Fr. Theodore Paraskevopoulos explains the meaning of the two Great Blessing of the Waters during the Feast of Epiphany or Theophany.

In our first interview with an Eastern Orthodox Bishop, Steve McMeans talks with His Grace, Bishop Joseph+, on what a bishop is; his calling, his ministry, and the role the monastic life can play for us all! Burn this on a disc, friends!

Join Illumined Heart co-host Kevin Allen on his pilgrimage to Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery, Platina, California to talk with its Abbot Fr. Gerasim and Fr. Seraphim Rose legacy-keeper and biographer Monk Damascene. September 2nd marks the 25th anniversary of the repose of Fr. Seraphim Rose. In part 1 of this 3 part series, Kevin is in the cell constructed by Fr. Seraphim and now occupied by Monk Damascene where he talks with the monk about his spiritual father. For more information about the books published and distributed by the monastery, visit their website.

Enter once again into the rustic cell of Fr. Seraphim Rose with Kevin Allen as he talks with Fr. Damascene, the biographer and spiritual child of Fr. Seraphim. This is part 2 of a 3 part series and provides a unique glimpse into the life of a man who many say will someday be venerated as a Saint.

In the conclusion of our 3 part series commemorating the 25TH anniversary of the repose of Fr Seraphim (Rose), Kevin Allen is seated on a wooden bench overlooking a panoranmic view of Mt. Yolla Bolly with the Abbot of St. Herman of Alaska Monastery, Fr. Gerasim. Listen for valuable lessons (as well as birds chirping!) on the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting from a spiritual child of this venerated American monk and writer.

The past few years have seen their controversies within the Self Ruled Antiochian Archdiocese of North America. On September 30, 2010, Kevin Allen and John Maddex traveled to Englewood, NJ to visit the headquarters of the Antiochian Archdiocese and the home of it’s Archbishop Metropolitan Philip Saliba. Our purpose was to seek clarification on several key areas that have become a concern to many, and fodder for the blogosphere. His Eminence warmly welcomed us and gave Kevin the freedom to ask any question he thought would be helpful to our audience in understanding several critical issues. There were four specific topics we wanted him to address: 1. The meaning and future of self rule in the Antiochian Archdiocese. 2. The status of the Bishops in North America and the meaning as well as the ramifications of the title “Auxiliary Bishop.” 3. The finances of the Antiochian Archdiocese and in particular the status of an audit. 4. The view point of His Eminence on the Episcopal Assembly, SCOBA, and the future of Administrative Unity in North America. We have left the Metropolitan’s remarks intact and unedited to make them available to the audience for their own evaluation and conclusions. This episode provides the entire interview. If you are interested in listening to the individual topics, we have also divided it up into 4 sections and those are available on The Illumined Heart page of Ancient Faith Radio. A free transcript is also available.

Pornography has become a social, spiritual, and physical epidemic in the world. Andrew's first podcast is part one of a series of conversations which will identify the real issues we must face in dealing with pornography from an Orthodox Christian perspective. This first episode in that series talks about pornography, iconography, and idolatry. A transcript of this episode is available HERE.

Andrew continues from the last episode about unfaithfulness being the characteristic act of immorality by exploring how pornography is a rejection of the ultimate significance of marriage. Read a transcript HERE.

In episode 4, Andrew helps us understand the transformation that takes place when we begin to see iconographically instead of pornographically. The transcript can be accessed HERE.

Andrew reminds us that we can use our creativity in cooperation with God’s creative power or we can use it apart from God. Read the transcript HERE.

The scourge of pornography use in our society is also itself an image — an image that manifests certain unpalatable realities of our culture and relationships. Read a transcript HERE.

What’s a good time to have such a conversation? Well, it shouldn’t just be a one-off conversation… it should be an ongoing dialogue and discussion. Listen to the podcast and read the transcript HERE.

We continue our discussion of the famous Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian and his plea for God to remove from him the "lust for power" and "idle talk". As is made clear from the sayings of the Fathers cited here, these sins are so well-rooted in our normal, everyday lives that raising our self-awareness regarding how and how often we commit them is a significant Lenten undertaking.

