The Morning Offering
The Holy Oblation
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The place where heaven and earth are united As a priest, I bear the awesome burden of offering the Holy Oblation before the Throne of God, on behalf of all the people who’s names are submitted to the monastery, and who are Orthodox. I offer for my spiritual children, and even for the whole world. I commemorate my own beloved…
No Other Foundation
Building an Orthodox Parish
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A large part of the problem with some Orthodox parishes (at least of my acquaintance) is not lack of money or lack of a nice building (nice as money and good buildings are), but the fact that they have not been built upon a proper foundation. The Scriptures have lots to say about the value of a good foundation, and the Lord teaches us that if the foundation has not been properly…
Faith Encouraged
Many Blessings Equal Great Responsibility!
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“Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done.” All through my life, I’ve heard that we should “count” our blessings. If we would do this, we would be protected against falling into the “pit of despair” and we would be encouraged by how much we have in our lives. I guess that’s why I love the Orthodox wisdom of “nepsis” (wakefulness). This encouraging…
A Light So Lovely
What is Art? Part 1 of an Essay by Ivan Ilyin
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What do you think is the most common essay title in the history of literature? I don’t know. But if I were to guess, I’d say it would be “What is art?” No one wonders about “what is art” more than artists. We can’t help ourselves. We want to know that the long hours of giving birth to our thoughts and our words are actually worth something. In our time, when people…
The Morning Offering
Relevant for All Ages and Times
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Embracing Orthodoxy: The Mind and Heart of the Ancient Universal Church In an age when many people think truth is relative, the knowledge that there is such a thing as absolute truth, is comforting. The freedom that comes with the knowledge that we are able to embrace teachings that are a continuation of an unbroken line dating back to Apostolic…
Behind the Scenes
Speakers and Topics for the 2019 Ancient Faith Women's Retreat
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On November 14-17, we will joyfully gather at Antiochian Village for the second annual Ancient Faith Women’s Retreat! This event sold out several times over when it debuted last year, and we’re nearing 70 guests already this year. If you have not yet purchased your ticket (or want more information), click HERE. We are delighted to welcome four wonderful women as our speakers and leaders: Mother Christophora, Pres. Dr. Jeannie Constantinou, Pres.…
Faith Encouraged
Time to Grow Up!
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“Petulant child!” That’s what I thought as an obviously frantic mother was trying to placate a toddler throwing a fit. Nothing seemed to work. He didn’t want the toy, then he did want the toy. The treat mom tried to give the boy was accepted then thrown down and the screaming commenced again. She tried holding him. That didn’t work. She tried letting him down. That didn’t work. The look in her…
The Morning Offering
The Dark Side
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When we experience the “dark side” of the Church For those who have experienced what has been called the “dark side” of the Church, the struggle to remain faithful to the Orthodox Faith can seem daunting. The dark side is the result of the sinful, fallen nature of all of us who make up the Body of Christ. It is…
The Whole Counsel Blog
The Wrath of God
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The wrath of God is a topic unpopular in the present era. Much theological ink has been spilled in the modern period in an attempt to explain away or otherwise neutralize the idea, despite its clear presence in the scriptures and in the writings of the fathers. An entire fully developed complex of ideas in later Western theology, including not only God’s wrath but also a particular conception of his justice and of penal substitution, is seen by many modern commentators as an inextricably linked whole. This complex idea is then caricatured in various ways and rejected wholesale. To reject the teaching of the church at the foundation, however, along with the later erroneous edifice built upon it is to…
Glory to God for All Things
The Confusion of Loves
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Among the “difficult” sayings of Jesus is this: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Lk 14:26 Of course, the statement is so extreme that it is quickly recognized as an exaggeration. Jesus is not asking us to hate our family (or even in our own…
Remembering Sion
On Ecclesiology, Humility, and Love
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Faith Encouraged
Your Name Is Written In Heaven
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One of the greatest practical jokes ever played on me was when some friends actually hid my car from me while I was at work. As a teenage boy, my car was my ticket to freedom. It represented my passage from a child to a man! Besides, I looked really cool driving it around the mall parking lot with the windows down, hoping that pretty girl would notice! I panicked! I looked…
The Morning Offering
Suffering
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The role of suffering in the life of a believer We Christians often ask ourselves why God would allow us to suffer. We are prone to do whatever we can to flee from any kind of humiliation or suffering that might come our way, pleading God to spare us from pain of any sort. But what we don’t let ourselves…
The Morning Offering
Converting Our Friends
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How can we bring our friends and relatives into Holy Orthodoxy? Many visitors to the monastery share their joy at having discovered the True Faith, but wonder how they might draw family members and friends into Orthodoxy. They often assume that means debating the truth of Orthodoxy’s claim to being the Ancient Church preserved into this age, or think they…
Eastern Christian Insights
