Fr. John Whiteford explains how the saints in heaven help us in his homily from the Sunday of All Saints 2023.

Jesus promised His disciples that He would transform them from fishermen to "Fishers of men." How does that apply to us today as Orthodox Christians? In fact, why are you Orthodox?

Your memory is filled with all kinds of thoughts, some good and some bad. How do you choose to remember your life? Do you only focus on the bad things, stew about revenge, or do you ignore all the bad things and live in the delusion that "everything is fine." Well, the Faith invites us to deal with life in a realistic manner, always informed by the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The monks on Mt. Athos use to greet one another, not with "How are you?" or "How are you doing?" but with "How is your prayer?" St. Paul tells the faithful at the Ephesian Church that the gifts God has given to His Church were meant to bring each of us to the unity of the faith, to maturity, to the full stature of Jesus Christ. So, is that what is happening in your life? If not, why not?

Jesus confronts the people and the disciples when they can't heal a little boy!

Updated: August 10th 2016 As we enter the first week of a brand new year, your motivations are probably higher than ever to make 2016 the year to finally achieve all you’ve been dreaming of. Whether you’re starting a brand new foray into making money online or you’re hoping to take your current income to […]

The post How to Make Money Online in 2016: An Unexpected Approach appeared first on ViperChill.

Today’s blog post will reveal my biggest goal for 2016, nine niche ideas with huge potential and the most effective productivity technique I’ve used over the last few years. Let’s begin by talking about the productivity technique which is often referred to as the Pomodoro Method. If you’ve followed any kind of productivity guide online […]

The post How a Simple Productivity Tool Helped Create the World’s Best Marketing Blog appeared first on ViperChill.

On the 15th of January 2008 the domain name Groupon.com went live for the first time. 2008 was also the year that IndieGogo became one of the first ‘crowdfunding’ websites. A year later, the biggest rivals of each would launch in the form of Living Social and Kickstarter. At the start of 2012 Uber – […]

The post How to Steal the Next Billion Dollar Website Idea: A Case Study appeared first on ViperChill.

In the Academy Award-nominated film Food Inc, filmmaker Robert Kenner reveals how the varied choice of items we see on the shelves of supermarkets is actually a false presumption. Instead, that seemingly endless variety is actually controlled by just a handful of companies. Today I’m going to reveal how the huge diversity we perceive in […]

The post How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results appeared first on ViperChill.

Racism is a serious wrong that no one should argue. However, from an Orthodox Christian point of view, it is a far deeper wrong than is ever portrayed in the public debate. Join Michael as he explains why racism goes against the core of Christianity, and through story and anecdote describes why it seems is so hard for us to celebrate and embrace differences.

Exploring the characters of Frodo, Gollum, Harry, and Voldemort from these two great works beloved by millions, and what they remind us about concerning love, sacrifice, choice, and more.

Join Michael as he explores the webs and patterns of our life, and uses poem, story, myth, metaphor, and examples from his own life to show how we can recognize God and continuity within our myriad choices, and know His peace.

Join Michael for a discussion of the primacy of focusing on loving more not sinning less and why this will be the basis of how God judges our lives.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea shares practical insights about developing a relationship with a spiritual father.

This is the prayer of one who is still in the world, but no longer of the world. When despair and anxiety bite they feel like a little death. When your tiredness, your sin or your despondency collapse over you, you need to pray with the prayer of the dead, the prayer of our nothingness silently hoping against hope, silently crying out for Christ, silently waiting for the Resurrected One to be risen from our own tomb: our body and our soul. This is not abandonment, but the exact opposite: this is the prayer which is proper to our fallen nature, the desperate cry for Life of one who is made of nothing, but does not belong to nothing. This is the prayer of one who is still in the world, but no longer of the world - instead, they now belong to Christ

When your heart and your mind are suspended, when there is no life in you, how do you find your way back to Christ, back to Life? How do you pray when you feel dead inside?

At times, we are reduced to the empty shell of our being. How do we survive when there is no life in us? Working under obedience can carry us through this desert; it can empty the mind, so that the mind can be filled once again with Life by the Giver of Life.

After we sin, our hearts freeze. For a while, we stay away from God on purpose. We need time to heal, we need some sort of ritual of cleansing, some manner in which to make ourselves (in our own eyes) acceptable again to God. But the way back to prayer must begin as soon as possible, if possible even during the act of sin itself. The sooner we turn ourselves back to face Christ's Light, the sooner we shall drag ourselves out of the depth of our fall. Remind yourself of those who were waiting in the darkness of hell for Christ's Descent - ask for their desperate desire to be forgiven, pray for their unceasing hope that Light WILL one day find them and bring them back to Life out of the death of their hell. For those who put their trust in Christ, there is always Hope, there is always Love, there is always a way back to repentance and Life.

