Raising Saints
Welcome to Chapter Two of the Raising Saints Podcast - Catching Up
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Christ is risen! Welcome to Raising Saints — and to the second chapter of this Ancient Faith Radio podcast! I have an exciting announcement. When I first started Raising Saints back in 2012, I knew that I wanted to do a podcast about raising children in the Church — but over the years, I’ve gained more and more clarity about wanting to support and inspire parents in their journey, in their efforts…
Faith Encouraged
Expediency
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Christ is risen! Someone once said “Cowardice asks: Is it safe? Expediency asks: Is it politic? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But Conscience asks: Is it right?” We move through our everyday life, facing choices; some big and some small. Mostly they are small choices, but those small choices add up to a way of life that, when the big choices in my life confront me, I act as I have in…
With Lamps in Hand
Two Spiritual Lessons We Can All Learn from a Mother's Love
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A few weeks ago, I was sitting on the playground at my daughter’s school while my girls played for a little. I was sitting on a bench on the edge of the basketball court holding my son. There was a group of middle school boys playing basketball and pestering some middle school girls. As I watched them make sixth-grade boy jokes and mess with the girls, I had a thought I’ve had…
The Morning Offering
Ask For Repentance
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Ask for repentance in your prayer and nothing else In our struggle on the path to God, repentance must be the central theme. Only in repentance will we find the true meaning of life, for only in repentance can one enter into communion with God. This life has been given to us for one purpose, that we might be deified,…
The Morning Offering
Mother's Day
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I am grateful for the love of my mother The most important gift I received from my mother was the gift of love. She loved me, and demonstrated her love for me throughout my childhood. She also showed me how to love others, and that ability to be open to love, and to demonstrate love, eventually allowed me to love…
Time Eternal
Expanding Imagination: Asking Fr. Andrew Louth about Theology in the Public Arena
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Wednesday afternoon, I had the privilege of attending a Q&A with esteemed Orthodox theologian Fr. Andrew Louth (you can watch it in its entirety here). This event was sponsored in part by the school where I occasionally lecture and teach, the Orthodox School of Theology at Trinity College (Toronto). If you haven’t heard of Fr. Andrew Louth, he…
The Morning Offering
Happiness
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Gratefulness makes us happy We all know that money can’t buy happiness, yet many are not aware that practicing simple gratitude does bring about happiness. Being grateful for the people we have in our lives, and for the things that we have, brings about a happiness that can not come about by endlessly trying to acquire things. Researchers testing gratefulness…
Faith Encouraged
Spend Mother's Day with Fr. Barnabas!
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Glory to God for All Things
The Wisdom to Know the Difference
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Our culture changes things. One of its myths is that changing things results in a better world. And so we endure unending advertisements for the newest, the latest, and the improved. Very few things, apart from medications, are tested for their consequences. As such, we are a society in perpetual experiment. It reminds me of a local joke. The last words of a redneck … “Hold my beer. I wanna try something.”…
Father Bill's Blog
64. The Wonderful Works of Saint Nicholas, Part Two - Fake News?
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Why do People make up Stories? Many liberal Protestants and even a few Roman Catholics have believed that the Apostles invented the story of Jesus’ Resurrection: “Hey, guys, let’s make up a tale about Jesus rising from the dead, so we can get chased out of our synagogs and homeland and spend our lives on the road, and finally get killed for it.” People, think! Is that likely? “Fairy tales” are written to…
A Lamp for Today
The Disturbed Mind, the Grasping Mind, the Single Mind, and the Transformed Mind: the Sixth Sunday of Easter
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Readings: Acts 16: 16-34; Psalm 1 This sixth week of Easter we understandably focus upon the illuminating story of the blind man healed by Jesus, and the religious leaders who remained spiritually blind, thinking that they needed no healer. But this gospel reading of John 9 is always coupled with a fascinating story from the Acts of the Apostles 16: 16-34 that also provides for us godly models and a cautionary tale.…
Faith Encouraged
Rules, I Hate Rules!
