On the feast of the Circumcision of Christ, Fr. Andrew talks about the New Covenant made in Christ and how Christians participate in it.

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick focuses on the four phrases in 2 Tim. 4:5 ('Be watchful in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry') and uses that verse as a summary of what it means to be Christian.

Dan and Fr. Brendan discuss exactly what people mean when they say they're "Spiritual but Not Religious," and how to address that without turning into a patronizing nuisance.

Fr. William George joins Dan as they talk about some of the unique challenges Father William encounters, as a spiritual advisor for the OCF chapter of County College of Morris--giving room for others to work, leading discussions, and maintaining the peace.

The coming of the Holy Spirit into the world, says Matthew, was the dynamic event which makes true oneness with God and with other people possible.

Matthew examines what the Holy Spirit brings to those who are open and willing.

Matthew continues his series, this time examining the unity of the early Christians and their entry into the Divine Nature of the Trinity.

In this podcast, Matthew examines two other pillars of Church unity—the breaking of bread and prayers.

Laura Jansson joins the Louhs to chat about how the treasures of Orthodox faith can help us through the beautiful but sometimes scary journey toward parenthood.

Fr. John Oliver explains how we can repel the Holy Spirit, and how we can become alive in the Holy Spirit instead.

Fr. Joseph gets lost in Houston, loses his wallet in the airport and becomes invisible at stop lights -- all from Dallas, Texas.

Fr. Anthony and Fr. Gregory continue their discussion on personalities and the priesthood, focusing primarily on the attributes/predispositions of agreeableness and openness. Along the way they end up talking about Jung, Flannery O'Connor, and Jordan Peterson. Enjoy the show!

The Holy Spirit can be a difficult and abstract concept to explain to young people, so in honor of the feast of Pentecost, Elissa explores the story of the tongues of fire, as well as the prayer "O Heavenly King," to find ways to describe this most mysterious person of the Holy Trinity.

Fr. Michael shares important things to think about in the quest for a spiritual father or mother.

Fr. Michael shares from St. Isaac the Syrian, "How one speaks of spiritual things is perhaps more important than the very spiritual matters themselves."

As an Evangelical, I had been taught that everything that is really important (spiritually speaking) has to do introducing people to Jesus Christ. Presenting Christ was almost everything. I believed that once one was reconciled with God through Christ–which I understood to be a legal transaction–everything that was really important in one’s relationship with God had been taken care of. This assumption, or something very like it, pervades Evangelical writing.

People sometimes flee the Church because they encounter abusive people or situations there. And yes, we need to love, minister to, care for and most of all be patient with those who flee the church because of the bad experiences they have had. But still, there are no Lone-Ranger Christians. We are not taught to pray to “My Father in heaven,” but “Our Father in heaven.” God is the God who sees. God sees our suffering. God knows what we have been through. And God wants us to find our safety in Him. But this safe place in God is not a place far away from the Church—after all, all you have to do is pick up a newspaper to realize that the Church has no monopoly on the abusive use of power. There is no place on earth to flee in order to escape the risk of being abused by people with power. There is no place on earth, but there is a place in heaven. And so Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven.”

A catechumen once asked what he could do to get victory over bad dreams: especially lustful dreams that roused his passions and often led him into temptation. I told him that this is one of those aspects of life in a fallen body that must be resisted and endured. One of the ways Satan seeks to weary and wear out the saints (or those who strive to be holy) is through the constant going astray of our flesh. Our job is to resist and to return our attention to God and to whatever is good, true and beautiful. When we turn our attention to Jesus, then Jesus fights our battles. One of the desert fathers said that trying to confront our own wicked thoughts is like trying to drive off wild dogs by throwing biscuits at them. We end up feeding the very thing we are trying to drive away. But if we turn our attention to Jesus, to the One who saves, to the One who made us and loves us and calls us to Himself, then the barking of the dogs fades away into the background. Then Christ Himself fights our battles, and we return to our natural place as worshipers of God, as those whose minds and hearts are attending to the one thing needful.

Many holy fathers and mothers of the Church have pointed out that spiritual words are like powerful medicine. If taken inappropriately, what was designed to heal ends up causing harm.

Fr. Michael talks about the difference between inwardly-focused spiritual zeal and outwardly-focused emotional zeal.

Fr. Michael Gillis answers the question of “how to overcome thoughts of pride in our hearts that inevitably come after labouring on good works for our families and people around us.”

