
Time in Icon
To be able to understand icons it is necessary to know how people of the Middle Ages perceived and understood the concept of time. The difference between the concept of time in Western Europe and that in Byzantium was formed in the Renaissance period, when Europe, unlike Byzantium, acquired the new attitudes and outlook towards the world.
Jul 21, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Russian Destinies
There are historians who consider that the martyred Tsar was a poor ruler; others consider him to have been one of the best of rulers. I do not wish to talk about this; my business is not politics, although I do know that Tsar Nicholas II was much slandered. Let us leave politics to academics. The last Russian Tsar and his family are not holy confessors, but holy martyrs. In other words, all the human errors and sins they committed in their lives (and Only One is without sin, Christ our God) were washed away by the blood of martyrdom.
Jul 17, 2010, 04:03

Our Faith
How to Grow Spiritually – Part III
As one Athonite theologian writes, “Since man is “called to be a god” (i.e. was created to become a god), as long as he does not find himself on the path of Theosis he feels an emptiness within himself... he feels that something is not going right, so he is not joyful even when he is trying to cover the emptiness with other activities.
Jul 16, 2010, 02:02

Our Faith : In the Church
Christ’s Ministry, Our Ministry
Any Christian work, in order to be truly in the service of Christ, is grounded in faith, prayer, and love. In fact, prayer itself is an active ministry. This is what distinguishes Christian service and ministry from secular social work. When we advocate lay ministry, we are not advocating the frenetic, often self-serving activity of do-gooders who feel justified by their sacrifice of time as the pharisee felt justified by his adherence to the law.

Jul 14, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Holy Leaders of the Apostles
Different as these two Apostles were, they are most often depicted embracing or holding a church between them. The love of Christ transcends personal preferences and varieties in character. Close reading of the lives of the saints reveals many (especially among the holy hierarchs and theologians) who simply did not get along with each other. As an old priest once said to me, “We are called to love each other, not like each other.”
Jul 12, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
"You are the Christ!"
How do we truly proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? Do our lives reveal Him through what we say and what we do, and what we do not say and do not do? Can He be seen in us, in who we are, in how we live? Or do we look just like everyone else, indistinguishable from all the rest of those in the world who do not say that Jesus is Lord and Savior? Brothers and sisters, this should not be!

Jul 12, 2010, 02:26

Our Faith : In the Church
Stewardship
A Future Vision
"Thank you, Father, for the beautiful sermon you delivered in church today." This common compliment is often received with a certain amount of skepticism by priests. They appreciate the kind words from their parishioners, but they wonder what lasting impact their message will have on those who heard it during Divine Liturgy.

Jul 9, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Doubt and the Monastic Journey
So many thoughts and questions barraged me, even thoughts against the basis of my faith, which hadn’t happened in a long time. Does God really exist? How do you know He answers your prayers? Don’t you want to have sex and a family? Will you really be satisfied as a monk? You’re such a sinner, how could you even dare to think you’re worthy of the schema?
Jul 8, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Nativity of John the Baptist.
‘What is the purpose of life?’ John the Baptist who never married, who remained a virgin, who prophesied, tells us that the purpose of life is to be spiritually fruitful. This is his prophetic revelation to us. Whether we are called to marriage and having children or not, we are called to bring forth spiritual fruit, to improve the world and not to worsen it, to be fruitful, and not to be barren, as his parents had been.

Jul 7, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : In the Church
Theological Education
St. Innocent Veniaminov, first ruling bishop in North America and later Metropolitan of Moscow emphasized that “it is the binding duty of every Christian, when he reaches maturity, to know his faith thoroughly, because anyone who does not have a solid knowledge of his faith is cold and indifferent to it and frequently falls either into superstition or unbelief”.
Jul 6, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : In the Church
On Tithing
Sadly, nowadays not very many Orthodox Christian communities can care for the poor, send missionaries, or even hold daily services to the One Who continually cares for us. The priests and deacons who serve in the Holy Altar are forced to leave God’s services and, in violation of canon law, obtain secular employment in order to feed themselves and their families.
Jul 5, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Feed the Mule!
Then, over time, something begins to happen. You don’t see them at Vigil anymore. Confession becomes an irregular thing, and when they do confess, you hear of how they don’t pray as they use to pray, don’t fast as they use to fast, and don’t read as they use to read. You begin to see less joy on their faces, and they talk of boredom and spiritual dryness. Finally, the day comes when you don’t see them at all. What happened?
Jul 1, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : In the Church
Sanctity Today
To be a member of the Church is in fact a higher calling than we might often think. When we pray, “Let us commend ourselves and each other, and our whole life unto Christ our God,” we mean it. We are praying that individually (“ourselves”) and corporately (“and each other”) we have the intention to be saints, commending our life unto God. That is what it means truly to be in the Church.
Jun 30, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
The Christian Code of Conduct
I once read a bumper sticker that really started me thinking, this bumper sticker asked a simple question: “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Here’s a story that I came across that ties in perfectly with the bumper sticker I just told you about.


