Blog

On the second Sunday of May each year we honor mothers. We honor them with luncheons, flowers, gifts and praise for their dedication and love. But what do we offer our “common” mother, the Mother of God? The Ever-Virgin Mary whom we call Mother of God, is also our mother. This honor given to her is not just symbolic, but a real relationship she maintains with us as her children. Consider this… The Mother of God, exercising her free will, gave God permission to enter int... Read More

In the evening of the first Pascha, the Apostles had locked themselves in a room because they were afraid of the Jewish elite, when Jesus appeared inside the room and said to them, “’Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20.21-22) But Thomas was not there and doubted the story the Apostles told when he arrived saying, “Unless I see ... Read More

When someone suffering from addiction desires to stop his addiction, radical changes in his way of life are required in order for him to isolate the behaviors that feed his addiction. This is the process that is so successfully carried at drug and alcohol rehab facilities throughout our nation. Many times the first step in rehab is spending time “in detox” which gives the body time for the particular drug to be cleansed from his organs etc. The same process is required when we de... Read More

We have arrived at the “half-way point” of our Great Lenten Journey, and the Church brings our attention solidly upon the Holy Precious and Life-Giving Cross of our Lord. In the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Great Lent we hear Jesus Christ challenge us to join Him on the Cross. “For whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34) The life of every Christian is found in the Cross, both the Cross of Christ and O... Read More

Στο σημερινό Ευαγγέλιο του Αποστόλου Μάρκου βλέπουμε τον Ιησού να επισκέπτεται ένα σπίτι στην Κ&... Read More

If you currently do not fast regularly or at all… abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays   If you currently fast from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays… abstain from meat every day during Great Lent If you currently fast… increase your fasting one “level” this year following the example above beginning with Wednesdays and Fridays. Suggested Fasting Levels in the Orthodox Christian Tradition 1.       Abstain from meat 2. &... Read More

Since the Triodion is a special time to prepare us for Great Lent, and Great Lent will have a greater focus on prayer,  I thought this week I would talk about prayer. Once I was asked, “Can we pray for people who are not of the Christian faith, for example for the healing from a sickness?” When I was considering this question, it occurred to me that we should speak about prayer in general since it is a central part of our Orthodox Christian Life. The simple answer to this que... Read More

The week, we hear the story of a wealthy man with two sons.  The younger son asked his father to give him his share of the wealth so he can live his own life.  He traveled far away from home and lived a rich life for years until he had nothing left. He went back to his father, begging for a job as one of his servants so he can at least have some food to eat.  As soon as his father saw him, he ran to his son and welcomed him home.  Not as a servant, but as his son.  Th... Read More

While Jesus Christ was walking to Jerusalem with his disciples, he passed by the small village of Jericho, where a crowd started to gather around to see him.  There was a poor blind man whose mother had told him about Jesus Christ and his miracles.  He tried to approach Jesus to be healed, but because he couldn’t see, he started to scream “Son of David save me.”  Everyone was shouting at this blind man to be quiet.  Don’t be so loud.   Je... Read More

Today is the first Sunday of the Triodion, the period in the Church when we begin to prepare our souls and minds for the Holy and Great Fast. Over the next three weeks, the Church will encourage us to turn our minds and hearts to God, and to make a commitment to grow closer to Him. The Church will ask us to change for the glory of God, and change begins with Holy Confession. In the Epistle of Saint James we read, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that y... Read More

In the past fifteen years of my priesthood, and for the nearly fifteen years before I was a priest, I continue to come across people who are burdened with debt, even to the point of depression. Now, because of a generous gift of the Ladies Philoptochos Society, you don’t have to be worried about money every again Beginning last week, our Cathedral began rolling out a new program to help YOU take control of your finances, without forgetting your Christian faith. Dave Ramsey Solutions i... Read More

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  We all have the light of God within us, but it cannot shine bright if we do not change our priorities.  We need to be focused on what is truly most important.  With everything we do in our daily routines, it is getting harder and harder for us to remember what that is.  Our society is built on economic success, so we work and stress our whole... Read More

As Jesus approached Jericho, He passed near a blind beggar who noticed the commotion. Rather than keep begging, he asked what all commotion meant, and the crowd “told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (Luke 18.37) His shouts were met with warnings from the crowd to keep quiet but their warnings did not persuade him. “He cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.!&rsqu... Read More

