Being willing to take up our cross and follow Christ Christianity is a religion of asceticism, instructing us to store up our treasures in heaven, where the benefits have eternal value. Throughout the New Testament we read of the importance of struggle, where focus on the acquisition of a humble
The authentic identity of the Church In the Church’s attempt to live an authentic New Testament identity, she knows that she is neither papal or protestant. The Orthodox Church does not have a vertical structure of authority, as does the Roman Catholic Church. Orthodoxy has resisted becoming an authoritarian and
The Feast of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker According to the reckoning of the Julian Calendar, today is the feast of our father among the saints Nicholas the Wonderworker. Saint Nicholas was the Archbishop of Myra in southern Asia Minor in the fourth century, and is the basis for the Santa
The role of obedience in the acquisition of humility In the Christian life there are two paths to salvation and whichever road you chose must be embraced with your whole being. The married state and monasticism both have as their primary means of aiding in your salvation the acquisition of
The critic will never know either defeat or victory It is easy to be critical of another person, finding fault with what we perceive they are doing, have done, or have not done. Yet the man who points out how another man has stumbled, finding fault in something he himself
Biblical morality versus situation ethics Situation ethics has become the norm for our times, having replaced the biblical ethics of past generations. In situation ethics as long as no one is hurt one can do as one pleases. Taking drugs, watching pornography and aborting the unborn child, all can come
Those occasions when we mature into spiritual adulthood There are those times in our lives when God seems distant, even absent from us. These are usually times when our faith seems weak and we struggle to believe God really cares for us, or perhaps we begin to question whether God
The New Coptic Martyrs and Confessors of Egypt The bomb blast that killed at least twenty-five people during the Sunday Liturgy inside Saint Peter’s Church, a chapel next to Cairo’s Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, also wounded at least forty-nine people. Most of those killed or wounded were women and children.
We must resist making an idol of our political ideologies We live in an America that has not seen such divisiveness since the Civil War. There is an illness of spirit that has overtaken our nation, and passions are adrift as friends go against friends, families are divided, and everyone
We must refuse to demonize others The use of force in the correction of those who are living in opposition to the laws of God is often a temptation for Christians, yet it must be remembered that the sins of others is better corrected by lovingly demonstrating their value in