It happens fairly often. Friends or students tell me that they their churches have taught them that God is someone of whom they should be afraid because of the Lord’s wrath and anger toward sinners. Instead of the receiving the Good News of Christ’s mercy and love, they have heard only the bad news of judgment and condemnation. So they are usually pleasantly surprised to hear the Orthodox view of…
Here’s my homily for Pentecost, which was a week ago on the Orthodox calendar for 2012: Today is the Sunday of Pentecost, when we commemorate the Holy Spirit coming upon the followers of the Risen Jesus, which is the birthday of the Church. The Lord had already ascended into heaven and had promised to send the…
“Our President, civil authorities, and armed forces, the Lord God remember in His Kingdom, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.” No matter who is president , what party controls what offices, or how American troops are being deployed at the moment, we pray this petition in the Great Entrance. We praying for their salvation and for the Lord’s will to be accomplished for and through them. My Romanian…
It’s unfortunate when we become so focused on the symptoms of a problem that we ignore its underlying causes. Some Christian rhetoric on same-sex marriage has done precisely that and has failed as a result to transcend the dynamics of conventional partisan politics. Instead of illuminating the unique glory of the life-giving union of husband and wife as an icon of the Holy Trinity and of the salvation of the world,…