One of the things that folks often mention when they’re making their confession is inattention during the divine services. So, I thought I would use this month’s column to talk about that important subject. If we want to be focused during the services, one thing we can do is prepare adequately. And even if we can’t do all the prayers that the Church encourages us to do leading up to the Divine... 

Recently, a young Jewish boy coming home from a Brooklyn, NY day camp was abducted, abused and ultimately killed by a deranged man. While nearly every shred of the story resounds negatively, one aspect for me offered an element of hope. As is the practice of observant Jews, sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday is offered as a gift of time to God. Sabbath (Saturday) is the day of each week when... 

Father Aidan has said it more than once: “If you’re bored at Divine Liturgy, you’re going to be bored in Heaven.” That’s definitely something to consider, since we’re talking about a time frame a lot longer than an hour and a half. Not to make light of something nearly incomprehensible, I wonder how many of us, when conjecturing on whether we’ll be placed with the goats or the sheep... 

Let us lift up our hearts!” “We lift them up to the Lord!” (Divine Liturgy) At the start of the holiest part of the Divine Liturgy, we hear the call from the celebrant: “Let us lift up our hearts!” How do we do that? We know how it feels to be down-hearted. For some reason we may be sad and forlorn. We had been hurt by some event or person. Or maybe we are out of work, we failed an exam,... 

Easter is the high point of the Christian year. Lots and lots of folks get dressed up; they go participate in some sort of worship experience, and congregations just go all out: they have sunrise services and multimedia presentations and Easter egg hunts; they have lilies and banners and special music. It’s a wonderful day, and it’s all about the resurrection of Christ Jesus. But then it’s... 

Especially at the feast of Pascha (Easter) non-Orthodox Christians ask why they may not receive Holy Communion in Orthodox parishes. As painful as this refusal is, it is based on our understanding of the true meaning of the sacrament as revealed in Scripture and ecclesial experience. A few months ago someone sent me a posting from an Internet site that spoke to the issue of communion among various... 

March 2010 Reading of the EpistlesPeople will persist in dysfunctional patterns of behavior simply because they’re familiar. A woman who divorces an abusive alcoholic husband will be very likely later on to marry someone with a similar addiction. The “good ol’ boys” will continue to tie one on Saturday nights, even though the Sunday morning hangover is inevitably excruciating.... 

As a general rule, children like attending Church, and this instinctive attraction to and interest in Church services is the foundation on which we must build our religious education. When parents worry that children will get tired because services are long and are sorry for them, they usually subconsciously express their concern not for their children but for themselves. Children penetrate more easily... 

Veneration of the Cross – Sermon of Metropolitan Jonah 27.03.2011 Veneration of the Cross – His Beatitude, Metropolitan JONAH from Archdiocese of Washington on Vimeo.  Read More →

Fr. Paul M Jannakos Anyone the least bit familiar with the Orthodox Church knows that repetition is a key feature of its worship. We do things over and over again, and then, we do it yet again – one more time. As we find in the Little Litany, “Again and again in peace, let us pray to the Lord.” For many Americans, this seems excessively pedantic, if not outright silly. As one protestant visitor...