“Help me, O God, to put off all pretenses and find my true self.” Metropolitan Anthony Bloom When we enter into communion with one another in the life of the Church, we come broken, and far from the image and likeness that God intended when He created us. We, to
Category: The Morning Offering
The unity and continuity of the Church is found in her bishops Gathering together for the celebration of the Church’s Divine Services is the great moment in the life of the People of God that brings together both heaven and earth. In these services we are mystically transported to a
Creating an Orthodox Christian environment in the home Creating an Orthodox Christian home begins with the icon corner. The “bright corner” becomes the center for every domestic church, where the family devotions take place. This is also the family’s way of declaring to visitors that this is a Christian home,
Hopelessness can be the catalyst to pull us out of our rut Hopelessness in painful situations is what pulls most of us out of our rut. My own bout with heart problems, and the subsequent healing through the intercession of the Holy Virgin, have given me pause as to how
Racism has no place in the life of a Christian It is important to understand that genetically, all humans are of but one race. Indians, Arabs, Jews, Caucasians, Africans, and Asians, are not different races, but rather, different ethnicities of the human race. God created all humans with the same
We are our brother’s keeper With the nation’s shutdown we are seeing millions of people losing their jobs, and the homeless rate is about to swell to numbers not seen since the Great Depression. Countless individuals are facing the very real possibility that their extended unemployment payments, and the emergency
We as the American people are being called to repentance The western world has entered a period of decadence and decline, for we’ve departed far from our Christian roots. With the Western world having turned our collective roots on our common historical and cultural Christian heritage, a secular based world-view
The problem of ethnic purity in the life of the Church We Orthodox Christians, as a whole, are guilty of abandoning our Christ directed mission of making disciples of every nation by preserving the needs of ethic groups (Russians, Greeks, Arabs, Serbs), often at the expense of welcoming our non-Orthodox
All we need for happiness is right in front of us It is easy to resist taking care of oneself if we run at full speed as though we are the only one who can get things done. We all need to set priorities, making sure we focus on Christ
A priest serves only with the blessing of his bishop The bishop is always the head of his diocese, and no Orthodox priest should ever dare to presume to serve within the diocese without the blessing of his bishop. A priest must always seek the blessing of his bishop before