Category: The Morning Offering

A Sixteen Year Old’s Call to Monasticism My paternal grandfather built a lakeside home during his summer vacations and weekends while I was in high school. My brother Dwayne and I spent many summer days camping in tents on that property, a newly opened area previously owned by the Idaho

Whatever you do, don’t look down!

The Energy of the Mind Inside the Heart In the patristic tradition the heart is the center of our self-awareness. This self-awareness is the energy of the mind inside the heart, something the holy fathers referred to as our “noetic faculty”. There is an important distinction that must be noted

“If you want to attain salvation, learn and keep in your heart all that the holy Church teaches and, receiving heavenly power from the mysteries of the Church, walk the path of Christ’s commandments, under the direction of lawful pastors, and you will undoubtedly attain the Heavenly Kingdom and be

When We Experience the “Dark Side” of the Church For those who have experienced what has been called the “dark side” of the Church, the struggle to remain faithful to the Orthodox Faith can seem daunting. The dark side is the result of the sinful, fallen nature of all of

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind Hosea 8:7

Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving Jesus Christ called for a thorough conversion of our heart and mind, and a complete turning away from the old man (our fallen nature). The main act that begins this conversion is metanoia, which means thorough change of mind. This happens when we become aware that

Forgiveness is impossible without this.

I Once was Lost, but now I am Found (Luke 15:10) If we allow ourselves to belittle anyone, either because of their appearance or because of their state in life, we dismiss the truth that God can, in His Divine Providence, transform anyone into a saint. The person who seems

Behold a foretaste of the future.