Having begun the Nativity Fast, I would like to ask you to consider this season, for a moment, in the light of the icon of the Nativity. It is a very “busy” icon, meaning that there is a lot going on in it: angels proclaiming, shepherds searching, magi traveling, midwives washing, Joseph and the devil debating. It is bustling with activity. But in the midst of all of that activity, at the center of the icon, lies the infant Christ with his Most-Holy Mother. It is an image of

This week we will observe Thanksgiving. As I am sure you know, Thanksgiving is not a feast of the Church but, rather, a national or civil holiday. This, however, should not prevent us from keeping this feast, particularly as, in our culture, it provides for most of us time away from work to gather with family and friends, and to pause from the busy pace of life for at least a few hours and enjoy the company of those with whom God has joined us together. In the anaphora prayer

Imagine something with me for a moment. Let’s pretend that you are sitting on the couch or in your favorite chair, cup of coffee at your side, reading the morning paper (I know, no one reads the paper anymore, indulge me). You’re on page four, reading a story about a house fire in a nearby community where a family barely made it out alive when, suddenly, as your eyes go to the next sentence, the typical third-person, objective journalistic prose gives way to second-person, di

"I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8) The apostle who writes this had worldly knowledge; he had wealth and friends, he had youth and health. He had all the requisites of worldly success among his people. Paul says, "I left all." For the sake of Christ Jesus my Lord, I left all. Before the sages of this world he became a fool; before the rich he became as a beggar; before his friends, he becomes an enemy. He exhausted his youth and health