Poor Juliet struggles as she wrestles with the fact that her new-found love is for a hated Montague. Romeo listens as she says her famous line “‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What’s in a name? that which…
I recently bought a copy of the book “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek for each member of our parish council. My main motivation is to drive home a fundamental point and a fundamental danger to any community or association: If you forget why you do what you do, you will soon stop doing what you do! As a further consequence of this foundational amnesia, you will also not be able to…
Robert Louis Stevenson once said “Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” And this is precisely why it is always so corrosive to a person, to a community, and to a society, to blindly chart a course of actions that ignore the consequences of our choices. Truth be told, the ignoring of consequences or the attempts to avoid or mitigate consequences to “free” myself to do whatever I…
“Vain repetition, that’s all it is!” My friend was absolutely horrified by my shift from my Pentecostal roots to the Greek Orthodox Church. He came to a service where I was presiding as priest and he simply shook his head in disbelief. “How could you do this?” he wondered to me afterwards. All the ritual and read prayers and prescribed movements were seen by him as nothing more that the empty “traditions”…
As we enter this life-giving season of Great Lent, let us forgive everyone who has ever wronged us and ask forgiveness of everyone we have ever wronged.
“Do I have to?” Ah, that wonderful, childish question. “Do I have to?” I remember asking that question as a boy, and hearing the frustrating answer from my mother “No, honey, you don’t have to; you get to!” Why is it we humans seem to struggle against the disciplined life that can make our lives more peaceful, focused, and happy? We seem to be our own worst enemies! AND, over and over…
Dear Ones, if you are in the Southern California area, please consider this your invitation to attend this event at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
Did you know that 70% of “millenials” support XXXXX! I leave out the subject because it doesn’t matter. Our society continues to struggle with the unique problems of our affluence. It is only the societies so freed from the immediate struggle to survive that deal with issues ranging from rights of convenience to issues of morality and accepted norms of society. The very fact that our country is asking the questions and…
The season of Great Lent is almost here and this is a daily resource you should make a part of your spiritual toolbox to help you keep a focused and spiritually profitable season of preparation for the celebration of Pascha. Visit this site as often as you can! http://lent.goarch.org/
“It’s in your tone.” My tone, what does that mean? We were discussing some heavy issue and the conversation had, indeed, turned toward the heart of the matter. I guess my voice and facial expression began to match the seriousness of my words, and she noticed it right away. That’s when the “tone” comment surfaced. My “tone” had changed to match the seriousness of the topic. It is absolutely amazing to me…
