Fr. Nick and Dr. Roxanne Louh share ways we can practice looking at the world through the lens God gives us.

Fr. John reminds us that while we all seek from another person to be fully known and fully loved, this is something that only God can give.

A talk Fr. John Oliver gave at a symposium titled "God's Books: Reading Scripture in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" held at the Murfreesboro Mosque in November.

Love is too precious, too powerful, and too popular to mean anything we want it to. Instead, love needs definition and contour so that we may know what love is not, just as we may know what love is.

Fr. John notes that as we accept the mercy of God, that mercy is proof that God accepts us.

Fr. John answers a question at once innocent and terrifying.

Are our physical bodies evil? Are they good? Fr. John explores these questions in light of Christ's Transfiguration.

What do those words in the liturgy mean? And how do we accomplish this? Fr. John enlightens us with the answers.

Fr. John Oliver reflects on the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ (January 1st) and how God is to be found in the details of life.

Fr. John Oliver discusses the true meaning of repentance, becoming the person that God desire us to become.

We might think we know exactly what God is and should be but is that not a certainty loaded with risk?

Love for God is love for the earth and love for the earth is love for our neighbor.

Fr. John Oliver reflects on the role evil and suffering plays in drawing us closer to God.

Fr. John Oliver reflects on suffering.

As we begin the Nativity fast, Fr. Joseph has some helpful reminders for us. He's also looking for your questions on fasting - serious, humorous or otherwise. Write him at his email address above.

What do you do when God ain't good enough? Now that's a softball question! In this week's episode, Fr. Joseph is still looking for that softball.

Is it Real—or is it My Big Ol' Hairy Godmother? That's the question that hits a depressed Fr Joseph as he faces up to Change, and he tries to get up ... in anticipation of falling again.

From childhood to adulthood to parenting -- even death -- Goodbyes aren't easy. Fr. Joseph tries to understand Goodbye with the help of his parents, his brother, three Evangelists and ... Brad Paisley?

What's the difference between Orthodox Christians' participation on the internet and, say, secular scoundrels? Sometimes, it seems, not much. In this encore episode, Fr. Joseph admits that his foot has been been in his mouth but his tongue is still in his cheek. in other words: "Let's be careful out there!"

What caused the Steelers' dynasty in the seventies? (Of course it was Fr. Joseph.) What caused 35,000 folks to pray the "Our Father" in a football stadium? (Of course it was the Supreme Court.) Tim Tebow caused quite a stir in the NFL. (Only the Perfect makes perfect.) And Fr. Joseph takes a bow (but how do you say "hiatus"?).

Just a few women, at first, raised their hands; later, all of them acknowledged their "sonship." If God's their Father, who's their Mother? Fr. Joseph speaks to gals and guys at St Nicholas Church, Shreveport, Louisiana.

Fresh from the Antiochian Clergy Symposium on "Medicine, Theology, and Healing," Fr. Joseph shares his thoughts on Jesus' healing of the paralytic, and that which matters most.

My age is the right age and it increases annually.

Elissa explains how to help children who struggle with doubt about the existence of God.

Elissa discusses the story of Abraham and Isaac and her favorite prayer for children.

Elissa reminds us that it is our job to make our free will line up with God's will.

Sometimes, the God we imagine is not at all who He really is. We need to let our children see faith that is alive and real—which reflects the True God who exists apart from our imaginations.

Fr. Michael discusses fear of, and love for, God.

Fr. Michael answers the familiar question, "If God is real, why isn't it obvious to everyone?"

Fr. Michael talks about the transition from fearing God to loving God.

If we want to see God, where do we begin? Archimandrite Aimilianos says that we must begin with what we can do. We can seek; we can come to God with longing. In other words, if you want to see God, you have to want to see God. I’m not being redundant. There is wanting, and then there is wanting. I can want to become a doctor, for example; but if I don’t want to become a doctor more than I want to play video games, more than I want to hang out with my friends and more than just about anything else, I will never become a doctor. There is wanting, and then there is really wanting: wanting so much that it is pretty much all I want. And so we might say that if you want to see God, you have to want to see God more than just about anything else.

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.

Fr. Michael reflects on this quote from St. Isaac the Syrian (Homily 36), "A small affliction borne for God’s sake is better before God than a great work performed without tribulation; for affliction willingly borne brings to light the proof of love…."