The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives always takes place on two levels, both on the level of what is outside us or what comes to us, and on the level of what is within us or how we receive what comes to us.

For those of us who are still working on getting that first few rows of stones around the foundation of faith, focusing on acquiring a little bit of every virtue helps us to keep picking up the stone (of virtue) that is needed at a given moment and putting it down at the correct place in our spiritual house. Baby steps for baby Christians. May God grant that we are all found to be children in His Kingdom.

Join Steve and Christian as they talk about the highly anticipated Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. The guys talk about the Force, both the light side and the dark, the recurrent themes of family and personhood with just a dash of theology. So, join the guys as they celebrate the movie and end with their five favorite Star Wars quotations of all time.

Fr. Philip LeMasters preaches on the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

At Pentecost, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit as a sign of the restoration of human persons, both individually and collectively, in the divine image and likeness.

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.

If we are to complete our Lenten journey to our Lord’s Cross and glorious resurrection, we must learn to entrust ourselves to Him as honestly and fully as we possibly can.

Let us live as those who have tasted the living water of the Holy Spirit and know that nothing can truly satisfy us—in this life or in that which is to come—other than uniting ourselves to Christ in holiness.

Today we celebrate the restoration of our true unity in God through the unifying power of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter sent by the risen and ascended Savior Who is seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly glory.

Fr. John explores what exactly monasticim was in the days of St. Macarius.

Fr. John explores marriage within the life of early Christendom.

In this episode Father John discusses a few tendencies in Calvinism that would serve to undermine the place of paradise in Reformation Christendom, especially the doctrine of "total depravity" and the spiritual anxiety that accompanied it.

Fr. John discusses the spiritual transformation of time by Christianity.

Fr. John discusses the ways in which the Church tries to create a sanctified topography in Christendom.

What was the genius of classical music during its nineteenth-century golden age? According to Fr. John Strickland, it was an effort to rescue Christendom's transformational imperative in an age when secularization threatened to sever earth from heaven. No longer influenced by traditional Christianity, great composers like Beethoven exaggerated earthly passions (especially sexual love) to communicate the West's primordial desire for transcendence. But the emotionalism that resulted threatened to take the floor out from underneath them. This episode concludes by analyzing famous works by Schubert and Berlioz which show how transcendence gave way to descent, and how utopian hopes plunged into irreversible spiritual agony.

This week’s readings for divine liturgy correct any notion we might have that the physical, material world does not matter. While the physical is ordered under the spiritual realm by God, it is also meant to be taken up into it, transformed. We see this careful balance and valuing of the spiritual and material worlds in the lives of the Theotokos and St. Edith of Wilton, as well as in the Old Testament narratives of the “fiery serpent” and the promised “new heavens and new earth.”

When Thou O Lord was baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest. Dr. Humphrey explores the significance of Theophany on this first day of the New Year.

With this podcast, we complete our study of the eight resurrectional-dismissal hymns for the Theotokos, reading the Theotokion that we will sing for the feast of St. Gregory the Theologian on January 25th. We are helped in understanding this lyrical hymn by several passages in the NT, but also by returning to Genesis, Deuteronomy, Hosea, and Psalm 138/139. Here we see the wonder of the God who seeks and finds, and calls all of the cosmos to rejoice as He shows His glory.

Sober joy is the atmosphere of the second group of ascent songs, based on Psalms LXX 122-124 (MT 123-125). While aware of human need, we also meditate upon the security found among the people of God, and the presence of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and the whole world, helped in our thinking by Ephesians 6:10-17, 2 Peter 3:9 and Romans 8:26-27.

Fr. Ted reminds us that, "Christ is always in front of us," and that spiritual healing is readily available.

Fr. Ted cautions us against the popular notion of spirituality without religion.

Fr. Ted discusses the spiritual importance of icons, citing the Seventh Ecumenical Council.

Fr. Ted speaks of the danger in placing too much emphasis on miracles.

Fr. Ted explains that the Spirit of Truth always brings understanding, and most importantly, offers a message of love.

Fr. Ted explains that it is possible to be a good person and a bad Christian simultaneously.

Fr. Ted reminds us that we must cultivate our internal spiritual lives with patience in order to grow as Christians.

Fr. Ted reminds us that while the worldly spirit changes with time, the truth of the Church endures forever.

Fr. Ted addresses the trend to cultivate ourselves in our careers but not in our spirituality.

Fr. Ted shares his Paschal homily. Christ is risen!