My bodyguards at Pacific Lutheran University Ministry is Never about Me This blog article is late, and whenever I am this late, someone, somewhere, will email me, wondering if I am alright. Since many of my essays are posted shortly after midnight, or certainly before eight in the morning, when
When God Seems Absent We all have those moments in our lives when we feel as though God is absent, even perhaps nonexistent. Those times leave us feeling alone and abandoned, as though we are lost in an empty stadium. We feel as though we are on a boat that
Remembering to Give Thanks Frequently “We thank thee, O Christ our God, that thou hast satisfied us with thy earthly gifts, deprive us not of thy Heavenly Kingdom; but as thou entered into the midst of thy disciples, O Saviour, and gave them peace, enter also among us and save
If we make every effort to live each day with an eager and grateful heart, receiving everything that comes to us with a joyful anticipation, virtue will increase, and we will have gained the Kingdom. Without a grateful heart, virtue will remain but a distant land, and spiritual growth will
Taking Orthodoxy beyond the Self-Congratulatory Archbishop Averky of Syracuse, of blessed memory, once said of converts, “they are like envelopes, they have a tendency to come unglued”. Many a convert, once they’ve embraced the Orthodox Faith, mistakenly given themselves over to a zealotry that is without any form of temperance.
Interior of monastery’s cupola Ancestral Sin versus Original Sin The fact that we Orthodox do not accept the doctrine of original sin as espoused in the West, does in no way suggest that we do not need to be born again (born anew). We believe, as did the Early Church
The Place Where Heaven and Earth are United As a priest, I bear the awesome burden of offering the Holy Oblation before the Throne of God, on behalf of all the people who’s names are submitted to the monastery, and who are Orthodox. I offer for my spiritual children, and
Our Soldiers Need the Support of Chaplains Our monastic community welcomed seven military chaplains from Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Tuesday. These fine young men who have answered the call to serve the nation as military chaplains, inspired me with their commitment to Christ, and their willingness to enter into a
Abouna Ruwais Our brotherhood was blessed to received a monastic visitor from one of the most ancient monastic communities in the world. Abouna Ruwais is a member of Saint Anthony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, which stands in an oasis in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, in the southern part of the
Being the Body of Christ Each and every time we gather together to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, we are not simply commemorating an event that happened almost two thousand years ago. We are not simply commemorating the Last Supper, when Christ shared a meal with His disciples. When we come