20131123 Vocations are for everyone!

What is God calling you to do?  This show opens with a talk on vocations geared for everyone – vocations are not just for men in black!  I follow this with a short story by Rdr. Nicholas Perkins, and finish by asnwering some mail on paleo, fasting, and the Bread of Life.  Enjoy the show! […]

Day One: Get your beard on (or off)!

Beards are all the rage.  Here in New England, the Red Sox just won the World Series by getting their beards on; the male cast of Duck Dynasty has also done their part to bring respect to the beard.  In my profession, beards are often seen as part of the game.  When I was catechized, […]

Some thoughts on the priestly vocation (impediments and advice)

The following represents my own personal reflections and are not necessarily representative of anyone else’s opinions.  I focus on the UOC-USA because it is the Church I serve and the example I know best.  With some minor modifications, these probably work for other Churches and dioceses, as well.  I look forward to your comments. Requirements […]

20110128 The Sacramental Ontology of Beauty

CLICK HERE FOR THE MP3Opening Lesson:“Beauty will save the world.”  Prince Myshkin (recounted by Hippolyte) in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot.One of the things that leads truly rational and open-minded people to reject pure materialism and atheism is their superficial and patently absurd explanation of the many blessings that flow into creation from her uncreated Creator. […]

20110105 Christian Orienteering, News, and an Interview with a New Priest

Shownotes for 20100105 Show (click here to download) Homily on the Reading of the Names and the Birth of Christ (St. Matthew 1) Three points: what we are to do with all these names; the standard of evaluation; and the place of Christ in all this. 1.  Ancestors – the reading of the names.  Why […]

Theophany and an Interview on Raising Saints

OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 17 January 2010 Note: be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Christ is baptized! In the Jordan! Congratulations to all those who were brought into the Orthodox Church this week. Our obligation – as parishioners and priests – is to make everything good and proper seem natural. Christ is quite clear: it would […]

Nativity, News, and Death

OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 03 January 2010 Note: be sure to subscribe to the podcast. The Nativity Epistle of the Permanent Conference of Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops beyond the Borders of Ukraine News: NYTimes reports on the recession’s silver lining: “In Recession, Americans doing more, buying less”. I like to think this is true – our addiction to […]

Saint Petro Mohyla – a defense of his confession

St. Petro Mohila gets attacked by folks who think he used too many Roman Catholic ideas. Some defend him against this because his blend of theology is uniquely Ukrainian. I defend him because he is an icon of general Christian evangelism. =========== Few people outside of Ukraine know much about St. Petro Mohyla. Most who […]

The Holodomor – not just bureaucratic excess

A letter to the editor entitled “Stalin didn’t purposely starve Ukrainians” recently appeared in the local paper. The author attempts to dispel the “myth”, “tall tale”, and “legend” of the Ukrainian Holodomor in 1932-33. Sifting through his hyperbole, his argument relies on the following “facts”; I will briefly address each in turn: The Holodomor serves […]

The Orthodox Witness of Peace and the Repose of +Ihumen Gregory

It is with a “profound depth of sadness and prayer” that I share the news that the servant of God, Ihumen (abbot) Gregory fell asleep in the Lord this past Thursday evening. You will remember that I have asked all of you to pray for him: please continue to do so. Those of us with […]