Alexander Pope said, "Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."
What a sad, cynical attitude. And yet, this just goes to show that it isn't having expectations that are wrong; it's having wrong expectations. So, the Church calls us to discipline our expectations by grounding them in reality, and reality is…
If you or your friends/family are in the Chicago area, Fr. Barnabas is speaking at the celebration of St. Demetrios on W. Winona St. starting on Monday, October 24th! He is going to stay in the community through Wednesday the 26th to help celebrate this wonderful Saint's celebration with the community!
Please share this with those…
Jesus didn't come to start a new religion! I know, I know, you think He started Christianity. But Jesus came and told us He didn't come to abolish the Law, the Torah, but to fulfill it. (see Matthew 5:17-20)
The whole of the New Testament is the story of Jesus recreating the People of God. He…
One of the greatest consequences of our modern world is that we moderns have been convinced that egalitarianism and individualism have been elevated to the highest good. We insist on a definition of "freedom" that means "I want to do what I want to do!" But the problem is if I do what I want…
"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones, after all." So says the author of Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder. But life is so very often not simple. It's complicated and difficult and filled with so many motivations all mixed together and hard to tease out the…
There's something about intimacy that scares us to death AND becomes a central hunger for our lives. We are terrified of loneliness AND intimacy!
From sociological studies showing modern society becoming more and more lonely, to small groups of Baby Boomers forming support groups to talk about death and dying, to the perennial stories of men…
Through the centuries, barrenness was always seen as a sign of brokenness. It isn't a mistake that both the Old Testament and the New Testament have stories of God answering the prayers of women to heal their barrenness. The truth is in much of the world in ancient civilizations barrenness was too often seen as…
I remember the preacher looking at his congregation and saying "One day every crooked place is going to be made straight, and every low place is going to be made high, and every high place is going to be made low!" Then he added the kicker: "Ain't nobody going to escape coming face to face…
"I am sick of this! I mean it, this is the very last time!" I hear these words in my head and I know they are a lie. I'm having to clean up another mess someone else has made! And I feel the resentment and anger rising in my heart and mind, and starting to…
I love this Armed Forces Motto: “The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.” Isn’t that great? In other words, when you put the time into preparing for battle, you are more ready to face the fight. And what is true for physical fighting is also true for the spiritual battle…