Author page: Fr. Barnabas Powell

Christ is risen! "Step right up Ladies and Gentlemen, see the most amazing sights you could ever imagine!" You've heard these words before. Carnival barkers trying to get you to spend the money to see the "amazing snake boy, half boy, half-snake!" Or the "amazing Elephant Man." Curiosity, entertainment, something "different," something "tantalizing." And it works. Of…

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! St. Maximus the Confessor says "Food is not evil, but gluttony is. Childbearing is not evil, but fornication is. Money is not evil, but avarice is. Glory is not evil, but vainglory is. Indeed, there is no evil in existing things, but only in their misuse." So, the evil one only wants to…

Christ is risen! "Love is love" is a popular saying nowadays. When I was young, I remember the first time I heard the old euphemism of "making love." Then there's "all we need is love." The list goes on and on. Most of the popular songs we sing are about love in one way or another.…

Christ is risen! "What would Jesus do?" That phrase was popular a few years ago, and I confess to being amused by this fad of "easy religion." One of the main reasons was that the life of Jesus is not easily categorized as the comfortable "Jesus" we moderns would prefer. You know the "Jesus" I'm talking…

Christ is risen! Ah, the beauties of Springtime! And the hay fever! For those of us susceptible to the reign of terror that is pollen season; the watery eyes, the stuffy nose, basically all the bad stuff on all the commercials we see for medicine to combat this scourge of this wonderful season; we love and…

Christ is risen! "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." As I've had to shelter in place during this beautiful time of year, I confess, I've been tempted with despair but then I read the rest of the quote and I refuse to allow the…