Jun 28, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Visit to Serbian Monastery Debunks Familiar Stereotype
When you visit a nation that has been bombed and dismantled by your own country, you don't expect to be greeted with flowers. I feared that at least one Serb might deliberately do something to make me feel, shall we say, "uncomfortable." I ended up being right, but at the same time very wrong.


Jun 24, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Fasting
What Does It Mean to Be a Christian?
2000 years of Christianity are going to be noted everywhere. The most discussed question, both within the Church and outside it, is what 2000 years of Christianity mean and how to relate to them.

Jun 22, 2010, 03:22

Our Faith
Silence of the minds
The problem of inner thoughts is a very important one because the thoughts are the root of all we do. No sin is done without passing through the mind that gives the command. Stop the command and you will stop sin. In our minds we are at war, an unseen warfare, as people like to call it, in which our path in life as persons is defined.


Jun 19, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
How to live the Spiritual Life (Part II)
Having stated that one cannot grow in the Christian faith without knowing that the locus of eternal life is the human heart, and that the commandments are necessary in order to cleanse the senses so that the heart might be purified and revitalized, we now move on to the next step intrinsic to the spiritual life, which is the illumination of the mind.
Jun 9, 2010, 04:07

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
All Saints of Russia
If we do not embrace the faith whole-heartedly, with that spiritual hunger and thirsting, as we hear in the Beatitudes, and live it out in our lives, there is no point in celebrating the feast today.
Jun 6, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Where Do I Begin?
Entering into the Faith, we are enchanted with and passionate about Holy Orthodoxy. It’s a true spiritual (romantic) bubble and it’s a wonderful place to be. Then, inevitably the bubble pops and the once beautiful Bride who seemed so exotic and enticing is now the Old Lady who tells us to stand in vigils, repeat the same prayers over and over, and fast.
Jun 5, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
How to live the Spiritual Life (Part I)
As a priest, I take these words to heart, knowing that, to a great extent, I am the one responsible to God for whether such growth occurs or not. For those ordained to the priesthood, this is a uniquely heavy burden. Why? Because we know that the line that separates growth and stagnation in the endeavor of faith is an extremely fine line indeed.
Jun 4, 2010, 09:00

Our Faith : Fasting
The Apostles Fast
The Great Commission is a huge undertaking. Each one of us participates in it to our abilities and using our God-given talents. Some of us will take the message of Christ far and wide; others to neighbors and family nearby. Some will provide the support and logistics for the people in the mission field. Some will provide a God-filled welcome to visitors who come to our churches. But we are all called to ‘grow the garden’ and to bring the Good News to a dark and fallen world.


Jun 3, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
What Makes a Person a Saint?
This is part of the reason why we celebrate the feast of All Saints on the first Sunday following Pentecost: to remind each one of us of our high calling; to remind each one of us that we are saints – that is, we have been consecrated, set apart for the service of God: not the service of the world, or of our flesh, or of our passions.
May 30, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Those Kneeling Prayers!
This past Monday Eve -- that is, on Pentecost Sunday afternoon -- we prayed the Kneeling Prayers at the Vespers for Holy Spirit Day, on Monday. I love coming to each feast day, in its distinctiveness, and partake of some unique aspect of the Gospel of Jesus Christ communicated through that liturgical celebration. And Pentecost does not disappoint, with its annual Kneeling Prayers.

