Glory to God for All Things
Sentiment, Suffering and Death
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I awoke in the middle of the night to a strange thought. It did not seem to come out of a dream but was simply there in my mind. The thought was something like this: “They will have parties to celebrate suicides.” What the thought meant was that a day is coming in which people will gather for something of a “send-off” party, to celebrate someone’s decision to die. Euthanasia parties. It…
Time Eternal
Introducing a Nativity Fast Blogathon!
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Dear Time Eternalites, Advent is a strange time of year, isn’t it? On the one hand, the coming of Christ fills us with the desire to slow down and make the most of our time–in our families, in our faith, in our Churches. On the other hand, however, the pace of life and stress seems to reach a…
Faith Encouraged
TRADITION! Tradition!
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I was on Broadway in New York City, and I had tickets to “The Fiddler on the Roof!” And I was as giddy as a school boy. This is one of my favorite plays, mainly because one of the deep vacuums in my life was a sense of rootlessness because I was part of the vast American population that didn’t know where my family came from, and I felt this missing identity.…
The Morning Offering
Monasticism
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Monasticism, and the love of God and neighbor Monasticism within the tradition of the Orthodox Church has many expressions. Some are called to live in the wilderness as hermits, living the solitary way of life. Others, such as Saint Maria of Paris and Saint John of San Francisco, are called to live their monastic struggles within cities, surrounded by people.…
Time Eternal
6 Practices to Combat Despondency, Part 2
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If you haven’t been keeping up with Deacon Michael Hyatt’s journey through my book, Time and Despondency, this last day before the Advent Fast (New Calendar) is the perfect TIME to start! Check out the newest episode here. It’s about the practices of thanksgiving and confession, and the episode is one of three devoted to practical ways to approach and counter…
Faith Encouraged
Countless Guides, But Not Many Fathers
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We have over 30 families going through our A Journey to Fullness class at the parish and they keep hearing me say “This is a family, not a corporation or a club.” One of the key aspects of Orthodoxy that drew me to the Church was this mindset away from church as a religious club and a serious commitment to an actual community. In a society that is increasingly gripped in the…
The Morning Offering
Our Unity
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The Church is the chief sign of our unity in Christ The Church Fathers saw Orthodoxy as a Way of Life, rather than a religion. Although the Church has many of the same attributes as religion, this does not mean she is herself is a religious institution. Rather, she is a Hospital for the Soul, wherein we can receive the…
Time Eternal
My interview with Hank Hanegraaff
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Just a quick note to let the blogosphere in on a cool thing. The other week, I had the privilege of being a guest on the most recent episode of Hank Hanegraaff’s podcast Hank Unplugged. I met Hank this summer, when we both attended the DMOPC conference in Crete (and also participated in this fun episode of Faith Encouraged Live). I…
Raising Saints
Orthodox Fiction
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As the weather grows cold, I start gravitating toward warm blankets and good books. This time of year is perfect for snuggling up on a Saturday morning to be transported to another world… and how lovely if that world has echoes of Orthodoxy woven into its tapestry! I don’t mean books that teach you how great Orthodoxy is, but rather, books with a vague scent of incense and an awareness of our…
Faith Encouraged
Who Are The Other Sheep?
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We have an annual Greek Festival at our parish that we have done for the past 14 years. It is exhausting and wonderful. When I first came to the parish about 8 years ago, we had to ask our neighboring parishes to send their Greek dancers to our festival so we could showcase this wonderful aspect of our culture. This year I looked and all our children were dancing, and almost half…
Walking an Ancient Path
A Countercultural Christmas Carol
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All right, I’ll admit it. I’ve been indulging my carnivorous cravings over the past few days, as I often do before a long fast begins. [See *Note below.] The Nativity Fast commences on Thursday (November 15th), and I’m gettin’ real here: the timing of this fast is seriously inconvenient. It is the second-longest fast of the year: forty days before Christmas, and it’s not even that difficult, food-wise. Fish, olive oil,…
The Morning Offering
How to Forgive
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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…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Extra-Biblical Literature in the Orthodox Church
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This blog has often, and will continue to, make reference to extra-Biblical literature. The two most important categories of this literature are Second Temple Jewish literature and early Christian writings such as the Apostolic Fathers. Second Temple Jewish literature reveals to us the religious world and mindset of the first century AD from which Christianity emerged. It shows us the theological lens through which the apostles understood the revelation which came in the person of Jesus Christ. The Apostolic Fathers, and the Fathers of the second and third centuries as well, in particular, show us the continuity with, and transformation of, Second Temple Judaism that came to constitute the Christian religion. Not only is the New Testament rife with allusions…
Faith Encouraged
The Purposeful Discipline of Generosity
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As someone who has spent most of my adult life either as a police officer or in the nonprofit world, I can tell you, generosity is both addictive and life giving. It really is. Studies have shown that there are real psychological changes in someone’s behavior and mood when they are generous. And it seems we Americans are more generous than ever, but our generosity is changing. In the past few years…
The Morning Offering
Crucified to Self
