This episode shares the the final admonitions and advice from (including advice on preaching!) Part Three and gives the entirety of Part IV (on preaching) of St. Gregory's Book of Pastoral Rule. How are preachers like roosters? Listen and find out! The version read is from The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.). It is available for free here. Enjoy the show!

In this episode, Fr. Anthony talks with priest, professor, and canonist, Fr. Harry Linsinbigler, about his new books (“In Every Church” and “Orthodox Ecclesiology”) and why it’s important to get ecclesiology right. This is the audio of a YouTube livestream interview. The followup interviews on ecclesiology and the coronavirus and ecclesiology and Ukrainian autocephaly are available on YouTube and at OrthoAnalytika.

Elissa demonstrates how the idea of the monastery is a very useful illustration to help all of us, especially our youth, understand how to be Orthodox in this world.

Elissa offers ideas for teaching during the three-week period of preparation for Great Lent (which is itself a preparation) to ensure that our kids benefit from the Church's wise preparation before the preparation.

Elissa presents part two of her brief series on preparing for Lent.

How will we help our children find a respectful and good way to offer Orthodoxy to this world? Elissa emphasizes the importance of being able to articulate the Orthodox faith in emulation of the twelve Holy Apostles.

Elissa reminds us that good stewardship heals our relationship to money and other possessions.

Fr. Michael examines Jesus's exhortation to "Take heed concerning covetousness" in Luke 12:14.

Fr. Michael examines Jesus's exhortation to "take heed how or what you hear" in Mark 4:24 and Luke 8:18.

Fr. Michael examines Jesus's exhortation to "take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees."

Fr. Michael examines Jesus's exhortation to "take heed that the light in you is not darkness."

Fr. Michael examines Jesus's exhortation in Matthew 6:1-3 to "take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men."

“This is the fiercest struggle, the struggle that resists a man unto blood, wherein free will is tested as to the singleness of his love for the virtues….It is here that we manifest our patience, my beloved brethren, our struggle and our zeal. For this is the time of unseen martyrdom…” What is this struggle that St. Isaac speaks of and how can it be overcome?

In 1851, an anonymous monk on Mount Athos wrote a book on prayer. The title of the book has been translated as The Watchful Mind: Teachings on the Prayer of the Heart. It is a book that I cannot recommend for most people because, like much classic Orthodox spiritual writing (the Philokalia, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian, to name a few), it was written for people pursuing the spiritual life, a life in communion with God, in a very specific monastic setting, a setting that exists in very few places in the world today, or some might say—indeed have said—in a setting that does not exist at all in the world any more. And yet, these texts are nonetheless compelling for us because they bear witness to a relationship with God, an intensity of relationship with God, that many people in the world today long for.

Fr. Michael shares his reflections on St. Isaac the Syrian's response to the question, "If, after a man has greatly toiled, laboured, and struggled, the thought of pride shamelessly assails him—taking occasion from the beauty of his virtues—and reckons up the magnitude of his toil, by what means should he restrain his thoughts and achieve such security in his soul as not to be persuaded by it?"

Fr. Michael begins a series discussing St. Maximus the Confessor's 400 chapters about love.

Fr. Michael continues discussing the teachings of St. Maximus the Confessor.

"And because such suffering is a temptation to sin, it is also an opportunity to deny Christ. It is an opportunity to curse God or curse man made in the image of God. It is an opportunity to become lost in self pity and never-ending introspection. It is an opportunity to become engrossed in the immediate human or demonic or biological causes, and to ignore God almost completely, as though our suffering and difficult circumstance were happening behind God’s back. The same difficult or painful circumstance becomes for us the means by which we either grow in Christ or in some way deny Him. And of course what is happening to us never makes any sense in the midst of the suffering. That’s part of the temptation. We don’t know why God is letting this happen. We don’t know what God is doing. It just doesn’t make sense. And at that point of confusion, that dark night of the body and soul, all we have left is naked trust, naked hope that God is still God despite all of the evidence to the contrary, despite the pain and confusion and injustice of the situation. Can we say with Job, 'Even if He slay me, yet will I trust in Him'?"

Fr. Michael examines Jesus's exhortation to "take heed that you do not despise the little ones."

There is strength in humility.

Fr. Stephen De Young welcomes us back after a short break, and begins discussing Chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians.

Fr. Stephen De Young continues and concludes his discussion of 1st Corinthians, Chapter 9.

Fr. Stephen De Young begins the introduction of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews.

Fr. Stephen De Young concludes the introduction of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews.

Fr. Stephen De Young finishes his introductory discussion on the book of Exodus.

Join Steve and Christian as they discuss art and its capacity to form us. They explore what art is, why it is important, and whether iconography and Van Gogh can be considered artistic on similar terms. In addition to discussing old Nintendo games, Contra, and Turtles in Time, the guys share some works of art that have formed them as humans throughout their lives.

