August 31, 2014

“What does it profit a person if he gains the entire world, and loses his own soul?” May we pause and reflect for a moment upon our own lives, and the direction and spirit in which we live our lives. We live in such a “here and now” society, one which too often focuses on our own egocentric desires and pleasures and one which tempts us to try and fulfill these passions immediately. So easily we can lose sight of life’s essential purpose. Read more »

August 25, 2014

“To give thanks in all circumstances, you need to remember all the things in life for which we can be grateful, and then continuously thank God for them. I never focus on what I don’t have, or on how unfair life is, but I thank God for what I do have, and for the blessings He gives me each and every day. Such an attitude of gratitude radically changed my perspective on life.” Read more »

August 18, 2014

"Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone he met, at the prostitute or the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was to call out this beauty." Read more »

August 11, 2014

Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings… Born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. Here is the “good news of great joy” which Christmas proclaims! Read more »

August 04, 2014

Why do we come to Church each week? What are we seeking from our Christian faith? Or maybe we need to ask, are we consciously and seriously seeking anything from our faith? Ultimately, what is our goal as Orthodox Christians in this brief life here on planet earth? Read more »

July 27, 2014

One friend asked me WHY I would go to Mexico to build a home for some poor family I don’t even know. He obviously didn’t understand our call as Christians to reach out to those in need, to help others less fortunate than ourselves, and to share God’s love in concrete ways, even with those who live in other countries far away. Read more »

June 22, 2014

Christ’s invitation presents a dilemma not only for his first disciples, but to all future generations, including each one of us. Are we willing to trust Jesus and follow Him, leaving the ways of the world? Are we willing to follow Him and leave behind our world of fear, hatred and violence? Are we willing to follow Him and seek something more than the superficial pursuits and pleasures of many of us? Are we willing to follow Him and set aside our destructive habits and sinful ways, even casting aside our lives of guilt and regret? Read more »

June 15, 2014

Today in our Church we celebrate three very special occasions: 1) In our church calendar we honor and remember all the saints, known and unknown, who have lived before us; 2) In our secular calendar we honor and remember our fathers on this Father’s Day; 3) And in our church family, we celebrate and welcome the entrance of Jared Quill into full communion of our Church Family through the Sacrament of Holy Chrismation. Read more »

June 09, 2014

How many of you have ever had a conversation about your Orthodox Christian faith with a friend? How about with a co-worker, or even a stranger? Have any of you ever had the experience of talking about your faith, and someone looks perplexed at what Orthodoxy is, and they ask, “Are you Jewish?” Read more »

June 02, 2014

The secret to a life of contentment – “God’s grace is sufficient for us, for God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.” Trusting and believing in God’s grace, remembering that God is always with us and will never abandon us, realizing that in the midst of any challenge or struggle or tragedy, God is not only present, He not only suffers with us in the midst of our challenge, but He is ready to walk with us in any darkness and show us the way out! He will help us conquer any evil we face in our lives, and lead us back into His brilliant light! Read more »

May 26, 2014

As we remember and celebrate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem today, on this Palm Sunday, we are challenged to think about how we will respond to Christ’s teaching and life. Like the crowds 2000 years ago, millions of Christians worldwide will enter the churches in praise and worship today and throughout Holy Week. How many will celebrate the joy of Pascha a week from today. And yet, we have to ask ourselves, will we make the commitment to not only worship Jesus, but to follow the path of life that He has given to us? Read more »

May 19, 2014

How many of us wish to be great in the eyes of God? I would hope that any serious believer would make this a central goal in life – to be considered great in the eyes of God. And yet, how should we understand such spiritual greatness? What makes someone great? Read more »

May 11, 2014

The writer Emerson once said 'People are what their mothers make them.' Abraham Lincoln confessed, “I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother." Someone once said, “Give me a generation of Christian mothers, and I can shape the world!” Read more »

May 04, 2014

So the key is not to turn Jesus into someone who is like us, someone who will make us comfortable with the way we are now. No, instead let us allow Christ to make us take a good and honest look at ourselves and to see how distant we are presently from the divine potential that God has given us. Read more »

April 28, 2014

Our Christian faith is all about LOVE - love for God and love for our neighbor. And if we are trying to live lives of love, we have to realize that if we expand gambling and casinos in Massachusetts, we are not thinking about the welfare of our neighbor. Read more »

April 21, 2014

“Learning How to Exert Self-Control.” This was the title of an interesting article in the NY Times last week which talked about Dr. Walter Mischel, a professor at Columbia, who is known as the “Marshmallow Man." Read more »

April 14, 2014

Dr. Johnson once shared a story with my class about meeting a man from India who had lived in the United States for 40 years. As he entered into a discussion with the man, he learned that this Hindu person had never been invited into the home of any American Christian during his entire 40 years in this country! Four decades and no Christian took the initiative to invite him into their home! Read more »

April 07, 2014

Christians in the first century had a strange custom. When one of their fellow Christians would die, they would march in procession to the graveyards, singing joyous hymns, and then they would place laurel wreaths on the graves, the same wreaths that the Greeks would use to crown the victors of athletic contests. Why did they do this? Because they believed that through Christ Jesus, all his followers have received victory over the power of death! Read more »

March 31, 2014

Tonight, our challenge is whether we will open up our hearts in a manner we’ve never done before, and allow Jesus Christ to be born anew within us? Will we allow the Christ Child to live in us and guide us each day in the New Year and throughout our lives? Will we give reign to Him to direct our lives and rule in the center of our very beings? This is the central question we should all meditate upon this Christmas! Read more »

March 17, 2014

When we come to God, asking Him to heal us, we must prepare ourselves beforehand for healing. To be healed does not mean to become whole only in order to go back to the same kind of life that we lived before; it means to be whole in order to begin a new life, as if we realized that we died in the healing action of God. Read more »