Why do we make time for everything, but worship? Why does it take a tragedy or a problem to turn our hearts toward God? Why do we handle this treasure of faith so loosely? Why do we treat our souls in a way we would never treat our bodies? Why are we so quick to believe the worst in another and so slow to forgive and move on? Why do we value…

On this Saturday, I invite you to contemplate this bit of wisdom from St.Ambrose of Milan: “He took what is mine in order that He might impart to me what is His. He took it not to overturn it but to fill it.” If we are to ever escape the constant and consistent gravitational pull of mediocrity and pride, we will have to come to grips with the reality that God became…

“I’m their leader! Which way did they go?” I have a cap with two bills on it, one in the front and one in the back with that slogan on it. It’s funny because it’s so often true. Leadership is always such a rewarding and challenging calling. In fact, if you could get most leaders to share their deepest and most honest feelings, you would find that most leaders feel quite inadequate…

I remember sermons I preached years ago admonishing the congregation to “love each other more” and “be joyful,” and I also remember the puzzled looks on their faces as I could almost hear them asking in their heads “OK, how do I do that?!” Too many times we so quickly “tell” our friends what they have to do to be happy or successful or to have a good relationship, and they usually…

Life is an amazing adventure and an amazing gift. But part of this life is the daily challenge of actually being awake to that amazement and the call to progress ion our lives. George Bernard Shaw once said “Youth is wasted on the young.” What he meant by that is when we have great strength and potential, we are still too immature to take full advantage of our possibilities, and when we…

“Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance.” Virgil The ability to have “stick-to-it-tavness” 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. Most of us know someone in our lives that just seems to be able to stay with a challenge until it…

You’ve met people like this. You may have even had a few of them as fellow students in college. You know the ones. They are the students who ask inconvenient questions of the professor that calls for complicated answers and explanations. Those are the fellow students that always seemed to throw off the lecture and send the class into disarray! I even had a seminary professor who told our class that if…

OK, more like “Gray Friday” since the retailers have been bombarding us with ads and “special prices” for days now, even opening earlier on Thanksgiving Day to garner more sales. But today marks the “official” beginning of the holiday gift buying season. And it is a perfect icon of our society and what we value. On the one hand, we really have succumbed to such a consumerist mindset that the Pavlovian trigger…

From Orthodox on Purpose to all our friends, may you discover that becoming grateful, learning how to allow gratitude to overwhelm disappointment and bitterness, and entering into a life of gratitude is the antidote for most of life’s problems! A Blessed Thanksgiving to all. Through the prayers of the newly canonized St. Porphyrios grant us peace in a Eucharistic life. Here is the link if you would like to see the presentations…

Secrets and intrigue seem to make for good movies and great gossip. The recent uproar about our own government and it’s efforts in internal spying continues to generate much interest and fascination. There’s even a story out now that a recent person who shared a great many “secrets” concerning the NSA work has a “doomsday” file he’s holding on to to insure he isn’t arrested or attacked! Hollywood is just screaming for the…