On Making a Good Confession Following His glorious Resurrection, as He appeared to His Disciples, Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the command that: “Whosoever’s sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever’s sins you retain, they are retained.” John 20:23 From that moment in history, the Church has
Sharing Orthodoxy with college students Everyone who knows me is aware of my passion for missionary work. My blog, The Morning Offering, was begun as a pastoral and missionary tool. My use of facebook, with over 5,000 “friends” on my Abbot Tryphon page, and an additional 9,712 on the monastery’s
What to do when we’re broken It is only human to become despondent when we have failed in keeping to our moral, ethical and spiritual standards, succumbing, instead, to temptation. Our Orthodox Faith teaches that we must be compassionate towards others, loving, quick to forgive, exemplar in our Christian living,
Which type of Christian are you? There are two types of Christians. There are those who can say with the Apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ: it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20)”. And then there are those Christians who
The River of Fire:“an all-consuming fire and an illuminating light” Upon Christ’s Second Coming, everyone who has ever lived will see Him in His uncreated light, forever. For “those who worked good deeds in their lifetime will go towards the resurrection of life, while those who worked evil in their
Being the leaven in a post-Christian era As Christians in this post-Christian era, we must live with the knowledge that God still reigns, even though the evidence is to the contrary. In this post-Christian era, we are like exiles, but like the Jews who were in bondage under the Babylonians,
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
Therapeutic Tradition of the Church Most of us have been asked the question, “are you saved?”, at least once in our life. Having it’s origin in the protestant soteriology (doctrine of salvation), this question has clearly become part of our American cultural lexicon. The question is often asked by Evangelical
Where heaven and earth are joined Whenever we have non-Orthodox visitors, I am touched by the look on their faces as they gaze for the first time the sublime, otherworldly, beauty of the interior of our little temple. They are often speechless, just as one would be when seeing a
in the After Life? Thoughts on the Oneness of Creation There is no formal doctrine in the Orthodox Church concerning the afterlife for animals, including our pets. Those Fathers of the Church who have expressed themselves on this matter were simply expressing theological opinions that have not become universally accepted,