“Thoughts in Christ”

When the priest prepares the Holy Host for communion before the public part of the Divine Liturgy begins, his last action is to thrust the cutting spear he uses into the side of the square of bread. While doing so he recites the above words. It means that our Lord’s heart was receptive to the very end of His life on earth. He was forgiving us all,…

Our Lord Jesus Christ was an outstanding communicator, because He spoke to the values and needs of those He encountered. To a merchant He talked of jewels. To the farmer He spoke of sowing and fertile earth. To the fishermen He used nets and species of fish to make His point. And to the housewife He talked of housecleaning. To each person He found a…

We Americans have a special problem with this text: Many of us are on a salt-free diet. But from time immemorial, salt always has had a profound meaning. It was so precious that it was how wages were paid. Payment for services in the military, what we call a salary, comes from salt [sel]. Like so many blessings in our modern lives, salt has lost its…

It seems that the more I age, the more I grow estranged from the society around me. I realize it now, sitting in an airport terminal waiting for my flight connection. Upon touching down from a transoceanic flight, the flight attendant [I still catch myself calling them “stewardesses,” politically correct language to the contrary] announced, “George…

Jesus sent the disciples off in their boat. He could deal with the crowd better without them, because they too had imbibed the enthusiasm of the moment. They wanted to make our Lord their king. All the Jews were frustrated and angry. John the Baptist was alone in having the audacity to stand up to Herod and condemn him for sinning in the palace. Now…

It’s not what we know that identifies us as Orthodox Christians, but Whom we love. Our parishes struggle to find ways to educate our children and adults in the true faith. We teach them creeds, prayers, church history, doctrine, liturgical theology, the meaning of icons, and all that is right and necessary. But if they leave without having found a…

All of the Orthodox Church services of worship begin with either the terms “bless,” or “glory.” We continually thank the almighty Lord for the blessings of grace showered upon us, His unworthy servants, and we return those blessings with our love. We also express our gratitude with songs of glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It reminds us of…

What happens to you when you get angry? Actually you surrender to anger or, better stated, you indulge yourself in anger. Everyone except the frustrated parent can smile and ignore a child in the throes of a temper tantrum. But anger at any age or stage of life is just a reversion to the infantile self-indulgence of a tantrum. The result is that the…

To gain some understanding of the significance of our blessed Lord’s crucifixion from the point of view of His contemporary Jews, we require the knowledge of the Old Testament together with our own creative imagination. We need to have in our mind’s eye the temple of Jerusalem. We must walk as it were through the separate sections and find ourselves…

Interesting to put the question to any daring to speak the Word of God on behalf of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ. With what boldness, self-confidence bordering on arrogance so many present themselves as spokespersons for the Lord in our day. Rarely are they asked: “By what right do you dare speak in God’s Name? Who gave you the authority…

St. Paul’s letter to Galatians was not to a single parish, but to many in central Asia Minor. He was disturbed; because he thought that he had left them with the awareness that they were liberated from following the Old Testament legalisms that our Lord Jesus Himself renounced as unnecessary and oppressive. St. Paul was himself a Pharisee, one of…

Some brides-to-be resent this epistle read at every Orthodox Church wedding. They think it’s sexist—not politically correct in this era of liberation of women. But that objection is misdirected. This advice of St. Paul is not about subordination of woman to man, nor is it about control. This is about love. The holy apostle is not putting wives…

If you are a serious Orthodox Christian, and I assume you are, then you must be also a devotee of monasticism. Our worship is replete with the style and format of the monastery, especially during the Great Lent, including the way we fast and pray. Nuns and monks teach us by example what’s good for our souls. One supreme lesson is based on silence.…

St. Paul in writing to his disciple Timothy is reminding him that he was ordained to serve the Church. One has the feeling that the young man is challenged in his ministry. He lacks experience. False teachers compete with him and have a contradictory message to promote. Church discipline is a problem. The older apostle had written what can be seen…

The feast that our Lord Jesus attended was Pentecost. In the Old Testament it marks the conclusion of Pascha [Pesach in Hebrew] or as it’s better known, Passover. We Orthodox Christians prefer to call it by the Greek term, Pascha, because it reminds us of the freedom won for us by our Lord and God Jesus Christ. Not from Mt. Sinai but from the right…

There comes a time for a person and a nation to ponder over deep questions of life. Survivors from near death experiences wake up both literally and metaphorically. Not all of them, but some reevaluate their existence. Like the song a generation past, they ask: “What’s it all about, Alphie?” It happens to nations—or some of them. It’s not random.…

Whenever St. Paul uses the word therefore, he is often indicating that this is a transition point. What went before is his teaching. He wants the reader to understand something about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this case, it is the mercy of the loving God as expressed in the history of salvation through Israel, and now offered to the Gentiles.…

The almighty God can do wonders, but His wonderful gifts of peace and union with the Holy Trinity can be thwarted by the remembrance of things past. The energy that flows from divinity to the soul’s receptor can be stymied like thick clouds that shut out the sun. And the blockage can have several causes.

It can be moral—plainly stated, sin. When…

It’s amazing the way modern society lives vicariously. The people of our times more than ever in the past live through others in order to make life meaningful. We pay exorbitant salaries to celebrities just so that we can live through them, talk about them and have them entertain us. Half of our state has been consumed by the actions of a teenager…

Jesus is calling His listeners to action. Walk is best translated keep on walking. Those who were on the way with Him must keep on going wherever He was moving, because He is the Light of the world. To walk away is to stray into darkness. If it was confusing to follow Him, it was worse to forsake Him. He was addressing His own Jewish people. They…