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Faith Encouraged
I Have Heard Your Prayer
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They say there is a point of absolute clarity when a person is facing their own mortality. We’ve heard it all before; “Your life flashes before your eyes.” Of course, this is a moment in human life we humans regularly avoid thinking about. Our mortality isn’t something we like to dwell on. And yet, it is a part of life. St. Ambrose of Optina teaches “You must not be greatly troubled about…
The Word of the Day
On Impulsiveness and Thoughtfulness (Mon, March 27)
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The word for today is impulsive. Today in our reading of Proverbs 14:27-15:4, the sage of Proverbs observes, “He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly (vs. 14:29). We know this insight is true from our own experience. All of us lash out hastily at times especially when we are angry. But our reaction usually causes even more distress. We might ask what is the reason for that impulsiveness? What Is Impulsiveness? The word for impulsive in Hebrew means simply “short.” In English we use the word in that sense when we say, Someone was short with us. It means hasty and curt to the point of rudeness. We act on impulse,…
The Word of the Day
How To Anchor Your Soul in Hope (Sun. March 26)
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The word of the day is “anchor.” So many people these days are drifting. The currents of society are carrying them one way and then another.  Subtle and almost irresistible influences are assailing believers and unbelievers. Our reading of Hebrews 6:13-20 offers us the only defense from these social forces. The apostle writes, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…” (NKJV vs. 18).  Today our reading helps us to realize that nothing in this churning world is unchanging. But this passage teaches us to look to our hope in the Eternal God to keep worldliness from overwhelming us. The thing about drifting is that we don’t notice it. We aren’t aware that we are being…
Eastern Christian Insights
Growing in Prayer, Fasting, and Brutally Honest Faith This Lent: Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church
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Hebrews 6:13-20; Mark 9:16-30      It may be tempting at times to fantasize about having achieved great heights in any endeavor, including the Christian life. Our calling is nothing less than to become like God in holiness as partakers of the divine nature by grace, but the more that we assume we are quickly and easily fulfilling that vocation, the further we will be from acquiring the mature…
The Word of the Day
How to Renew Our Diligence in Our Spiritual Struggle (Sat. March 25)
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The word of the day is “diligence.”  Time erodes zeal. As the days pass, our original dedication to a cause tends to diminish.  This observation is true of our spiritual intensity.  We have passed the mid-point of Great Lent.  Have your steps slowed on your Lenten journey to the house of our Heavenly Father?  That is likely unless you have found a way to overcome natural spiritual inertia. If we have become sluggish in our observance of Lent, we need the word of our reading of Hebrews 6:9-12.  The apostle speaks to all of us, saying, “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end” (vs. 11).  Today our study…
Glory to God for All Things
To See Him Face to Face
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“The self resides in the face.” – Psychological Theorist, Sylvan Tompkins +++ There is a thread running throughout the Scriptures that can be described as a “theology of the face.” In the Old Testament we hear a frequent refrain of “before Thy face,” and similar expressions. There are prayers beseeching God not to “hide His face.” Very clearly in Exodus, God tells Moses that “no one may see my face and…
Faith Encouraged
Leave Your Comfort Zone
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Daring to follow God’s plan for your life is an act of faith that rarely happens by accident. You have to be listening to hear His plans! So how do you develop a lifestyle that makes you attentive to God’s direction for your life? It all starts with being willing to be taught. It begins with your willingness to live a life of repentance. The Scriptures are full of stories about people…
The Word of the Day
Prudence as a Surprising Virtue (Fri. March 24)
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The word for today is “prudent.” Today in our reading of Proverbs 14:15-26, we have a lesson on prudence. The sage says, “The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his step (OSB vs. 15). Today we will probe what “prudence” means. The term “prudence” has gone out of favor, but it is a key to Proverbs. We know the term primarily for its derivative “prudish.”  Those who are prudish are concerned about what is formally proper. They are “stuck up,” snobbish, and judgmental about keeping the rules.  In Hebrew, the term means crafty, shrewd, and sensible (Strong’s #6175). In short, the prudent are the clever, even cunning. “Prudent,” The Opposite of “Gullible” We might object that this…
Faith Encouraged
Let Us Make a Name for Ourselves!
