The Roman Centurion, a Gentile, shows more faith than all of Israel, according to the Lord's observation. How is it an "outsider" without all the benefits of centuries of religious education can see more clearly than the whole of israel shaped by centuries of examples and theology? Turns out being an insider is no guarantee that you won't end up outside!

We have all heard the Golden Rule, but there is so much more to this passage and it has everything to do with a very serious challenge to the status quo of our lives. After all, even sinners love those who love them!

The Gadarene Demoniac was possessed by a "Legion" of demons. His spirit was so fractured and divided that he was not only his own worst enemy, but he was a threat to all around him.

When Jesus heals 10 lepers, He opens the door for us to learn a valuable insight into a consistent life in Christ. The two lessons learned from a grateful leper who was also a foreigner is meant for us all.

Jesus refuses to allow the lack of faith of His disciples to send the crowd away. He tells them, commands them "You feed them!"

Both sickness and even death is made well by faith. But this message isn't about any physical sickness or even physical death but the spiritual sickness and death that grips us and enslaves us to a life of self-centered choices. Being free from that sickness and death is the only path that leads to authentic human life! It's the only path to a renewed mind!

On this Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, we are confronted by the Scriptures with the dangers of distraction. By avoiding being distracted by life and focus on our Christian living we will avoid the pitfalls of distraction.

On Orthodox Palm Sunday, we live in a modern society that offers us the stark contrast between a pure materialism leading to the emptiness of hopelessness or the timeless wisdom of a hope in Christ that leads us to His light!

On the 15th of January 2008 the domain name Groupon.com went live for the first time. 2008 was also the year that IndieGogo became one of the first ‘crowdfunding’ websites. A year later, the biggest rivals of each would launch in the form of Living Social and Kickstarter. At the start of 2012 Uber – […]

The post How to Steal the Next Billion Dollar Website Idea: A Case Study appeared first on ViperChill.

As this site slowly crumbles and falls apart, it’s about time I made a small announcement as to where you can find me. 99% of my audience should know I’ve already moved to Detailed.com and Gaps.com, but if you didn’t, then here we are. I’m secretly hoping this might go out to some RSS feeds […]

The post I No Longer Blog Here: Please Join Me on Detailed.com and Gaps.com appeared first on ViperChill.

Michael challenges us to avoid the extremes as we attempt to live in an increasingly dark culture as Orthodox Christians. Christ has given us the example.

Michael offers in-depth thoughts on death from an Orthodox perspective.

Racism is a serious wrong that no one should argue. However, from an Orthodox Christian point of view, it is a far deeper wrong than is ever portrayed in the public debate. Join Michael as he explains why racism goes against the core of Christianity, and through story and anecdote describes why it seems is so hard for us to celebrate and embrace differences.

Comfort, and feeling comfortable, is a desire all of us have and we strive to fulfill this desire. But it can come at a cost because the root of our desire and the means by which we achieve it are not always in our best interests. Join Michael as he explains why comfort can lead to spiritually harmful complacency and blind us to the real purpose of our faith.

Financial pressures in our Orthodox Churches are very real and often cause great worry and anxiety. As a result, we, both clergy and laity, can lose our focus and get our priorities out of order. Using the terms “Prophet” and “Profit” to symbolize two different mentalities (not suggesting Churches are trying to make a profit in the conventional sense) join Michael as he discusses what our priorities should be and what results proper focus on them would yield.

In Orthodoxy we often hear and read about the Uncreated Light of God. What is this Uncreated Light? Can we experience this Divine Light or is it something only Saints can experience? Join Michael as he explains certain Scriptures that illuminate our understanding of God’s Uncreated Light, and shares thoughts and experiences that demonstrate how all of us can partake of the Divine Light and experience the Transcendent in our ordinary daily lives.

Are we living now in the Divided States of America as opposed to the United States of America? Does the political divide we see and hear about it each day in the news speak to who we are now as persons and a society? What can it teach us about ourselves and our own hearts? Join Michael as he discusses wholeness and division from a spiritual point of view, and what we need to do to be Christ-like in today’s current climate.

How do we understand God’s grace and providence in the direction of our lives? Is there such a thing as chance and coincidence, or is it simply our lack of spiritual perception that makes it seem so? Join Michael as he thoroughly explores this topic and shares personal examples, thoughts and the insights that apply to all of us.

Join Michael as he uses science and examples in everyday life to discuss order and disorder, why it is important to understand what they mean spiritually, and how we must be deliberate and committed in our choices to be holy and grow in Christ.

How do we know if we are having a mystical experience versus just an experience of awe and wonder. Does it even matter if it is one or the other? How can we trust our experiences and what are their value? Recounting his own special experience at St. Paul’s church in Rome, join Michael as he tells his story and addresses these important questions. This episode also features Metropolitan Kallistos Ware sharing his earliest recollection of his own religious experience.

CDC reports that suicides have increased 25% since 1999 in nearly every state and recent celebrity suicides have cause a renewed focus on this issue. The CDC report further lists reasons, warning signs, and who this is affecting most. What can everyday ordinary Orthodox Christians do, who are not clergy or mental health professionals, to help combat this tragedy. Join Michael Haldas as he shares his personal experience and offers some thoughts on this topic.

