Holy Nativity Orthodox Church

I was cleaning out some half-written essays and ran across this from last Great Lent.  It seems somehow appropriate in the light of my la...

Yesterday I wrote these words: " Irenic words and actions have little force when they proceed from a disturbed heart.  They are the ...

Be a persecutor of yourself, and your enemy will be driven from your proximity.  Be peaceful within yourself, and heaven and earth will b...

In a homily recently I spoke about the Christian experience of “falling and getting back up again.”  That is, I spoke about the need...

"Do not, like the pupils of teachers, over-scrutinize the words that are written from experience for the fostering of your way of life,...

As beginners in the spiritual life, when we consider purification, the first of the three steps or aspects of becoming like Christ, we us...

St. Maximus the Confessor The Fathers of the Church often use the metaphor of a ladder to discuss the various stages or steps or tran...

The Clergy retreat ended today with a Divine Liturgy and a light brunch--eaten quickly to get packed and on the shuttle by noon. The sound ...

Up date from the Archdiocesan Clergy Symposium Day two of the Clergy Symposium found me sleeping through the first session. After a wonde...

We had a work day at Church today.  We were scraping and painting the south side of the Church.  I was scraping next to one of our inq...

I was speaking to a friend not long ago who is a Charismatic/Vineyard-type Protestant.  At one point in the conversation we were talki...

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs wi...

The Order Of St. Ignatius of Antioch One of the spiritual gifts within the Church is the gift of giving. Certainly every Christian is cal...

Yesterday, after visiting the churches related to St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco and venerating his incorrupt relics, we were hoste...

I don't remember the novel, I think it was Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, in which one character is a mid-nineteenth century version of o...

A long time ago, I was talking to a retired couple who were taking a cruise to Mexico. The conventional wisdom that they offered to explai...

Fr. Peter Gillquist fell asleep in the Lord yesterday. He is probably the closest thing to a saint who might be considered "equal to t...

The Oikos from Matins for SS. Peter and Paul: Make my tongue to speak plainly, O my Saviour; enlarge my mouth and fill it, and give my hea...

The football experience was good.  Bonnie enjoyed the train ride--took a hundred pictures on her i-pad of people and buildings for possibl...

Some of you know that I am a football fan.  Our B.C. Lions won the Grey Cup last year and tonight they have a rematch with the Winnipeg B...