“Thoughts in Christ”

Three women, the first separated by centuries from the other two, the latter two a generation apart. They share promiscuity, the primeval manner of selling their bodies to get what they want from a world controlled by men. Each became notorious for her beauty and fame: St. Mary in Alexandria, the Las Vegas of her era; our two contemporaries in…

The host of the dinner who had treated Jesus with disrespect couldn’t understand why the Lord permitted the woman to act in such an outlandish way. To be that carried away with ardor for Christ transcended all standards of decorum and propriety, even for a known prostitute. Such a bizarre act of affection was hardly appropriate, as Simon the host…

If I could speak just a single sentence to comfort the hearts of my spiritual children, it would be: “You are never alone, because your guardian angel is always close by.” Each of us at birth has an angel assigned to our spiritual care by our heavenly Father. It is also our misfortune that from that time the devil is out to separate us from God and…

Let’s begin by understanding the meaning of the word “temple.” It’s a place set apart for prayer, a place where God abides in a special way. Everywhere else may be secular and profane, but a temple is holy, because it is filled with the Holy Spirit. You go to a temple to find and worship God, and you come away from the temple; however, in a sense…

Why does He make it so difficult for us? Doesn’t the Lord Jesus see and understand what our enemies have done to us? A church in the South was recently ordered to remove from their marquee the phrase: “Jesus Loves Osama bin Laden.” Tell me, my Orthodox Christian sisters and brothers: Do you agree with that pastor or with the ordinance?

You may ask:…

Our church group was in the Holy Land. It was years ago, before the political climate made travel to that precious region dangerous and foreboding for tourists. In Jerusalem Ari, our Arab guide, cautioned us, “We are now going through the crowded, narrow streets of the city. Many groups of people, tourists and others will make up a throng weaving in…

High and prominent on the icon screen you will often notice an icon of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ enthroned on the Judgment Seat in the Kingdom of Heaven. On His one side is the Mother of God and on the other side is St. John the Baptist. Both are looking in to Him and bending their bodies towards His throne. This is the Deesis icon, a…

Hard words for a soft society. The Lord Jesus puts us to the test. He challenges us to question our values. What are we living for, and what would we die for? We go to Him with our worries and we may wonder why we don’t feel that we are getting the answers we expected, needed or wanted. Silence is the response, and we lose faith. Prayer “doesn’t…

When a woman and a man fall in love and marry, they unite their families as well. They must consider at holidays such as Christmas, birthdays and special anniversaries what gifts they offer their extended family members. So it is when a person is initiated into the family of the Holy Trinity. The greatest gift is the Person of the Holy Spirit, and…

Oh, what beautiful words! And what a glorious affirmation—if indeed it is true. Our priests when celebrating together kiss one another three times just before the Creed is sung, saying: “Christ is here in our midst.” And of course we mean it. The Teacher of love is among us. We feel His presence in one another.

The celebrant turns at the Divine…

Through the millennia and the translations from Aramaic through Greek and into English, the force of our Lord’s admonition glares through. Can you see His eyes in your mind’s eye as He declared that indictment? “It would be better for him”: perhaps not in this lifetime, but in the afterlife. What would He say about a culture such as ours, where…

Why do so many people celebrate Christmas, even the non-Christians and those who don’t believe in God? Most likely it’s because all humans share a need to adore a newborn child. We want to do something for him, to offer a gift or to enhance the infant’s life. With Christ, we resonate to His helplessness: The birth in the cave, the humble foster…

How easy it is for us modern Americans with our breakfasts on the run, power lunches, and TV dinners to miss the import of the meals where our beloved Lord and God Jesus Christ eats with the people He loves: In the home of His friend Lazarus, in the Upper Room, even by invitation at the house of the hostile Simon the Leper, and here in the house of…

Through the years I’ve been gifted with more than a few pectoral crosses, the sort that Orthodox priests wear in public, especially during the sacred services. Nearly all now are of gold, embellished with jewels, but the most precious is the heavy cross first given to me by a special person on my ordination day. It is of the sort made of silver,…

I was in a small town in Cyprus. I was inside an ancient monastic chapel off a cobbled street. Tourists were passing by, curious as always, with their omnipresent cameras at the ready to snap a photo of whatever seems interesting, whether or not they grasp what it might be. A Divine Liturgy was taking place, the Byzantine chanting loud enough to…

We’ll be hearing it again and again and again from Thanksgiving until the blessed Christmas Day finally arrives. That banal and overworked jingle will be played in malls, markets, stores and beauty salons, so you’d better watch out. One phrase is intriguing: “So be good for goodness sake!”

“For goodness sake” is one among so many phrases left over…

How easy it is to say, “I love you.” But to put your love in action is quite a bit more difficult. Consider the love walks we take liturgically: Circling the font at baptisms, the tetrapod at weddings, and the holy altar at ordinations. Always counterclockwise, they sum up the past and follow Christ into the future. They all are filled with joy of…

Too many funerals. So many times I’ve stepped aside, pausing in the order of services for our beloved departed to permit the military ritual to proceed with the formula honoring dead servicemen. Two usually quite young men—at times, women—from the branch of the military in which our loved one had performed his duty, slowly, solemnly approach the…

Here is the self-definition of an American Orthodox saint who fell asleep in the Lord in 1915. He labored for the unity of all Orthodox Christian Churches and faithful, and for that the Orthodox Church in America recognized him as a saint. It was our Church that canonized him, because he represented all that we say we stand for. In a keynote address…

Nowhere else is there a more splendid description of what happens when we pass through this life beyond death and into the everlasting life that awaits us. Here is the most precious view of heaven in the Bible. On the other side of death are mansions for us all. Mansion, you say, and for me? Do we really need mansions? Another interesting thought is…