Part 4: The Brother's Perspective - Fr. John Touloumes and Dr. Nicholas Loutsion

Fr. Tom sees a significant reality at this midpoint of Great Lent after the Sunday of the Cross.

In this second episode, Jeannie explores how the Fathers of the Church viewed Scripture and what that should mean to us today when we open the pages of the Bible.

Pres. Jeannie continues her analysis of how we study the Scriptures through the lens of the Fathers.

How does the Orthodox view of the Fathers of the Church differ from the Roman Catholic view? What about St. Augustine? What is his role in the Orthodox Church as it relates to the study of the Bible? These questions and many more are addressed in this week's episode.

Fr. John Whiteford continues discussing Psalm 65, reminds the congregation about joy and suffering.

Fr. John Whiteford helps us to understand how to receive suffering in a way that is redemptive in our lives. (Acts 14:19-22)

Join Michael as he discusses what eros and agape really mean and why they cannot be separated, how growth in love is deeply linked to suffering, how disordered desire can grip us, how we never truly sin alone, and how it always affects both us and others when we act on our disordered desires.

Join Michael as he provides an in-depth discussion of the many spiritual aspects of patience that are critical to our salvation and the salvation of others, and how lacking this virtue is more spiritually harmful than we may realize.

Join Michael for a discussion on why forgiving ourselves is often so hard and what we need to understand and do to open our hearts to self-forgiveness.

Join Michael as he shows why restraint is Christ-like and liberating, and the path of ultimate freedom out of the self-inflicted tyranny of our own thoughts and behaviors.

Join Michael as he recounts a story of a good friend’s nervous breakdown and his experience of theophany, theosis, repentance, and God’s beauty amidst his trauma and suffering.

We live in a consumer culture. Businesses gather and sell data and information about us to target us as consumers. We are increasingly treated more like consumers than persons. The Christmas season for many has become nothing more than frenzied consumerism. John Michael as he discusses the human person in the context of consumer culture, comparing and contrasting the language of consuming used in our Liturgy and throughout the Bible with modern notions of consuming and how this relates to our love and growth as human persons.

This video is part of a Lenten Retreat at St Seraphim's Cathedral in Santa Rosa, California. As we prepare to enter Great Lent, we might ponder on the impossible height to which we are being called—to be perfect with the Father’s perfection—an impossibility that becomes possible in Christ, as we open up to His presence. This paradox and the tension it creates in us keep our spiritual life safe from being reduced to empty piety and religiosity.

On this Sunday, Fr. Andrew asks if we ever feel that we need a reset, a do-over in our lives. If we do, then the Cross is where we start over.

Commenting on the epistle reading for the Feast of the Archangels, Fr. Andrew discusses how we can follow Christ, the 'Leader of our Salvation.'

In this episode, Danielle and Jeanine dive into understanding Christ-centered relationships. They discuss where to find these relationships, their benefits, and why it’s helpful to maintain them with other young adults

Fr. Nick and Dr. Roxanne Louh share ways we can practice looking at the world through the lens God gives us.

Fr. John Oliver describes the purpose of our ascetic disciplines as believers - to be set free and partake in the glory of God!

Whether in tuxedo or collar, whether playing the role of smart aleck or slow learner, one thing is certain: Stuff happens. Be prepared. Say your prayers . . . and wear clean underwear.

Elissa discusses how the parish and Sunday school can help support the family throughout Lent.

Many of us have had mountain-top experiences at one time in our life or another. We have had times when God seemed right there, so close that, at that moment it seemed like nothing to offer God everything, to sacrifice all for the sake of Christ. These mountain-top experiences, at least for me, are very few and far between. It is a kind of miracle when this happens. But like most miracles, it happens not so that we don’t have to suffer, don’t have to slog through the rest of life on the plains. Rather, God gives us these moments as signs, as encouragement to keep us on the way, as a foretaste so that we know what the coming main meal will be. But the wonderful experience of nearness to God soon passes and we find ourselves back in the world, back in the arena of our salvation, back now having to fulfill the promise of giving our life to God. On the mountain top it seemed that it would be so easy, but on the plains, in the mud and snirt (a Canadian term referring to snow mixed with dirt), in the messiness of the lives we actually live, giving our life to God is much more difficult and messy than we ever imagined it would be.

Fr. Michael Gillis reminds us, "Like the prodigal and the harlot and the publican, we bring nothing except failure and a strong sense that we are not worthy to be received. But we come nonetheless. We come because the greatness of our Father’s love extends to the lowest hell of our misery. We come expecting nothing, but asking our merciful God for mercy. We come knowing that we are a compete mess, but that we are God’s nonetheless. We are God’s, mess and all."

It’s another crossover episode of PCCH! This time Christina and Christian take on one of their favorite shows: Parks and Recreation! They discuss the interplay between communion and otherness, the theological value of beauty, and the redemption of all things, including our own pasts. They close with the Top 5 Parks and Recreation Quotes.

Reunited at last, Christina and Emma bring their own perspective to Wonder Woman. They discuss the characteristics of heroism, how femininity and power are related, and the line between virtue and naïveté. They close with their Top 5 War Films.

