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3 Invaluable Insights




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This Little Light of Mine




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Lucia, Saint of Light

Bobby Maddex interviews Katherine Hyde, author of Lucia, Saint of Light.




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Goodnight Jesus

Bobby Maddex interviews Angela Isaacs, the author of the brand new AFP children’s book Goodnight Jesus.




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The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

Dr. Reynolds talks about the strength and endurance of Christian beauty.




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Environmental Protection, Yes. “Nature Rights,” No.

The once ludicrous notion that ecological protection and fighting climate change require according legally enforceable human-style rights to nature is becoming more mainstream within the environmental movement. Wesley J. Smith examines the consequences.




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Canada and the Right to Die

Is the "right to die" more important than religious liberty?




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“Animal Rights” Would Ban Pets

Should animals and humans have the same rights? How best should we care for animals in a humane way without confusing the value of the two?




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Assisted Suicide Right for the Institutionalized Mentally Ill

Is euthanasia really the best way to alleviate the suffering of those dealing with serious mental illness?




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God Heals Others Through Us

Dr. Rossi explores how the fire of God's healing presence can flow right through us to others.




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Silent Night

In his special Christmas episode, Dr. Rossi explores the "night" in both the Nativity story as well as Christ's Passion.




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Straight Talk About Youth

Dr. Rossi addresses some of the difficult issues that youth today face, and how we can be a healing presence in their lives.




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Overcoming Impulse Through Relaxation and Prayer: An Interview with Fr. Alexis Trader

Dr. Albert Rossi interviews Fr. Alexis Trader, author of Ancient Christian Wisdom, on the topic of overcoming impulsivity and the desire to control the world around us.




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Christ Through Me

Dr. Albert Rossi reflects on the dynamic union of Christ in us, working through us.




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I Am Enough

Dr. Rossi reflects on what it means to be "enough."




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Light from Antioch

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick shares his hopes for the future of the Antiochian Archdiocese and Orthodoxy in America. The text version of this commentary can be found here.




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St John of Sinai: “Let Us Charge Into the Fight With Joy and Love”

Drawn from a remarkable passage from St. John of the Ladder, Archimandrite Irenei examines the crippling effect of spiritual fear on the life of the Christian, and draws from the saint’s guidance the help towards overcoming it with a trustful love in the power of God.




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Repentance: The Daughter of Hope

In this week’s episode, Archimandrite Irenei explores St. John of the Ladder’s beautiful testimony of repentance as "the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair." What is the nature of such repentance, and how does it raise up the Christian to "a sure resurrection"?




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Jesus Christ as Great High Priest, Lamb of God, King of God's Kingdom, and Suffering Servant

Fr. Thomas Hopko discusses He who offers and is offered on our behalf to God the Father on the Cross as the perfect sacrifice that saves us from our sins and transgressions and puts us right with God. 




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Early Church History Through the Liturgy

Fr. Alkiviadis Calivas discusses church life in the first century, the celebration of the Lord’s Day, the development of the parish, and church history through the lens of martyrdom and architectural setting.




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The Teachings of the Orthodox Faith Through the Liturgy

Fr. Alkiviadis Calivas discusses preparation for Baptism and its theology. He finishes with an exploration of the Anaphora of the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil.




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The Orthodox Faith Through Icons

Fr. Alkiviadis Calivas explores the Icon as a visual, graphic Gospel and teacher of the Faith.




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Moses' Flight From Egypt

Learn about a book series from Conciliar Press for children teaching them about Christ and the Theotokos in Old Testament stories.




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Theological Training Through OCMC

A conversation with Kenneth Kidd from the Orthodox Christian Mission Center about the training OCMC provides on the mission field. You can support this work by going to the OCMC web site.




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Remembrances of St. John of Shanghai

A talk by Bishop Peter (Loukianoff) of Cleveland (ROCOR), given at the St. Herman's Conference in Houston, Texas, December 26, 2011. Our thanks to Fr. John Whiteford for making this talk available to AFR.




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The Eighth Day Institute

A conversation with Erin Doom, the Director of the Eighth Day Institute, a relatively new organization located in Wichita, Kansas, that seeks to renew culture through faith and learning.




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The Cathedral Choir of Pittsburgh Celebrates 50 Years!

Fr. Tom Soroka of The Path and Sermons at St. Nicholas conducts an interview with Fr Igor Soroka as he discusses the 50th anniversary of the Cathedral Choir of the Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania (OCA) as well as his significant contribution to the development of Orthodox music in the English speaking world. A liturgical choral concert celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Cathedral Choir of Pittsburgh will be held at St John the Baptist Orthodox Church, 601 Boone Avenue, Canonsburg, PA on Sunday, September 29, at 6:00 pm. The concert is open to the public and a social hour will follow the concert in the church hall. For further information, contact Rebecca Danchenko at 412-478-7252.