May 24, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
With or Without the Holy Spirit?
The Acts is great reading, but it is not there for us to say "how great those days must have been, how I wish I had lived through them". Rather the stories of conversions, preachings, missionary journeys and rapid church growth are there to inspire us - for we too have received the same Holy Spirit. The Church without the Holy Spirit is not the Church.
May 22, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Qualifications for Deification
For us, the centre is the God-man Christ. This means it is easy for someone to become a heretic, a Millenarianist, a Mason or whatever else, but it is difficult to become an Orthodox Christian. To become an Orthodox Christian, you must first accept that the centre of the world is not yourself but Christ.

May 21, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Change your Focus
God is fitting us for the battles of life. Sorrow, frustration, and pain are often the tools He uses to shape and mold our lives so that we become reflections of God's mercy and grace to others. While He is not the author of heartache and tragedy, He certainly knows exactly how to use them for our benefit and His glory.


May 19, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Religions
A Message for Lutherans out on a Limb
Once biblical interpretation is divorced from the context of the Church's collective, historical mind, all that remain are convenient opinions. The issue doesn't have to be homosexuality. It needn't concern morality at all. The health, wealth and prosperity Gospel is among the most unbiblical heresies around. You can substitute premarital sex or cohabitation, abortion or euthanasia. We are coming to a day when even polygamy among consenting adults will be accepted and affirmed on the basis of a utilitarian version of love.


May 15, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Icons
What’s the Difference Between an Icon and a Portrait?
The first question that an icon painter is often asked is how one can draw a saint one has never seen. When I graduated from the Surikov Institute of Art (Moscow), I was also tortured by this question. In hagiography, we find descriptions of many saints, for instance, a straight nose, a moustache, a black or a long beard… But there can be so many variants of a ‘long beard,’ how shall I understand what he really looked like?
May 14, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Homily on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord
The Lord’s path should be the path of each and every one of us. The Lord suffered for all of us equally; the Heavens are opened also to all of us equally. Thus, I ask each and every one of you: can we point to very many things in our lives and say that they were done, or not done, by us because we are predestined for Heaven; because, some day, we should be with our Lord in Heaven?
May 13, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Metropolitan Anthony on the Sunday of the Blind Man
Why did the Lord not content Himself with His all-mighty power, but rather tell the man born blind to go to the pool of Siloam and wash in order to recover his sight? The answer to that question is that the man born blind had to show his obedience to the Mysterious Interlocutor of Whom he knew only His Name, but not His Divine authority.
May 9, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Healing of the Man Born Blind
Aren’t the spiritually blind of all times the same? Don’t they also drive Christ from their hearts and lives under the mask of piety, often not even bothering with a mask? Offering to us the Gospel story about blindness in this the last Sunday of Pascha, the Holy Church calls all who thirst for healing from spiritual blindness to turn to the source of light and to follow the wise faith of the one who was born blind.
May 9, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
A Work in Progress
When we encounter someone, we are meeting them along the way somewhere. If a person rubs us the wrong way, commits some faux pas, or is just a jerk, it is too easy for us to judge that action as if came from a finished person, rather than from someone who is really a work in progress.
May 5, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : In the Church
Authority in the Church
Now we find many of those in authority insisting that our duty as laymen is to do whatever we are told and never to rock the boat. I can’t be specific, but I want you to discuss the principals of Orthodox Catholicity or sobornost in which the whole Church is supposed to act in harmony, in unity, and love. The present authorities seem to call for obedience and compliance to whatever they propose. Don’t we have a say, can’t we object and question our leadership?
May 3, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
This is what the sacrament of Confession is all about; not just the listing of sins, but the uprooting of the causes of sin. As we progress in the spiritual life what we confess becomes more and more subtle, as we begin to work with the thoughts, emotions and conditioning that give rise to our sin. Denied the living water of God, we search for other sources of water we hope will quench our thirst, but they produce only more thirst.
May 2, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Pride and Prejudice
When each and every one of us are born, whether black, white, Greek, Turk- whoever, we are born with the image of God in all of us as it states in the Old Testament book of Genesis. This ‘seed’ that God has implanted in us all gives us the ability to love one another, it gives us the ability to see good in one another, it gives us the ability to see God within one another. It’s almost like carrying around a tiny icon of Christ in our hearts.
May 2, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : In the Church
The Diaconate in the Orthodox Church
Today, in many Orthodox lands the diaconate has been decimated by the atheist governments which enslaved those lands while elsewhere most deacons are quickly ordained to the priesthood because of the shortage of priests. Nonetheless, the diaconate is still a vibrant, highly-visible ministry in the Church, with deacons leading the faithful as the master of ceremonies and serving the celebrant at every stage of the Eucharist.
Apr 27, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
We Must Live Each Day as Though It Were a Time of Great Need
9/11, Hurricane Katrina: these events will be etched forever in our minds. It was a time when individuals reached out with Christian love to heal the nation. During those days, we forgot our careers, our money problems, and focused on those in need. But just as quickly, we went back to our careers, our money problems, and focused again on ourselves. Where does Christ go, after the smoke clears?
Apr 26, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Sunday of the Paralytic
Our life, yes, is transient and withering, like the grass under the hot summer sun. But the soul – a unique human personality created by God – its story in time and eternity is altogether different. If the soul is united with its Creator and God, then it becomes the most beautiful, the most precious of everything that is on earth.
Apr 25, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Do you want to be made well?
Just like the paralytic, all of humanity lay in paralysis, having been struck by the illness of the original sin. For long millennia, we tried to find a cure, but could not reach God on our own, nor was there anyone to help us. And yet, we did not lose hope, we kept waiting on God’s mercy and finally received the Divine visitation.


