Join Michael in discussion of what it means in the Liturgy when the Priest prays “And let us ask for a Christian end to our life, peaceful, without shame and suffering, and for a good defense before the awesome judgment seat of Christ” and how that should drive our daily behavior.

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 in a discussion about the many different aspects of tears, why some tears are good, some are evil, what they indicate about our hearts, and why they are necessary for salvation.

Join Michael in a discussion about what it means to create “heat” without “light” and how ego driven self-motivation and self-focus is poisoning society, and what we should be mindful of not to be contributors to this.

Join Michael in a discussion about experiencing God’s healing and redemptive beauty and goodness even in the worst of life’s circumstances.

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 God’s essence and energies, other energies present in the world, and how we should really understand our motivations to ensure we participate in our actions with God’s grace and not with the enemy.

Join Michael in a discussion of some of the spiritual pitfalls we can fall into during Great Lent if we are not careful and attentive to its true purpose

Join Michael in a discussion of the difficulty of getting out of our own heads, the cultural and spiritual challenges that perpetuate this, and leaning to live our faith through our hearts and not just our minds.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea concludes his series on fasting.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea continues his series on fasting.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea shares reflections at the conclusion of his recent visit to Mt. Athos.

Fr. Seraphim shares about the life of St. Brendan.

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

Fr. Seraphim Aldea answers the question of whether or not couples should abstain from sexual relations after the years of procreation.

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

The Feast of Theophany, when God the Trinity reveals Himself to us.

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.

Not the virus, not the vaccines, not ecumenism, not any other enemy of choice: the greatest danger to our salvation and the trigger of the destruction of this world is our SIN We are the ones who can destroy ourselves and our world, but we are also the ones through whom the world can be saved. Christ has already opened that door for us. A world without love can have no future, but one drop of Love can redeem ALL.

No good can come from constantly re-assessing our decision to enter a marriage or monastic life. The time for assessing is before we enter the Sacrament; after that, we should allow Christ to freely use the 'tool' of the Sacrament to shape us into the Saints He created us to be.

Fr. Seraphim shares a message of forgiveness at Christmas.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea answers the question "If God is perfect, why did He create imperfection?", by reminding us of His love for His creation.

We are broken and our prayer reflects that brokenness. But we are called to be one, to be simple with God's simplicity. As our prayer grows, we grow as well. As we spiritually heal and let go of our complexities and divisivenesses (which are results of our fallen nature), our prayer slowly lets go of its brokenness and becomes what it is supposed to be: a prayer beyond words, a silent prayer that is an act of being.

The story of a miracle: how God healed me and then poured a mountain of grace over us was recorded by Fr Seraphim (Aldea) at Mull Monastery (The Orthodox Monastery of All Celtic Saints), on the Isle of Mull.

It is easy to ask for God's Word, but it is difficult to listen and accept His answer. That is because His answer reveals His Divine will and once we know that, we need to silence our own will and follow Him.

The sign of a true Christian

"Truly I say to you, I do not know you."

Fr. Seraphim gives an update on the monasteries.

Fr. Seraphim gives a short update.

Fr. Seraphim encourages us to avoid false faces and the havoc they wreak.

How to Fight Evil from our Hearts in a World of Lies and Confusion (w/ Fr. Seraphim Aldea)

Learning About Spirituality from the Celtic Saints (w/ Fr. Seraphim Aldea)

"Low" Periods Hide a Spiritual Treasure (w/ Fr. Seraphim Aldea)

Reading versus Lived Experience of Jesus Christ (w/ Fr. Seraphim Aldea)

Ars chats with director Juliette Eisner and original study participants in new documentary series.

These days, anyone can start a blog or create a simple website in a matter of hours. However, getting that website to work and look just the way you want it to takes a lot more time. Most people don’t realize that and end up giving up long before the work is done. If you don’t have […]

The post How to Create a Blog or a Freelance Writer’s Portfolio Using Propel Site appeared first on Leaving Work Behind.

It's summertime! Does God speak to us through the wind, waves, and sun? Fr. Steven thinks so, and talks about why all of life is sacred and that our witness weakens because we fail to live the Church outside the Church.

As we grieve the loss of 17 lives in the Florida school shooting, Fr. Steven Ritter addresses the timely topic of fear.

Are recent events troubling to you? There is something you can do, but maybe not what you expect.

How do we as Orthodox Christians respond to the current challenge upon us?

Much of what passes for Orthodox teaching by certain extremist internet personalities is destructive, dangerous, and not Orthodox.