Our Faith : Prayers
"Lord, Teach Us to Pray!"
The truth is that while it would seem that prayer should be the most natural of things, it is often the most difficult - even for the Disciples of Christ! Talking with God sometimes seems like talking to someone that we are out with on a first date. We are awkward and seek carefully for the right words to try to impress and not offend - if we can find the words at all!


Feb 9, 2010, 10:00

Family life : Bringing up children
More on Parenting for Faith
As parents, this means that the most powerful witness of our faith will depend on whether or not we have the humility and the courage to “get up” by repenting of our mistakes in the presence of our children. This is perhaps the most difficult parenting challenge that we will face. It means apologizing to our spouses, our colleagues, friends, acquaintances and even strangers—in plain sight of our kids.
Feb 8, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Fasting
Sunday of the Last Judgment
If Christ is really the Son of God, then death, judgment, Paradise, and hell are real as well. If we accept these realities, our acceptance is the first act of faith. Faith is the first step on the path to salvation, and fear of God is the second step.


Feb 7, 2010, 10:00

New Russian Martyrs
The Holy New Russian Martyrs
Why is the memory of the holy new martyrs so dear to us? How did they so please God that we hymn their lives as a true example for the faithful? We do not honor the new martyrs because they suffered. Everyone suffers, and we also suffer. We suffer because our lives turn out different from what we want them to be; we are hurting because others do not value us enough; we are tortured by our own passions and are in pain from the wounds that we inflict on ourselves by our own lack of physical and spiritual self-control. Romeo and Juliet, they also suffered—for there never was a story of more woe…
Feb 7, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : In the Church
Prayer and the Departed Saints
What happens when a believer dies? Does his or her spirit go immediately to heaven? Are the souls of the dead conscious? Are they actively involved in what is going on around them, or do they remain asleep until the day of resurrection? Do our departed friends and loved ones in Christ remember us? Are they aware of what is taking place here on earth? Is it possible to ask them to pray for us and to intercede on our behalf? For the Orthodox Church, such questions as those above are not peripheral aspects of the Faith.
Feb 6, 2010, 10:00

Sermons, Lectures
How to Live an Ecological Life in Christ
Aware or not, our acts greatly influence the people around us. Take a priest: if he does not behave properly in the parish, will his parishioner be willing to advance on the path to Christ he only preaches but does not follow? Take a parent: would a child listen to come home early while his parents party all night every weekend? Take a manager: would everyone perform to their best abilities under his command if he has bad work ethics?


Feb 5, 2010, 10:00

Sermons, Lectures
Dostoevsky and Memory Eternal
An Eastern Orthodox Approach to the Brothers Karamazov
Central to Eastern Orthodox Christendom is the singing, at the end of every Orthodox funeral, of the song known as "Memory Eternal" (in Church Slavonic: Vechnaya Pamyat). This song also concludes Dostoevsky's great, final novel, The Brothers Karamazov, when, following the funeral of the boy whom Alyosha Karamazov (and the circle of schoolboys around Alyosha) had deeply loved, Alyosha speaks to the boys about the funeral and about the meaning of the resurrection, with this brief song as their steady focus.


Feb 4, 2010, 10:00

Discussions and Opinions
To convert or not to convert?
No priestly act is of more far-reaching consequence than a conversion to Orthodoxy. It crucially determines for all time the convert's personal status, his marital rights and restrictions as well as his religious allegiance. If a pledge of unqualified loyalty to the Orthodox Church is subsequently betrayed, the result is disastrous, not least for the priest involved, should he have been guilty of an error of judgement in authorising the conversion on insufficient evidence of sincerity.
Feb 3, 2010, 10:00

Family life : Bringing up children
Parents of Faith
One of the biggest mistakes that Christian parents often make is to confuse catechism for education. We begin with the externals. Isn’t there a book I can read and teach to my kids? Isn’t there a curriculum I can implement? Isn’t there a moral system that I can somehow drill into their little minds? We want solutions in a box, simple equations into which we can feed our kids, from which they can emerge as believers.
Feb 2, 2010, 10:00

Library
Love Without Limits
Whoever you are, whatever you may be, says the Lord of Love, my hand is resting upon you at this very moment. By this gesture, I am letting you know that I love you and that I call you for my own. I have never ceased loving you, speaking to you, or calling you. Sometimes it was in silence and solitude. Sometimes it was there, where others were gathered in my name.


Feb 1, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Fasting
Lost and Found
There is a story told about another "prodigal" who left his home and led a dissolute life, which was a disgrace to his parents. He too decided to go home, but he was uncertain what the response would be. So he wrote to his parents to tell them what he was intending to do. And he asked them to put a small white handkerchief in the top left corner of a window as a sign that he would be accepted back.


Jan 31, 2010, 10:00

Sermons, Lectures
The Pastoral Power of Theology: St John the Golden-Mouthed
Theology has become an abstract, neutral discourse about God. If one looks the word up in a dictionary, one will find that the term “theology” is comprised of theos-God and logos-word/discourse and so the definition of theology is “words about God.” It is a discipline that speaks about God, his revelation and relation to the world. Theology is therefore analogous to geology or zoology, it just happens that its subject-matter is God, rather than the earth or animals. With theology defined in this way, it is hard to see its pastoral implications.
Jan 30, 2010, 10:00

Orthodoxy in the World
A Pilgrimage to Orthodox Georgia
Georgia is a country that is often overlooked or only very briefly dealt with in English-language publications about Orthodoxy, but it is a country that can teach us a great deal about our Faith. It is a country that has had to fight for its Faith almost from the time of its conversion. But during the course of its troubled history, the Church in Georgia has managed to keep its traditions, Church music and buildings of great beauty and grace.

