“Thoughts in Christ”

Our Church is passing through a crisis of Spirit that has affected and infected so many faithful Orthodox Christians in these days of our lives. It’s natural to look to our leaders, the hierarchy and priests throughout the continent for leadership and guidance. They might find comfort and inspiration from St. Paul as he encouraged his disciple whom…

At the time it seemed like a wise idea, the time being after 9/11 when our nation felt the initial anger over the daring deeds done to our buildings and the idea to mark off four rogue nations and select Iraq as the primary target. President Bush invaded that nation and toppled Saddam Hussein from his monument. Americans cheered to witness that…

Here is a touching insight into the personality of St. Paul. He was appealing for a contribution to the Church in Jerusalem, hoping to inspire the Corinthians to be generous in their offering. The Jerusalem Christians were mostly Jews who weren’t sure if the Greeks were worthy of contributing to what were Jewish obligations. All Jews in the diaspora…

The billionaire owner of the huge hotel chain with her husband’s name, Leona Helmsley, died and left a controversial will. In it she provided nothing for two of her grandchildren, twelve million dollars for the care of her pet dog, and three million for the maintenance of the mausoleum for her remains. Her ego and strength of character were…

It seems we’re always explaining the unusual adornment of crowns that the Orthodox Christian Church uses in our wedding sacrament. It fascinates the non-Orthodox visitors and gives them something to watch as we call upon the Holy Spirit to fill the couple with grace sufficient to proceed through their life together enduring and overcoming all…

I confess it. I’m envious of the megachurches. A priest friend said his cousin is one of six full-time ministers to a 5,000 member phenomenon not far from one of our largest Orthodox Church in America parishes, with membership only in the mid-hundreds. I learned what they do to reach out to the public when I was into a post-graduate course in a…

Emily Dickenson is among my favorite American poets. I appreciate her near monastic life style and relish her sparse verse. In the poem above, however, she reveals her religious background by demonstrating the limits of reason. It’s typical of us all who are products of our educational system, emphasizing and accepting nothing beyond the expanses of…

The kingdom of David is to be restored, and it is coming to pass because the Messiah long awaited by the Jews is here and now, in Jesus Christ. “Out of His roots,” or from His Being we receive the Holy Spirit. In communion with Him we partake of those precious divine gifts which God wants us so badly to receive. As St. Augustine put it: “God is more…

There are many ways to state the same problem: How does one retain the peace, joy, inspiration and faith accrued within the mind and soul? What can be done to hold onto those glorious gifts of grace from the time I drive from the church’s parking lot until the next time I enter? Like the song of Elton John for Lady Diana’s funeral, “Candle in the…

We Orthodox Christians claim to be the Church of the Holy Spirit par excellence, and indeed we are. Unlike most others we follow the sacrament of baptism immediately with the gift of the Holy Spirit that comes to us by Chrismation. It’s done in order that the newborn infant is not deprived of those gifts, and that he or she is not deprived of the…

Many Orthodox Christians here in North America will live out their lives never having visited a monastery, and yet they are influenced by monastic worship and life styles without being aware of it. They keep rules of fasting two days of the week and whole periods of time four times each year. They pray in worship structures fashioned and chanted in…

The priest intellectual Fr. Pavel Florensky who perished in a Soviet labor camp wrote the above comment about our faith. He meant that learning the Orthodox Christian religion is a matter of the heart discovered in the soul of a seeker. It’s not found in the mind alone. One doesn’t come to know God; he or she experiences Him. The one who insists on…

We express the self-evident meaning of that pinnacle of prayer at each Divine Liturgy. As the deacon or celebrant crosses his arms and raises the sacred gifts to the Lord, we realize that the consecrated bread and wine are symbols of the contributions that the people of God are presenting to the Lord they love. The gifts represent the income from…

When we do as the apostles, taking their clue 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 what we’ve been discovering and…

Here is a meditation for us all. It would do well for us to call this question to mind every time we say, “Lord, have mercy,” or hear it sung in church. Unfortunately, we all know the reasons why it tends to be a title without having the implications of obedience.

A. It’s a word that’s not used much in our culture. We are proud Americans. We know…

Odd but true. So many people I’ve known have found their way to Orthodox Christianity by fascination. Bp. Kallistos Ware is one of the many who tell their tale of having visited an Orthodox church and been caught up in the rituals and ways of worship. It seems like a feminine method of garnering devotees, but the word for the Church is feminine, and…

How long was He standing there? How long do you wait for a woman to go on weeping? It’s not an easy question to answer. Crying is therapeutic. As the fathers say, tears wash the windows of the soul. But they were talking about weeping for one’s sins. This was not the case. It’s odd about life. When we are born, we cry because we were slapped. Then…

There are not many in western civilization who have not seen replicas of the famous scene painted on the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, where the Almighty Creator high and powerful swooshes down to the languid human being, just awakening, a body hardly able to rise on one elbow, the other elbow on a flexed knee, about to feel a powerful shock coursing…

Guilt, shame, fear, and flight: Every parent knows the sequence of misbehavior. Eyes lowered, head down, hiding from exposure. In most of the art displaying the expulsion of our ancestors from Eden, they are being chased out by the angel with a flaming sword, running in terror, looking backward over their shoulders. But from the Bible record we find…

“The baseball season’s opening game falls on Good Friday. Is it alright to go there and have a hot dog? May we have a dispensation?” If I’m asked, I must say that I have no answer. In fact, it’s not the place of a priest, bishop or patriarch of the Orthodox Church to respond with a yes or no. The proper response is: “What do you think?”

We are a…