“Thoughts in Christ”

What a glorious phrase to explain the motivation behind the Orthodox Christian way of salvation: straining forward to what lies ahead [Gk. Epektasis]. We don’t tally up our virtues or mull over our past sins; we thank the Lord for our blessings and confess our failings so that we can get on with the process of growing into unity with God. In the…

The second Sunday of Great Lent features the forgiveness of sins. Every Orthodox Christian understands the requirement of a formal confession in this sacred time. Priests spend a great deal of their time during these weeks at the confessional. The premise at the final prayer before the closing of the casket at the time of burial: “This my spiritual…

The gospel for the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday of Great Lent, is the last part of the first chapter of St. John. It’s all about seeing, which is one but not the only reason why we celebrate the victory of icons today. The feast of feasts, the sacred Pascha reading is the first part of the same gospel. The common element is vision. Philip…

A new book has found its way into book stores in the land: Why Men Hate Going to Church, by David Murrow. The author claims to have discovered that more women than men attend services, apparently enjoy worship, and gain satisfaction from prayer. Really! How interesting! Or, as the kids would say, “Duh!”

He goes on to insist that men are bored with…

The world led by the media seems to assume that the Middle East is a land where only Muslims abide, except for Israel. We easily forget that many Christians, especially a multitude of Orthodox Christians, survive there despite the ongoing persecution inflicted upon them, and the multiple attempts to drive them out of their homelands. Recently an…

The love of the world in kindest terms is humanism. More accurate would be agnosticism, since that means those who either don’t think through a faith in God, or just don’t care. Because it’s everywhere in our society, it’s not so simple to define, like asking a fish what water looks like. Perhaps it’s like the judge struggling to give a legal…

The faith-filled Christian is ever aware of being watched by the all-seeing eye of the Lord. We understand that to refer to the Holy Trinity. We realize also that the above passage from the Sermon on the Mount referring to a healthy eye filled with light was embodied in the Son of Man, our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. How blessed are His eyes…

To get to the love for God means according to St. Maximos that we must pass through fear. Is there some other way? We in our time just don’t like that word, that four-letter term that we spend our lives trying to avoid. On top of that, we are to fear punishment. He doesn’t mean that the loving Lord will punish us for not loving Him in return. He has…

We hasten to explain this discourse between our loving Lord Jesus and the Greek woman over the border of Palestine. He’s not calling her a dog, which is the height of insolence, and she doesn’t understand it as an offense. Her demur is as witty as His comment: First the children, then the pets! To which she replies: Puppies eat what falls off the…

After my ordination a priest told me that the age of a pastor is determined by the number of the Book of Needs he wears out in his ministry. They are like the rings of a tree. The Book of Needs is a manual of prayers for all situations that he has with him at all times. I’m on my third such book and wondering if I should invest in a new one or make…

When the Orthodox Christian hears that first word preached from the Lord Jesus, he understands by it that by obeying it to the fullest he will be transported to a dimension of existence far more profound than what meets the eye.

The Lord Jesus is not just saying, “change your minds,” or “alter the way you now look at life,” or “adjust the way you…

Like so many, my mother had a lifelong fear of the dark. When she visited us, we always left a light on in her bedroom. I recall riding once with her. She was musing on death. She asked, “When we die, will we remain in darkness?”

‘No, Mom,” I replied, “In the Kingdom of heaven everything will be illumined. Don’t you remember how Jesus said, ‘I am…

God’s first word to man: “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). Meaning where in relation to Him. God asks the first murderer: “Where is your brother Abel?” (Genesis 4:9). The implication is that we are responsible for our brethren. Nicholas Berdyaev noted that another significant question is: “Abel, where is your brother Cain?” We may ponder this today in…

What parent cannot appreciate the fright that took hold of Joseph and Mary the Theotokos when they realized that Jesus was nowhere among the Galilean group that had gone with them to and from the festival in Jerusalem. They assumed he was with other boys of His age. Who knows what might have happened to Him? Was He sick and left lying somewhere…

Imagine the lad David watching over his father’s sheep, aware of their total reliance on him. They somehow realized that with his staff, the long pole with a crook on top that he carried in one hand to move them along and to reach out and catch them if they should slip into a precipice, and the stout club in the other with which he beat off…

It’s troubling the way that the Orthodox Christians in America are so divided into ethnic jurisdictions and fragmented into clusters of separated communities. Jews in our nation don’t outnumber our greater spiritual family, yet their impact on the policies of our country is overwhelming, far greater than their numbers, while we are hardly noticed as…

Every rabbi taught his disciples how to pray and gave them a prayer to lift up to God. It then was natural for the apostles to ask the same from our Lord Jesus. And we, following them, recite the Lord’s Prayer several times each day. And in our prayer addressed to the heavenly Father we are praying with Jesus Christ for the will of the Father to be…

What gift could be more precious than liberation from the disintegration of our essential being and to share in that portion of divinity that is possible for created beings? It is out of the question to have a share in whatever the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in their essence. After stating that reality, we are quick to affirm the option…

“Hello, Mary. Do you remember me?” She stares at me with blue eyes through granny glasses, her smile as pleasant as I recall from happier times. She still has the soft smooth skin found among those who eschew suntan, her radiant features reminding me of her charm and intelligence when she was well. She wants to pretend she knows who I am, but…

The good Samaritan had more compassion than the Levite and priest. The theme is found elsewhere, such as the woman at the well ((John 4:7-29). Before the profound depths of the events lies something more obvious; the universal dimension of our Lord’s ministry. He came to His own people, yet He reached out to all human beings. To love Gentiles does…