What's the difference between Inspiration and Motivation? Well, Inspiration usually comes from the outside. I'm inspired by that act of charity, or that life well lived. Motivations, however, are usually internal; that set of desires and drives that either keep me on track or send my life down a dead end. My best friend use…
Fr. Barnabas Powell
A famous pop music singer came out with a song called "Born This Way." Lady Gaga struck a nerve with many with her lyrics about struggling with her distinctives that made her feel "different." Her anthem declared "everybody is special and they were born this way."
Of course, in our ego-driven fallenness, so many interpreted the…
I don't believe in "fairness." Really! I really don't believe in it at all. Oh, I get the concept, don't get me wrong, but I simply don't believe humans are capable of it. At least not yet, anyway.
Frankly, I'm convinced the Evil One uses our innate knowing that fairness SHOULD exist AND our inability…
"Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." So goes the saying that came to my mind as I considered today's lesson. You see we humans are easily conned into believing "bigger is better." We think that if some church has a lot of people then it must be successful. But how…
The words of Jesus often strike us as paradoxical: To be free, you must be a slave, to live you have to die, to be great, you must be humble! Hundreds of books have been written trying to understand the paradox of Jesus and His influence on humanity. The fact is His life shouldn't have…
"We have an eye witness." Well, that got his attention. You see I was helping with an investigation with a recent spate of home burglaries in the area and we had caught a suspect in one of the neighborhoods where this was happening. This young man had been very successful in avoiding being seen or…
Telly Savalas was one of my favorite actors as a kid. I loved his "Who loves ya, baby" catchphrase when he played detective Kojak on his TV show!
Wait, you don't know who Telly Savalas is? Well, I am an old man, so perhaps he was before your time!
What isn't before anybody's time is the whole…
Sin is boring! It really is.
Because of my ordination and the blessing of the bishop, I am blessed to hear confessions from the faithful. Hearing confessions, I confess, is one of the most wonderful, challenging, and rewarding part of my priesthood. And the reason is I get invited into the lives of people I genuinely…
"Do you pray to Zeus?" What? Yep, the lady was serious when she found out I was a Greek Orthodox priest, she wondered if we prayed to Zeus! Holy Moly! "No, ma'am" I said. "We are lovers of Jesus Christ, and actually we are the first Christians." She was amazed. She said "I've never heard…
"Being precedes doing!" I heard the phrase and thought to myself "I'm not sure I understand what that is suppose to mean?" And, as I listened to the speaker longer, my confusion just grew.
I think what the professor was trying to say was our actions flow from who we really are. And he was trying…