September 23, 2013

Listen to what St. Isaac the Syrian has to say about the all-embracing love and kindness of God: "The 'merciful heart' in a human person is therefore the image and likeness of God's mercy, which embraces the whole of creation – people, animals, reptiles, and demons. In God, there is no hatred towards anyone, but all-embracing love which does not distinguish between righteous and sinner, between a friend of truth and an enemy of truth, between angel and demon. Every created being is precious in God's eyes." Read more »

September 16, 2013

When we look at people in need – a poor family that can’t take care of their children, a lonely person with no one to turn to, an elderly person who has no one to help them, scenes of the horror from war and poverty around the world – whatever the situation, when we see people in need, how do we feel? What do we think? But most importantly, how do we respond? Read more »

September 09, 2013

“I have no one who loves me… I have nothing to live for!” Michael Hill entered the school with an AK 47, 500 rounds of ammo, and a world of darkness, yet he unexpectedly encountered a woman from the opposite spectrum. Read more »

September 02, 2013

“Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” What did that mean? Isaiah was talking about the Messiah, a time when our messianic dreams would come true and the Anointed One of the Almighty would usher in the reign of God. We all dreamed of the Messiah and hoped that He would come in our lifetime, but what was Jesus talking about?!? Read more »

August 19, 2013

When we understand our Christian faith, and sincerely strive to walk with Jesus Christ and allow His Spirit to dwell richly within our hearts and minds, an attitude of gratitude becomes an obvious and beautiful fruit of our faith. Of course, the opposite is true as well. When we don’t express gratitude, we are spiritually sick. An inability to thank God for our daily blessings, and to thank those around us who bless us with their words, their actions, and their lives, is a serious sign of spiritual pride and illness! Read more »

August 12, 2013

What does Jesus expect from us? Do you ever think about that? What does our Lord want us to do in our lives, and what does He expect us to offer back to Him? Read more »

August 05, 2013

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” It’s a pretty radical statement, yet it summarizes the journey and goal of our Christian life. We are on a lifelong struggle, which can be quite challenging and difficult, where we are not only called to become more and more like Jesus, but where we labor to control and crucify our own ego and actually allow Christ to be formed in us. Read more »

July 15, 2013

St. Innocent, one of the greatest Russian missionaries who brought the Gospel to Alaska in the 19th century, admitted that his main problem in preaching to the native peoples of Alaska was the terrible witness of his fellow Russians, the fur traders and explorers. When St. Innocent preached the Good News to the native Alaskans, they would ask, “Aren't these other Russian workers Orthodox Christian? Read more »

July 07, 2013

We have a self-portrait of Jesus. When we keep that in front of our eyes, we will soon learn what it means to follow Jesus and become like Him. Read more »

June 30, 2013

Before Christ, we live our lives according to our own desires and passions, and follow the influence and ways of the world. Living “in the year of the Lord” implies that something other than ourselves stands at the center of history. Read more »

June 23, 2013

“To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.," Mother Teresa taught. "To keep the light of Christ aflame within us, we have to keep inviting the Holy Spirit in! We have to keep opening our lives for the Spirit of God to flow freely within us.” Read more »

June 16, 2013

One of the most precious images we have of God is as our Heavenly Father. Jesus Himself taught His followers to think of “the One who is and was and is to come, the Lord Almighty” as “Our Father” whenever we pray. What a radical image that Christ offered to His disciples – telling them not to think of our All Powerful Creator as a distant God, as someone or something separate and far from us, but to relate with our Maker as our Father! Read more »

June 09, 2013

"To find yourself, you must offer yourself." This is one off the teachings that 13 students from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, and Hellenic College, along with my beloved former professor, Fr. Alkiviadis Calivas, and I learned from Archbishop Anastasios during our recent class and trip to Albania. Read more »

May 26, 2013

Every day I send out a Daily Inspirational Email to around 500 people, which includes a brief Spiritual Meditation, Bible Reading, and Life of a Saint. Recently, I have included a section called “DAILY ACT” challenging people to do some random act of love and kindness which reflects our faith. Read more »

May 19, 2013

$560 million dollars! That was the jack pot winner of the Powerball Lottery, and someone won the winning ticket yesterday. Imagine winning close to $600 million. What would you do? How would your life change? Would it change for the better? Would it make you happier? Read more »

May 05, 2013

In some parts of Greece, there is a tradition that the day after Pascha is a day devoted to telling jokes. This tradition came about because they said that during Holy Week God pulled the greatest joke on Satan himself, when Christ willingly accepted to die on the Cross. Satan thought he won - that he had defeated Jesus, that darkness had conquered light, evil had conquered good, and death had conquered life – Satan thought he had won only to find out that when Christ entered the devil’s domain, hades, he could not contain Him. Read more »

April 28, 2013

One of the greatest accusations ever made against Christians could be summarized by the words of the famous atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, when he said that Christians had no joy; that Christianity was a joyless religion. Read more »

April 21, 2013

What an unbelievable scene for Boston or anywhere in America? Exploding bombs? A car chase with hand grenades and pipe bombs thrown out the window? A firefight with 200 rounds of gunshots in the middle of Watertown. Terror and fear grip the people as a massive manhunt shuts down an entire city. Read more »

March 31, 2013

How many of us are weighed down by some past deed that we did? I know people who live in the shadow of terrible mistakes or some bad choices they made 20 years ago, and they still are paralyzed by these hidden sins, or the guilt and shame that came with them. Others have allowed habitual sins, daily bad habits, or serious addictions to control their lives, and have given up hope at ever changing. Read more »

March 10, 2013

This past week, I attended the funeral of 29 year old Matthew Beland, the son of our parishioner Eric Beland, and then 57 year old David Davis, one of our beloved members who joined our church family five years ago. David died in his sleep, and Matthew died after a brief battle with lymphoma. As I attended these funerals two days in a row, I soberly reflected on how brief our life is, and how unexpected and quick our death can come. Read more »