Fr Joseph reviews the rules of life, particularly Murphy's Law and its variants, and and then provides us with a rule we can all live with.

Great Lent is a preparation for the ultimate Pascha—for the end of time and Christ's return.

Rather than picture a perfect, established, normal Sunday school and try to fit yourself into that plan, maybe it's better to start by looking at what you do have and find a flexible, innovative way to make it work.

"Those in the monastic life have spiritual fathers and mothers to help them in obtaining humility. We in the world have the very life in the world itself to humble us. "

Just about any discipline that has to do with the body, if you really think that discipline is important, is mostly just a matter of making yourself do it; but forgiveness is not merely a bodily matter. Forgiveness is a matter of the soul, of the heart. Forgiveness is not so easy. On its most basic level, forgiveness means that you will not seek revenge. It means that you are letting go of your right to get even. When you forgive someone, you stop punishing them in your mind. It means that you stop rehearsing in your mind how much they hurt you.

The guys watched “Independence Day: Resurgence.” Christian enjoyed it. Steve? Not so much. They discuss what worked in the movie, as well as what didn’t, and wildly speculate about the theological implications of alien life. Plus, they wrap up with their Top 5 favorite alien characters of all time.

The guys watched Star Trek Beyond, and they agreed that while the movie was fun, it wasn’t the best thing either of them had ever seen. Join Steve and Christian as they discuss what makes STB’s villain so interesting, how Kirk struggles with despondency, and whether or not Simon Pegg’s take on humor really helped the film all that much. As always, the guys end with their Top 5 List. This week: Top 5 Villains.

This week, the guys take to Zoom before a live digital audience to discuss the classic movie, Groundhog Day! They discuss life under quarantine, how the divine desires the salvation of all, and how change occurs in the heart. The close with some Q&A;! Make sure to join every week at www.y2am.org/PopCultureLive!

On this Sunday of "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," by St. John Climacus, we are called to ever greater heights of union with God by lowering ourselves through humble repentance.

Fr. Philip invites us to follow Jesus through his passion, bringing victory through the cross.

On Thomas Sunday, we are reminded that Christ rose victoriously with his wounds and that we too may bring our bodily limitations and challenges into the redeeming light of the risen Christ.

Fr. Philip calls us to become vessels of the shocking love of God that is the salvation of the world.

Are you prepared to receive the great blessing of the coming of Christ?

Are you prepared to enter the Kingdom of God? If not, the Church calls us to enter through forgiveness into the journey of repentance of Great Lent.

How can we find joy and healing for our souls as image bearers of God?

How do we break free from the paralysis of our own sin and brokenness? The disciplines of Lent are tools given to us to help us move towards our own salvation.

Why did Jesus come as one of us, entering on the foal of a donkey on his way to the cross?

The Myrrh-Bearers lived a life of service for the flourishing of the Church, much like the early Deacons, modeling the kind of life that all Christians are called to live.

Along with the paralytic man, Jesus asks us, "Do you want to be healed?" Or have we become so accustomed to our illnesses that we no longer feel the need for healing and transformation?

How do you decided whether you measure up or not? Does shame or blame keep us from opening our souls to the new life offered by our Lord?

Each of us are in need of the healing and illumination of our risen Lord, opening the eyes of our souls to himself.

Fr. Philip explains how the hatred and rejection of other people in the name of Godliness leads to the hatred and rejection of our Lord Himself. He also discusses St. Timon and the plight of the people in Syria.

Fr. Philip LeMasters calls us to open our lives to the Holy God in humility, following the example of the Publican.

Fr. Philip LeMasters invites us to embrace the courageous humility of the Prodigal Son as we prepare to enter Great Lent.

Fr. Philip LeMasters calls us to live in a life of genuine forgiveness that is empowered by the divine energy of God.

Fr. Philip LeMasters explains how the Sunday of Orthodoxy calls us to become living icons of the risen Savior.

Fr. Philip LeMasters calls us to embrace the Good News of our Savior's resurrection over all the corrupting power of sin.

Fr. Philip LeMasters explains the significance of the sending of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church.

Fr. Philip LeMasters calls us to keep our faith firmly fixed in Jesus Christ on St Timon Sunday.

Fr. Philip LeMasters shares the importance of becoming saints in the Orthodox Church.

Fr. Philip LeMasters shares the story of Saint Timon, and how his parish and the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America help participate in a Sister Diocese relationship with the venerable Archdiocese of Bosra-Hauran.

In preparing for Great Lent this year, we must remain on guard against the temptation of self-exaltation in any form.

Fr. Philip LeMasters shares about the reality of Christ's resurrection.

Those who weep like the widow of Nain today should take heart. The Savior has conquered death and shares His great victory with those Who respond to Him with humble faith and repentance. He has made every day of our lives “the day of salvation.”

We must remember who we are and find our true selves in Him, if we want to avoid the inevitable disintegration of personality and character that comes from slavery to our passions. Then we too will be able to obey with joy the Lord’s command to the formerly demon-possessed man: “Return to your home, and declare all that God has done for you.”

As “the poor and maimed and blind and lame,” we must prepare to accept the extraordinary invitation that is ours in Jesus Christ by gaining the strength to make our daily responsibilities points of entrance to the heavenly kingdom. They are not reasons to shut ourselves out of the heavenly banquet, but opportunities to unite ourselves ever more fully to Him in freedom.

