Retreat - Helping Creation Sing: Living the Faith Here and Now

Created in the image of God and called to grow into His likeness, we have been given the vocation of transforming creation from the good to the better, but the Fall and the particular temptations of modern life distort our desires, scatter our attention, and undermine our relationships with God, neighbor, and creation. Orthodox Christianity offers a comprehensive way of healing these distortions through asceticism, community, repentance, and sacramental life, bringing the whole person into harmony with Christ and culminating in the Divine Liturgy, where love of God and love of neighbor become one act of worship. Sent back into the world as God's royal priesthood, we carry that liturgical pattern into everything we do, receiving creation with thanksgiving, cultivating it with wisdom, and sharing it in love so that, by God's grace, we may help creation sing. This is a recording of the talk I gave at the retreat, "Ancient Christianity in the Modern World" on 24 October 2026. The keynote speaker was Fr. Stephen Freeman, and the second speaker was Fr. Gregory Rogers.