Fr. Ted reminds us that we are called to be different from everyone else.

Fr. Ted explains why we bless the waters on Theophany.

Fr. Theodore Paraskevopoulos encourages us to resist the fear of revealing our weaknesses in order to find healing in Christ.

Fr. Theodore Paraskevopoulos gives a sermon on Holy Thursday evening after the Service of Twelve Gospels.

How talking about anything — including violence and sexuality — can lead to consequences in others’ lives, intentionally and unintentionally. Read the transcript HERE.

Steve and Bill got invited to fill in for the vacationing Andrew Tallman, the afternoon drive time talk show host on 1360 KPXQ, the Phoenix area SALEM evangelical radio station. It is a two-hour show from 5 to 7pm, so we are posting the first hour of the program this week and the second hour next week.

On January 15th my personal podcast, "Steve the Builder," begins airing on Ancient Faith. The focus will be about my 56 years of "real" life, our culture, living and working in the world, and just being a layperson seeking to be a Christian. Bill and I will still be producing Our Life in Christ programs in the future as we can hammer out some studio time together, but Steve the Builder will fill in the blanks in between Our Life in Christ productions.

At a recent retreat in Denver, Fr. Chad gave two timely lectures coinciding with recent feasts of the Nativity of the Theotokos and the Exaltation of the Precious and Life Giving Cross. We have broken it up into four podcasts, and here is part 1.

At a recent retreat in Denver, Fr. Chad gave two timely lectures coinciding with recent feasts of the Nativity of the Theotokos and the Exultation of the Precious and Life Giving Cross. We have broken it up into four podcasts, and here is part 2.

Fr. Chad begins his second lecture, but our third part of his talks, at St. Mark's in Denver. St. Mark's is a Western Rite parish in the Antiochian Archdiocese.

Here is the 4th and final part of this series delivered at St. Mark's in Denver.

Dr. Michael Colburn, the OCMC Mission Specialist in Linguistics and Translations, speaks at the second annual missions lecture at St. Vladimir's Seminary.

Dn. Michael continues his discussion of chapter three of Fr. Alexander Schmemann's For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, this time focusing on the Christian year.

Dn. Michael investigates the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

Dn. Michael asks the question, "How can we apply Fr. Alexander's teachings on Great Lent to our lives?"

El Padre Nicolás predicó sobre la ayuda de Dios cuando caemos. Father Nicholas preached about God’s help when we fall.

Steve returns to podcasting after five years of silence. He reflects on "the will of God for your life" in light of his recent life events.

Steve Christoforou joins Fr. Evan tonight as guest co-host as they tackle several questions together including salvation outside the Church and forgiveness. Send Fr. Evan a note of appreciation as it was five years ago tonight that Orthodoxy Live started!

Listen to reflections by Fr. Nicolaie about those on the mission's "Hall of Fame" and the value of each person.

Brother Luke reflects on some scenes from every day at the mission.

Fr. Nicolaie tells how the faith of people who saw (and see) evil in the face of war is a faith that can guide those of us who live in a society tempted by the illusion of death.

grateful to Mia Sato for staying on this beat, which affects so many smaller sites I care about #

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

Everyone presumably acknowledges that there is nothing wrong with children dressing up as fairies, Disney characters, Marvel superheroes, and (my own favourite when I was a child) black cats in order to go door to door with their friends after dark to collect candy. The argument against Halloween is that it also glorifies violence, gore, and death, so that it is unsuitable for Christians to participate in Halloween. Collecting candy is fine; it is the frightening stuff that comes afterward that is the problem. Halloween trades in things like graveyards and corpses and ugly witches on broomsticks and bats and cobwebs and Frankenstein monsters. So, the question arises: why do people delight in such scary stuff?

G. K. Chesterton wrote that he once left fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery and hadn’t found any books so sensible since (from his Orthodoxy, “The Ethics of Elfland”). I suggest that Christianity is one such fairy tale, and also that it is a myth. But it is a fairy tale come true, and a myth that became a fact.