Christ calls us all to become like the Good Samaritan, binding up the wounds of our neighbors and refusing to narrow down the list of those whom we must learn to love as ourselves. Like St. John Chrysostom, let us refuse to think that we can rightly worship the Lord by confining our piety only to what we do in liturgical services. Instead, we must make every dimension of our life a point of entrance to the Kingdom of our great High Priest.

As we welcome Christ into our lives and world at His Nativity, we must remain focused. There is no shortage of distractions this time of year that appeal to our passions and threaten to convince us that there are matters more important than accepting His gracious invitation to enter fully into the joy of the banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Savior calls us to embrace our true vocation not only during divine services or in the eschatological future, but in every moment of our lives.

Today is the Sunday before the Feast of Theophany (or Epiphany), when we celebrate Christ’s baptism in the river Jordan and the revelation that He is truly the Son of God. His divinity is made manifest and openly displayed at His baptism when the voice of the Father declares, “You are my beloved Son” and the Holy Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove. Theophany shows us that Jesus Christ, who was born in the flesh for our salvation at Christmas, is not merely a great religious teacher or moral example. He is truly God—a member of the Holy Trinity– and His salvation permeates His entire creation, including the water of the river Jordan. Through Christ’s and our baptism, we become participants in the holy mystery of our salvation, for He restores to us the robe of light which our first parents lost when they chose pride and self-centeredness over obedience and communion. He enters the Jordan to restore Adam and Eve, and all their children, to the dignity of those who bear the image and likeness of God.

On the last several Sundays, our gospel readings have challenged us to return home from our self-imposed exile. Zacchaeus gave more than justice required to the poor and those whom he had exploited from his ill-gotten gains, and was restored as a son of Abraham. By her persistence and humility, the Canaanite woman received the deliverance of her daughter as a sign that Christ calls all people to return home to Him in faith. The publican returned to his spiritual home by humbly calling for the Lord’s mercy, even as the Pharisee exiled himself by his pride. The prodigal son took the long journey home after coming to his senses about the misery of being in exile from the father whom he had abandoned.

The themes of exile and return are prominent throughout the entire narrative of the Bible. Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise. The Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt until Moses led them back to the Promised Land. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah went into exile in Assyria and Babylon, respectively, with only Judah returning home. The Jews endured a kind of exile when the Romans occupied their land and longed for restoration through a new King David. Our Lord provided the true restoration of a kingdom not of this world, leading all with faith in Him back to Paradise through His Cross and glorious resurrection. The canon of the New Testament concludes with the Revelation or Apocalypse, which portrays the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, the joyful fulfillment of all things in Him.

On this first Sunday of Great Lent, we commemorate the restoration of icons centuries ago in the Byzantine Empire. They were banned due to a misguided fear of idolatry, but restored as a proclamation of how Christ calls us to participate in His salvation in every dimension of our existence.

We will misunderstand these blessed weeks of Lent if we assume that they are about helping us to have clearer ideas or deeper feelings about our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection. We will be even more confused if we think that our intensified prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and repentance somehow earn God’s forgiveness or make us better than other people. Quite the contrary, Lenten disciples are simply opportunities to open our souls to the gracious healing of our Lord so that we may share more fully in His life. That is another way of saying that the point of Lent is to grow in our knowledge of God through true spiritual experience and encounter.

If we have embraced the spiritual practices of Lent with any level of integrity for the last few weeks, the weakness of our faith has surely become apparent to us.

The Desert Father Saint Antony the Great once tested a group of monks by asking them, beginning with the youngest, the meaning of a certain passage of Scripture. In response to their answers, he said, “You have not understood it.” Finally, he asked Abba Joseph, who said, “I do not know.” Then Abba Antony said, “Indeed Abba Joseph has found the way, for he has said: ‘I do not know.’”

Today we continue to celebrate the most fundamental and joyful proclamation of our faith: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!

As we continue to celebrate our Lord’s glorious resurrection on the third day and victory over Hades and the tomb, we have to admit that all too often we live as though death still reigned. We do so especially when we obsess about how weak, broken, and vulnerable we are, especially in light of the grave.

Forty days after His resurrection, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ ascended in glory into heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father. He did so as One Who is fully divine and fully human, One Person with two natures. He ascended with His glorified, resurrected body, which still bore the wounds of His crucifixion. Our Lord’s Ascension reveals that we may participate by grace in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity and share in His fulfillment of the human person in God’s image and likeness. We may experience such blessedness even now by uniting ourselves to Christ even as we live and breathe in this world with our feet on the ground.

We live in a time when many people water down and distort the Christian faith however it pleases them. Some do so in support of their favorite political or cultural agendas, while others simply want a little spirituality to help them find greater peace of mind or success in their daily lives, which do not differ at all from those of people who do not identify themselves as Christians

Our Lord’s ministry violated many of the religious and cultural sensibilities of first-century Palestine in shocking ways. Contrary to all expectations for the Jewish Messiah, He asked for a drink of water from a Samaritan woman with a broken personal history, engaged in an extended spiritual conversation with her, and then spent two days in a Samaritan village. He invited Himself to the home of Zacchaeus, a corrupt tax-collector for the Roman army of occupation. And as we read today, He not only healed the servant of a Roman centurion, but said of this man, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” This encounter is truly astounding because the Jews expected a Messiah to defeat the Romans by military force, not to praise the faith of their officers.