Christ is risen! "You just don't know what you're talking about!" He was pretty upset over what I had to tell him. But sometimes, for a person's own good, you have to say plain things plainly so that there will be no misunderstanding. And, in spite of my attempts to...
Christ is risen! The great American author Lewis B. Smedes once said "Seeing reality for what it is is what we call discernment. The work of discernment is very hard." And the Orthodox Fathers would agree. In fact, it is the gift of discernment that we are constantly called to...
Christ is Risen! This thought haunts me. All I've preached, all I've taught' all I've said, will one day be used as a comparison with the way I've lived, the choices I've made, and the priorities I've set. No wonder the Church teaches me to say over and over again...
Christ is risen! Alexander the Great is reported to have said "Nothing is impossible to him who will try." Yeah, try telling that to a group of people who refuse to try. I remember having a conversation with a man about building a new church building on our property and...
Christ is risen! Ok, I admit it. As a public speaker, I have often used the outlandish statement as a rhetorical device to get or keep an audience's attention. It reminds me of one dear person who looked at me once and said "Father, I can't tell if you're serious...
Christ is risen! Soren Kierkegaard, than mournful Danish theologian, once said "There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true." For me, I find the most difficult deceptions to fight are the ones I tell to...
Christ is risen! There is actually a mental health condition called thanatophobia - the fear of death. This phobia drives those who suffer from this malady to be afraid of doing anything. But, in reality, having anxiety about one's mortality is actually normal in we humans. Why do you think...
Christ is risen! It was a dramatic moment in the courtroom. I was a witness for the prosecution since I had been the arresting officer in the case. But I was only one witness and the defendant was insisting he wasn't the one who was driving the car when the...
Christ is risen! He was wondering why I was looking at him in such an intense way. He had just said something that I completely misunderstood, and, if he meant what I thought he meant, well, let's just say we may need to step outside! Once he realized I misunderstood him,...
Christ is risen! There is a huge difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them. I've heard this truth illustrated by talking about identical twins. We have two sets of twins in our parish; one set is easy to distinguish because one is a boy and the other is...
