Liverpool tattoo artist Rachel Baldwin made charming tattoos for each line of the Talking Heads classic and made it into a music video #

research and short essays about cultural loss and the critical importance of preservation and access #

inflation was a painful global phenomenon, and every ruling party was punished for it regardless of political leanings #

On September 8, the Church sings that the Nativity of the Theotokos has “proclaimed joy to the whole universe”. It is easy enough to sing, but somewhat harder now for us to understand. Why, we may ask, did the birth of a baby girl in around 18 B.C. or so proclaim joy to the whole inhabited world?

In the baptismal prayer in which the priest blesses the baptismal water, there is a line that baptism will bestow upon the candidate the loosing of bonds, the remission of sins, the illumination of the soul and “the gift of adoption to sonship”. The phrase “adoption of sonship” is a reference to the words of St. Paul, who used the word to describe our salvation in Christ in Ephesians 1:5. There he sums up our salvation by saying that God “predestined us to adoption to sonship [Greek υίοθεσία/ uiothesia] through Jesus Christ to Himself”. Given that this adoption to sonship serves to encapsulate and summarize our entire salvation, we must pay it closer attention and to what it all means.

Now that Great Lent is upon us, the question sometimes arises about where we should put our spiritual focus. There are two places we should certainly not put our focus—and only one place where we should.

When we are reading the literature of the ancient Hebrews (i.e. the Old Testament) it is important to be aware of the kind of glasses we are wearing—that is, we should be aware of the unspoken conceptual presuppositions that we bring to our reading. If we are not aware of our ingrained conceptual presuppositions, we can make mistakes in understanding ancient literature.

Many people will (hopefully) identify the above quote as coming from the speech of Polonius in Act 1, Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was part of the fatherly talk he gave to his son Laertes before the boy moved away to university. It is now often quoted as a bit of perennial wisdom for life (it was written by Shakespeare, after all). It is not as often known that it was part of a speech that Shakespeare meant to be recognized as almost meaninglessly platitudinous, a kind of Elizabethan “blah-blah-blah, yada-yada-yada”.

All of the words of the Saviour are important, even the words spoken that were strictly rhetorical. One such utterance is found in the story of the sinful woman, told in Luke 7:36f.

Fr. Apostolos outlines the basic stewardship principles from 2 Corinthians 8.

Fr. Apostolos speaks about the importance of attending and participating in the divine services. "No matter how many theological books we read or classes we attend, the treasure of Holy Orthodoxy can only be revealed in and through the medium of divine worship."

Referencing the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Fr. Apostolos shares about suffering. "Suffering can make no sense to us unless we view it from an eternal perspective. Our suffering is made worse because we have lost the vision of the goal of suffering."

Fr. Apostolos talks about the true worship of God, "This week, as we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord of glory into the Temple, may we be reminded that we come into this holy place not in a state of mere passive observance, but in one of active, noetic worship of the One who alone deserves all glory, honor, and worship: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now until the ages of ages."

Fr. Apostolos responds to another week of blood-letting in America.

Fr. Apostolos introduces a miniseries of sermons about the spiritual depths of Divine Worship and starts by explaining the word leitourgia.

Fr. Apostolos addresses the Sacrament of Kingdom invoked at the opening of the Divine Liturgy followed by a treatment of "Peace" as the precondition for prayer.

This is lesson three in Fr. Apostolos' series on Divine Worship; this installment addressing the historical development of the Small Entrance and the significance of the Readings in view of the centrality of Holy Scripture in the lives of Christian believers.

Fr. Apostolos continues the series on Divine Worship, discussing the beginning of the Synaxis of the Faithful and of the prayers leading up to the Great Entrance.

Fr. Apostolos continues the homily series on Divine Worship, addressing the Sacrament of Offering and the potential that exists to redeem our work-a-day lives through the offering up to God of a portion of our labors, in this case the bread and wine of Holy Communion.

Fr. Apostolos examines John Chapter 6 and the Holy Eucharist in the Epiklesis and how that, unlike our Western counterparts, we Orthodox leave off trying to explain the mysteries to the satisfaction of our intellectual curiosity, content to accept the words of our Lord as plainly stated (and thrice repeated!) in the Gospels. A brief review of the Epiklesis in the liturgy ensues.

Fr. Apostolos concludes the miniseries of sermons about the Divine Liturgy. He encourages the faithful to work through their understanding about the intricacies of the Liturgy in the laboratory of corporate prayer in the Church.

Fr. Apostolos Hill preaches about All Saints' Day and what it means to be not of this world, or, Aghios. He reminds us of the distinction of being in this world but not of this world and the importance of striving to be Aghios each day.

Fr. Apostolos Hill delivers a simple homily from the Gospel about touching Jesus during a period of necessary distancing.

Fr. Apostolos Hill examines the feast of the Presentation and its application to the theme of collaborating synergetically with God as did the Virgin and her parents in the events of the feast.

Fr. Apostolos Hill shares a homily from the Gospel reading for the Three Holy Hierarchs, Matthew 5:14-19.

Fr. Apostolos Hill shares a homily about stewardship as a Eucharistic offering of our entire life to God. He recalls Fr. Hopko's discussions about our earthly labors being represented in the offering of the bread and wine, hence, the sacralization of our workaday lives.

Part two of a two-part series on prayer.

Sermon on the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (II Cor 4:6-15; Luke 5:1-11)

Sermon on the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Ephesians 2:14-22; Luke 13:10-17)

St Thomas Sunday - Second Sunday of Pascha

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

On the Third Sunday of the Great Fast, the Church places the precious cross of our Lord in the midst of the temple for our veneration and contemplation. Fr Tom reminds us that the scriptures present the cross as a sign both of comfort and of judgment, encouraging us to fulfill the Lenten effort to take up our cross and follow Christ. (Veneration of the Precious Cross)

Before we enter into the Passion Week, the Holy Church gives us the festal celebration of our Lord's Entrance into Jerusalem. Fr Tom reminds us that, like Christ, we are to remain faithful and joyful on the way to, or in the midst of, the various crosses that we might face in our life.