“Thoughts in Christ”

Through the millennia and the translations from Aramaic through Greek and into English, the force of our Lord’s admonition glares through. Can you see His eyes in your mind’s eye as He declared that indictment? “It would be better for him”: perhaps not in this lifetime, but in the afterlife. What would He say about a culture such as ours, where…

Why do so many people celebrate Christmas, even the non-Christians and those who don’t believe in God? Most likely it’s because all humans share a need to adore a newborn child. We want to do something for him, to offer a gift or to enhance the infant’s life. With Christ, we resonate to His helplessness: The birth in the cave, the humble foster…

How easy it is for us modern Americans with our breakfasts on the run, power lunches, and TV dinners to miss the import of the meals where our beloved Lord and God Jesus Christ eats with the people He loves: In the home of His friend Lazarus, in the Upper Room, even by invitation at the house of the hostile Simon the Leper, and here in the house of…

Through the years I’ve been gifted with more than a few pectoral crosses, the sort that Orthodox priests wear in public, especially during the sacred services. Nearly all now are of gold, embellished with jewels, but the most precious is the heavy cross first given to me by a special person on my ordination day. It is of the sort made of silver,…

I was in a small town in Cyprus. I was inside an ancient monastic chapel off a cobbled street. Tourists were passing by, curious as always, with their omnipresent cameras at the ready to snap a photo of whatever seems interesting, whether or not they grasp what it might be. A Divine Liturgy was taking place, the Byzantine chanting loud enough to…

We’ll be hearing it again and again and again from Thanksgiving until the blessed Christmas Day finally arrives. That banal and overworked jingle will be played in malls, markets, stores and beauty salons, so you’d better watch out. One phrase is intriguing: “So be good for goodness sake!”

“For goodness sake” is one among so many phrases left over…

How easy it is to say, “I love you.” But to put your love in action is quite a bit more difficult. Consider the love walks we take liturgically: Circling the font at baptisms, the tetrapod at weddings, and the holy altar at ordinations. Always counterclockwise, they sum up the past and follow Christ into the future. They all are filled with joy of…

Too many funerals. So many times I’ve stepped aside, pausing in the order of services for our beloved departed to permit the military ritual to proceed with the formula honoring dead servicemen. Two usually quite young men—at times, women—from the branch of the military in which our loved one had performed his duty, slowly, solemnly approach the…

Here is the self-definition of an American Orthodox saint who fell asleep in the Lord in 1915. He labored for the unity of all Orthodox Christian Churches and faithful, and for that the Orthodox Church in America recognized him as a saint. It was our Church that canonized him, because he represented all that we say we stand for. In a keynote address…

Nowhere else is there a more splendid description of what happens when we pass through this life beyond death and into the everlasting life that awaits us. Here is the most precious view of heaven in the Bible. On the other side of death are mansions for us all. Mansion, you say, and for me? Do we really need mansions? Another interesting thought is…

It is presumed that all Christians pray—otherwise why call yourself a Christian at all? Excluding the Orthodox, not as many fast, at least regularly and often. Why would the Bible emphasize almsgiving, or charity to others, above prayer and fasting? The answer is evident. We pray in order to be united with the Holy Trinity, and we fast as an…

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is the home of a traditional sect of Amish. They are of German heritage. They lead simple, plain, reclusive lives. Many know about them; few know them intimately. A motion picture, Witness, filmed about a decade ago, brought them to the attention of the outside world by featuring their lives and locale. An Amish lad,…

We soon come to memorize this lovely passage of God’s blessings through nature, because it is chanted at the start of every vespers. The brilliant spiritual writer Nikitas Stethatos uses the verse to describe the progress of a human being on the way to spiritual perfection (On the Inner Nature of Things, 90).

He realizes that for a beginner on the…

Upon entering an Orthodox church for the first time, one cannot help but notice the icons of the Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary ahead, at the left side of the Royal Doors on the icon screen, and elsewhere in the vestibule and adorning the walls of the nave. She gives a face and personality to the Church. We believers are proud of her, and we…

New missions are fun. No sooner does one come for liturgy when somebody asks him or her to help out in some way. It’s not an ordinary parish where all is fixed and in order. It may be a rented hall or room used for other purposes. Altar tables must be brought out, icon screen set up, icons placed, choir stands fixed, coffee and donuts set out; and…

St. Paul is closing out this unique record of the work of the Holy Spirit in Acts, beginning at St. Peter’s sermon in Jerusalem on Pentecost to Paul’s ministry in Rome. He reflects on his own people and their reluctance to receive Jesus as the Messiah. Salvation will go forward through the Gentiles. It must have broken his heart to come to that…

I celebrate his concern. I honor his insight. I affirm his wisdom in taking the lead among the earth’s religious leaders by lifting up God’s charge to humanity for all that He created. Is there an Orthodox Christian who is not eager to endorse this call to responsibility for all life in nature? It warms my heart to notice that other faith leaders…

I return to the book of Job every few years. I discover something new with each fresh reading. Of course, as our professor of homiletics, Metropolitan Andre emphasized, the words don’t change, but we do. Therefore, even after we have memorized the Bible, we ought to go on reading it daily.

Judaism is based on the Torah, the Law of Moses. It is…

In a culture of constant noise and distractions, one must pay a price for the precious golden gift of silence. We have made the glorious technological possibilities of electronic devices nothing more than noisemakers for so many who prefer the aura of stillness and quiet for the better use of their minds. Everywhere one goes in public, people are…

In pre-revolutionary Russia, when a seminarian proposed to the girl he hoped to marry and to have as his life’s companion, consort or “Matushka,” he would send her a note with the above words from the Bible. See what it suggests? You and I with God to guide us will go through life having a common purpose. Yes, marriage is about love, but it includes…