Faith is something we humans take for granted. We seem to just assume that we “have” faith or we “keep” the faith merely by wanting to do so, but is that true faith? Is faith something we simply “think” about and so we “have” it? I don’t know about you but this seems to lead us to magical thinking or, worse yet, self-delusion. Is it really true that the merest intention to…

If you have a younger sibling then you’ve heard this before: “She did it! Why can’t I?” I know I’ve heard it in my house on numerous occasions, especially when the younger kiddo wonders out loud “What about me?” But sometimes (actually, many times) the younger child isn’t developmentally ready to take on the task that her bigger sister is doing. This happened recently as one daughter was walking to her bus…

Why did 5000 men, not counting women and children, follow Jesus and His disciples to a “lonely place?” What can we learn from the bravery of the crowd that cared more about their connection to Christ than their own comfort?                                                                …

Someone once said that God has four answers to our prayers: “Yes”, “No”, “Wait a while”, and “You’ve got to be kidding me!” When I think of our requests we make of God, I find my own requests break down into a few categories – Personal needs, Family concerns, Parish concerns, and Hopes and Fears. But one of the blessings of being Orthodox is that the wise prayers preserved in the Faith…

Is your eye evil? Little did I know when I converted to Orthodoxy that there was a whole body of writing and even prayers against “the evil eye.” Turns out this is shorthand for the toxic power of envy and jealousy to poison a community. And it certainly can do that. Over and over again relationships have been destroyed, lives ruined, and hearts broken by the spiritual cancer of envy and jealousy.…

I confess to being both addicted and often overwhelmed by daily news headlines. I am an information junkie and have my daily routine of reading different sites and news aggregators that (I hope) keep me informed about my world. From politics to disasters, to cultural and social trends, to even local news events, I find it both informative and instructive to learn about my world. After all, I am called to be…

“Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance.” so says the ancient Roman poet Virgil. The ability to have “stick-to-it-tiveness” is a learned trait. The fact is endurance is both a gift and a habit that can be developed. That means our ability to learn how to endure is something we hold within our power to control and something we should cherish as a great gift! Most of us know someone in…

“I need to speak with your supervisor.” The customer service lady on the other end of the line could tell I was frustrated. I had already called several times to find out why what I had ordered had not been delivered. First they told me it had been delivered. Then, when they discovered they were wrong, they apologized and said it would be delivered the next day. When that didn’t happen and…

I remember thinking “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.” It was one of those moments in our journey to Orthodoxy that caused my soul to say “Aha.” A point of enlightenment about just how profound our newfound, and ancient faith was going to be for how I thought about faith. Our catechist had just said “we get what we need many times in life by going through the door of its opposite.”…

I’ve heard this all my life “God will provide.” I remember hearing it when me and my brother and my mom were near poverty when I was young, and He did. I remember hearing it when I watched my family go through a shattering crisis, and He did. I remember hearing it again when I was terrified at the consequences of leaving the religious world of my youth, of leaving the stable…