Jan 29, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Theosis: Partaking of the Divine Nature
What on earth does it mean—“you are gods”? Doesn’t our faith teach that there is only one God, in three Persons? How can human beings be gods? In the Orthodox Church, this concept is neither new nor startling. It even has a name: theosis. Theosis is the understanding that human beings can have real union with God, and so become like God to such a degree that we participate in the divine nature.

Jan 28, 2010, 10:00

History of Christianity
The Hymnographic Contribution of the Antiochian Orthodox Church to the Byzantine Liturgical System During the Sixth and Seventh Centuries
During the Sixth and Seventh centuries, which combined are considered the second stage of the foundation of Church hymnography, there arose from within the Antiochian Patriarchate many famous composers and chanters. These scholars enriched the Byzantine liturgical system with sound theological texts which when set to various structures and tones and combined with many other church activities developed at that time reveal the large role played by the Church in Antioch in this field.


Jan 27, 2010, 10:00

Orthodoxy in the World
Canadian Describes Experience as Missionary in Zimbabwe
When we were preparing to go, we didn’t know much about this southern African country. We only had a few weeks’ notice and no time to research. The news we heard from others painted a bleak picture. We were starting to get nervous. We were pleasantly surprised to find a very different picture when we arrived.
Jan 26, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Fasting
A Time to Feast and a Time to Fast
This year, because Great Lent begins so early, we feel that cycle perhaps more intensely than at other times. Having just finished the great twin feasts of our Lord’s Nativity and Baptism (Christmas and Theophany) we enter almost immediately it seems on the preparation for Great Lent. And so we swing from one of the greatest festal seasons of the year, directly into the greatest fasting season of the year. A time to feast, a time to fast.

Jan 25, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Fasting
Preparing for Great Lent
We usually think of this preparatory time as the period of Great Lent, but in fact it begins three weeks earlier with the Sundays of the Publican and Pharisee, the Prodigal Son and the Last Judgment. Since we are not fasting yet, we tend to pay less attention to these preparatory Sundays than we do to the Sundays of Great Lent, and yet they are very important, as they give us a map, as it were, of our lenten journey.


Jan 24, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Fasting
Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
In our mentality we tend to oppose glory and humility because we have identified humility with deficiency or weakness. Our ignorance, our incompetence, ought to make us feel humble. It seems almost impossible to "put across" to modern man, fed on publicity, self - affirmation and endless self - praise, that all which is genuinely perfect, beautiful and good, is at the same time naturally humble. Precisely because it is perfect and good, it does not need "publicity" and external glory of any kind.


Jan 24, 2010, 10:00

Holy Fathers
Selections from the Path to Salvation by St. Theophan the Recluse
Having a firm basis in such an understanding, one may easily conclude that a cold fulfilling of the rules of the Church, just like routine in business, which is established by our calculating mind, or like correct and dignified behavior and honesty in conduct, is not a decisive indicator that the true Christian life is present in us. All this is good, but as long as it does not bear in itself the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, it has no value at all before God.
Jan 23, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith
Manifesto in a Grocery Line
A lot of life happens in the grocery checkout lane. Sometimes when I am waiting to make my purchase, clerical garb and all, people quite naturally engage me in conversation. Recently, however, I had the odd experience of being a catalyst for a conversation between two young men in line—merely by just standing there. I was clearly not invited to participate; it was far from comfortable.


Jan 22, 2010, 10:00

My Way to Orthodoxy
The Quiet Cradle
When I left my small town for college, I needed to provide others with a clear, concise explanation of my faith, a log line for Orthodox Christianity. I developed my log line after realizing I had only thirty seconds to explain my faith before a person’s eyes glazed over. And as Campus Crusade for Christ and Evangelical Christians gained ground on college campuses, I was tired of my mumbled, “I’m Eastern Orthodox,” met by a blank stare. My new log line was for the simple: “Eastern Orthodox. It’s like Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox, only it’s from the Middle East.”
Jan 21, 2010, 10:00

Sermons, Lectures
The Lamb of God
We like everything to be clean and sanitary. We want the joys of life, without the pain. We want the pleasures of life, without the work. We want to enjoy the accomplishments, without learning from the failures. If I had to point to the one great flaw of our great American nation, it is that we have forgotten somehow the precious value of sacrifice.


Jan 20, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Clothe Yourself in Christ
In January, we celebrate the Lord’s Baptism which reminds us of our calling to become Christ-like and to become clothed in the garment of salvation and live a life worthy of the Gospel. Just as the military code of conduct demands that soldiers do everything in their power to follow and honor the established protocol and principals, we are also invited by our Lord to be instruments of love, peace and compassion!
Jan 19, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Theophany – reflections on the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ
Through the baptism of the Lord the waters received God’s blessing, being transformed in waters of sanctification. The Jordan is no more a water in which the demons lurk, as we see sometimes in the icons of Theophany, but it is now water of salvation; water that liberates man from the ties of sin, giving Him birth again from water and Spirit. Man is remodeled by God, as a pot maker models his vessels, using water and fire: water from the River Jordan and fire from the Holy Spirit.


Jan 19, 2010, 10:00