“Thoughts in Christ”

We begin the awesome soul-transforming experience of the Great Lent with two services specifically for this time: Forgiveness Vespers and the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. One is dedicated to the cleansing of consciences, the other to elevate our minds to an ever-greater unity with the Holy Trinity. The two are bound together. St. Maximus says…

When the icons portray this glorious scenario of countless saints all in white and gold, the viewer can make a conventional error—to think of them not as individuals with their own personalities but as a group without separate characteristics. Quite the contrary, they have been or shall be free of all the restraints that proceed from sinfulness and…

It’s termed the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, a prelude to Great Lent; but it may well be called the parable of a father’s inexplicable love. We respond to our Lord Jesus Christ’s fabulous tale of a Jewish father’s overwhelming compassion for a son who had abused that paternal affection by rejecting it as just too much. Where on earth would we…

In time past, only the Orthodox Christian bishops and monastics wore the prayer ropes wound around their left wrists. In our time, one notices lay persons young and old doing the same, often shortened from the conventional length. Assuming they are used properly by those who have been trained to grow spiritually in the way of the hesychasts, we…

We are blessed with many icons of angels in our temple: All nine ranks of angels, guardian angels, angels surrounding the holy Mother of God, angels among the figures in the feast day icons—but the most dangerous angel has no icon, nor does he want one. He prefers darkness and obscurity to do his nefarious work. He “left Him,” but not for long.…

All life is sacred, and nothing more so than human life. Every Jew knew and honored that truth, as does, or should, every Christian. The blessed promise of the Almighty to Abraham was human life [lakhai’m]. Life is a gift. Gratitude is expected by a sacrifice. Since Jesus was a first-born male, Mary was expected to present a lamb for the burnt…

Consider the first sin following the landing of Noah’s ark. Just when it appeared that the Lord Almighty had found a solution to the rampant sinfulness of humanity by “baptizing” the whole earth, one son having found his father in disarray, mocked him rather than covering him up. One must never disrespect a parent. St. Peter insists that we…

“Honor all people.” Honor, in Greek timi, means respect and more—recognition and dignity—but at times it is a challenge to do so for all persons, especially when they do not respect themselves. A book titled I and Thou, by Martin Buber, left an indelible imprint on my memory. We have lost the distinction held in many languages between the formal…

The Divine Liturgy begins with a proclamation, a direction and a promise: “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.” We announce the Kingdom because it is, it is where God is, and it is where we ultimately shall be. God is not just the Creator [although many in our times dispute even…

The distinctive feature of our Lord, God and Savior is humility. If the entire scenario of the Nativity from the embarrassment of His mother’s pregnancy to the rude treatment at the inn of Bethlehem, the birth, flight and return to Galilee is not ample evidence of the way the Holy Trinity chose to make the Son of God manifest, here again in His…

The historian Herodotus claimed that the Magi were Medes, a tribe that tried to conquer the Persians, failed and became priests but more than religious leaders. They were instructors to the royal house of Persia, learned in philosophy, science and medicine. Besides, they were astrologers who looked into the skies to learn God’s ways for the earth.…

The question, “What does Christmas mean?” has as many answers as people in our society. Opportunity for merchants, vacation days for school children, parties and exchange of gifts even for non-Christians, since it has become a national holiday even in a nation that forbids official recognition. All including Christians, even Orthodox Christians,…

Holy means separate, or apart. St. Peter as a Jew considered it normal for Christians to do as the Jews and make themselves distinct from Gentiles. We read in Acts 10 the change of his attitude and what it took to accept non-Jews as authentic Christians. After their return from exile in Babylon, Jews defined themselves as a people apart from all…

“O who loves, Nicholas the saintly?” we sing from a popular hymn to that glorious saint. The answer obviously is the entire Christian world down through the centuries, with various interpretations and understandings related to the era and ethos. He endears himself even for what he was not. Following the age of the apostles, then that of the martyrs…

Prayer and fasting go together. They are two parts of complete self-control, which are necessary for unconditional faith. We fast so that our prayer is free from all that comes between God and ourselves. Food is only part of it. To eat minimally and only a select diet is to practice freedom from craving. Beyond yearning for meat and dairy products,…

Every American is invited to share the experience of the Pilgrims on Thanksgiving Day, albeit vicariously. We recount the fears and tests of faith for those hearty voyagers crossing the Atlantic Ocean in their frail ships, enduring the traumas and perils, celebrating the arrival on dry land and the symbol of their firmness of purpose and trust in…

Imagine you were living in the first or second century, a citizen of one of the above cities called Asia Minor, present-day Turkey. The great apostle to gentiles like yourself, Peter, addresses you as a pilgrim, although you never moved more than a few miles from your birthplace. He means that as one baptized into the Body of Christ, you have been…

The last phrase explains and justifies all that precedes it. “That you may inherit a blessing.” When? When you fall asleep in the Lord and realize the value of blessings. What greater gift can you imagine than to appear before your Lord Jesus Christ as He greets you with a blessing? Why? Because you are one of His flock who had been courteous to all…

“Hallow” is an ancient form of “holy,” and “een-even” means “eve,” thus Halloween is the eve of all saints. As celebrated in America, it recalls an ancient pagan religion brought from England, having originated from the Celtic end-of-harvest festival of the dead. Imagine explaining it to a visitor from another land who never heard of it.

Let us…

The key term is “Word,” which translates as the Greek Logos. The problem for us is that a word is something written and heard—but Logos is a great deal more. More than a sound, it is reason, the ability to think and communicate, which we share with divinity, marking us as different from all other creatures. Beyond even that, the gospel is…