While Jesus Christ was walking to Jerusalem with his disciples, he passed by the small village of Jericho, where a crowd started to gather around to see him.  There was a poor blind man whose mother had told him about Jesus Christ and his miracles.  He tried to approach Jesus to be healed, but because he couldn’t see, he started to scream “Son of David save me.”  Everyone was shouting at this blind man to be quiet.  Don’t be so loud.   Je... Read More

There are so many ways to say thank you. You can call. You can send a card or email. You can Facebook it. You can even Tweet it! But what’s the best way to say thank you to someone who has given you more than you ever imagined? How do you say thank you to that special person who gave you life? And I’m not talking about your mother. How do you say thank you to God for everything He has done for you? Is a card enough? Is it enough to list your Facebook status as “thanking God... Read More

In this Sunday’s gospel we hear the story of 10 lepers who ask Jesus to heal them.  He tells them to go to the priests and be healed.  After all ten were healed, only one praised God and came back to thank Jesus.  Jesus then questioned: Where are the other nine?   Jesus sent the lepers to the priests to test them to see if they had patience and if they would follow his request to go to the priests instead of needing to be healed immediately by Jesus.  And they ... Read More

Why Do Orthodox Christian Bless Material Things? Last week thousands of faithful men and women and many visitors gathered in our Cathedral and along the shores of Spring Bayou for the annual Cross Dive and Blessing of the Waters in honor of the Feast of Epiphany. During the special blessing service, the Holy Spirit was called down to bless the waters and those who partake of them or are sprinkled by them. This ancient custom of blessing water is celebrated throughout the world as part of O... Read More

This week is the week that everyone focuses on improving something about life in the New Year. As clocks hit midnight all across the globe last week, good intentioned men and women rushed to confirm New Year resolutions. Of course many if not most if not all New Year resolutions end up in the garbage pail by the end of the first week of the New Year, but that didn’t stop millions across the globe from faithfully committing to improving their lives this year. In many cases, people make... Read More

In the Gospel we hear the Parable of the Great Feast (Luke 14.16-24) in which Christ calls us to fill His Church. The reality of poor church attendance is not a new phenomenon in the Church. For decades our national Church has struggled with the trend where half-full Churches have become the norm rather than the exception. In fact, just as in this parable, we have heard year’s worth of excuses from our brothers and sisters as to why they are not in Church. Excuses have ranged from lan... Read More

    When I was young growing up in Colorado, our family spent many hours outdoors skiing, hiking, camping, and just about anything we could enjoy in the mountains. As a boy all I was responsible for during these excursions was myself. I didn’t have to carry anything but myself. I didn’t have to watch anything but myself. And I have to be honest it was pretty fun….until I got older.   When I was a young adult working as a youth director, still enjoying the... Read More

When Jesus was called “good” by the rich ruler He said, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Luke 18.19) He of course is good because He is God, but He is also a reflection of the goodness of the Father. In that moment with the rich ruler, Jesus was teaching us the truth of the incarnation of God in the Son – Jesus Christ. And as a Son is a reflection of the Father, so Jesus is a reflection of the Goodness that is in the Father. The r... Read More

We have many blessings as a Christian community. We have a beautiful Church. We have many supportive and loving members. We just celebrated our “Friendsgiving” with over 300 people last week. As individual families we also have many blessings. We have jobs despite our struggling economy. We have our health and we have food on our tables. We have a great deal for which to be thankful this year. I'm sure we can all agree. But HOW will we thank God for the blessing that He has g... Read More

We’ve all been there before. We all remember in school how our teacher would help us remember that we already knew the answer to a question. With the wise guidance of our teacher, we all know how to search our minds and our hearts to find the right answer for a variety of questions. But no question is as important as, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10.25) The Gospel tells us a story of a certain lawyer who wanted to test Jesus by asking a question for whic... Read More

Last week, I was surprised by the Parish Council with a celebration of OUR five year anniversary. It was just five years ago that you received me as your new Dean. It seems like yesterday that we were meeting each other for the first time. Since that day five years ago, we have celebrated hundreds of liturgies together, laughed and cried together countless times, danced together, and even survived hurricanes together. Five years ago, I stood in front of you and promised that, together we woul... Read More

In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16.19-31) the un-named rich man was in the torment of Hell because he refused to serve the sick and poor man named Lazarus. Many times we think that it is the poor that benefit from our charity, but according to the Gospel, this is not the case. When we feed the hungry, their stomach might be filled, but it is our soul that fills with the love of God and enjoys unity with Him. As an alternative, when we refuse to help the poor, while their stomac... Read More

