In this episode of “Father, Speak a Word,” Fr. Gregory Jensen, PhD and Fr. Anthony talk about why we should celebrate our shortcomings (as we repent of our sin).  The conversation is based on Fr. Gregory’s substack article “It’s Complicated; Thoughts On Falling Short of the Glory of God.”   Check out this episode!

Bible Study – Job Class Four: Job 1:13 – 2:15 From the Orthodox Study Bible. Job Loses His Children and Property 13.  Now there was a day when Job’s sons and daughters were drinking wine in the house of their elder brother, 14.  and behold, a messenger came to Job and said, “The yokes of […]

Homily Notes on Zacchaeus Sunday: What makes a home? Walk in – can you tell (that a place is a home)? The feeling? ·       Feelings and intuition are unreliable; generally, they are the way the subconscious mind puts together other indicators ·       But to the sense our feelings are reliable, some places are haunted by […]

Bible Study – Job Class Two: Job 1: 6-12 From the Orthodox Study Bible. Satan is Permitted to Test Job 6.  Then as it so happened one day that behold, the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and the devil also came with them.  7. The Lord said to the devil, […]

Homily – Bringing Grace to a Messy WorldSt Luke 18:35-43.  The healing of the blind beggar. Three points: Jesus did not stay in one place. Jesus Christ is and was God.  It is fitting that He reside in the throne room of God, surrounded by the cherubim and seraphim, with His holiness reflecting off all […]

Bible Study – Job Class Two: Job 1: 1-5 From the Orthodox Study Bible. 1.  Faithful Job and His Children 1 There was a man in the land of Austis, whose name was Job.  That man was true, blameless, righteous, and God-fearing, and he abstained from every evil thing. 2 Now he had seven sons […]

Bible Study – Job Introduction   Job is the first book of the Wisdom genre in the Orthodox Bible.  The others are The Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom of Sirach. Date and Authorship: Unknown, but Job lived during the time of the Patriarchs (about 1600 BC). […]

On Gratitude (with thanks to St. Nicholai Velimirovich) Luke 17: 12-19 (The Ten Lepers, only one of whom returned) [Started with a meditation on the virtues of hard work and gratitude; hard work so that we can be proud of what we have done and foster an appreciation for the amount of effort that goes into […]

Ephesians 4:7-13.  In this homily (hostage situation?), Fr. Anthony talks about the temptations new technology brings for getting ecclesiology wrong.  Noting that bad ecclesiology is bad theology, he offers to help everyone find their calling and develop their gifts, but warns that we need be careful to take our time and not fall into (or […]

The Banquet St. Luke 14:16-24 ·      Greatest tragedies in history o   Separation from God o   Separation from one another ·      Two of the great epidemics of our time resulted from this o   Loneliness: we were made for community (yes, even introverts!) o   Meaning: §  We were made for a home, with a strong and enduring […]