My Orthodox adventure started when my Uncle Billy (Steven) talked with me about church at a family BBQ more than a decade ago. My wife Crystal and I weren’t attending church at the time. I was lost about what church to attend. He suggested we come visit the Greek Orthodox Church, of course my first response was, “Do we have to get togas?” I talked to Crystal about it. We went to a few more family events and talked more about Orthodoxy. Then we went to Vespers for our first service. At Vespers ... [Read more]
Miscellaneous Articles
St. Athanasius the Great
Αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐνηνθρώπισεν, ἵνα ἡμεῖς θεοποιηθῶμεν He became man, that we might be made god. * * * This is perhaps the most quoted sentence from any of the Church Fathers. It was written by St. Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria, in the Fourth Century, in his theological treatise, On the Incarnation. This month we commemorate St. Athanasius, along with his successor, St. Cyril of Alexandria, on January 18. St. Athanasius was born in Egypt during the height of Christian persecution ... [Read more]
Blueprints for the Little Church: Creating an Orthodox Home
Book Review: Blueprints for the Little Church: Creating an Orthodox Home, by Elissa Bjeletich & Caleb Shoemaker. Reviewed by Paraskevi Whitton. We are all familiar with the need to convert our hearts and minds to become fully Orthodox, and this most useful book helps us to also convert our homes and family life into living fully as Orthodox Christians as well. This book does an excellent job in helping the reader understand not only what the Little Church is, but also how to transform and ... [Read more]
“Come and Read!” – An Introduction to Introductions
Book Review: The Orthodox Church, by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. Reviewed by Chad M. As you may have noticed, the “Introduction to Orthodoxy” table at the Logos Bookstore has been growing steadily in recent years and months. This is a truly beautiful time to be exploring Orthodoxy—whether as an inquirer or a “cradle” Orthodox who wants to dig a little deeper— as more and more works are being written and/or translated into English. But this explosion of reading material may also prove a ... [Read more]
St. Basil the Great’s Sermon to the Rich
Note: The following "Sermon To the Rich" was probably delivered in the year 368, when most of Asia Minor was struck by a severe drought which caused great hardship, intensified by the greed of some who held back grain to inflate prices. At this time, St. Basil was a priest in the diocese of Caesarea, overseeing a very active ministry to the poor and ill; St. Gregory the Theologian describes Basil’s hospital at the gates of Caesarea as a virtual “city” (or. 43.63). The Greek text of Basil’s ... [Read more]
Raising Independent Children to be Dependent on God
How can parents cultivate a relationship between God and their children? Fr. Timothy Pavlatos, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Nationally Certified Counselor, speaks with Emmy Louvaris to tell us how. Listen as they discuss how modeling forgiveness, trust, repentance, and love makes all the difference. You won’t want to miss this episode. From Raising Independent Children to be Dependent on God on the Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) ... [Read more]
The Synaxis of the Holy Archangels and All The Bodiless Powers ~ November 8th
On November 8th, we commemorate the Synaxis of the Holy Archangels and all the Bodiless Powers. This is a special time to remember the unique place of the angelic powers as created beings who glorify God, teach us to glorify God and minister to us and aid in our salvation. The bodiless powers are a central part of the invisible warfare going on all around us. It is therefore vital for our success in this warfare to understand what the Church teaches us about them and how beneficial they are in ... [Read more]
The Ladder of Divine Ascent on Prayer
The goal of all spiritual labors is communion with God. We do not seek an abstract vision of the Divine, nor do we labor for a legal verdict declaring us “not guilty.” Rather, we aim at communion and union; we set our sights on the true, intimate knowledge of God which is “life eternal” (John 17:3). According to St. John, prayer must be looked at as both the means to and the achievement of this knowledge. The goal of prayer is God. This is important to note as we begin. In prayer and through ... [Read more]
Movement in the Church
Corporate worship in the Orthodox Church is full of orderly movement; our services are liturgical, and have a natural progression of movements to them. Liturgical worship is led by the Clergy, who are given specific guidelines (rubrics) about how and when to do what. From the exhaustive list of detailed rubrics contained in the clergy service books, it is clear that movement plays a central role in our corporate praise and supplications before God. As important as the rubrics and physical ... [Read more]
What Do We Believe About Cremation?
With the recent passing of one of our beloved parishioners and her subsequent cremation, it is timely that we all be reminded of our Orthodox Church’s position on cremation. In many cases involving families that are not all Orthodox, it is especially important to put in writing our request to be buried with a full Orthodox Funeral rather than being cremated. The following comes right from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, and can be found in both the annually published Yearbook and the ... [Read more]
