“Thoughts in Christ”

When the Orthodox Christian hears that first word preached from the Lord Jesus, he understands by it that by obeying it to the fullest he will be transported to a dimension of existence far more profound than what meets the eye.

The Lord Jesus is not just saying, “change your minds,” or “alter the way you now look at life,” or “adjust the way you…

Like so many, my mother had a lifelong fear of the dark. When she visited us, we always left a light on in her bedroom. I recall riding once with her. She was musing on death. She asked, “When we die, will we remain in darkness?”

‘No, Mom,” I replied, “In the Kingdom of heaven everything will be illumined. Don’t you remember how Jesus said, ‘I am…

God’s first word to man: “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). Meaning where in relation to Him. God asks the first murderer: “Where is your brother Abel?” (Genesis 4:9). The implication is that we are responsible for our brethren. Nicholas Berdyaev noted that another significant question is: “Abel, where is your brother Cain?” We may ponder this today in…

What parent cannot appreciate the fright that took hold of Joseph and Mary the Theotokos when they realized that Jesus was nowhere among the Galilean group that had gone with them to and from the festival in Jerusalem. They assumed he was with other boys of His age. Who knows what might have happened to Him? Was He sick and left lying somewhere…

Imagine the lad David watching over his father’s sheep, aware of their total reliance on him. They somehow realized that with his staff, the long pole with a crook on top that he carried in one hand to move them along and to reach out and catch them if they should slip into a precipice, and the stout club in the other with which he beat off…

It’s troubling the way that the Orthodox Christians in America are so divided into ethnic jurisdictions and fragmented into clusters of separated communities. Jews in our nation don’t outnumber our greater spiritual family, yet their impact on the policies of our country is overwhelming, far greater than their numbers, while we are hardly noticed as…

Every rabbi taught his disciples how to pray and gave them a prayer to lift up to God. It then was natural for the apostles to ask the same from our Lord Jesus. And we, following them, recite the Lord’s Prayer several times each day. And in our prayer addressed to the heavenly Father we are praying with Jesus Christ for the will of the Father to be…

What gift could be more precious than liberation from the disintegration of our essential being and to share in that portion of divinity that is possible for created beings? It is out of the question to have a share in whatever the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in their essence. After stating that reality, we are quick to affirm the option…

“Hello, Mary. Do you remember me?” She stares at me with blue eyes through granny glasses, her smile as pleasant as I recall from happier times. She still has the soft smooth skin found among those who eschew suntan, her radiant features reminding me of her charm and intelligence when she was well. She wants to pretend she knows who I am, but…

The good Samaritan had more compassion than the Levite and priest. The theme is found elsewhere, such as the woman at the well ((John 4:7-29). Before the profound depths of the events lies something more obvious; the universal dimension of our Lord’s ministry. He came to His own people, yet He reached out to all human beings. To love Gentiles does…

Despite your sense of alienation, you are never alone. I find myself giving this advice over and over again, but especially within the confines of the holy confessional. Loneliness is a formidable weapon in the arsenal of Satan, and alienation follows soon after, paving way for depression and despair. We call the Holy Spirit “Comforter” precisely…

How many hundreds of times have I taken a handful of earth and as the final liturgical action sprinkled it on the shiny lid of a coffin and repeated that awesome pronouncement from the will of the Almighty: “Dust thou art, and to the dust shalt thou return.” Why, we ask. Why must we die? The cycle of life is complete—or is it? The Creator had…

The phrase, “The Lost Generation,” has been used more than several times to describe those out of touch with their roots. Gertrude Stein branded the young American expatriate writers in Paris like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald with that definition. Later the label was applied in America to the generation living between the world wars that had…

Here is a statement from the only true God who demands to be worshipped exclusively. He permits no competitor. He insists on absolute loyalty. Nothing less will do. Elsewhere in the Bible the Lord states the same affirmation in even clearer terms. He insists: “I am a jealous God,” and “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Song of Solomon 2:16). It…

The man and woman were to be the Lord’s stewards on the earth. They were entrusted with the care over all that exists—an axiom acknowledged by nearly everybody. How is it then that we have done so poor a job of it? We are arbitrary in our appreciation for the welfare of creatures. Some are dear to us; others are little more than suppliers of our…

The preacher or homilist, the iconographer and the composer of church music have a common goal—to reveal the sacred mysteries of the Lord. This is what each of them does in his field, whether it be in words, in icons or in music. Obviously if they are not in touch with the Holy Spirit, if they are blind and dumb to the presence of the holy in…

I don’t know if it’s the last days or not, but the above features describe many with whom we now share what is still called a culture. Read through the list and note how many of those negative characteristics have been demonstrated to you at one time or another.

One blessing in traveling out of the country is the realization that certain features…

We say that we offer bread and wine to be transformed into the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Himself, but they are not actually gifts from ourselves. Yes, human beings grew the wheat and baked the flour to bring Him the sacred bread, and the earth brought forth the vines that produced the grapes that were crushed into juice. Men fermented the…

Nobody can accuse our loving Lord of ambiguity. He sets it all out before us clearly in the beginning of His ministry captured in the Sermon on the Mount. We may say like the servants of earlier centuries: “I hear and I obey,” but do we? Each year after Great Lent, having heard countless confessions, I have the feeling that so many difficulties that…

I used to ride the New York City subways daily. Once, some zealous Christian with a magic marker wrote at the Times Square stop: JESUS SAVES. The next day someone else had scrawled underneath: MOSES INVESTS. Both phrases express the Protestant work ethic. Many Christians in America had the foresight to live frugally, and not only Jews but also all…