The Morning Offering
The Divine Mysteries
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Where communion with God is restored At the Mystical Supper in the Upper Room Jesus gave a dramatically new meaning to the food and drink of the sacred meal. He identified Himself with the bread and wine: “Take, eat; this is my Body. Drink of it all of you; for this is my Blood of the New Covenant” (Matthew 26:26-28).…
Glory to God for All Things
The Power in Thought - It's Not What You Think
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Among the dark little corners of the Orthodox world, particularly in its ethnic homelands, is a left-over trace of witchcraft (I don’t know what else to call it). It consists of a collection of superstitions, often mixed with semi-Orthodox notions. There are concerns about the “evil-eye,” “curses,” “spells,” and such. These things are “left-overs” in that they likely predate Christianity, having never disappeared from Europe’s earlier pagan past. These are not practices…
No Other Foundation
Reading the Song of Solomon Today
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The Biblical Song of Solomon (also called the Song of Songs) has always been read by Christians on two different levels—that is, it has been read on an historical level and on an allegorical one. This is how Christians read the entirety of the Old Testament. Take for example the story of the passage through the Red Sea. Christians have read this on an historical level as narrating the liberation of Israel…
With Lamps in Hand
When You've Fallen Off Your Spiritual Wagon
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Christ is risen! The Paschal season is upon us, filling us with new hope, new joy, a lightness of heart, and a fresh start. And in the light of the Resurrection, I’m overjoyed to be restarting this project after barely getting it off the ground last year. Have you ever started something and then found yourself not following through the way you thought you would? And have you ever noticed that the…
Faith Encouraged
To Repent is to Refresh!
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Christ is risen! I like this quote: “A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” Yep, I bet you know that feeling of being so fed up with the everyday activities of life that you say “STOP!” And yet, why is it that too many of my vacations have been as stressful or more stressful than my regular schedule? It’s because an actual “refreshing”…
The Morning Offering
Building a Relationship
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Building a personal relationship with Christ Most of us struggle with questions about things eternal. It is part of relationship building. If we are to have a personal relationship with God we must be open and honest and unafraid to question. The Lord wants us to be real with Him. Like the sound relationship that one sees in a long…
The Morning Offering
The United States
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A pre-soviet society that would be the end of our freedom “What began in Russia will end in America.” ~Elder Ignatius of Harbin, Manchuria Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag”, explained how the Russian revolution and the communist takeover were facilitated by an atheistic mentality that lead to the secularization of Russia, and alienated the…
Glory to God for All Things
Obstacles to Faith in the Modern World
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My writing and thoughts often carry me to the “edges” – to the edge of unbelief and to the edge of the depths of belief. My instinct for these places is an instinct for the obstacles to faith. Why do some believe and others not? And what is the exact nature of belief and unbelief? There is a form of belief familiar to everyone. It is simply the manner in which we…
The Morning Offering
Internal Strife
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The workings of the enemy of the Church There have always been attacks on the integrity of the Church. Sometimes these attacks have been directed head on toward the Church, such as the invasion of Islam into Orthodox lands. At other times the Church has experienced attacks within her own walls, with divisions occurring that threatened the integrity and unity…
Behind the Scenes
Everyday Wonders: Small Events That Shape a Life
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Father Bill's Blog
61. Orthodoxy and Other Faiths: Classical Protestantism - Part One
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Christ is risen! I’m giving 4 Blog posts to Protestantism, since it is so extraordinarily complex – as you can see here, and this is only part of it. What is Protestantism? When Protestants ask “What do Orthodox believe?” there is an answer. All Orthodox believe the same things. When I was still Anglican, Father Thomas Hopko told me that “in the Orthodox Church there is complete theological unanimity”. I didn’t believe him.…
Father Bill's Blog
60. My Travels: 2009 Trip - Saint Nektarios, Crete
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Christ is risen! Truly he is risen! We’ve been dealing with a lot of heavy subjects lately. We need a break. Our late Antiochian Metropolitan Archbishop Philip (of blessed memory) directed that clergy should stay in our parishes during Great Lent, but now it’s Pascha – and besides, our Milwaukee forecast says freezing rain and snow this weekend. Snow?! In fact we’ve had no spring at all so far, no tulips. So…
A Lamp for Today
Shine, O New Jerusalem!