Every Lent is an opportunity to START ANEW, to shine in Christ, to do the things we only think about doing the rest of the year. We can go deeper in our faith, we can create secret 'signs of love and faith' with Christ, we can re-shape the courses of our thoughts and emotions so they once again flow in the direction God intended them to flow when He created us.

The is NO LIFE in despondency and abandonment. We must learn to fight for love, fight for joy, and this LOVE will teach us about God.

Why can't we just focus on the spiritual side of life and live as spiritual beings? Why is the Church so keen that we should learn to control our bodies and their passions? Does God even care what we do with our bodies?

Hope and repentance are the two wings of spiritual life.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea reminds us to keep ourselves grounded in humility, so we may fight pride and hypocrisy, and prevent them from staining our spiritual struggle before the Lord. When you are at the beginning of your spiritual life, you need to prioritize your ascetical works, because they will eventually help you open up to receive God's Grace.

We are broken and our prayer reflects that brokenness. But we are called to be one, to be simple with God's simplicity. As our prayer grows, we grow as well. As we spiritually heal and let go of our complexities and divisivenesses (which are results of our fallen nature), our prayer slowly lets go of its brokenness and becomes what it is supposed to be: a prayer beyond words, a silent prayer that is an act of being.

The story of a miracle: how God healed me and then poured a mountain of grace over us was recorded by Fr Seraphim (Aldea) at Mull Monastery (The Orthodox Monastery of All Celtic Saints), on the Isle of Mull.

It is easy to ask for God's Word, but it is difficult to listen and accept His answer. That is because His answer reveals His Divine will and once we know that, we need to silence our own will and follow Him.

How to Fight Evil from our Hearts in a World of Lies and Confusion (w/ Fr. Seraphim Aldea)

You can run into the most amazing and interesting blog on the web, only to find out it’s a chore to navigate. When it comes to websites, good content alone doesn’t make for success – the entire experience needs to be enjoyable. Think about your blog as a library. It needs to be inviting, easy […]

The post How to Design a User-Friendly WordPress Blog appeared first on Leaving Work Behind.

These days, anyone can start a blog or create a simple website in a matter of hours. However, getting that website to work and look just the way you want it to takes a lot more time. Most people don’t realize that and end up giving up long before the work is done. If you don’t have […]

The post How to Create a Blog or a Freelance Writer’s Portfolio Using Propel Site appeared first on Leaving Work Behind.

Keyword research is a lot more difficult than you might imagine. Finding popular keywords is only the start. You also have to be able to spot which keywords your blog can realistically rank for and where your competitors are vulnerable. If you want your blog to grow organically, you have to play the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) […]

The post How to Find High-Value Keywords For Your Blog appeared first on Leaving Work Behind.

Following the feasts and fasts of the Church cannot only help us care for our own health, but it can also benefit the environment and God's creation.

In this podcast, we see how the teachings of our holy tradition guide us in understanding our relationship to health.

Rita Madden shares some reflections from the book titled, "How to Live a Holy Life."

On this Sunday of the Cross, Fr. Andrew discusses what it really means to 'Take Up the Cross'.

On this Sunday, Fr. Andrew asks if we can use our feelings as a test of the authenticity of our Faith?

Fr. Andrew reflects on the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant and how it reveals how we can see God and sense His presence.

Fr. Andrew discusses justification, faith, the Gospel and the New Covenant, and how they all relate to one another.

On this Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers, Fr. Andrew describes how death and other major life transitions present the opportunity to remake our lives, with the loosening up of previously locked relationships and ways of thinking.

Reflecting on St. Paul's admonition to 'bless and do not curse,' Fr. Andrew discusses how that applies in our times of heightened political tension.

Jesus says to His disciples and us: Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. And then He shows us how it's done.

Using Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians to imitate him as their father in the Gospel, Fr. Andrew expands this outward to discuss the role of spiritual fathers and mothers in our lives.

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick unpacks the preaching of Christ and John the Forerunner—'Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand'—discussing what all of those terms really mean for everyday Christian life.

With the Sunday of the Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick tells the story of how God showed up at the meeting and also meditates on what happens when we actually expect Him to show.

Sometimes, we wish God would just show up so that He would remove all our doubts and we could believe in Him without question. But what are we really asking for? What would happen? Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick discusses this question in light of the Gospel of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

Fr. John Oliver explains why we need the "Four S's" to energize our lives.

Fr. Joseph visits The Tonight Show—really!—and dreams of hosting, guesting and side-kicking (featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Conan O'Brien, Carnac the Magnorfodox, David of Wales, Red Skelton, "the world's greatest grape catcher," and more)!

Fr. Joseph revisits "The Tonight Show" and dreams of hosting, guesting and side-kicking (featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Conan O'Brien, Carnac the Magnorfodox, David of Wales, Red Skelton, "the world's greatest grape catcher" and more)!

Everyone who's Orthodox likes Pascha a lot. But the Germ who lived just beyond our grasp did not!