"...of the holy and righteous ancestors of God Joachim and Anna..." At every liturgy, at the end of every prayer service, the priest remembers the grandparents of Jesus, the parents of the Theotokos! If something like this is repeated long enough, we humans start experiencing it as the familiar "noise" of prayer. The dangers of…
It's always so fascinating to me to see the wisdom of the Orthodox Church year. Here we are approaching the birth of the Messiah, the God-Man, the Savior of the World, and today we celebrate the miraculous Conception of the Theotokos by St. Anna, her mother. Of course, you know this story. It is a…
“Did you hear…” That’s the beginning of a moment that rarely turns out good! And that’s because this is usually the beginning of a conversation that is more gossip than true. But we do love to gossip, don’t we? Unfortunately, there are real consequences to spreading stories, especially when those stories are either untrue or,…
“Did you hear…” That’s the beginning of a moment that rarely turns out good! And that’s because this is usually the beginning of a conversation that is more gossip than true. But we do love to gossip, don’t we? Unfortunately, there are real consequences to spreading stories, especially when those stories are either untrue or,…
“Did you hear…” That’s the beginning of a moment that rarely turns out good! And that’s because this is usually the beginning of a conversation that is more gossip than true. But we do love to gossip, don’t we? Unfortunately, there are real consequences to spreading stories, especially when those stories are either untrue or,…
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…