Posts Tagged ‘Church’
2026 Daily Lenten Journey Day 4
One of my favorite realities of Great Lent is sharing strategies with other Orthodox Christians. I exchange recipes and share stories of success and failures over the years. The joy of the Church is more than just gathering for worship. It is helping each other live life. We’re barely into Great Lent and much has…
Read MoreIgnoring Authority
As ‘good Americans’ we love our independence. Freedom is the backbone of our society. We do what we want. We believe what we want. We say what we want. We condemn anyone who tries to limit us. This might be the ‘American way’ but it is not the Christian way. The elder to the beloved…
Read MoreStruggling Against Passions
I hear it all the time. Christians are accused of being hypocrites because we don’t live sinless lives. Some of us even struggle against the Church. In my experience, the Church isn’t filled with hypocrites. The Church is filled with Christians struggling against their passions. Seen from the outside of the Church, I understand the…
Read MoreA Different Kingdom
Many non-believers accuse the Church of wanting to control our lives. They believe our ‘rules and traditions’ are designed to keep us down in the world. It would be much easier if we just gave in to the world and ‘blended in’ more to those around us. Then we would succeed. This logic is lacking…
Read MoreIn my Prayers
I blog about prayer often. It is, after all, a central part of our Orthodox life. It is also one of the most underutilized spiritual tools in our Orthodox tool kit. Even when we pray, we rarely give our prayers the attention they deserve. Worse, we rarely give others the attention of our prayers. One…
Read MoreAll Authority is from God
In our human understanding, authority is equal to power. Whoever has authority has power. Since we like power, we love when we have authority over others. The sad truth is that we have no authority that was not given to us by God. Let’s face it. We barely have authority over ourselves. At that time,…
Read MoreEpisode 467 – Being with God in Heaven
When God invites us to Church, He is inviting to come and spend time with Him in heaven. Every Sunday we have the chance to accept God’s invitation to be with God in heaven. We don’t have to wait until we die to be with God in heaven. We can be with Him today in…
Read MoreTruth in Love
Speaking the truth can sometimes be awkward or even dangerous. Saints were martyred because they spoke truth. Holy men and women lost their fortunes because they lived the truth. Even we are forced to discern, daily, whether it would be good to speak the truth or not. In today’s reading from Saint Paul’s First Letter…
Read MoreDo You Pray for Your Church?
One of the basic “to do items” on our list as Orthodox Christians is to say our daily prayers. Depending upon the prayer rule given to us by our Spiritual Father, we all spend time in prayer, no matter how long. The question I have for you today is, “Do you pray for your Church?”…
Read MoreBlessing Others
Hard work pays off in ways we can never fully appreciate. We work hard and are rewarded by others. Being rewarded by other people is only part of our blessing. All good things come from God and He is always blessing us, but the blessings are never just for us. Brethren, he who sows sparingly…
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