"Blood is thicker than water." "He makes my blood boil." We are related by blood." So many sayings about "blood" and so many common sayings from culture to culture. It seems we humans are hard-wired to "know" the importance of the life-fluid we call blood. And yet it would be a mistake to reduce this…
Right here during our Lenten journey, the Church brings us to one of the six feasts of the Theotokos, the Virgin Mary. And it is the Feast of the Annunciation. Of course, you know this story well. God sends the angel Gabriel to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph and the angel (interestingly,…
Henry Giles said, "A song will outlive all sermons in the memory." I believe that's true. Several years ago I was blessed to sit at the bedside of a precious friend's mother as she lay dying. She had been unresponsive for several days and the family was already grieving as their mother was close to…
Jesus warned His disciples that there would be "wars and rumors of wars" in human history and the temptation would be for humans to abandon hope and be crushed by despair. If Jesus said that 20 centuries ago, why are we surprised to see the histrionics of today's society that has put their trust in…
There is always a price for unfaithfulness. A telling quote illustrates what I'm talking about: "Infidelity doesn't come from a lack of love; it comes from a lack of respect." Admittedly, respect is earned, not demanded. But when one has earned the respect of a trustworthy and dependable;e person, it isn't too much for that…
The English psychologist and analyst D.W. Winnicott once said "It is a joy to be hidden, and disaster not to be found." Since we humans were made for communion, the disaster of not being found is particularly terrifying to us. We all long to be loved and known and we all are terrified of being…
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On this Sunday of Orthodoxy, we are called back to the centering vision of the God Who has become visible for our salvation. The victory of the icons in the Church is meant to reinforce the central teaching of the Orthodox Faith that God became VISIBLE for our salvation. We are now meant to…
I was a firebug when I was younger. Fire fascinated me, that is until one day when I burned myself playing with fire. It's amazing how instructional pain can be if you let it!
But why is it we keep insisting on learning life's lessons the hard way? Why do we so consistently find ourselves ignoring…