On Serving One, Not Two, Masters: Homily for the Great Martyr Kyriaki of Nicomedia and the Third Sunday of Matthew in the Orthodox Church
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Galatians 3:23-4:5; Matthew 6:22-33 Today we celebrate the memory of the Holy Great Martyr Kyriaki, who gave the ultimate witness for Jesus Christ by refusing to worship pagan gods and giving up her life after suffering brutal persecution from the Roman Empire. A beautiful young virgin, Kyriaki came from a wealthy family, but she refused the offer of marriage to the son of a magistrate who wanted…
The Morning Offering
Offering Our Prayers
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Our morning and evening prayerful offerings to God When we awake from sleep, it is important to thank God for the sleep and rest we’ve had, and ask that He grant us strength for the coming day. It is also important to know that this is the time when we should request God’s help for any struggles we’ll face during…
Father Bill's Blog
133. A Late-Twentieth-Century Saint: The Holy Elder Paisios
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People had known for years that Paisios was a saint. Here is how the Orthodox system works: Veneration of a holy man or woman grows and grows and sometimes there are miracles, till finally somebody at the top says OK, it’s obvious we’ve got a saint here. So finally on January 13, 2015, Elder Paisios of Mount Athos was formally canonized by the Patriarch of Constantinople. Saint Paisios, in his unique way, was…
The Music Stand
The Least of These My Brethren
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“I was in this gospel choir in prison. They gave me a solo. But my time was up two weeks before the concert. I asked them if I could just stay in until the concert. They said no. I was so sad. It was just two weeks. I figured it would be no big deal, just two weeks. But they…
Faith Encouraged
Time to Rest!
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Ah, summertime! The season of vacations, a more relaxed pace of life, adventures, and warm weather. “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy….” Summertime is such a wonderful time of year. But our society is one in which most Americans take little to no vacation time. The drive to produce creates the sense that I always have to be “productive.” A friend of mine recently sent me an article naming the top ways…
A Light So Lovely
The Spiritual Meaning of Stories
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More and more people are willing to accept the fact that fairy tales are not merely for children.However, there’s still often a stigma attached to stories as “not serious literature.” (Take this recent article, for example). Tolkien argued against this elitism in his wonderful essay “On Fairy Stories.” C. S. Lewis wrote about it often as well. Lisa Cron writes about it in her wonderful book Story Genius (highly recommended!) Recently, I came across…
The Morning Offering
Confession
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In confession we humble ourselves before another person It is only out of delusion we believe we do not need others to see, understand, and treat our spiritual sickness. Anyone who believes that he alone can cure his spiritual diseases has isolated himself from a Mystery of the Church and will come to ruin. Only with the help of others…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Scripture: Myth or History?
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No Other Foundation
The Sin of Divorce
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It is a staple of the LGBTQ assault on the Church’s traditional condemnation of homosexual activity that by this condemnation the Church is singling out homosexuals for special treatment. In particular, it is pointed out that Christ condemns divorce in unequivocal terms and yet the Church easily allows divorce and accepts divorced people into its communion, so why should it not also accept practising homosexuals? Thus Protodeacon Feldman in his recent piece…
Glory to God for All Things
The Poor, Debts and Your Enemies - Learning to Forgive
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He who has pity on the poor makes a debtor of God. (Prov. 19:17) Jesus told a story about a man with a huge debt. He owed it to his master and was unable to pay. When he was dragged before his master, he begged for mercy. Strangely, the master was so moved by the man’s begging that he forgave him the entire debt. This same man, Jesus said, turned around and…
Faith Encouraged
You Are More Valuable
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The gradual shift in modern educational philosophy to a “self-esteem” emphasis is complete. From the math standards that discourage teachers from “correcting” incorrect answers to the ball fields where “we don’t keep score” so no one “feels” bad, this shift is now producing consequences of its own. In fact, some have come to call the modern generation the “snowflake” generation because these young people have all been told they are just like a…
The Morning Offering
The Gift of Life
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And the nightmare of an all-consuming death This earthly life that we have been given has no meaning unless we see it as a workshop for the future life. We must not neglect that which is of an eternal nature, for the Creator has bestowed this life upon us as a time of preparation for eternity with Him. This is…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Atonement
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Over the next several weeks, posts will examine the Biblical concept of atonement from several angles in an attempt to synthesize the teaching of the scriptures on this topic. Before delving into the teaching of particular portions of the scriptures it is important to have a working definition of what “atonement” is in the first place and how the terms in the original languages of scripture which are translated by this English word are used in a general sense. There also needs to be a certain amount of disambiguation regarding common popular uses of the term in Western theology and popular Christian discussion. Many of these usages import concepts and theological notions which postdate the scriptures by centuries. The “reading…