We have all heard the phrase “culture of death.” Many use it to describe the culture we live in, especially when it comes to current social issues. Join Michael as he talks about life and death, what we as Orthodox Christians need to do to continually bring life to a world riddled with death, and why our understanding of life and death needs to be understood in a much broader and deeper sense.

Join Michael as he discusses the danger of giving into the wrong desires, some of which seem benign but aren’t; the struggles we encounter on the journey from self-desire to self-denial; what authors such as Lewis, Tolkien, and others can teach us; and ways we can frame our thought to help us with this important struggle.

Many of us have read the book Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives by Elder Thaddeus which is packed with holy wisdom. However, our thoughts gives rise to our actions, and our actions in turn reflect our thoughts. We are held to account by God for both what we think and what we do. Join Michael as he discusses the relationship to thoughts and actions, how we often entertain and get seduced by the wrong thoughts, and can make philosophy, psychology, and even theology and excuse to not have the right thoughts or take the right actions.

Christ says “your faith has made you well” specific to three healings in the Gospel accounts. This phrase means much more than we think it does and understanding it in full opens our eyes to how we should be living our faith and why many of us are not. Join Michael as breaks this simple phrase down with all of its layers of meaning and what we should be doing daily to be made well.

Join Michael as he expounds upon these words we sing and chant between Pascha and Ascension Thursday and what they should mean to us even as we continue to face the reality of death.

Join Michael as he discusses what a darnel is and what it means to us, how easy it is to be deceived by the spirit of the age, and what we need to do to ensure we gain and apply Christ-like discernment in all matters.

Join Michael as he discusses what eros and agape really mean and why they cannot be separated, how growth in love is deeply linked to suffering, how disordered desire can grip us, how we never truly sin alone, and how it always affects both us and others when we act on our disordered desires.

Inner darkness. We all have it whether we admit or not. How do overcome it? How do we find our way to Christ the Light and master our inner darkness? Join Michael as he addresses these questions in-depth and shows we can find our way to the Light no matter what darkness we are in.

What do we deserve in life? Anything? Everything? Join Michael as he addresses the various ways we can focus on what we deserve and how most of them lead us in the wrong spiritual direction.

Join Michael as he addresses our choices and what we consent to that results in us either growing in holiness and union with Christ, or an unholy union with the devil that leads to our gradual and eventual complete destruction.

Join Michael in a discussion about prayerful and practical ways to frame our understanding in regard to our difficulties and setbacks, and deal with them in a spiritually healthy way.

Join Michael for a discussion about the meaning of hypocrisy and what Christ said about it in the Gospel, and how to understand and protect ourselves from this deadly sin that causes us to wear “masks” and fall into self-deception, deception of others, and spiritual death.

Join Michael in a discussion of how to guard our hearts and minds against the ancient sins of infidelity and individualism that are both subtle and celebrated in today’s culture.

Join Michael in a discussion of our desires, how they get in the away of the elusive peace we seek, and what we need to do to find true contentment.

Father Seraphim reflects on why he refrains from going into detail about Celtic saints during the podcast. He also begins to share about the life of Saint Oran.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea concludes his series on fasting.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea continues his series on fasting.

From the States, Fr. Seraphim discusses the Orthodox perspective on the value of death.

This is the prayer of one who is still in the world, but no longer of the world. When despair and anxiety bite they feel like a little death. When your tiredness, your sin or your despondency collapse over you, you need to pray with the prayer of the dead, the prayer of our nothingness silently hoping against hope, silently crying out for Christ, silently waiting for the Resurrected One to be risen from our own tomb: our body and our soul. This is not abandonment, but the exact opposite: this is the prayer which is proper to our fallen nature, the desperate cry for Life of one who is made of nothing, but does not belong to nothing. This is the prayer of one who is still in the world, but no longer of the world - instead, they now belong to Christ

'It was through whispering that the serpent drove Adam and Eve out of Paradise, so he who speaks against his neighbor will be like the serpent, for he corrupts the soul of him who listens to him and he does not save his own soul' - Abba Hyperechius of the Desert Fathers. Slander and gossip are the fruits of evil and hatred, and their own fruits are division, brokenness and pain. He who slanders goes against Him Who asked us to be One. He who listens to the one who slanders opens himself to the other one's poison, and both of them are condemned as the spiritual murderers of the neighbor whom they slander.

At times, we are reduced to the empty shell of our being. How do we survive when there is no life in us? Working under obedience can carry us through this desert; it can empty the mind, so that the mind can be filled once again with Life by the Giver of Life.

To die to the world has nothing to do with self-destruction or the destruction of the world. Quite the opposite, when we die to the world, we begin the process of being born in Christ, which is then reflected back unto the world as a new blessing, a new input of grace, a new change for salvation. To be dead to the world means not to engage with the world in its fallen state, but to engage with its full spiritual potential, with the hidden image of God imprinted on everyone.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea helps answer the question "Will we ever reach the holiness of the Saints?".

Fr. Seraphim Aldea reminds us that who we are in Christ is the best version of ourselves.

Every Lent is an opportunity to START ANEW, to shine in Christ, to do the things we only think about doing the rest of the year. We can go deeper in our faith, we can create secret 'signs of love and faith' with Christ, we can re-shape the courses of our thoughts and emotions so they once again flow in the direction God intended them to flow when He created us.

Don't look for the easy way out of pain. Do not deny the reality of your doubts, your struggles and your sins. Be who-you-are before Christ, so that He may save the truth of who-you-are.