A Grateful Heart is Fertile Ground When you strive to interact with members of your family, with friends, coworkers, and all others, with respect, humility, and dignity, you lay the groundwork for the abundance of Grace needed to quicken your heart for the things of God. The soil is prepared
Our Friends in High Places We Orthodox are known for our veneration of the saints, recognizing as we do the truth that there is no separation between the Church Militant, here on earth, and the Church Triumphant, in heaven. In the Divine Services we are not gathered together alone as
Hieromonk Paul of All-Merciful Saviour Monastery Proper Attire for the House of God The Church is our home, a place where we should feel comfortable, and at ease. It is also God’s house and is a temple set aside for worship of the Holy Trinity. Although times have changed and
He who does not love remains in death. There are those who fear commitment for fear of loss. They fear the other will either leave them, or be lost in death, so they remain aloof from any possible relationship. Some put on a facade of indifference, for fear of rejection,
A servant cannot be greater than his Master The Sovereign Lord of the Universe came down to earth as a humble servant. He Who sits upon the seraphim, was born to us in a stable. The King of kings came as the Good Shepherd Who laid down His life for
Sometimes we are tempted to please our bosses, our spouses, our neighbors, or, in the case of clergy, our bishops and brother priests, forgetting that the most important one to be pleased by our lives, and our actions, and our deeds, is the Lord. “Blessed is he who strives to
The Abbot’s office I received an email from a man from India, questioning why there is evil in the world, and wondering how he could come to know the true God, overcome sin, and live a life in transformation. This is my response to him: We live in a fallen
Avoiding Hypocrisy in our Journey to God It is very easy to live our lives in hypocrisy if we are not mindful of the pitfalls of the spiritual life. We can become Pharisees without even noticing, if we let our Christianity be artificially lived. Living our lives as though we
A Contemporary Man in an Ancient Church As a modern, educated man, I have a rather broad interest in the arts, music, poetry, literature and history. My father was a golf pro and my mother was a professional church pipe organist and piano teacher. My maternal grandmother played honkytonk piano,
Lecturing to a Graduate Class at Seattle Pacific University “Love thy God with all your heart, mind…” and secondly, “Love thy neighbor…” We live in a world bombarded with thousands of messages, some subtle and some not-so-subtle, of merchandising that impact the way we interact with others, and the way we