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I am crucified with Christ In our life, every undertaking, every action, every thought, must be a reflection Christ in our life. The Lord will grant us the strength and ability to accomplish good works and attain holiness, if we cooperate with His grace. Prayer alone is not enough if we do not reflect moral improvement. Change must take place…
No Other Foundation
Jewish Evangelism: The Religion of Israel as Preparatory, Not Final
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In my last blog post I looked at the patristic project of commending the Christian Faith to one’s Jewish neighbour, and concluded that the project, though fraught with potential for misunderstanding, was still worthwhile. Here I would like to suggest that the religion of Israel was clearly preparatory, and was never meant to be God’s final word to Israel or to mankind. In discussing Israel’s religion it is important to differentiate the…
Eastern Christian Insights
To be Healed by the Good Samaritan: Homily for the 8th Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church
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Luke 10:25-37 It is tempting to use religion to help us feel better about ourselves. Too often, we want to make God in our own image and let ourselves off the hook from anything that challenges us to do something different from what we want to do. It can be very appealing to try to use God for purposes other than the healing of our souls. That is the attitude that…
The Morning Offering
Correcting Myself
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And amendment is made to a small part of the Church 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 Saint Paisios of Mt. Athos. His advice:…
The Morning Offering
My Countries
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I pray for America, and I pray for Russia I am not a Russian, and I’ve sometimes felt like a stepchild in the Russian Church, not because I’ve not been welcomed, but because the ethnic identity, as well as the language, of many of my brothers and sisters is not something I share. As a man whose roots are in…
Father Bill's Blog
91. Saint Nektarios - his life, death and what happened after that
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His Death On November 8 in 1920, Saint Nektarios the Wonderworker died. The miracles began immediately. Today he is the most revered Orthodox saint of the 20th century. Bishop Nektarios had been ill, so he was taken from the monastery on Aegina to a hospital in Athens. The intern at first could not believe that such a simply dressed man was really a bishop. He was diagnosed with incurable cystitis and placed…
Faith Encouraged
A Stranger They Will Not Follow
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I was a nervous wreck! A 15-year-old teenager with his best buddies was sneaking into a movie theater without paying! I can hear the voice of my mother in my head “Young man, you carry your family name. That should make you think twice about doing things you know you shouldn’t!” We didn’t get caught. We loved the movie. We laughed, and we congratulated ourselves for our stealth and our “courage.” And I…
Orthodox Reformed Bridge
Orthodoxy’s Official Response to Calvinism -- The Confession of Dositheus (1673)
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The Orthodox Church has made two major responses to the Protestant Reformation. The first response was to Lutheranism when the Lutheran theologians of Tübingen and Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople exchanged letters from 1573 to 1581. The exchange ended in an impasse due to irreconcilable theological differences. See the “Lutheran-Orthodox Dialogue in the Sixteenth Century.” The second response was to the Reformed tradition almost a century later in 1672 when a…
The Morning Offering
Hammi
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Our beloved Norwegian Forest Cat Our beloved Norwegian Forest Cat, Hammi, was most happy when the entire monastic brotherhood gathered together with him in our library/community room. We all considered him an important member of our community, and Hammi was the only cat I knew who had his own facebook fan page, started by a woman who’d met him on…
Raising Saints
How the Old Testament Can Put Christ Back in Christmas
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One of the really amazing things I discovered about Orthodoxy is that we understand the Old Testament differently than most Christians. I grew up reading the Bible with the understanding that the New Testament was about Jesus, and the Old Testament was a history of God’s people which conveniently offered morals to live by. When I became Orthodox, I very slowly started to realize that we were understanding those stories in a…
The Whole Counsel Blog
4 Maccabees: Martyrdom and Reason
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As is the case with 4 Ezra, 4 Maccabees is a Biblical text that lies at the very edges of the Old Testament canon in the Orthodox Church. In later Greek manuscripts, 4 Maccabees is included in an appendix. In older Greek manuscripts no such distinction is made, though 4 Maccabees is often found at the end of these manuscripts rather than following 3 Maccabees, along with Psalm 151 and the Prayer of Manasseh, two liturgical fragments. It is present in Old Georgian Old Testaments and was for a time, though no longer, in the Romanian Old Testament. Due to their relegation to the ‘apocrypha’ in most English Bibles, 1-3 Maccabees are not well known to most English readers. …
Behind the Scenes
Save the Date! Tuesday, November 27
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Dear Friends, We’re growing! This year, Ancient Faith Radio added 5 new podcasts, 16 new specials—featuring conferences, symposia, seasonal programming, and diocesan assemblies—and 2 new live shows. We also hosted our first Grow-A-Thon, broadcasting live for most of 2 days to celebrate our growth and the move into our new studio headquarters! This year, we’ve also reached the point where it’s time to set up more remote studios. Remote studios are high-tech broadcasting equipment like…
Faith Encouraged
Made Perfect!
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The word “asceticism” is something of a mystery to our modern way of life. We have lived with such plenty and such amazing comfort and ease for so long that now we assume that all of life is meant to be pain (and even effort) free. Just consider our attitudes towards marriage. We assume that marriage is meant to “fulfill us” or “complete us” as if the Hollywood version of romantic love…