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Isaiah 66, Ezekiel 44-48, Revelation 12, Revelation 21-22 This is the week for shining, the week to be bright. It is one of the few times during the year that Orthodox are forbidden to fast, for there is an action to match every season. Indeed, during Pascha we heard that wonderful hymn to the Theotokos that addresses all of us, for in her we see a picture of our own inheritance: The…
Faith Encouraged
Bright Friday - ZEAL
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Christ is risen! “What would Jesus do?” That phrase was popular a few years ago, and I confess to being amused by this fad of “easy religion.” One of the main reasons was that the life of Jesus is not easily categorized as the comfortable “Jesus” we moderns would prefer. You know the “Jesus” I’m talking about: The “meek” Jesus that pats everyone on the head and tells them they are “OK,…
The Morning Offering
Procrastination
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Putting off for tomorrow what can be done today We all have times when we procrastinate. There is a story of a young monk who confessed to his elder that he was always struggling with procrastination. His elder told him it was his lack of faith which made it impossible for him to see God everywhere, and in all things,…
Glory to God for All Things
Bookends and the Resurrection
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A series of recent conversations with a parishioner turned up the problem of “bookends,” that is, questions of the beginning and the end. It is only natural in our day and age to attack problems in this manner. “How did it start?” is a way of saying, “What is it?” The end, of course, is not so obvious, other than its connection with our insatiable desire to know how things will turn…
Behind the Scenes
What does it mean to be an Orthodox Christian writer?
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Faith Encouraged
Bright Thursday - REFRESHING
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Christ is risen! Ah, the beauties of Springtime! And the hay fever! For those of us susceptible to the reign of terror that is pollen season; the watery eyes, the stuffy nose, basically all the bad stuff on all the commercials we see for medicine to combat this scourge of this wonderful season; we love and hate this time of year! Especially when the wind is blowing around all that yellowish-green pollen…
The Morning Offering
Human Reason
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The limits of human reason and the knowledge of God The things that are of God are far beyond the capabilities of our finite mind to comprehend. The divine can only be known through the nous, that place in the heart that is our true center. It, unlike the brain, is capable of knowledge that is beyond human comprehension, coming…
Grace Here and Now
New life! New spring! New hope!
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I think of Pascha as a new beginning. New life! New spring! New resolve to live in the hope of the Resurrection! It is a perfect time for beginning again to take seriously my vocation as co-creator, pouring into each day as much beauty and goodness and kindness as humanly possible, trusting God The Creator to transform my humble offerings and efforts into divine reflections of His great compassion for this…
No Other Foundation
What It Was that Saved Thomas
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Thomas had a heart that had taken one too many beatings. Despite his often being stigmatized by later generations as “Doubting Thomas” there is nothing in his past record to indicate such a defect of character. In John’s account of Christ’s raising of Lazarus, when the Lord said that Lazarus had died and that He was going to enter the cauldron of dangerous Judea to “go to him” (John 11:15), the disciples…
Faith Encouraged
Bright Wednesday - SEEKING
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Christ is risen! “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” This startling quote from the great American poet Henry David Thoreau captures an insight into the challenge of our human lives. All too much of the time I find myself asleep to the true dignity and purpose of these years granted me by my Creator. And what’s worse, there are moments…
The Morning Offering
The Power of the Resurrection
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Christ’s resurrection becomes our resurrection Orthodox do not accept the Doctrine of Original Sin as espoused in the West, but teach, as did the Early Church Fathers, that we inherit only the results of Adams sin, not his guilt. This is known as Ancestral Sin because the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, resulted in our having inherited…
Faith Encouraged
Bright Tuesday - REJOICE
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Christ is risen! The young man was very frustrated. His dad had just gotten him a new hunting dog and this was the first time the young man had to train the dog himself. The process was a lot tougher than the boy realized and he was out of answers. You see every time the boy would point to a place the dog was suppose to go, the dog came up and sniffed…
The Morning Offering
Fruitless Discussions
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The power and influence of good deeds “For it is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men (1 Peter 2:15). Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic tells us in The Prologue from Ochrid that we are better off if we do not engage others in lengthy debates and fruitless discussions, but that we…
Behind the Scenes
Join Ancient Faith Radio at the St. Tikhon Memorial Day Pilgrimage!
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Faith Encouraged
Bright Monday - KNOWN!
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Christ Is Risen! What joy! What happiness! What a celebration! Words fail. Songs sung over and over again still cry out for more! Death is conquered by the Unconquered Son. O what news! The whole earth basks in the glow of the Victory of Christ over death! No more fear! No more night! The Son has dawned and there are no dead left in the grave! It all sounds like so much…
