“Thoughts in Christ”

We are a society that looks for laughs in all places. The Bible is serious about salvation, not a laughing matter. However, the gospel of John ends with a touch of humor in the form of irony. Jesus addressing the leader of the apostles called him not by the affectionate nickname Peter, but Simon Johnson, as we today would say, asking him “Do you…

In the time of our Lord and the apostles, dogs were savage, vicious beasts that prowled about in packs, feeding in garbage dumps and attacking defenseless animals. We honor the noble Sanhedrin members Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus for having given our Lord Jesus a decent burial; it was usual for crucified criminals to be left at the sites of…

For serious Orthodox Christians the brief love story in the Old Testament called Song of Songs contains the most intense clues to the way to get in touch with the living Lord Almighty.

One such phrase is the above: I was asleep, but my heart was awake. Even while we are sleeping, we are not dead to the presence of the Holy Spirit who being…

Can you share the sensitive nature of those glorious saints, the twin brothers Cosmas and Damian? It’s like having a double dose of empathy for the sufferings of all living things. We pray for them along with others in that category called unmercenary physicians. Like the famous St. Panteleimon, they were physicians who offered their services free…

The wedding sacrament is all but concluded—not quite, however. The crowns have been removed from their heads after appropriate blessings. Indeed, blessings in abundance have poured forth upon the couple from Christ and the Holy Spirit. Adam and Eve were recalled as the symbol of unity for two become one. The great patriarchs with their wives along…

Near the end of the great theological treatise that St. Paul wrote to the Roman Church, he addressed the relationship of Gentiles and Jews. So much of his ministry was spent explaining the mystery of God’s plan of salvation that included not Jews only but all humanity. He used the metaphor of an olive tree for its importance to the people of the…

Schools are starting now that summer is over. Competition for placement, admissions to colleges of choice and permission to take select courses drive students to do whatever one can to get a head start on all others. Ambitious young people encouraged by involved parents will enroll them in whatever will offer them the opportunities to advance:…

Why would a loving God allow evil to exist, or to condemn some human beings to an eternity of darkness and hell? So often this is put to believers with the presumption taken for granted that the Creator planned such a place of torment from the beginning. The premise is wrong. Sin, separation and an eternity of hell come from the decision of the…

This phrase explains the action during the poignant Pre-Sanctified Liturgy performed only during the Great Lent. The royal doors are opened, the readings from Genesis or Exodus, Psalms or Proverbs heard, the celebrant holding the smoking censer and candle turns to the congregation and announces: “The light of Christ illuminates everything.” The…

We could call it the psychology of our salvation. The blessed fathers who composed the prayers of the services centuries past understood all the spiritual challenges that confront us. Here especially at evening when the sun sets and darkness envelopes us, our defenses are low and we are prey for the evil forces to attack us at our weakest moments,…

St. Paul builds upon this analogy of the temple and the human being. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16, also 6:19, II Corinthians 6:16). Such a bold, exciting idea would appear to be incredible were it not for the fact that it comes from the words of the Word of God Himself,…

I take every opportunity to preach at funerals, requiems, and even internments. I realize that those “paying their respects” aren’t always listening, but I speak about the subjects that matter most in life—living, dying, and what happens in between. Several reasons prevent my words from touching the sensitive nerves of the respectful ones:

1. The…

Moses could not have imagined how that divine admonition might apply to our contemporary American culture. Ph.D. candidates and future scholars ought to analyze the American way of promoting certain celebrities into the category once shared by certain Roman emperors—those like Caligula and Diocletian, foolish and egocentric enough to take…

Heresy happens when a portion of the gospel of Jesus Christ is extracted and made to appear as though it were the entire message. To do so with time is to deny or reject the record of the past, both the commandments from the Bible and traditions from church history, and to ignore implications of present deeds and practices for the future. This is…

When we do as the apostles, taking their cue in giving our lives meaning by accepting the invitation of Jesus to “Follow Me,” we learn why the early church’s first title was The Way (Acts 9:19,24). Learning is a process, not just a goal. We measure our intelligence and wisdom not by a diploma or degree, but by what we’ve been discovering and…

This beautiful admonition from the epistle of St. Peter has a few presuppositions: A. that you have such a gift of hope motivating your behavior others notice and will ask you why; B. that you understand the cause of your positive attitude towards the world and yourself; C. that you are ready, willing and capable of explaining it, or using…

Our Lord Jesus is telling us to find our innermost secret room where we may learn how to pray. We soon realize the melancholy fact that we are not having the same relationship with the heavenly Father that Christ does. That could come later, after we establish a spiritual relation with our Lord, God and Creator whom Jesus is telling us to relate to…

The transition from Pascha and Ascension to Pentecost emphasizes the prominence of the Holy Spirit in guiding our lives in Christ. Once again we pray the familiar address to the Spirit: “O heavenly King.” The appeal to the elusive Holy Spirit who makes His icon our own faces as He energizes our souls with His invisible presence. Again we plead for…

The Sadducees, the Jewish sect that did not believe in the resurrection from the dead, were baiting our Lord Jesus, taunting Him with their limited understanding of life. For them this lifetime is all there is, and they assumed any existence beyond the grave would be a repetition of this lifetime. Jesus attacked their presumption. After this life…

It was a powerful vision—that the building most beloved of anything built by humans to honor the Almighty would be in a few decades razed to the ground and would remain that way to this day. It was for all Jews both symbol and evidence of the Lord’s covenant with Abraham’s offspring regardless of the occupation by the Romans. Countless tears have…