I forget, in the course of my long life as a Christian, how many times I have heard people assure me that “God will never give you more than you can handle”. By this they seemed to mean that God knows my emotional limits and capabilities, and will make sure that no disaster befalls me that will tax me emotionally beyond my present strength. Sometimes they affix a Bible verse from 1 Corinthians 10:13 to it to make their case: “No temptation has overtaken you but such is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it”. I must report however, on the basis of my long life as a Christian, that the assuring notion that God will never give anyone more than they can handle is nonsense.

Fr. Apostolos reminds us this Halloween season of the absolute and exclusive claims laid upon us by Jesus Christ.

Fr. Apostolos talks about the difference that Christ's resurrection makes in our lives.

Fr. Apostolos Hill delivers a homily about the belief that leads to salvation as opposed to a nominal "belief" that does not.

Fr. Apostolos Hill delivers a homily that is focused on the Epistle reading from Colossians. The newness of the year should remind us that we serve a loving and merciful God, whose mercies are new every day.

Sermon on the Sunday of the Blind Man (John 9:1-38)

On the feast of the Annunciation to the Mother of God, we celebrate the good news that Jesus takes on human flesh from the womb of the Virgin Mary. In Mary's faithfulness, she becomes the icon of all believers who strive to live life in total obedience to God.

Though we have the revelation of the one God in Christ, people the world over are free to believe in the god of their choosing, or no god at all. Fr Tom reminds us that as Orthodox Christians, though we firmly believe in the right to religious freedom, we must always assert to everyone the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, because what we believe about God matters. (Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council)

Fr Thomas uses the stories of two different healings by Jesus (Mt 9:27-35) to demonstrate the importance of developing an interior life. After the sermon (at 20:00) Fr Thomas talks with three nuns from the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration in Ellwood City, PA, about cultivating the interior life and the challenges and blessings of monasticism.

At the approach of the new year, the Church presents the example of Joseph and Mary taking the young child, Jesus, to Egypt, to protect Him and keep the promise they made to God. Fr Thomas encourages us also, to imitate their tenacious faith in keeping the promises of our baptism, no matter what challenge we face.

"God is Love" has become one of the most abused verses of Scripture. It's used today to justify every sin and excuse every condition. Fr Thomas urges us to look at the entirety of the Gospel message to truly understand the implications of being a creature of God Who is Love.

The saying goes, "actions speak louder than words." Christ Himself condemned the Jewish religious leaders for saying one thing but doing another. Fr Thomas teaches us that, as Orthodox Christians, our actions are important because they have to align with what we claim about God and ourselves. In fact, our eternal judgment is at stake.

Fr Thomas teaches us that a Triumph of Orthodoxy is when we persevere in practicing the fullness of the Faith.

Will we live as believers or unbelievers? The line of demarcation can be thin! Fr. Tom argues from the Scriptures and the lives of the saints that we must constantly choose to live out our baptism as the holy and set apart people of God.

As we inch closer and closer to the Great Fast, Fr. Tom harkens us back to the basics - that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, even those of us like Zacchaeus.

Unpacking the Sunday epistle reading, Fr. Tom helps us to enter into the cosmic mystery that is Christ and the New Covenant. The Divine Liturgy is not a dead work; it is a provision to allow us to enter into the eternal sacrifice of God every time we gather.

Listen as Fr. Tom shows from the Scriptures how the only response to the truth is to be crucified to the world.

Father Gregory speaks about the significance of water in his homily for the Feast of Theophany.

This is the fulfilment of our divine vocation on earth ... to be the people of the covenant, ever relating to the trustworthy God with loving faith and to all people with that very self-same love with which He both loves us and loves all.

The Theotokos stands for the whole biblical way of looking at the relationship between God and His creation as a mystery of LOVE.

Subdeacon Emmanuel gives the homily on the belief of the Centurion.

The nature of Christ’s return will be within me and within you. We are now ready to put on Christ within ourselves in how we live as baptised Orthodox Christians.