Not everyone has the ability to love another person Love is the best gift a parent can bestow upon their child, for a child brought up in the loving embrace of a caring and generous parent, will become an adult who can bestow love upon others. Too many people are
Where the temporal and the eternal are connected We can be rich in liturgical correctness and wealthy in traditions, but if we do not have love and mercy, we are in reality bankrupt. Our Lord Himself made love and mercy the chief criterion whereby we will be judged on the
The importance of seeking the guidance of the friends of God My dear friend, Father Photios Dumont, pastor of Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle, asked me to accompany him to Life Giving Spring Greek Orthodox Women’s Monastery in Dunlap, CA. Father needed me to help keep him awake
In every way we must strive to restrain anger Abba Evagrius the Monk said that, “Anger is by nature designed for waging war with the demons and for struggling with every kind of sinful pleasure. Therefore angels, arousing spiritual pleasure in us and giving us to taste its blessedness, incline
Love turns chaos into harmony The inevitability of death is particularly difficult to face for most Americans. We’ve become a people that eschew traditional funerals, preferring to “celebrate” the life of our loved one, while disposing of the body, and banning any sign of death from the memorial service. Yet
Keeping a positive attitude Our attitude has an impact that can keep us from growing spiritually. A bad attitude impacts the way we live, and hurts those around us, negatively influencing our family, our friends, and our church community. We must commit ourselves to keeping a positive attitude, for negative
Jesus is the sole mediator between God and man Most Protestant churches strongly reject all saintly intercession, citing passages such as 1 Timothy 2:1-5, which says that Jesus is the sole mediator between God and man, as well as Deuteronomy 18:10-11 which seems to forbid invoking departed souls. They also
The Church’s definition of repentance The act of repentance is the moment when we recognize the wrong we’ve done, either to another person, or to God. At the moment we accept we’ve failed to live as God intended, we must seek out to rectify our transgression by reaching out to
We must struggle to put off the old self As we struggle to make spiritual progress we do battle with the old self. We work against old habits that have kept us stuck and prevented the change we so desire in our quest for communion with God. Our sins and
We must pray for help in our struggle for repentance In our struggle on the path to God, repentance must be the central theme. Only in repentance will we find the true meaning of life, for only in repentance can one enter into communion with God. This life has been