I love working with youths. They tend to pose difficult questions. At a recent weekend retreat, my favorite feature was something called “Fire on Father.” It was my first time at this particular camp, so I was somewhat apprehensive about the title. Far from being hit with any projectiles, however, I walked into a verbal barrage. The kids were invited to write questions on note cards and... 

One of my favorite stories about Mother Teresa is when an American reporter asked her which is the poorest country she had ever been to. Answering in a very Mother Teresa like manner, she said, “Yes, yes, yes. I have been to many countries and seen much poverty and suffering. Everywhere I go people tell me of their hardships and struggles, and ask for help, and I give what I can. But of all the countries... 

“How can you, a churchman, go to work for a capitalistic oil company?” asked Fr Alexander Schmemann, when I became an employee of Exxon in 1970. Fr Alexander, then Dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary, and I had been acquainted for some years before. We’d corresponded on and discussed church issues, especially when he visited Syracuse NY. I was in graduate school there studying engineering. By... 

Some time ago, I heard a protestant minister talk about the Old Testament story of the three youths who were cast into the furnace. I had read the story many times, but this minister pointed to something that I had never considered. Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego came out of the furnace and the Bible says that they were not even singed by the fire. Even more, they did not smell of smoke. The protestant... 

You may wonder where the term “scapegoat” comes from. As a matter of fact, it comes from the Book of Leviticus: “Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man... 

In a collection of essays called “Holy Laughter”, Conrad Hyers says, “A common trait of dictators, revolutionaries, and ecclesiastical authoritarians alike is the refusal to laugh at themselves or permit others to laugh at them.” Of course, “them” can easily mean “us.” At times we all take ourselves too seriously, forgetting to laugh at the mirror and refusing to let others see us as... 

A friend of mine died yesterday. He made a public announcement about it and then he committed suicide. Not physically, spare the thought, but for all practical purposes he is now dead to the world. How did it happen? Well, he officially announced that he is quitting Facebook for good, and, with this, his life has ended; no one will even remember that he ever was; he has passed into the World Wide Web... 

Source: Azbuka veri       Translated by Natalia Tsyguleva Edited by Hierodeacon Samuel (Nedelsky)         Published in The Church Herald, №5 (402), March, 2009/17.03.2009   Is it necessary for a priest to have his own website? Not for everyone, I suppose. We know there are different charismata in the Church. There are pastors of... 

Source: The Orthodox Fellowship of St. John the Baptist   O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! Robert Burns The prayer of Scotland‘s national poet – for a better sense of how we appear in other people‘s eyes – is one in which all Orthodox Christians can join. That doesn‘t mean, of course, that we should be obsessively concerned with our ‘image‘... 

Source: In Communion: Web Site of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship   I was sick and you came to visit me, I was in prison and you came to be with me. – Mt 25:36 I worked as a psychiatric nurse for 37 years, the last 24years at the Old Vaasa Hospital, a criminal-psychiatric hospital established by the State of Finland. Here there are125 patients, including murderers, drug users, alcoholics,...