This week, Fr Joseph answers questions from AFR listeners. Topics include: annoying Orthodox phrases, wicked political emails, Palestine, women's ordination, and Waffle House.

This episode is taken from the forthcoming audio book version of "We Came, We Saw, We Converted." Fr. Joseph answers letters from AFR listeners which include: annoying Orthodox phrases, wicked political emails, Palestine, women's ordination and Waffle House.

When is a bishop like an old shoe? A comfortable shoe? A GPS? Alas, there may come a time when you have to check with Johnston and Murphy on such things.

From clerical collar-wearing altar boys to (apparently) Alice Cooper and KISS attending the Paschal Matins -- Oh, and you've never heard the Good News till you've heard it read in German, with a Japanese twist and a Southern accent. (In this "blast from the past," Fr. Joseph even describes how to get one's choir-directing wife to "do her job" only 48 hours after giving birth!)

Fr. Joseph interviews two Deacons of the Church – both hailing from, ahem, the “Old Country” – that is, one was reared in middle Tennessee and the other was born and raised in the hills of West Virginia [rimshot]. Enjoy!

Fools and their gold are soon parted.

My age is the right age and it increases annually.

In this episode, Fr. Anthony and Fr. Harry Linsinbigler address the often misunderstood necessity of withholding sacraments. Framing it as a normal process (to include preparation for Baptism/Chrismation) allows us to see it less as a political power play or punishment (as the world would have us see it) and more as a valid and necessary part of our life in Christ. Enjoy the show!

Let’s not just offer little Bible Stories as morality tales. Let’s instead help our children to encounter the Scriptures in their wholeness, finding Christ in the Old and the New.

Elissa encourages parents and Sunday school teachers to stress the importance of Pascha by sharing in its fullness the story that leads up to Christ's Resurrection.

Is there a way to approach the Old Testament with our children in a fascinating and dimensional way? Elissa encourages us to teach Old Testament stories on three different levels.

Fr. Michael shares his concerns with the familiar "Poop in the Brownies" story and offers some positive alternatives to talking about purity with children.

It is frightening to be held up by God. It is frightening to look into the abyss of our own darkness and sin. It is frightening and it is glorious. Or at least it can be glorious, once you learn to relax in God’s embrace, once you learn to trust the One who has held you from the your mother’s womb, the One whose love never fails. Once you learn to trust, then it can be glorious, then you can see not only your sin, but also the amazing and glorious works of God despite your sin.

Maybe it’s just the weather: Cold rain, wind and fog. Repeat. If there is any lesson I have learned while praying in the rain, while I have tried to pray in the damp, dreary mess that is my life, if there is any one thing I have learned it is this: God is where I am, not where I wish I were or think I should be; God is near the brokenhearted; God has mercy on sinners.

A couple of weeks ago, a disturbed young man got onto the metro train in Vancouver and began acting erratically and shouting and cursing. As people in the car began moving away from him, one woman did the opposite. A seventy-year old woman moved toward the man and reached out her hand and gently held his hand. She just gently put her hand in his. The man immediately calmed down, and then, sitting on the floor, began to cry. Then after a little while, he got off the train saying only, “Thanks, Grandma.”

And those who are outside the Orthodox Church, even those outside any kind of Christian faith whatsoever, what about these? Could these be the poor, the blind and the lame of today? As the Gentiles were outside the ancient covenant with Abraham, yet were invited, even compelled into the Kingdom of the Messiah because of the unbelief of many of the Jews, will we Christians be spared if we do not ourselves put on Christ? Is it possible that those not so nearly blessed as we are, those blind to the Creed, poor without the Divine Liturgy, and lame in regard to faith, will not these, perhaps, be the ones compelled into the Kingdom of Heaven while those of us with every blessing, yet distracted by every worldly concern, are left outside? St. Paul tells us to consider both the goodness and the severity of God.

