"Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see."
On this Zaccaeus Sunday as we enter the wise preparation time approaching Great Lent, let us as ourselves if we are willing to do anything to see Jesus.
Fr. Barnabas Powell
On this Saturday, let us remember our persecuted brethren in the Middle East and our brothers and sister in the Ukraine. For peace from above and for the salvation of the world, let us pray to the Lord.
I recently received a note from a young man asking about our Orthodox faith. He is 15 years old and is already asking the questions that have him on a spiritual journey. Here's an excerpt from his note (it is edited by me to avoid polemics and get to the heart of his comment): "I…
Who are you? Really, putting all our false faces aside and pulling back the curtain of our real selves, who are you?
I know, I know, that's a bit heavy for first thing in the morning. But entering into the life-long process of answering that question requires some prep work so we avoid continuing to lie…
"Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices." - Alfred A. Montapert, author of The Supreme Philosophy of Man:The Laws of Life
Today is the anniversary of the US Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that effectively made abortion on demand legal in the United States. And the political and moral discussions…
A popular show (on PBS no less) is Downton Abbey. And that's a bit surprising to me since we Americans seem to always be gripped, al least in our rhetoric, with this notion of egalitarianism. But this popular show is very much about the clear stratification of "classes" and the "drama" of etiquette and class.
In…
Ever played the opposite game? When you play the opposite game you answer questions with the opposite of what it the real answer. So when you say "no" to the question "Are you happy?" you really mean "yes" you are happy. You get the idea.
One of life's most confusing features is when the most real…
As I sat in the doctor's office waiting for him to tell me the results of some recent medical tests, I have to confess to you that I was a little scared. Let's face it, as a typical man, I don't "do" doctors well! I had put this off and put this off long enough.…
"But I don't want to!" My 7 year old simply didn't want to go to school that day. She didn't want to, and that fact alone should have released her from her obligation to attend first grade class that day. "I don't want to!" Imagine her surprise when her father, the mean ogre forcing her…
I can't help but hear whistling when I think of the title of today's reflection. All you Monty Python fans understand!
We live in an age of affluent problems. Recently, a teenager from a very wealthy home was involved in a fatal car accident, and the accident was this young man's fault. Another teenager had been…