What Are We?

· Fr. Barnabas Powell
There was a stunning article in the January 2013 issue of Boston Magazine. It was entitled “Losing Our Religion” and the article begins by telling the story of a mother and her 9-year-old son watching a procession of the faithful from the Greek Orthodox church across the street from their home on our Great and Holy Friday. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but I wanted to show you this part of…

A Small, Shallow, Inattentive Life – Sunday’s Homily

· Fr. Barnabas Powell
The paradox of the Orthodox message concerning the Holy Cross uniquely reveals the deepest weakness of we humans, our self-centered pride. The cure for this deep, human, sickness is the paradox of “if you want to save your life, you have to lose your life.” The Cross of Jesus undoes the slavery of arrogance and pride by killing the ego of human inattentiveness, and burying the old fallen man so that the…

Do You Know Your Inheritance?

· Fr. Barnabas Powell
The great American Founding Father, Patrick Henry said “This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ will give them one which will make them rich indeed.” Henry understood the relative uselessness of temporary material things and the true value of a spiritual inheritance that lasts forever. But the only way we ever really truly value our spiritual inheritance is by understanding what that inheritance is!…

What Does “Holy” Mean?

· Fr. Barnabas Powell
OK, so one of my favorite movies in the whole world is “Princess Bride” and one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Vincent keeps using the word “inconceivable!” Finally, after so many times of hearing this word from Vincent, Inigo Montoya responds “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” The truth is words matter, and the meaning of words matters.…

Armored to Fight The Real Enemy

· Fr. Barnabas Powell
I love this Armed Forces Motto: “The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.” Isn’t that great? In other words, when you put the time into preparing for battle, you are more ready to face the fight. And what is true for physical fighting is also true for the spiritual battle each of us faces every day! What? You didn’t know this was going to be a fight…

Simple Or Easy But not Both

· Fr. Barnabas Powell 1 Leave a Comment on %s
“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones, after all.” So says the author of Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder. But life is so very often not simple. It’s complicated and difficult and filled with so many motivations all mixed together and hard to tease out the good from the bad. I was having a recent discussion with my daughter and we were talking…

Christ Has Set Us Free

· Fr. Barnabas Powell
I’ve never yet heard a politician boldly proclaim “Vote for me and I’ll take away your freedom!” They are always going on about “protecting democracy” “restoring your freedom” or “protecting your rights.” Even those politicians bought and paid for by special interests are desperate to tell you they aren’t bought and paid for by special interests! The older I get, the more comical in the classic sense this appears. But, to be…

As Sheep Among the Wolves

· Fr. Barnabas Powell 1 Leave a Comment on %s
Don’t kid yourself, the spiritual life is no cakewalk. And by that I mean there is a real struggle involved. To put it like our Orthodox Fathers said – it is war. But not the war we think of nowadays. No, this is a “war” with myself where I have to commit to a purposeful, attentive, struggle against the tug of my passions toward slavery to my desires. I have to “fight”…

If I Be Lifted Up

· Fr. Barnabas Powell
The old saying is “There ain’t no way to put lipstick on a pig.” It meant that no matter how hard you try, you can’t make a horrible situation better by pretending it isn’t “all that bad.” It just doesn’t work. It’s like the awkward conversations with those who have had a family member pass. It seems all our words to “make everything OK” just sound shallow and even dismissive. It’s that…