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It is said that the greatest chess players “see” at least 4 moves ahead at all times. This is why they can anticipate their opponent’s moves and be ready for them. But most of us simply don’t think that far ahead in our lives. We clutter our moments with as much noise as possible in an attempt to drown out the silence that makes us uncomfortable. This need for constant stimulation, constant…
No Other Foundation
“The Genesis of Liberal Theology”
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I have been reading liberal theology since my college days—i.e. theologies which deny many, most, or all of the major tenets of the traditional Christian Faith. The theologies are as many and as varied as their authors, but they all share a conviction that Jesus of Nazareth didn’t say and do all the things which the New Testament recorded that He said and did, that the Gospels are not to be trusted…
Walking an Ancient Path
What’s with All the Standing for the Akathist Hymn?
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When you think of great military leaders throughout the world, do certain names spring to mind? If you know World War II history, you might think of Earl Mountbatten of Burma or American generals like Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower. If you go further back in time, you might recall Alexander the Great or Attila the Hun. But did the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, make your list of…
Faith Encouraged
An Intoxicated Noah & A Foolish Son
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Years ago, in my police officer days, I got assigned to the local DUI Task Force. This was a multi-jurisdictional team of officers specifically trained to combat driving under the influence and a direct result of the work of Mothers Against Drunk Driving that had formed in our community. I really loved this assignment because of our extra training and the fulfilling opportunity to really make a difference. One of the most…
The Word of the Day
Anxiety Puts Us Down, But A Good Word Lifts Us Up (March 22, 2023)
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The word of the day is “anxious.” W. H. Auden published his Pulitzer-prize-winning poem, “The Age of Anxiety,” in 1947.  That title is still an apt description of our time, especially during these days of one crisis after another.  Psychology Today reports that anxiety levels in America are three times higher now than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic. But anxiety is a product of the human condition and has been a factor of our human experience since the Fall.  We are fragile and vulnerable creatures who have built-in survival mechanisms.  These systems respond in body, mind, and soul to alarms of threats to our well-being, and we become anxious. In our reading of Proverbs 12:23-13:9, the wise sage of Proverbs makes a seemingly simple observation about…
Faith Encouraged
There's Only One Purpose For A Cross - Sunday's Homily
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The fact that humans are so very aware of our own mortality means that the fear of death drives much of our intoxication with our passions. But at the center of Great Lent, the Church gives us the image of the Cross to drive us to embrace another way of living that is prepared for death. If you are going to follow Christ in any serious way, you must be willing to…
Faith Encouraged
God Makes A Covenant with a Rainbow
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It’s an old word, but I like it. The word “covenant” is such a significant word for moderns precisely because we have seemed to have forgotten the power of “covenant.” Our society is gripped by hyper-individualism that seems to be intoxicated with the notion of “rights” “privilege” and “power.” This intoxication has created such chaos that even our very way of knowing our own identity has become confused. We think our identity…
The Word of the Day
Doing What Is Right in Your Own Eyes or Accepting Counsel (Tues. March 21)
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The word of the day is “eyes.” How do you respond when someone points out your fault? Do you bristle with indignation, or do you respond to correction with appreciation? In our reading of Proverbs 12:8-22, the wise sage writes, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise” (NKJV vs. 15). Today we learn that thinking that we are wise in our own wisdom is a sign of pride. And we suggest that this kind of deep self-conceit requires salvation and healing more than instruction. A Law unto Themselves The Old Testament Book of Judges ends with the social disintegration of the People of God. The writer explains the cause of…
Beyond the Bars
"God of All-Comfort": The Icon from Solitary Confinement
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When OCPM founder, Fr. Duane Pedersen, began corresponding with Michael in prison, Michael was quick to say he preferred if Fr. Duane would stop writing about God. Despite showing no indication that his heart was changing, Fr. Duane faithfully wrote to him week after week, year after year. After twenty years of correspondence, Fr. Duane received a surprising letter. “I want to be baptized into the Orthodox Faith.” But this was only…
Faith Encouraged
The Precious Blood
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“Blood is thicker than water.” “He makes my blood boil.” We are related by blood.” So many sayings about “blood” and so many common sayings from culture to culture. It seems we humans are hard-wired to “know” the importance of the life fluid we call blood. And yet it would be a mistake to reduce this life-fluid to mere “scientism” of materialistic functionality. There is a mystery in the blood. And that…
The Word of the Day