"Truly, O Lord, if we do not humble ourselves, You do not cease to humble us. Real humility is the fruit of knowledge; and true knowledge, the fruit of trials." St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 36

Someone, apparently a young adult, wrote me recently and asked about prayer. This person was having a hard time discerning the difference between worry and prayer. He or she was wondering if prayer, although salutary to ourselves, really does have an effect on those we pray for. Particularly, this person was worried about and/or praying for his or her parents who seemed to be getting further and further apart. Did God hear his/her prayers for them? Do a child’s prayers really make any difference for the parents?

Concern over God’s judgement has nothing to do with striving to be better. Concern over God’s judgement is to continually strive to enter God’s rest, to humble ourselves and feel sadness over our wretchedness, and to offer that wretchedness to God as prayer. This is what concern for God’s judgement looks like according to St. Isaac the Syrian.

"The experience of forgiveness is much more organic, more relational. Forgiveness is actually something that grows. St. Theophan says that it is necessary to develop the hope that comes from working on our salvation (i.e. cooperating with God’s Grace through repentance and spiritual disciplines). And it is this hope that begins to release us from shame and is the evidence of growing or maturing forgiveness. 'Without it,' St. Theophan says, 'there can be no beginning of the work of salvation; and even more so, no continuation. But there it was in conception; here it is mature.' For St. Theophan, it seems, forgiveness and the accompanying release from shame is something that is conceived in us and grows to maturity."

Those whose minds are set on the good and the holy, tend to see goodness and even the glory of God in just about everyone they meet. A holy man or woman feels compassion and love for everyone, even those who to most of us seem to have nothing about them worthy of love or compassion. They can see the glory of God in a very broken human being because they themselves have been illumined and shine with God’s glory.

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.

Fr. Michael presents the first of a series of blog posts that have not yet been shared as podcasts. Here he deconstructs the notion that choice translates into freedom.

We have to remember the mighty things God has already done in our life. We have to remember that whatever good we may have done is also a mercy. We could have just as easily done wrong, just as easily gone the wrong way, just as easily said the wrong thing. It is God’s mercy that has saved us, and it is God’s mercy that will save us again, not our ability to figure it out.

Fr. Michael Gillis reads a blog post from 2010, entitled "Choices and God's Will". "For the overwhelming majority of the people in the world throughout history, what they would eat, where they would live, what work they would do and even whom they would marry was not a matter of their choice. As far as such matters were concerned, God’s will for their life was determined for them. The choice was not whether or not to harvest the grain on the master’s estate; the choice was whether or not to entrust yourself to God, not grumble against your master, work with your whole heart, and love your fellow laborers. The only real choice for a Christian has always only been: “Will I be a Christian right now, today?”"

Waiting involves attention. We have to pay attention to our thoughts. We have to notice what is happening in our minds and thoughts and feelings leading up to and when and after we sin. And learning to pay attention to our thoughts takes time. It’s something that we have to practice. It is, the Fathers tell us, an important part of prayer. When we practice prayer with attention (attention to what we are praying, to being present and not allowing our mind to wander), then we develop this ability to pay attention to our thoughts at other times too.

All suffering, however, regardless of its apparent immediate source, can be understood as the wrath of God. But we must never forget that we call it God’s wrath because of how we feel and how we experience it, not because God is at all angry or vengeful. Rather, God both allows and brings about suffering in our lives as a doctor treating a patient. What patient after major surgery has not experienced the wrath of the physical therapist? Healing the body is often painful.

"How could God let his representatives get away with such things?"

God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar. Fr. Tom explores this passage and others that refer to Jesus as "the Lamb."

In his continuing series on the Names of Jesus, Fr. Tom Hopko explores Jesus as the Holy One of God.

Join Steve and Christian this week as they explore the Netflix original series Daredevil. They discuss what they love about the series, why superheroes appeal to our desire for a savior, and whether they’d be good guys or bad guys. Also, the top 5 superpowers of all time.

The guys watched Martin Scorcese’s newest film, Silence, and it left them feeling…conflicted. Join Steve and Christian as they discuss immanent expressions of faith, the gruesome (and hopeful) reality of martyrdom, the pain of the dark night of the soul, and the depth of the Lenten struggle. They close with their Top 5 Conflicted Characters of All Time.

The girls take on Stephanie Storey’s Oil and Marble, a historical fiction novel based on the rivalry between Leonardo and Michaelangelo. They discuss true beauty and personhood as it can be portrayed through art, the power of true forgiveness, and the role of desire in the Christian life. They close with their Top 5 Old Testament Characters.