You asked for it, so the guys did it. They finally took on The Office. They discuss the beauty of the ordinary, the centrality of relationship, and the dynamics of human personality. They close with their Top 5 Bosses.

The guys take on CS Lewis’s classic saga, The Space Trilogy. They discuss the human instinct to relate with others, how the effects of sin cannot be quarantined, and how evil seeks to dominate life in order to control death. They close with their Top 5 Christ Figures.

The girls take on Stephanie Storey’s Oil and Marble, a historical fiction novel based on the rivalry between Leonardo and Michaelangelo. They discuss true beauty and personhood as it can be portrayed through art, the power of true forgiveness, and the role of desire in the Christian life. They close with their Top 5 Old Testament Characters.

Do you understand the Gospel as being good news for all, even for those whom you hate?

Are you stumbling around in spiritual darkness? Prayer is how we open the darkness of our soul to the brilliant light of Christ, presenting ourselves in faith for His healing.

The man in today’s gospel reading would never have found healing had he chosen to remain as he had been for thirty-eight years. Lying still for a long time makes us weak and unable to move on our own.

The only true response to the challenges we face today is to believe in and confess Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. If we cultivate the humility necessary to entrust ourselves to Him, then we will gain the spiritual strength not to fall into self-centeredness, fear, resentment, hatred, or other sinful states of soul that are such appealing distractions to facing the truth about ourselves.

As odd as it will sound to many in our culture, Christ does not call us to become successful or powerful by earthly standards, including those of our own society. He calls us to shine with holiness such that His glory radiates through us and illumines a world darkened by sin and death. Doing so requires that we do not rest content with being good citizens or moral people, regardless of how those terms are defined.

We must never think that the vocation to holiness is reserved exclusively for some people, perhaps the clergy, the monastics, or only the great saints.

During Great Lent, we will follow the path that leads back to Paradise.

We must live distinctive lives that draw others to share in the divine healing that our Lord has made available to all.

It is only by dying to the old ways of death that we may live as His “new creation.”

Let us follow the example of the Canaanite woman in persistently and boldly offering even our deepest pains and greatest weaknesses to Christ for healing.

Lent calls us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” We must do so in order to accept the great dignity of beloved sons and daughters called to return to Paradise through His Passion.

Like St. Mary of Egypt, we must take up the cross of doing whatever it takes to find healing for our souls in the Lord Who offered up Himself for the salvation of the world. That was the path to holiness for St. Mary of Egypt, and it must be our path in the remaining days of this blessed season of Lent.

By the grace of our Lord, we may become the light of the world as we do what the world does not prize: praying in secret; struggling to fast as we best we can; giving generously to the needy without drawing attention to ourselves; forgiving and praying for those who wrong us; mindfully rejecting the temptation to praise ourselves or to condemn anyone else; and confessing and repenting of our sins on a regular basis.

To rise up, take up our beds, and walk home requires obedience to Christ’s commands, but not a legalistic obedience in the sense of following a code for its own sake. Instead, this obedience is like following the guidance of a physician or therapist who makes clear to us what we must do in order to regain health and function for our bodies.

Let us take the Theotokos as our great example of how to receive and follow Christ every day, even as we ask for her prayers for the healing of our souls. That is the only way to celebrate the great feast of her Dormition with spiritual integrity.

As members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we reap the blessings of the faithful obedience of Joachim and Anna and of their daughter the Theotokos. We must now use our freedom to take up our own crosses so that we may unite ourselves evermore fully to Christ in His great Self-Offering for the salvation of the world.

May every step of the journey lead us further away from exile and closer to our true home, the Paradise that our Lord has opened to us through His glorious resurrection on the third day.

The devotion of the Myrrh-Bearers, Joseph, and Nicodemus shows us what true faith looks like, and it has nothing to do with figuring out how to use God to help us get what we want on our own terms in a pathetic attempt to distract ourselves from the fear of death.

The spiritual disciplines of the Apostles Fast provide us all with opportunities to clarify our spiritual vision and gain the strength to see all the blessings of this life as gifts to be offered to God.

There is a temptation in pursuing the Christian life to think that we are more faithful than we actually are because we have confused lesser goals for our true calling. Then we can pat ourselves on the back for achieving far less than what the God-Man has made possible for us as “partakers of the divine nature.”

Today we conclude our commemoration of the Lord’s Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, when the spiritual eyes of Peter, James, and John were opened to behold His divine glory and they heard the voice of the Father say, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Mk. 9:7)

As we continue to prepare to welcome Christ at His Nativity, we must keep our focus on becoming like those who first received Him with joy. That includes the Theotokos, whose Entrance into the Temple, where she prepared to become His Living Temple, we celebrated last week. That includes unlikely characters like the Persian astrologers or wise men, certainly Gentiles, who traveled such a long distance to worship Him. What better news could there have been than that the Prince of Peace was coming “to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”? (Lk. 4:18-19) As we sing during these weeks of Advent, “Dance for joy, O earth, on hearing the gladsome tidings; with the Angels and the shepherds now glorify Him Who is willing to be gazed on as a young Child Who before the ages is God.”