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The Institute for Orthodox Thought and Culture

Fr. Andrew Damick interviews Dr. Gary Jenkins about the proposed Institute for Orthodox Thought and Culture at Eastern University in Pennsylvania. Please complete the survey to help them launch this program in the fall of 2015.




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Pittsburgh's St. Nicholas Orthodox Church Celebrates 100 Years

Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. Tom Soroka, the host of the daily podcast “The Path" and the priest at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks, PA, which will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this coming October 10th through the 12th.




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Lucia, Saint of Light

Bobby Maddex interviews author Katherine Hyde about her recently released children's book Lucia, Saint of Light, published by Ancient Faith Publishing.




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From Darkness to Light: The Life of St Moses the Black

Priest and iconographer Fr. Jerome Sanderson speaks at the Second Annual St. Herman House - FOCUS Cleveland fundraiser, held on Monday, November 10, at St. Paul Greek Orthodox Church in North Royalton, Ohio.




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Thoughts: A Monastic Perspective

On this special episode of Ancient Faith Presents, Mother Abbess Gabriella speaks at the Third Annual Winter Dinner to support Holy Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery in Rives Junction, Michigan. Her talk is titled “Thoughts: A Monastic Perspective.”




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A Few Insights Into How American Orthodox Churches Make “Disciples”

Bobby Maddex interviews Alexei D. Krindatch, the Research Coordinator for the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, about a new study titled “Go and Make Disciples: Evangelization and Outreach in US Orthodox Parishes."




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Our Thoughts and Mental Health: An Orthodox Perspective

Archimandrite Maximos Constas, Senior Research Scholar at Hellenic College/Holy Cross, speaks at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Toronto, Ontario.




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All-Night Vigil

Bobby Maddex interviews Dr. David Chalmers, the musicologist-in-residence at Paraclete Recordings, about the All-Night Vigil, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff.




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Rule of Faith: A Journal of Orthodox Thought

Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. Joseph Lucas, a managing editor of a new Orthodox academic e-journal titled Rule of Faith: A Journal of Orthodox Thought.




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Pittsburgh Theological Seminary's Eastern Christian Doctor of Ministry Cohort

Bobby Maddex interviews Dr. John Burgess, a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, about the graduate school's Eastern Christian Doctor of Ministry Cohort, a new academic offering presented in partnership with Antiochian House of Studies.




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Interview with Dr. John Burgess of Systematic Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Bobby Maddex, the Director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries, interviews Dr. John Burgess, the James Henry Snowden, professor of Systematic Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.




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Three Hierarchs Orthodox Christian High School

Bobby Maddex, the Director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries, interviews the Board of Directors of Three Hierarchs High School, founded in 2021 with the help of His Eminence Nicolae of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas and located in Niles, Illinois. For more information about the school and to register for the next upcoming school year, please visit https://www.thochs.org.




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Friday headlines: Lightness of being

"Bolivia, too, is undergoing a kind of disillusionment with democracy." How the rest of the world views this year's US election. / The Dial

See also: How British vernacular invaded America, or why everyone's saying "gutted" now. / The Guardian

More solar activity could again make the Northern Lights visible to more areas of the world this weekend. / BBC News

"A lot of people just said, 'This is too good to be true. This cannot be real.'" In early tests, visual therapy using flashing lights appears to halt the progression of Alzheimer's. / Nature

See also: Researchers find that, compared to viewing reproductions, experiencing art in person creates a 10-fold increase in people's emotional response. / Hyperallergic

"Not a single organism survived. This is unprecedented. It's Europe's first completely dead river." Ukraine accuses Russia of intentionally poisoning a river. / The Guardian

The US military has been updating various advanced weapons systems with gaming-style controllers. / WIRED

See also: The CIA is posting messages in Farsi, Mandarin, and Korean on social media and the dark web as part of an effort to recruit informants. / NBC News

This is a chilling development: By pairing Meta's smart glasses with facial recognition, Harvard students were able to instantly dox strangers on the street. / 404 Media

But at least the AI that Meta includes with the smart glasses seems incapable of deciphering much of what it sees, though it will confidently lie to you about it anyway. / Gizmodo

Parents of the surveillance era are facing the reality of having children away at college. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

"The emotions I feel for her are real." AI companions can be a lifeline for those who struggle with relationships. / Esquire

See also: Does anyone have time to be a good friend anymore? / Dazed

From initial novelty to immediate slop, the five qualities of every AI app. / Read Max