Many times I am approached by parishioners and even visitors with questions about faith and the Orthodox Christian way of life. Questions range from how and when to fast, how often to receive Holy Communion, and a large variety of questions about life choices. While I am always ready to have such conversations, I also understand that not everyone understands why we even bother to ask the priest such questions.   The tradition of spiritual father in the Church is as old as the church its... Read More

We All Have Demons We have heard many Gospel stories of Jesus casting out the demons from within possessed people.  The man in today’s Gospel reading was possessed by many demons for a long time which forced him to live a terribly lonely, destructive, miserable life among the tombs.  Today, we may not experience demons the way they were described in the Bible.  We may not be possessed the way this man was.  But we all certainly have some demons that are preventing u... Read More

In the Gospel we hear one of the great Parables of Our Lord about the “Sower.” This is the only parable where Christ also gives an explanation of the meaning of the parable. We are encouraged to be good fertile soil to allow the Word of God to take root in our hearts so that we can bear fruit with great abundance to the glory of God. There is another aspect to the parable that the Fathers of our Church bring to our attention. Saint John Chrysostom teaches, “For as the sow... Read More

Be Devoted To Good Works In today’s Epistle Reading, Apostle Paul is emphasizing the importance of doing good deeds and helping others to do good deeds.  We might think that doing good deeds will bring us closer to God, but Paul tells us something different.  He is helping guide those who already have faith in the Lord, so that they will be devoted to doing good works.   But what does this really mean? We all already know that we should be doing good deeds throughout our... Read More

The Importance of Religious Education Today is the first day of Sunday School, so I thought it would be good to share with you my thoughts about the importance of religious education. It is something we all think and talk about, but unfortunately our conversation is often limited to Sunday School. And when we think about Sunday School, we normally think about children sitting in a classroom learning facts about God and the Church, much in the same way we learn about world history.   Re... Read More

A Resurrection Can Happen Today In today’s gospel we hear the story of a grieving widow at her son’s funeral.  During the funeral procession, Jesus approached the mother and said to her “Do not weep.”  He then resurrected the young man and gave him to his mother.  Thousands witnessed this miracle and glorified God.  My beloved brothers and sisters, the worst tragedy we can experience in our lives is the loss of a child.  It is an unimaginable ... Read More

Beware What You Desire   Today’s Gospel begins, “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” (Luke 6.31) We know this as the Golden Rule, but it isn’t always a good thing. I know that at first this sounds the opposite, but it is true. How we behave to others, whether we want it or not, expresses how we want to be treated. That is, if we believe Christ in today’s Gospel.   I am blessed to hear many confessions from young and old. In these mom... Read More

Don’t be afraid to ask for help Is sadness the same as sorrow?  My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, the Epistle reading today gives us the opportunity to discuss the difference.  We may feel sadness in our daily lives.  Sadness is a feeling we get when we experience or witness something unhappy, or maybe when we feel like something just isn’t going quite right.  We can usually push through the sadness by overcoming whatever caused it.  Sorrow, howe... Read More

If you have ever had a discussion about religion with your friends, you know it can be very complicated to explain the difference between the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ. It is such a difficult topic, we have been arguing with the Oriental Orthodox for more than 1500 years. You may be tempted to say, “What does it matter if I believe in Jesus Christ?” It does matter, because the answer affects who God is. As of 2015 there were more than 45,000 denominations of Christi... Read More

Love Casts Out Fear! What is love? God is Love!  In the Epistle reading today, John teaches us about God’s perfect love.  John tells us that God will love us if we love Him and if we love each other.  And we all claim to love God and each other, but what does that really mean?  And do we love with the kind of love God is asking from us?   Love is not as simple as: I love you or I don’t love you.  In today’s society, the word love is somet... Read More

We are all faced with many obstacles throughout our lives.  We strive to be our best and to succeed in reaching our goals.  But how much are we really willing to work and fight to overcome all the difficulties we are faced with?  This is exactly what this Sunday’s gospel is about.  The Lord said “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” These words are read to us at our baptism as we begin our lives as ... Read More

It’s Time for a Change Sometimes in life we have to change the way we look at things. This is true not only in the arrangement of furniture in the Den, but our spiritual lives and September is an excellent opportunity to do this. When we look differently at our furniture sometimes we see things we never noticed before; and sometimes this can be a scratch in the sofa or a stain in the carpet. Whenever we take the chance to look at things from a different angle we are able to improve a... Read More

