Fr. John Breck · March 13, 2012
Food and drink were intended for nourishment and enjoyment. Passion transforms the natural acts of eating and drinking into gluttony and dissipation.
The theme of repentance is heard so often during Great Lent because it...
Fr. John Breck · August 01, 2010
At a recent, post-liturgical coffee hour, a catechumen raised a question that has troubled many people who were brought up in a Protestant environment and at some point found themselves drawn to Orthodoxy. “If we are saved...
Fr. John Breck · July 31, 2010
The church of Saint Sulpice, located in the 6th arrondissement near the Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris, is a 17th century edifice, built on the site of a 13th century Romanesque chapel. Several years ago it became a major...
Fr. John Breck · June 30, 2010
Sports fans in Western Europe are used to chaos. Riots following soccer (“football”) matches often resemble the recent uproar in Greece after the government voted in severe austerity measures. It’s well known that British...
Fr. John Breck · May 31, 2010
The account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, which we read on the fifth Sunday after Pascha, brought to mind something I often forget, and maybe others do as well.
It’s the fact that authentic prayer is not really a human...
Fr. John Breck · April 30, 2010
The expressions “Prayer of the Heart” and “Prayer of Jesus” or “Jesus Prayer” are often used as equivalents. They should, however, be clearly distinguished one from the other. According to a person’s degree of spiritual...
Fr. John Breck · April 01, 2010
People will persist in dysfunctional patterns of behavior simply because they’re familiar. A woman who divorces an abusive alcoholic husband will be very likely later on to marry someone with a similar addiction. The “good...
Fr. John Breck · March 31, 2010
On March 2nd of this year, the PBS program Frontline invited the public to witness the assisted suicide of Craig Ewert, a 59 year-old sufferer of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”). Viewers...
Fr. John Breck · March 02, 2010
An unshakable conviction among Jews at the time of Jesus held that the Holy Scriptures had to be “fulfilled.” From the time of their exodus from Egypt and their sojourn in the wilderness of Sinai, the people of Israel viewed...
Fr. John Breck · February 02, 2010
American culture throws up peculiar challenges to thoughtful and serious members of any traditional religious faith.
There’s the thoroughgoing confusion we have made between capitalism and democracy, which makes taboo any...