Apr 25, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Plastic Fuzzy
I am convinced that it is because our love is not genuine the church does not grow. Without genuine love, there is no real community. We are called to feed each other, and to build each other up, but no one can grow and thrive on plastic fuzzy. There are simple ways that we can gauge if love is genuine. When is the last time you invited a member of the Church to your house? When was the last time anyone invited you? What do you know about those who stand next to you?
Apr 22, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : In the Church
Who are you?
My problem is that if you consciously chose not to have anything to do with the Church during your lifetime then burying you from the Church makes you into a hypocrite, which I don’t want to do. If I decide to bury you for a stipend, or just in order not to “make waves” in the community, I’m then a hypocrite. And if hypocritical priests bury hypocritical laymen it certainly makes the Church appear hypocritical, doesn’t it?

Apr 21, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Prayers
The Lord is my Shepherd
Psalm 23 (Psalm 22 in the Septuagint) is particularly dear to my heart, as it is sure to be to millions of people of faith. This psalm has a very human character and it applies to our own existential relationship with God the Creator Who brought us into being and makes provision for our everyday sustenance and spiritual wellbeing. Its teaching reminds us of that which is most essential in our lives, that we are God’s children and so we must love and trust in Him for all things both in the present and in the future.


Apr 20, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Prayers
Prayer & Life: Bringing Life to Deadness in Prayer
It is not a rare thing for zealous Christians to experience what the Church father call "dryness" in prayer. A daily rule of prayer requires effort and will, and these can be weakened by tiredness, and distracted by activity. Yet familiarity with prayers can often make them a mere set of words or - even worse - sounds.
Apr 19, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Myrrhbearing Women and the Christian Women of Today
The younger girls and daughters can bring mirth to our Lord Jesus Christ their clean life, their virginity, prayer and obedience to thier parents. All (college) students and young women, who come to church regularly, can also bring to Christ our Saviour their mirth of good fragrance: the zeal for good deeds, mercy and charity towards those in suffering and obedience to their spiritual father.


Apr 18, 2010, 04:14

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Christ's Limitless Love
No doubt, in today’s society we are exposed to many messages about the meaning of love. Countless song titles speak on the subject - “What’s love got to do with it?” “Will you still love me tomorrow?” “All you need is love.” Amidst thousands of songs, movies, and book titles, our Lord’s Resurrection reminds us that it ‘is’ about God’s limitless and sacrificial love.


Apr 14, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Monasticism: The Angelic Evangelic Life
Almighty God has gifted Orthodox Christianity with monasticism. It is the “alternative lifestyle” of Orthodoxy to which some, but not all, are called. Many sources state that the monastic life is the angelic life. Going one step further, some sources even state that God has replaced the angelic ranks that fell with Satan with the men and women who have been called to the angelic (that is, monastic) life.


Apr 13, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Doubting Thomas
We live in a world of great oversimplification and therefore spiritual poverty. “Scientific” or “Unscientific.” People use words like these all the time as if they were self-evident and self-explanatory, and they use them because everyone else also uses them, without reflection, without debate. In fact, they themselves believe these reductions blindly and simplistically, and so any other approach appears to them as neither serious nor worthy of attention. The question is already decided. But is that really true?
Apr 11, 2010, 10:00