We continue our discussion of Great Lent by reviewing, with many quotes from the Church Fathers, the famous Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian that is used during all the weekday services. Writing in the 4th century, St. Ephraim's hymnography captures the Spirit of the Lenten Season and has been a vital standard for the Orthodox Church ever since. In its simplicity and penetrating quality we learn that we are at once helpless and in need of God's grace to overcome our sinful nature, and yet must also pursue repentance and the virtues in faith continually, to be both emptied and filled.

We finish this Lenten series discussing the virtues of patience, love, and not judging our brother. Again, the Orthodox axiom of working out the virtues in the body is true, and we learn that patience is not merely a passive state, but also requires spiritual/bodily effort to restrain evil thoughts/actions, choosing to perform God's will instead. Love for God, neighbor, enemies and the whole of creation is our aim, cultivated with our growing awareness of God's pure and captivating eros coming down from heaven. Engulfed in this love we lose interest in the world and adopt the humble mind of Christ, whose words on the Cross, "forgive them for they know not what they do," are to become our own towards all men.

Following Chastity in the the list of virtues in St. Ephraim's prayer comes Humility. Reading from the Fathers, we find that humility is not merely a state of mind, but a mystery that comes about as the result of labors of the soul and body, mirroring the Incarnation itself, and so it is by nature incomprehensible. We look at humility and its opposite, pride and prelest. to try to gain even just a little more understanding of this virtue and why it is central to our life in Christ.

St. Ephraim begins the second half of his great prayer "Give rather a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Thy servant." Asking God to take our sinful passions away is followed by a petition to give us virtue, chastity being first in the order. In the Fathers, and especially St. John Climacus, we find that the virtues (which are in truth the energies of the Holy Spirit) act in our heart and are active through us through the deeds of the body surrendered to Christ. And chastity, rather than being limited to some quaint notion of sexual purity (true enough), is the virtue of wholeness in Christ which enables us to fight the passions fervently.

St. Vladimir’s Seminary celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s autocephaly Thursday, January 30, 2020. A full-day of events included three workshops on the topic of autocephaly. In the first, “Autocephaly: The OCA, the Greek Archdiocese, and Antioch," Priest Anthony Roeber, the Seminary's professor of church history, delivered an eye-opening and candid lecture. He sheds light on motivations and circumstances leading up to the granting of the Tomos of Autocephaly in 1970 by the Russian Orthodox Church to the OCA (then known as the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America) and addressed the reaction of other Orthodox jurisdictions to the Tomos.

St. Vladimir’s Seminary celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s autocephaly Thursday, January 30, 2020. A full-day of events included three workshops on the topic of autocephaly. In the second, “Autocephaly & Evangelism," Archpriest John Parker, dean of Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, delivered a passionate call to action and reminder that "autocephaly is an inner evangelism in reminding all Orthodox Christians that in Christ Jews and Greeks, Turks and Cretans, Romanians, Latinos, Africans, Asians all find true motherland in the nave and at the chalice."

St. Vladimir’s Seminary celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s autocephaly Thursday, January 30, 2020. A full-day of events included three workshops on the topic of autocephaly. In the third, “Autocephaly & New Saints,” His Grace, Bishop Daniel (Brum) of Santa Rosa explored the importance and canonization of North American saints including St. Herman of Alaska, who was canonized the same year the Tomos of Autocephaly was granted (but decided upon a year earlier). Excitingly, Bishop Daniel’s talk also touched upon the possibility of new North American saints, notably Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich, d. 1965) and Matushka Olga Michael of Alaska (d. 1979).

As Dn. Michael begins exploring the Council of Ephesus, he observes some commonality between Evangelicals and Orthodox in the "cult of the Saints."

In this week’s class, Dn. Michael considers Orthodox Thinking from four different perspectives: Ancient Greek literature, the Biblical text, the writings of the fathers, and the practice of ordinary Orthodox Christians.

