We are undoubtedly familiar with the parable associated with this Sunday of preparation for Great Lent, the Prodigal Son. The prodigal son - the younger son - falls prey to the Great Lie, the oldest lie ever told to man: that real life, true riches, and freedom are to be found away from God, outside of the Father’s house. This is the same lie that the serpent told Adam and Eve in the beginning of the human story: “you will be as gods” apart from God. The insinuation is that G

Confession is painful. There is no way around it. People often tell me, as they come to confession, how hard it is for them. And even if they don’t say it is nevertheless apparent on their face, in their bearing, in their downturned eyes. We come to confession bearing the load of our sins like a weight strapped to our back. I have often given instructions to children who are preparing for their first confession. When I do this I invariably tell them that we each have an invis

As we approach the season of Great Lent we begin to think about the importance of repentance and confession. One of the perennial questions asked about confession is, “Why do I have to confess to a priest?" Of course, the first answer to this question is that we are not confessing to the priest but to God. But everybody knows that, I presume, and it doesn't change the fact that people still wonder why this confession to God has to take place in the presence of a priest. A sec

In keeping the feast of the Meeting of the Lord this past week we were, once again, treated to the beautiful and spiritual riches of the Church’s hymnography. More than simply thoughtful reflections on the feast, the hymns of the Menaion prove, again and again, to be profound spiritual interpretations of Scripture, dogma, and the experience of the saints in encountering Christ, the Lord of Glory. Here are two examples from the feast of the Meeting of the Lord: One of the thin

One of the most common biblical descriptions for the commandments of God is the image of the path or the road. To “walk in the commandments” is to be on the path to the Kingdom of God, the right way. Of course, the idea of being on a path implies one way and not another. It means to be going this way on this path or road, not going just anywhere by any old way. Our Lord highlights this sense of there being only one way when he describes the path of his Commandments as a narr