Christianity

Focus on God Instead of Ourselves

Focus on God Instead of Ourselvesby Fr. James Guirguis –
The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (6:22-33)

Our Lord says “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

Often we hear or listen to these words and we think very straightforwardly that this is about what we look at with our physical eyes. Now there is certainly some truth to this, no doubt. But the Lord goes further and it helps to clarify the teaching for us. He says “No one can serve two master; for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” [Read more…]

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We Are Called to Proclaim the Good News of the Truth

Orthodox Christians Are Called to Proclaim the Good News of the Truthby Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) –
Today we may not face the heresy of Arius, but there are many other false teachings which are spreading among the people and are causing the faithful to go astray from the path to salvation.

On the Sunday after the Ascension we remember the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. In honoring them, we remember an extremely special time in Church history which followed on the heels of three centuries of persecution. In 313 the Emperor Constantine the Great published the Edict of Milan, which gave the Christian Church the legal right to exist and essentially brought the Church out of the catacombs and into the open. A new epoch began in the life of the Church: everywhere churches were being built and thousands of people received baptism and started [Read more…]

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Bold Faith in a Secular World: Be on Fire for God’s Holy Word

Bold Faith in a Secular World: Be on Fire for God's Holy Wordby Jackie Morfesis –
Realign your priorities with God’s law. Be on fire for His Holy Word.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity is timeless, beautiful, and profoundly critical, crucial and relevant in today’s world as a testament to God’s eternal love and glory. It is also in dire and critical need of a reset. Yes. A reset. And not a reset to conform to the mores and ways of our modern and secular world, but a rejuvenation, reconnection and reestablishment of our very foundation.

As Orthodox Christians, we cannot afford to become enmeshed in the ways of the world because in doing so, our faith is being diluted day by day. We dangerously become Orthodox in name only but not in spirit. How can I make such a bold accusation? [Read more…]

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Righteousness Is Not A Part Time Job

Righteousness Is Not A Part Time Jobby Abbot Tryphon –
The quest for righteousness is not a part time job.

Teachers and parents routinely remind children of the importance of refraining from giving in to peer pressure, knowing that good behavior can often be undermined by the desire to fit in with their friends and schoolmates.

We adults need to remember that we, too, are often subject to peer pressure. When we are surrounded by people who always take the moral high road, who are honest in their business practices, and respectful in the way they treat other people, our own adherence to the commandments of God is made easier. [Read more…]

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Lukewarm and Fearful Christians Are the Devil’s Playground

Lukewarm and Fearful Christians Are the Devils Playgroundby Jackie Morfesis –
The darkness revels at Christians afraid to shine their light. In fact, a fearful Christian is the devil’s playground.

I was blessed to have a mother, Lucia, memory eternal, who had the boldness to speak scriptural truth to me. She knew exactly what to say that would plant a seed in my heart that took root and would grow for years to come. I vividly remember her looking down at me as a child standing in our kitchen in New Jersey and telling me that God does not want the lukewarm.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). Powerful words that every single one of us must take to heart. [Read more…]

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Living in Apocalyptic Times: Be Vigilant, Take Courage, Have Hope, Be Merciful

Living in Apocalyptic Times: Be Vigilant, Take Courage, Have Hope, Be Mercifulby Fr. Gabriel (Hieromonk) –
Christians are coming to the conclusion that the times are not merely troubling, but apocalyptic.

There is no question that we live in troubling times. The 20th century witnessed an unparalleled persecution of Christianity across the entire world – primarily through revolutionary violence in the East, but primarily through worldly seduction in the West (if you doubt that the two are comparable, I will simply point to the witness of Alexander Solzhenitsyn who had ample occasion to experience both for himself).

Such persecution was prophesied to us by our Lord: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). And before this He had warned of the rise of false prophets, of wars and rumors of wars, of plagues and famines and troubles of many kinds – [Read more…]

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Why Does God Put Us Through Trials?

God put us through trials so that we finally believe in Himby Vladimir Basenkov –
So that we finally believe in Him.

The unit for measuring faith has not been invented yet, but its value determines the degree and the character of a person’s closeness to God. There are fewer convinced atheists than we think. When asked whether or not they recognize the existence of God, most of your personal respondents will answer in the affirmative, even if they are not Christians or actively practicing representatives of any religion in general.

What kind of God they would bear in their minds and how actively they are growing in the knowledge of Him is another story, which ultimately determines the clarity and depth of faith. [Read more…]

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Parents Must Fight to Prevent the Fallen World from Stealing Their Children

Parents Must Fight to Prevent the Fallen World from Stealing Their Childrenby Fr. Octavian Moşin –
Our main duty is to surround the children with care and prevent any harmful influence from entering their souls or stealing them from us.

To create a family is about denouncing oneself for the sake of the love of your neighbor. On the whole, I think that family is akin to a monastery. A monk at his tonsure takes three vows: to live in chastity, poverty, and obedience. If these principles were kept in family life, we would have a completely different outcome than the one we are facing today.

One should keep his desires at bay, preserve physical and spiritual purity; money should be a shared resource, with no one furtively trying to stash it away, because both the husband’s and the wife’s major goal is to acquire [Read more…]

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Cultivate the Spiritual Discipline of Gratitude

Cultivate the Spiritual Discipline of Gratitudeby Fr. Luke A. Veronis –
The spiritual discipline of gratitude helps us to discover life from the perspective of God.

Gratitude as a spiritual discipline. Gratitude as a choice. Let’s think about this. Sometimes, we look at gratitude as a spontaneous response to something someone has done for us. That’s nice. Yet, gratitude as a spiritual discipline means consciously cultivating a spirit of gratitude in all circumstances – for whatever we perceive as good as well as for the blessings we receive even in the midst of difficult, unfortunate or challenging experiences.

Cultivating a spirit of gratitude means opening our hearts to see God’s Presence everywhere in all things and at all times. That’s surely hard to do at times and it may take serious discernment. Yet it is possible. [Read more…]

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Don’t Lose Heart in the Troubling Times We Live In

Dont Lose Heart in the Troubling Times We Live Inby Fr. Dimitry Shishkin –
Whatever may happen, we must not succumb to melancholy, but on the contrary, we must resist it with faith, courage and patience

According to statistics, about seventy-five percent of our compatriots [in Russia] were baptized in the Orthodox Church. But the spirit that many of us possess, alas, is far from Christian. This is the spirit of this world with its lack of faith, relaxation and pride.

Now, succumbing to the influence of this spirit, Christians are gradually losing courage, the sense of belonging to the spirit of Christ; and when faced with inevitable problems of life, they begin to grumble, complain and plunge headlong into the abyss of their sufferings. This is also facilitated by the ideology of extreme individualism (which has spread recently), when a person considers himself, his moods and feelings to be the most important thing in life. [Read more…]

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