Now that we’ve discussed the two major expressions of the Western phronema (episode 122), Dn. Michael returns to the Orthodox phronema to compare and contrast it. If we are going to acquire it, we need to know what we’re looking for. In this episode he discusses the five main attributes of an Orthodox phronema.

The concept of “phronema” (a mindset, approach, stance, or way of thinking) is inescapable. Everyone has one. However, the phronema of the West is very different from that of the East. In this episode, Dn. Michael unpacks the two major expressions of the Western phronema: Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. While they seem very different, they are more similar than you might think.

Up until this point, we have focused on understanding the concept of an Orthodox phronema—what it is and how it is different from the Western phronema. In this episode, we explore five actions you need to take in order to acquire an Orthodox phronema. Thinking Orthodox by Dr. Jeannie Constantinou

Tradition is the foundation of Orthodox Christianity. It permeates everything we believe and do. But when Orthodox Christians talk about Tradition, they mean something different that Protestants or Roman Catholics. In this episode, we consider five questions about Tradition, including what it is and what it’s not

We’ve seen the important role Tradition plays in the shaping of our phronema. But what role does the Bible play in its development? To answer that question, we consider Holy Scriptures from three perspectives: Inspiration, Interpretation, and Instruction. We also look at how Tradition and Scripture relate to each other.

An Orthodox Phronema sits on a three-legged stool: Tradition, Scripture, and the Fathers. In this episode, we consider the role of the Fathers. Specifically, we answer several questions about them: Who are they, why are they important, and how do they relate to Scripture and Tradition.

In this study, Dn. Michael wrap up his series on Thinking Orthodox. He summarizes the book, by looking at How Jesus Christ is the epitome of an Orthodox phronema. He considers seven truths about developing an Orthodox mindset.

Fr. Philip LeMasters joins Fr. Evan to take a wide array of questions from callers and email including an intelligent question from a 13-year-old Chicago-area listener.

A lively program with a great variety of questions including questions on confession, spiritual maturity, chanting, and modernity. Be sure to listen for a "cameo" appearance by Fr. Barnabas Powell!

Fr. Seraphim joins Fr. Evan to tackle questions and also talks about the founding of the first Orthodox monastery in the Celtic Isles of Scotland in a thousand years. Hear Fr. Seraphim on his own podcast, too: Through a Monk's Eyes.

The hour flew by as Fr. Evan and Fr. Stephen address questions about the "myth of progress" as it relates to Fr. Tom Hopko's 55 maxims, systematic theology and the Orthodox faith, styles of worship in the broader Christian realm, and much more.

The author of Parenting Toward the Kingdom, Dr. Philip Mamalakis joins Fr. Evan as co-host tackling parenting questions—especially for parents of teens. They also talk about a new resource for parents and teen workers from Faithtree resources.

Fr. Stephen De Young joins Fr. Evan to answer listener questions about fasting, evangelism, and the Atonement.

Fr. Evan Armatas welcomes Fr. Philip LeMasters as his guest co-host. Together they take questions on the sacraments, the rapture, and more.

Fr. Evan Armatas begins the new year on the Feast of Theophany and takes a variety of questions including when to read the Bible, what do the Fathers say about dreams, the Septuagint and more. You can now listen to Fr. Evan every Sunday at 7:00pm Central/8:00pm Eastern.

Nikolai, a counselor at St. John the Compassionate Mission, shares how he learned from the mission to be attentive.

The dynamis of Theophany is towards new life and communion. We see this in the community, as God is bringing healing to Jacob, while also opposing the flattening (or "alienation of the spirit") that so often happens in modern culture.

Today Martha discusses some of her favorite fall things and one of her very favorite saints. The recipe she mentions for Cinnamon Apple Cake can be found HERE. The other web site she mentioned was epicurious.com.

a technically-playable (but just barely) hack using iOS Shortcuts to download remote screenshots compiled into videos #

Fr. Lawrence continues his commentary on the Divine Liturgy with a focus on the Antiphons.

Fr. Lawrence Farley comments on the Anaphora, which is a Greek word meaning “offering.”

As as we journey through Great Lent, Fr. Lawrence Farley looks at the Prayer of St. Ephraim.