The feast of Pentecost marks the beginning of the New Testament Church, when the Apostles and disciples of Christ received the Holy Spirit. From that time on, every believer who had been baptized and chrismated by the Apostles or their successors, the bishops and priests, received the Holy Spirit, making them members of the Body of Christ and temples of the living God. We know that no one can say Jesus is Lord and mean it with understanding without the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we know that ... [Read more]
The Reality of the Resurrection
The Orthodox Christian Faith is rich in Holy Tradition. We have many centuries of history, countless Saints, a vast and varied liturgical tradition, and many other treasures. Both from the inside and the outside, the Orthodox Church can seem overwhelming. While this can seemingly be true, the ultimate reality is that the essence of the Orthodox Christian Faith is very simple and boils down to just one vital question: did, in fact, Jesus rise from the dead? We know that Jesus was an historical ... [Read more]
Stewardship of the Holy Mystery of Marriage
Marriage is holy; it is blessed by God. It can bring a man and a woman tremendous satisfaction and fulfillment, but it is anything but easy. If we were to take a poll of those who enter into the monastic life and ask them what their number one reason for becoming a monastic was, we would hear the majority say it had something to do with SALVATION and HARD WORK! If we were to take the same poll of people getting married, my hunch is that the answer would be quite different. Most people get ... [Read more]
Renewing Our Spiritual Life
It is only by coincidence, but I love the fact that our Orthodox Feast of Theophany and our calendar New Year happen together. Americans traditionally take advantage of the New Year to renew themselves, making New Year resolutions. As Orthodox, we see the great Feast of Theophany as an even greater celebration of renewal. Because we remember in the present Jesus’ blessing of the Jordan by His sanctifying presence in the waters, we make that blessing a present reality in our lives through the ... [Read more]
Volunteerism in the Body of Christ
In our holy Orthodox Faith, we often speak about Christian Stewardship. In our parish of St. John the Baptist, we have had the special opportunity to practice Christian Stewardship out of necessity. This has been a great blessing and has been largely due to the fact that we started our parish with only six families. In such a small parish community, each person is needed and this need, historically, was easy to recognize. As the parish has grown, two things have happened: the work-load has ... [Read more]
The Way of the Cross
The month of September in the Orthodox Church is a month of new beginnings. It marks the beginning of the new ecclesiastical year. All of the fixed feasts and fasts of the church calendar begin anew in September. Our Church offers us a chance to repeat this God-inspired cycle of salvation history and the sanctification of time itself. Whatever we did not take advantage of during the previous year, God, in His abundant mercy, gives us the opportunity to re-experience. This month also marks the ... [Read more]
Self Accusation: The Path to Innocence
While still in the season of the resurrection, which lasts forty days, the Church begins to focus our attention on the Feast of Pentecost. This feast, which means «fiftieth», commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the holy apostles and disciples of our Lord. It is entitled «fiftieth» to signify that it happened fifty days after Pascha; it was the fiftieth day since our Lord’s resurrection. Once the apostles received the Holy Spirit, they were transformed from "fishermen into ... [Read more]
Getting the Most Out of the Nativity Season
Throughout Scripture, as far back as Genesis, we have been taught that the Evil One is a liar and the father of lies. He distorts and he deceives, but he often does it in a subtle way, taking a partial truth and absolutizing it. This is exactly what the devil did in the Garden with Eve. He deceived her by taking bits of the truth and distorting them. It is true that Eve did not die as a direct result of eating the forbidden fruit. It was also true that God wanted Eve to become like Him, but the ... [Read more]
Working Towards More Frequent Confession
The heart and soul of the Orthodox Church is her liturgical and sacramental life. This is by God’s design, precisely because the human person is created to worship God and to have a relationship with Him. It is through prayer and worship that we commune with God, but God has also given us the holy mysteries or sacraments. Baptism, Chrismation, the Eucharist, Marriage, Unction, Ordination and Confession are the main Mysteries of the Church. It is through these that God offers us communion with ... [Read more]
Ecclesiastical New Year
Let us commend ourselves and one another, and our whole life to Christ our God. Several times during the course of the Divine Liturgy we hear the words, “Let us commend ourselves and one another, and our whole life to Christ our God.” What do these words mean? How are we to understand them in the context of our daily life? How do we commend others to Christ? What does this particular petition mean in regards to our parish and all those who are a part of it? I raise these questions at a time ... [Read more]
