“Thoughts in Christ”

St. Paul’s letter to Galatians was not to a single parish, but to many in central Asia Minor. He was disturbed; because he thought that he had left them with the awareness that they were liberated from following the Old Testament legalisms that our Lord Jesus Himself renounced as unnecessary and oppressive. St. Paul was himself a Pharisee, one of…

Some brides-to-be resent this epistle read at every Orthodox Church wedding. They think it’s sexist—not politically correct in this era of liberation of women. But that objection is misdirected. This advice of St. Paul is not about subordination of woman to man, nor is it about control. This is about love. The holy apostle is not putting wives…

If you are a serious Orthodox Christian, and I assume you are, then you must be also a devotee of monasticism. Our worship is replete with the style and format of the monastery, especially during the Great Lent, including the way we fast and pray. Nuns and monks teach us by example what’s good for our souls. One supreme lesson is based on silence.…

St. Paul in writing to his disciple Timothy is reminding him that he was ordained to serve the Church. One has the feeling that the young man is challenged in his ministry. He lacks experience. False teachers compete with him and have a contradictory message to promote. Church discipline is a problem. The older apostle had written what can be seen…

The feast that our Lord Jesus attended was Pentecost. In the Old Testament it marks the conclusion of Pascha [Pesach in Hebrew] or as it’s better known, Passover. We Orthodox Christians prefer to call it by the Greek term, Pascha, because it reminds us of the freedom won for us by our Lord and God Jesus Christ. Not from Mt. Sinai but from the right…

There comes a time for a person and a nation to ponder over deep questions of life. Survivors from near death experiences wake up both literally and metaphorically. Not all of them, but some reevaluate their existence. Like the song a generation past, they ask: “What’s it all about, Alphie?” It happens to nations—or some of them. It’s not random.…

Whenever St. Paul uses the word therefore, he is often indicating that this is a transition point. What went before is his teaching. He wants the reader to understand something about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this case, it is the mercy of the loving God as expressed in the history of salvation through Israel, and now offered to the Gentiles.…

The almighty God can do wonders, but His wonderful gifts of peace and union with the Holy Trinity can be thwarted by the remembrance of things past. The energy that flows from divinity to the soul’s receptor can be stymied like thick clouds that shut out the sun. And the blockage can have several causes.

It can be moral—plainly stated, sin. When…

It’s amazing the way modern society lives vicariously. The people of our times more than ever in the past live through others in order to make life meaningful. We pay exorbitant salaries to celebrities just so that we can live through them, talk about them and have them entertain us. Half of our state has been consumed by the actions of a teenager…

Jesus is calling His listeners to action. Walk is best translated keep on walking. Those who were on the way with Him must keep on going wherever He was moving, because He is the Light of the world. To walk away is to stray into darkness. If it was confusing to follow Him, it was worse to forsake Him. He was addressing His own Jewish people. They…

It was the nature of St. Thomas to question and confront, not taking anything at face value. When the Lord said to the apostles: “Where I go you know, and the way you know” (John 14:4), Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going, how can we know the way?” His temperament was to be a contender and an outsider, yet we are better for…

You’ll hear us priests chant this psalm with great joy in our hearts, interspersed with the choir’s affirmation, “Christ is risen from the dead,” answering the Old Testament hope with the news that their wish has been granted. He has risen, His enemies are scattered, and the righteous are celebrating. That has already happened, yet the ultimate…

Even at the end, after several years of being with the Lord, following Him daily, hearing Him teach the message of the heavenly Father and His plan for the world as it was intended to be, Peter was armed for battle. Oh, how our animal instincts overwhelm us when conflicts confront us! Fight or flight, our basic nature urges. So easy to explain, so…

Long before the film The Passion of The Christ was released, a cry went out from many in the Jewish community that Mel Gibson’s portrayal of the last 45 hours of Christ’s life on earth was anti-Semitic and that it posed Jews in a false light. The only concession that Gibson made to the charge was to not translate the above phrase in the English…

St. Symeon the New Theologian explains the symbolism of this parable for us. He writes that the lamps that the ten virgins have in their possession as they are waiting to greet the bridegroom each held oil for fuel and wicks for illumination. But the lamps are small and not capable of holding much fuel. The lamp is the human soul; the oil is our…

Our world has no lack of religion. Regardless of how it’s expressed or the forms it takes, we live in a religious time. They are incorrect who claim that faith is passe, something for an era now behind us. Osama bin Laden is a committed believer, certain of his cause. Those who follow him call themselves martyrs. They are more than willing to die…

Here is the meeting of our Lord Jesus with the woman at Jacob’s well. As we eavesdrop in their conversation, we learn so much about true and false faith and prayer. Hers was a partial faith. He wasn’t being unkind, just truthful when Christ said that the Samaritans didn’t know the God that they prayed to. How many, even among the Orthodox Christians…

Most if not all Christians throughout the world know and recite the Lord’s Prayer, but only the Orthodox Church in the Divine Liturgy prefaces it with the above plea by the celebrant. Why does it take boldness, and why is it a daring action to address the heavenly Father in this prayer taught us by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself?

First of all, it…

When we think of the apostles gathered together, we conjure up the icon of the Last Supper. It crests every Royal Gate of our icon screens; or perhaps we think of them with the flames of fire above each, receiving the Holy Spirit on the great day of Pentecost. Maybe it would help us more to consider what it was that drew them together on that first…

Consider the spiritual light within you. Maybe you are not thinking of it, you may have forgotten, perhaps you never even knew you had a light to illumine others. But why would the good Lord ask from you something that He knew wasn’t in you? Your light then is not from you originally, but the gift and present of the Holy Spirit. You’ve had it in a…