This week, the girls take on Disney’s animated film, Moana. They discuss the power of Christian vocation, the quest to find ourselves in Christ, and the uniqueness of the Christian salvation narrative—they even occasionally sing while doing so. They close with their Top 5 Disney Animal Sidekicks.

Steve and Christian discuss the new Christianity Today podcast, "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill." This is part 1. They discuss authority, celebrity, and spiritual abuse. christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill Additional Resource: markdejesus.com/14-signs-spiritual-abuse Subscribe to "Pop Culture Coffee Hour" on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. We do more than simply offer reviews. Just like a bee can take good things from flowers (and leave the rest behind), we can learn to take the good things from pop culture as we seek to open ourselves to Christ and His saving work in our lives. It's Orthodox Christian engagement with today's culture.

Steve and Christian are back to continue their discussion on the new Christianity Today podcast, "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill." They explore authority, culture wars, and celebrity. christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill Additional Resource: markdejesus.com/14-signs-spiritual-abuse Subscribe to "Pop Culture Coffee Hour" on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. We do more than simply offer reviews. Just like a bee can take good things from flowers (and leave the rest behind), we can learn to take the good things from pop culture as we seek to open ourselves to Christ and His saving work in our lives. It's Orthodox Christian engagement with today's culture.

Like the Saints, our path to holiness will be through the daily struggle to be faithful in small ways that few will notice or celebrate.

St. Photini’s encounter with the Lord was truly transformative. He did not merely give her ideas about religion. He gave her the “Living Water” of the Holy Spirit which made her a participant in eternal life by grace.

Growing in humility is the only way for us to find healing for our passions, for our disordered desires ultimately root in the pride of not accepting the truth about who we are before God.

If we have received the Lord’s mercy, we must extend that mercy to our neighbors, especially those we are inclined to hate, condemn, or otherwise disregard.

We do not adore the Holy Cross today because it is useful for serving any personal, cultural, or political agenda. We do so because the Savior has brought eternal life to the world through His victory over the corrupting power of sin and death.

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.

People think of religion in many different ways today, but usually not in a way that requires our hearts to be broken.

We must simply keep letting down our nets in obedience to Christ according to the particulars of our lives and circumstances.

Lent does not call us merely to think or have feelings about our Lord’s Cross and resurrection. This season invites us to grow in our personal knowledge and experience of the Savior Who offered Himself on the Cross and rose in glory on the third day for our salvation.

There is perhaps no more powerful example of our need for Christ’s healing of our souls than that contained in today’s gospel reading. A rich man with the benefit of the great spiritual heritage of Abraham, Moses, and the prophets had become such a slave to gratifying his desires for indulgence in pleasure that he had become completely blind to his responsibility to show mercy to Lazarus, a miserable beggar who wanted only crumbs and whose only comfort was when dogs licked his open sores. The rich man’s life revolved around wearing the most expensive clothes and enjoying the finest food and drink, even as he surely stepped over or around Lazarus at the entrance to his home on a regular basis and never did anything at all to relieve his suffering.

Fr. John explores the triumph of Orthodoxy in the year 843 and the way in which it enables the art of Christendom to express the deepest conviction about man's relationship with God and the possibility of communion with Him.

Fr. John discusses the ways in which iconography was defined and produced in Byzantine Christendom.

In the anecdotal introduction to a new reflection, Fr. John tells the story of the fall of Constantinople to the western crusaders in 1204, showing how this event, inspired in part by new claims of papal supremacy, resulted in the permanent separation of eastern and western Christendom.

In this episode, Fr. John discusses the immediate aftermath of the mutual excommunications of 1054 and the ways in which papal supremacy emerged as the main point of continued division between the east and the west.

In this episode, Fr. John discusses the coming of the crusades and the decisive role played by Pope Gregory VII.

In this final episode of Reflection 15, Fr. John discusses the thirteenth-century popes Innocent III and Gregory IX, showing the close connection between their efforts to advance papal supremacy on the one hand and direct crusades against the Orthodox on the other. He concludes the reflection by noting the recent meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew and placing it within the context of centuries of cultural division between east and west.

In this episode, Fr. John discusses Pope Urban II's calling of the First Crusade and the impact it and the crusades of the twelfth century had upon relations between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics.

In the first episode of part two of his four-part podcast "Paradise and Utopia," Fr. John Strickland, a professor of history at Saint Katherine Orthodox College, describes how Pope Nicholas I paved the way for the rapid development of the papal theory of empire.

Returning after a long absence from the podcast, Fr. John in this episode introduces a new reflection on the crisis of western Christendom prior to the Reformation by discussing the penitential context of Martin Luther's famous Ninety-Five Theses.

Father John welcomes listeners back to the podcast with the opening to its third part, the age of utopia. He also summarizes some of the main points of his recently released book The Age of Division, which tells the history of Christendom covered in the second part of the podcast.

In this special video episode (the first of two parts), Father John discusses the background to the revolution in art during the Italian Renaissance. Though it produced some of the most stunning and innovative works ever, secular humanism represented a radical departure from the heavenly orientation of traditional Christian art.