To Make True and Sound Judgments (Mon. March 20)
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The word of the day is “judgment.” The adage that “Man proposes but God disposes” is true. But without plans, our lives are aimless and without purpose.  To steer the course of our lives, God has given us the faculty of judgment to decide between alternatives to the actions we should take. But our judgment may be in line with the will of God or against it. In our reading of Proverbs 11:19-12:6, the wise sage of Proverbs says, “The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceitful” (NKJV vs. 12:5).  Today we will examine what it means to think “right” thoughts, that is, to make sound judgments. Our commentary will use the translation of the Septuagint (LXX)…
Glory to God for All Things
A Modern Lent
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Few things are as difficult in the modern world as fasting. It is not simply the action of changing our eating habits that we find problematic – it’s the whole concept of fasting and what it truly entails. It comes from another world. We understand dieting – changing how we eat in order to improve how we look or how we feel. But changing how we eat in order to know God…
Remembering Sion
The Comfort of the Cross
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My brothers and sisters, we have reached today the midpoint of the Fast. For three weeks we have each been struggling — according to our individual strength and circumstances — to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and… run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). But our Mother the Church knows that the race is long; She knows also our…
The Word of the Day
By the Cross, the Lord Became Our Great High Priest (Sun. March 19)
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The word of the day is “offer.”  For the Orthodox, today is the mid-point of Great Lent, the Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross.  The Cross we exalt today is the center of the faith.  According to our reading of Hebrews 4:14-5:6, it was by the Cross that the Lord Jesus became our High Priest (OSB 4:14). Thus, the apostle writes that God appointed Christ to offer “gifts and sacrifices for sin” as a priest (NKJV vs. 5:1).  Today, we view the Cross through the lens of the apostle’s teaching of Christ, the High Priest. For the Orthodox, the Lord’s death on the Cross was no impersonal payment, no supernatural transaction to balance the scales of divine justice. It was a…
Eastern Christian Insights
We Will Either Take Up Our Crosses or Commit Idolatry: Homily for the Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross in the Orthodox Church
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Hebrews 4:14-5:6; Mark 8:34-9:1             We do not have to look very closely at dominant trends in our culture today for signs that growing numbers of people are offering their lives for the service of false gods, regardless of how they identify themselves religiously. The evidence of their idolatry is not primarily in where they congregate to worship, but in how they seek first the things of this world, such as possessions,…
The Word of the Day
Things No One Can Take From Us And Things Only We Can Give Away (Sat. March 18)
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The word of the day is “cast.” There are things that others can take away from us.  There are things that others cannot take away from us but that we can give away. And there are things that can neither be taken from us nor given away. Today, in our reading of Hebrews 10:32-38, the apostle urges us, “Do not cast away your confidence which has a great reward” (OSB Vs. 33).  This verse prompts us to reflect on the things that are in our control to keep, the things that require our endurance to preserve. In today’s reading, the apostle encourages his flock to persevere in endurance. The Greek word means “remaining” or “persisting.” The term especially refers to bearing trials…
A Lamp for Today
Light from the Canticles 6: Hosea's Yearning and Hope
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Isaiah 26:9-20; Psalm 119; Romans 8:22-39; 2 Peter 1:19 The fifth Biblical Ode, taken from the song in Isaiah 26:9-20, is both challenging, and encouraging. It begins practically, with a description of human vigilance before God, and ends pragmatically, with a reminder that human beings are given by the LORD a time of rest, for He is the main Actor in our world. Between these bookends, we hear of righteousness and judgment,…
Faith Encouraged
2 Paths; One Good, One Bad
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“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” This quote by Henry David Thoreau is beautiful. But I have a problem with it since it seems to suggest that any path will do as long as it’s your own path. In fact, it seems our own day has fallen into the false notion that “all paths lead to God.” Of course, nothing could be…
The Word of the Day
Two Paths to Take In Life– But One Choice to Make (Fri. March 17)
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The word of the day is “but .” Both wickedness and righteousness earn a just reward that is suited to them.  In our reading of Proverbs 10:31-11:12, we learn this principle of God’s justice. The wise sage of Proverbs writes, “The righteousness of the upright saves them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their own schemes (OAB vs. 6). Today we examine the contrast between the consequences of following the path of wisdom and straying from it in the way of wickedness. The Treachery of Wickedness In today’s reading, we find that wickedness is full of schemes, plots, and treachery. By these measures, evil strives to get ahead in this world.  But the sage warns that these designs are useless for two reasons.…