Today we are honoring the gruesome martyrdom of “the greatest man ever born of a woman,” (Matthew 11.11) as a warning against pride and greed. John the Baptist stood as a bold and public defender of truth and morality when he reminded Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." (Mark 6.18) Later as Herodias’ daughter danced for Herod, he was so taken by her beauty that he swore to give her anything she wanted. Since it was Herodias that Herod... Read More

Why are we fasting today?   This Sunday, August 29th, we mourn the beheading of the Holy and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John.  This feast day is a strict fast day, which usually means no oil, wine, meat, fish or dairy.  There is some exception today, because it is Sunday, we are allowed oil and wine.  There are additional fasting traditions throughout the Orthodox world which help Christians remember and grieve the violent death of St. John the Baptist. ... Read More

It happens all the time. “Father, I saw there was church last night. What holiday was it?” Sometimes there was no holiday at all, but there were services in the Cathedral. I understand this can be confusing, so this week, I will answer the question, “Why does the Church have so many services?”   Ever since God commanded Moses to build the Temple, the House of God has been at the center of life for the People of God. The priests of the Temple, following God&rsqu... Read More

“Your body is a temple.” I’m sure most of you have heard this saying before, but have you thought about how important it truly is?  When we hear this saying, most times we think of our physical health.  Someone is always telling you not to smoke, or not to eat that chocolate cake because your body is a temple and you should take care of it.  Don’t fill your body with poisons because the damage done to your body is many times irreversible.  It is tru... Read More

In every Feast of the Theotokos, we hear the same Gospel lesson. We hear the story of Martha and Mary, two sisters who hosted Jesus Christ in their home for dinner. When Jesus arrived, Mary ran to meet him while her sister Martha remained working in the kitchen. While Mary sat at the feet of Christ listening to His every word, Martha grew more frustrated that she had been left to work alone in the kitchen.   She complained, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to se... Read More

As our children get older, it becomes harder and harder for them to find a balance in their lives between what is the cool thing to do and what is the right thing to do.  Even as adults, we face the same problem in our daily lives trying to balance what we should be doing with what brings us more success or fame.  While we were at the Diakonia Center summer camp last week, many of the campers had this question: “How can we be cool and look cool but at the same time be humble a... Read More

It seems like every time we hear about Jesus healing someone in the Holy Scriptures there are two types of people watching the miracle. There are those who love God and see the miracle as a gift of His grace, and those who for some reason refuse to accept what their eyes see. In each of these stories, we are invited by the Church to make a choice. Will we open our eyes to see God’s love, or will we remain blind to His grace. In today’s Gospel, as Jesus was walking, two blind men ... Read More

One day our Lord was traveling to His own city and a paralytic was brought to Him. Instead of healing the man from his illness, Christ dared to say, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9.2) In return for this great gift the crowd accused Christ of blasphemy. Can you imagine a group of people worrying more about physical health than the forgiveness of sin? Fortunately for the crowd, Christ loved them enough to provide what they needed to believe in Him. &ldquo... Read More

“You are the light of the world” In this past week, on July 12th, we celebrated the feast day of Saint Paisios the Athonite of Mount Athos (1924-1994).  He is the newest saint of our Church, canonized on January 13, 2015 by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.  Elder Paisios was a humble monastic who lived most of his life in Mount Athos helping others.  Throughout his life, tens of thousands of people visited him asking for healing and guidance in their ... Read More

Keep The Light On Today’s gospel shows us how to keep the light of Christ in our lives.  We have all heard the saying: “Our eyes are the windows to our soul.”  Today, Jesus explains the importance of our inner light and how we can achieve and maintain it.  How many times have you seen someone, and just by the look in their eyes, you knew something was wrong?  Or the opposite: you saw someone glowing with joy for no specific reason.  It is this inner... Read More

Jesus saw Peter and Andrew fishing and said, “Follow Me.”  They immediately left their lives and followed Him.  He then saw James and John and also called out to them.  They too went with Him without hesitation.  These four men, the first disciples of Jesus, were called by the Lord to serve the Him, spread the word of God, and to help His people.  When the Lord calls upon you, will you be willing to answer His call? Jesus does not discriminate when He cal... Read More

Today is the Feast of All Saints, the day on which the Orthodox Church celebrates all those who dedicated their lives to Christ, whether we know their name or not. Today we honor those holy men and women, no matter their social status, no matter their wealth, no matter their rank, no matter their race. Today we are called to something beyond the worldly categories. Today we are called to be saints, and live our lives as those who are honored today. It is too easy to dismiss sainthood with, &... Read More