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Christ is risen! “They have to keep the rules, just like us!” Yeah, that’s true. We should all be held to the same standard. But wait a tick, have you kept the “rules” you expect others to keep? I know it’s hard to get your mind to shift from “what should be” to “what is,” but that’s what our lesson requires today. And there’s the rub, dear ones. But what if the…
The Morning Offering
Problems Within the Church
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If you want to help the Church, correct yourself Whenever we hear of problems in the Church it is our natural inclination to want to read all about it and root out all the details. Yet if we really want to benefit our soul, we should take the advice of the Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos. His advice: “If you…
Faith Encouraged
Setting Right Priorities
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Christ is risen! It was a moment of truth. You know what I’m talking about; moments in your life that really reveal your inner character. That’s where I was, and I failed! It took me a long time to admit it, but when I finally did, it was like a huge weight fell off my shoulders. Our choices, our interests, our focus, reveals important information about who we are. Our priorities tell…
The Morning Offering
Divided Loyalties
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We only think we can be of Christ and of the world “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Do we think we can divide our loyalties in this life,…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Women Disciples of the Lord
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The phrase “women disciples of the Lord” is enough of a commonplace in Orthodox hymnography that it moves past the modern ear with little notice. It seems simply obvious at even a surface reading of the gospels that Christ had a number of followers, and that some of them were women. Contained within this brief phrase, and in the use of the word disciple, however, is a massive transformation in the way in which women were viewed in the ancient world, and their perceived role within the Christian community. As in a previous post, in the person of Jesus Christ, priesthood is reunited with masculinity as a calling, so too in the revelation of Jesus Christ attested by the New…
No Other Foundation
Dishonest Dialogue
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The term “dialogue” (along with its synonyms, “conversation” and “discussion” and “engagement”) seems to have taken its place alongside the proverbial terms “motherhood”, “apple pie”, and “the flag” as sacred and untouchable. It used to be that no one in their right mind would speak against this Trinity of American values, and now no one is allowed to suggest that anything bearing the sacred word “dialogue” should be viewed with suspicion. A…
Faith Encouraged
Its True Whether You Like It or Not!
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Christ is risen! We live in the day and age where most people much prefer to see “gray” everywhere instead of “black and white.” In fact, the very notion that there could be anything that was that clear, that uncomplicated, that cut and dry is a terrifying thought to most. After all, if there are truths that are “black and white” or actual settled wisdom, then that may mean I have to…
The Morning Offering
Resentment
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We must put aside all resentment The decision to forgive another person a wrong done to us begins when we decide to let go of resentment and thoughts of revenge. To forgive someone does not mean that we forget what they did to us, for this may be impossible. The memory of the hurt might always remain with you, but…
Praying in the Rain
The Resurrected Christ Comes To All
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I wrote this today because it was on my mind. It is probably too preachy and predictable. Nonetheless, it may encourage someone, so I offer it. There are five Sundays between Pascha and Ascension. The first two Sundays focus on people associated with Christ’s resurrection. The next three Sundays focus on Christ coming to people with various problems: The righteous who suffer, those who fail in their theology and morality, and…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
David Bentley Hart's The New Testament: A Review
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That David Bentley Hart was asked to produce a translation of the New Testament may at first seem counter-intuitive. His field is philosophy and philosophical theology, not New Testament or Greek language (though he reads Greek). Further, with the wide range of New Testament translations available to a general audience in English, not to mention the variety of Greek critical editions available…
Roads from Emmaus
Jacob and His Well: Baptism for the Nations
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Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, May 6, 2018 Acts 11:19-30; John 4:5-42 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is risen! Today let us begin by contemplating the meaning of water. The Gospel we read today is focused quite literally on water, in which Jesus meets with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s…
Faith Encouraged
What Shapes You?
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Christ is risen! I HATE clutter. It makes me miserable because it makes me feel like I’m out of control. And yet, I’ve known people who are actually calmed by clutter. It makes them feel “at home.” So, when I’m communicating with these kinds of people, I have to remember that not everyone is like me (thank GOD!) But I’ve caught myself becoming frustrated and even angry before I discipline my passions…
The Morning Offering
Mercy
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Everything proceeds out of God’s mercy There is a common misconception concerning the word “mercy”, used throughout the liturgical services of the Church, as well as our private prayers, and the Jesus Prayer. It is a given that we are all sinners, but the asking for God’s mercy is not limited to asking His forgiveness, or begging God to overlook…
Time Eternal
Are You Late or Punctual? The First Time Eternal Roundtable
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Christ is risen! Welcome to a new kind of post I’m starting here on the blog called Time Eternal Roundtables. Every roundtable will center on some kind of time-related conversation starter, and I’ll invite a few respondents to chime in before continuing the conversation with you folks in the comments or on Facebook. Some of these folks will…
Faith Encouraged
That Heavenly Vision
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Christ is risen! Did you know that today is the day we commemorate a miracle? Well, technically we commemorate a miracle every day. Every day is an invitation to know God deeper! Today we remember the appearance of the Holy Cross over the city of Jerusalem. St. Cyril writes “At about the third hour of the day, an enormous Cross, formed of light, appeared in the heaven above holy Golgotha and reaching…
The Morning Offering
Prayer
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Prayer is born of love If we find fault in others, our judgmental attitude prevents us from having a successful communion with God. Prayer is born of love, while fault-finding, idle talk, and self-indulgence are the death of prayer. Love and prayer are interconnected because both involve God, and if we love God we are given the power to keep…
