Author page: Fr. Barnabas Powell

As a “son of the South” I’ve heard people say “Bless your heart” all my life. And the irony is that this phrase that almost sounds like a prayer, is really a versatile phrase American Southerners use to both bless AND curse. And it all depends on how it’s used. It can be a genuine expression…

At a recent spiritual retreat, I was asked to conduct, I was asked how one should prepare to deal with questions about the faith when others ask about it. Usually, many of our Orthodox brothers and sisters get very nervous when somebody asks them about our Orthodox Faith. It’s a good question, but it points to a deeper…

Why is it we avoid asking inconvenient questions? Or maybe they are just uncomfortable questions. Questions that get to the heart of a real injustice, or a deep-seated prejudice, or even a real life-stalling behavior? Why are we moderns always in therapy but never getting really free? What will it take for us to confront some…

We really have succumbed to such a consumerist mindset that the Pavlovian trigger of “sale” actually has us queuing up outside the “box” retailers to wait in the cold to get a slip of paper that gives us permission to purchase a product at a particular price so we will “have” the product. One begins…

C.S. Lewis said it best: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” So true! You see, the Christian Faith isn’t merely a set of moral teachings. All religious systems have that, and most of them are fairly similar. The Christian…

"I can pray out in the woods so much better than in a church!" But do you do that? Seriously, I hear so many excuses as a priest from folks who can't seem to make regular church attendance a priority in their lives. And most of those lives are marked by a consistent inattentiveness to…