Wheat Field

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What You Owe Your Neighbor

What You Owe Your Neighbor

“We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbor” (G. K. Chesterton). God does not ask us to love humanity. God asks us to love our neighbors. Indeed, dig and search through all the scriptures and you find no mention of love in the abstract. Our vocation to love is always personal. The kind of love God wants in us is love for the person directly in front of your nose. There was once a physician who loved humanity. He had dreams of giving it all

Heart Overflowing With Praise

Heart Overflowing With Praise

He touched the man’s ears and tongue, saying, “Ephaphtha,” “Be opened.” God’s ministry is summed up in this one word. The purpose of every life, of every day, and every minute, is summed up in the word: “Ephaphtha,” “Be opened”. It is the height of existence to have ears opened to hearing God’s voice and a mouth opened to praising Him. Christ was travelling through the coasts of Decapolis. A crowd pressed close to him, and they brought him a man both deaf and with a speech im

Receiving Spiritual Food

Receiving Spiritual Food

“Attend to thyself, and keep thy heart diligently.” ~ Deuteronomy 4:9 “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” ~ Luke 9:23 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he i

God's Love for Humanity

God's Love for Humanity

St. Joachim scales the mountain, sullen and rejected. It is a dismal place. Desert winds, scorching heat, and the baying of his herd are his only company. He has determined not to return home. Shame prevents him. He waits to hear from God. It all happened some weeks back. He and his wife Anna traveled to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. The High Priest, Issachar, admonished him, "You are unworthy to offer sacrifice with those childless hands.” The others ridiculed him and thrus

Self-Examination and Inner Watchfulness

Self-Examination and Inner Watchfulness

“Attend to thyself, and keep thy heart diligently” ~ Deuteronomy 4:9 Heschasm, Confession, and Stillness “Hesychasm and the mystery of confession can all be understood as intimate ways of personally experiencing the parable of the prodigal son” (Archimandrite Alexis 38). Confession is a “bath and a remedy…so wonderful that it transforms a sinner into a beautiful angel” (St. John Climacus). Not Detered by Shame “Though he be contrite, he does not let shame prevent him from app

A Vision in Darkness

A Vision in Darkness

Radiant light shown around Christ. His clothes became dazzling white. For one moment, the disciples gazed at Truth itself, bare and undisguised. Nothing else in the world was ever beautiful again. All music, all paintings, all pleasures were just a cheap imitation of this glimpse into paradise. Peter, James, and John were lead up Mount Tabor, where their eyes were opened to the beatific vision. In a time with so much unknowing, stress, and fear, we are reminded today to focus

The Joy of Tithing

The Joy of Tithing

“The Lord shall be my God. . . of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You” (Gen 28:21–22). Jacob discovered the joy of tithing. He was a shrewd and conniving fellow. He struggled for success even in his mother’s womb, grasping onto his twin brother’s leg. He finagled Esau’s birthrite with a bowl of soup and won Isaac’s blessing with goat skin. Yet, despite his deviousness, he earned God’s pleasure. After fleeing for his life, Jacob fell asleep and dreamt a visi