Christ is risen!
There is actually a mental health condition called thanatophobia - the fear of death. This phobia drives those who suffer from this malady to be afraid of doing anything. But, in reality, having anxiety about one's mortality is actually normal in we humans. Why do you think that is?
Could it be that a…
Fr. Barnabas Powell
Christ is risen!
It was a dramatic moment in the courtroom. I was a witness for the prosecution since I had been the arresting officer in the case. But I was only one witness and the defendant was insisting he wasn't the one who was driving the car when the accident occurred. Then, another witness came…
Christ is risen!
He was wondering why I was looking at him in such an intense way. He had just said something that I completely misunderstood, and, if he meant what I thought he meant, well, let's just say we may need to step outside!
Once he realized I misunderstood him, his confusion turned to panic and…
Christ is risen!
There is a huge difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them. I've heard this truth illustrated by talking about identical twins. We have two sets of twins in our parish; one set is easy to distinguish because one is a boy and the other is a girl. But the second set…
Christ is risen!
He looked at me and said something I never expected: "Conflict is necessary for close friendship and healthy relationships." What? I hated hearing that. In fact, it made me question whether I was trusting the right person with this particular challenge. It was a sticky situation that meant I had to confront someone…
Christ is risen!
"Stubborn, stubborn, I tell you." I can still hear the words of my grandmother fussing about a relative who simply refused to hear "good sense" as she called it. "That boy is a stubborn as a mule!"
I confess, as I enter the latter half of my own life, I can look back and…
Christ is risen!
As I was studying what to write today, I wanted to look up the meaning of the word "murmur." Do you know what popped up first in my research? Yep, heart murmurs. The sound your heart makes when it's sick. I thought about this for a while and decided there was real wisdom…
Christ is risen!
In the church I was raised we just didn't do the Lord's Supper very often. In fact, there are years where I can't remember if we did it at all through a particular year. And that didn't strike me as strange or unusual. After all it was just a "memorial" of a past…
Christ is risen!
One of the oldest manuscripts we have for the earliest days of the Christian Faith outside the Gospels is the Didache or "The Teaching of the 12 Apostles." This ancient writing dates from the First Century A.D. and begins with an intriguing phrase: "There are two ways, one of life and one of death,…
Christ is risen!
He was almost breathless telling me about the event he experienced. It was overwhelming to him. He and several friends from his parish were thrilled to have a myrrh streaming icon come to their community and this precious Orthodox convert was simply amazed at witnessing this sign of God's presence and reality. I…