The girls take on the highly anticipated Disney movie, Frozen II, and (spoiler alert) they weren't impressed. They discuss how we ought to gauge the next right thing, whether newness of knowledge equates with wisdom, and how we should acquire a spirit of service. They end with their Top 5 Sequels (That Were Actually Good).

We have all had the experience of suddenly perceiving a truth that we had previously not grasped. There are times when the fog lifts, the lights come on, and what was opaque or out of focus becomes clear. That is precisely what the apostles Peter, James, and John experienced on Mount Tabor when they were enabled to behold the divine glory of Jesus Christ, Who shone brightly with light as the voice of the Father identified Him as His beloved Son.

After a transition to his new parish assignment, Father John returns to the podcast with a discussion of the atmosphere of catastrophe that hung over the old Christendom of the east as the Muslim Turks advanced on Byzantium, while a defender of traditional Christianity, Saint Mark of Ephesus, prepared to depart for the unionist Council of Florence in the west.

Fr. John introduces the force that kept traditional Christianity on course at a moment of crisis in the east, Hesychasm, and how it maintained Christendom's focus on paradise.

In this episode, Fr. John describes why Saint Gregory's defense of hesychasm against the westernized Barlaam represented a defense not only of Orthodoxy, but of Christendom itself.

In this episode, Fr. John draws upon several scholarly works to show how hesychasm protected eastern Christendom from the forces that had begun to lead the new Christendom of the west away from traditional Christianity.

Fr. John gives an account of the atmosphere in Italy in which Orthodox and Roman Catholic delegates met to discuss the possibility of union in the middle of the fifteenth century. Only one of the Orthodox would refuse to sign the resulting Treaty of Union, Saint Mark of Ephesus.

In this final episode of Reflection 17, Fr. John relates the final catastrophe to befall eastern Christendom during the period, the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.

In this final episode of his reflection on Muscovite Russia, Fr. John describes the Old Believer Schism as a crisis in the formerly optimistic cosmology of eastern Christendom, leading to its decline on the eve of modern times.

In this final episode of part three of the podcast, Fr. John Strickland traces the outcome of secular humanism in the case of the Russian Revolution. Though numerous Orthodox Christians warned of the impending disaster facing a post-Christian Christendom, Vladimir Lenin and his Bolsheviks took advantage of discontent caused by the First World War to plunge violently into a project of counterfeit transcendence they called "building socialism."

In this final presentation on the nihilistic philosophy of Nietzsche, Fr. John considers the philosopher's final work, an autobiography entitled Ecce Homo. The book's strange title is discussed in light of Nietzsche's claim to be the West's alternative to Christ. The episode ends with a spiritual and psychological reflection on why, having completed the work, Nietzsche went totally insane.

We look at the Psalms, the purpose of the Torah for the Hebrew people, and the story of David dancing before the ark to illumine the theme of liberty seen in our readings for this coming Divine Liturgy.

Dr. Edith M. Humphrey returns after nearly a year to resume her blog and podcast on how the Old Testament illumines our reading of the New Testament and our worship. This week we consider the resurrectional hymns in the first tone (used the second Sunday after Pentecost), in the light of the OT, especially the prophet Hosea.

On Jan 18, we sing the dismissal Theotokion in tone 5. Its deep theology may be unpacked by reference especially to the prophet Ezekiel and Psalm 130/131, as well as by the book of Revelation and some of the fathers of the Church.

This week we unpack the reading from Hebrews 11-12 for the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Looking to Exodus, Judges, 1 Kings 17, and Daniel, we fill in the stories of Moses, Barak, Gideon, Sampson, Jephthah, Daniel, and Elijah with the woman whose son was resurrected. We see that, though exemplifying weakness and sin, they show us the importance of dependence upon God and hope in His promises. For this faith and hope, they are rightly celebrated as righteous, and are part of God’s covenant family.

At the head of the new year, we heed Deuteronomy 32:1–18 (Second Song of Moses, Part 1), in the light of other Biblical passages, and remember the days of old. Especially we contemplate the pictures of God offered here—Rock, Father, Ruler, like a mother giving birth—and learn from Moses to “ascribe greatness to the LORD our God.”

Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins by Jim Forest, illustrated by Vladislav Andrejev (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press (2015)

34. Book 1: The Life of Saint Nicholas The Wonder-Worker by Nina Seco (St. Nectarios Press, 1994) Book 2: Christ in the Old Testament: Prophecy Illustrated compiled and edited by Thomas Hopko (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2002)

Dr. John Mark Reynolds, Torrey Honors professor at Biola University, talks about Christianity and Culture.

In this special 1 hour edition of The Illumined Heart, Kevin talks with Charles Ajalat. Mr. Ajalat is a powerful voice for Orthodox unity with a great deal of pan-Orthodox leadership experience. Currently chancellor and board member of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of America, he was also the architect of the historic Ligonier Meeting of Orthodox bishops in 1994—the first meeting of all twenty-nine bishops in North America. He is the founder of a Los Angeles law firm specializing in tax and litigation matters, and a graduate of Harvard University and the Law School at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles. More resources on this topic: Again Magazine (Winter 2003) Kevin's interview with Fr. Josiah Trenham Metropolitan PHILIP's keynote address at Antiochian Convention in Montreal (2007)

St. Vladimir's Seminary's 75th Commencement, held May 20, 2017, included several distinguishing moments: granting degrees to 16 graduates in three academic programs; remarks to graduates by His Beatitude the Most Blessed Tikhon, of the Orthodox Church in America; the commencement address by His Grace the Right Reverend John of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; the appointment of Archpriest John Behr to the newly established “Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professorship of Patristics"; and the bestowal of the St. Macrina Award upon Archpriest Chad Hatfield, Seminary President.

Dn. Michael begins a new series on living "in, but not of" the world. He is using four texts from the St. Vladimir's Popular Patristics series. This week he covers C.S. Lewis's introduction to the St. Athanasius work On the Incarnation.

Steve reflects on turning 59, the past, work, family, a change of careers and facing old age.

Listen to stories about Mat and Hector enduring the cold Toronto winter, by Fr. Nicolaie.

Fr. Lawrence says it is safe to say that the allegorical method has fallen upon hard times in the scholarly world.

Today we begin a series on the use of the Old Testament in the early chapters of the Gospel of St. Matthew. We will examine his citations in his narrative of Christ’s birth, childhood and adulthood up to the time He settled in Capernaum, bringing a great light to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali and to all the world. St. Matthew (either the actual author of the Gospel or the one under whose blessing and authority it was first disseminated) took care to present Jesus as the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, and by examining the use of the Old Testament in this Gospel we can see how deeply and creatively the Church used those Scriptures.

We continue our series examining St. Matthew’s citations of the Old Testament. Today we look at his citation of Micah 5:2. “In the Masoretic Hebrew it reads, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you will come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” The LXX reads similarly: “And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, you are very small to be in the thousands of Judah, from which for me will come out to be for a ruler of Israel, and his goings out are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.” It is all the more surprising therefore that St. Matthew’s version reads a little differently from either the Hebrew or the Greek. It reads, “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you will come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.”

We continue our series examining St. Matthew’s citations of the Old Testament. Today we look at his citation of Jeremiah 31:15. It reads, “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not.” The LXX renders it more or less the same way, though the order of the chapters is different. In the LXX the text is found in Jeremiah chapter 38, not chapter 31. But the meaning of the text is the same.

We conclude our series examining St. Matthew’s citations of the Old Testament. Today we look at his citation of Isaiah 40:3, which reads, “A voice cries, ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of Yahweh! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!”

A Bishop is called not to be a successful manager, a smooth operator, a charming person, an efficient administrator, nor even an amazing preacher. Some of these things are good and necessary but without humility they can never be enlisted in the service of love and the God who is love.

Fr. Gregory Hallam says we need to learn how to listen to God and most importantly actually to do it on the basis that He does indeed want to speak to us.