"Being online has always involved searching for the needles of 'real' content in a large and messy haystack of junk. But never has the hay been as convincingly disguised as needles." / The New Yorker

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Thursday headlines: Megafraught

Israel's military is investigating whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed during a military operation. / CNN

Mohamad Elmasry: The US warning to Israel to "let aid in Gaza"' is merely a distraction. / Al Jazeera

European leaders are calling for new laws to ramp up deportations. / Politico

See also: For Germany, it's a remarkable switch "given that it welcomed more than a million mostly Syrian refugees." / Semafor

The FBI says investment scams are surging this year because criminals are using AI tools to seduce their victims. / The San Francisco Standard

Kyle Chayka falls back in love with iPhone photography through an app that skirts Apple's AI optimization. / The New Yorker

Forgive us, but: a round-up of apps people look at on their phone while they're sitting on the toilet. / Defector

At this year's Paris Auto show, "glitz is out" and the focus is on lower-cost offerings. / Clean Technica

What is it like to work on a megayacht? "You're a fly on the wall, but it's very one-sided." / The Cut

Unrelated: Axiom Space, NASA's commercial partner, reveals its new spacesuits developed with Prada. / Gizmodo

China ends its international adoption program, sending shockwaves through the adoption community. / Goats and Soda

Three years later, there's still no satisfying answer as to the whereabouts of disappeared Chinese tennis pro Peng Shuai. / Sports Illustrated

Some examples of Korean painters pushing feminist art forward. Also, 10 contemporary artists who are innovating landscape painting. / Artsy

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Friday headlines: Fight or flightless

For the first time in history, every incumbent party in a developed nation this year lost vote share in elections. / Financial Times

See also: A German far-right party won a regional election in September, which hasn't happened since the Nazi era—a result of 30 years of ignoring a lurking problem. / The Baffler

The good news is that the US political system is too complex for Trump to destroy it. The bad news is he's going to try anyway. / The Guardian

We blamed Facebook for Trump winning in 2016, so it tracks that we'd blame TikTok this time around—except the squirrel thing was not nothing. / Read Max

An explanation of 4B, the South Korean feminism movement that bans men, and that's been taking hold this week among American women. / Vox

"Ten percent of American workers today are union members, meaning that 90% of 'the working class' are not union members." To unfuck politics, create more union members. / How Things Work

Life after landing your dream job as a lighthouse keeper on a remote Australian island, where your only company for a month at a time is a colony of penguins. / BBC News

See also: From an 1860 John Ruskin letter, "One feels everything in the world so sympathetically ridiculous, one can't be angry when one looks at a Penguin." / Instagram

An emperor penguin has arrived on the southern coast of Western Australia, the furthest north the species has ever been recorded. / ABC

Ten years after legislation to curtail stores' and restaurants' seafood mislabeling, an investigation finds 18% of salmon sold as wild is actually farmed. / Gizmodo

Unrelated: Webfishing, a game that combines fishing, relaxing, chatting, and little else, could not have come at a better moment. / VICE

Or if smashing fascists sounds more appealing, the allure of Wolfenstein remains. / Kotaku

See also: From 1941, "It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one's acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi." / Harper's

A vibrant journey through the colorful world of mushrooms, comprising more than 800 shades. / Mushroom Color Atlas

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Seated, Clothed, and in Our Right Mind

Fr. Pat explains the importance of hearing the word of God, putting on Christ, and having common sense.




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The Highest Human Activity

Fr. Pat explains that prayer is the highest of all human activities.




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Argument, Sight, and Creation

Fr. Pat reflects on the story of the man born blind.




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The Holy Ghost Over the Bent World Broods

In this homily based on 2 Corinthians 4:6-15, Fr. Pat reflects upon the glory of Christ in creation, in the Bible, and in our daily cross.




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Insight Through Experience

By giving Paul so dominant a place in the sacred Canon, the Fathers surely intended us to learn from his example how to examine the circumstances of our lives in order to attain wisdom in Christ.




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The Light of Wisdom

Fr. Pat reflects upon the theme of revelatory light, particularly as Holy Scripture contrasts it with darkness.




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It's a Lovely Day in the Neighborhood

"Neighbor" is not a matter of being, but of doing. Fr. Pat reflects on this in today's homily from Luke 10 about the Good Samaritan.




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A Pure and Upright Heart

Our contemporary culture is accustomed to thinking of the heart as a symbol of spontaneous feelings. That’s about the last thing it means in the Bible. Fr. Pat Reardon reflects on the Parable of the Sower from Luke 8.