"Father, give us a word." The young men sat in the cell of the holy elder and longed to hear his wisdom for their lives. As the elder spoke, the men's hearts burned with joy and revelation. The elder then turned and asked each one of the young men what they thought about what he…
Fr. Barnabas Powell
"Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge." Dante, poet and author of the Divine Comedy. Origins consumes much of the scientific inquiry of our day. Where did we come from? How did the universe begin? Where did humanity come from? Explore as we might, it…
The word gets thrown around a lot today. "Love" seems to be everybody's goal, and it seems to have been this way forever. I'm reading a great book now called "How Dante Can Save Your Life" by Rod Dreher, and in it Dreher gives me some wonderful background on the author of the great poem…
Real inspiration isn't easy! In fact, I've become suspicious of the real lasting power of inspiration based on mere sentiment or even "good intentions." It just always seems to be reduced to nothing more than making someone else "feel" better about "inspiring" someone else. And the sentiment seems to disappear in an instant when "real…
"We are of one mind about this." I heard his words and I understood each word and it's meaning, but I had never heard this put this way before - "of one mind." What did he mean? But, hey, I was a kid of 22 and the situation was such that I was hoping he…
An Introduction to Original Christianity!
It's almost HERE!
The demographics don't lie. We are living in a time when it is hard to stay faithful to the Orthodox Faith. Our missing young people are a testament to that stark and sobering reality. But there is no use in cursing the darkness. It's time to…
The latest statistics from the Archdiocese says that upwards of 80% of all marriages performed in the Orthodox Churches in America are between an Orthodox Christian and a non-Orthodox Christian. For some Orthodox Churches in Europe, this is a mystery since they still hold to the older wisdom on not allowing marriages between persons who…
The word "asceticism" is something of a mystery to our modern way of life. We have lived with such plenty and such amazing comfort and ease for so long that now we assume that all of life is meant to be pain (and even effort) free. Just consider our attitudes towards marriage. We assume that…
Ever wonder how words lose their meaning? I have. I think of how society redefines things to suit their current thinking. But this isn't a new phenomena at all. We humans do this all the time. In fact, a famous president of the United States defended himself from serious charges by reminding his questioners "It…
Listen to this quote from St. Peter of Damaskos: “Patient endurance kills the despair that kills the soul; it teaches the soul to take comfort and not to grow listless in the face of its many battles and afflictions." Wow, "the despair that kills the soul." How often have I seen that in the people who…