Christ came to restore sight to the blind beggars of the world. Let us embrace the disciplines and spirit of the Nativity Fast in ways that will help us see that that is precisely who we are. Let us acquire the humility necessary to receive and share the peace that He was born to bring to the world. That is how we must all prepare to welcome Him into our hearts and lives at Christmas.

At Theophany, we celebrate that no dimension of our life or world is intrinsically profane or cut off from sharing in the holiness of God. All things, physical and spiritual, visible and invisible, are called to participate in the divine glory that our Lord has brought to the world, to become even now signs of the coming fullness of God’s Kingdom.

In preparing for Great Lent this year, we must remain on guard against the temptation of self-exaltation in any form.

Our calling this week is to enter into the profound contrast between the ways of the world as we know them and the life of our crucified and risen Lord. Especially today, it is easy to focus on what is going wrong, on what we have lost already or may lose in the future.

As we celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross, let us examine ourselves to see if our lives appear foolish and scandalous by the standards of the world because of our faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

As we prepare to receive the Lord in faith at Christmas, we must use our freedom to follow St. Paul’s instruction in today’s epistle reading: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

Through the Lord’s great Self-Offering, even the most wretched person may enter into the blessedness of the Kingdom through humble faith and repentance. Even the most notorious sinner may become a glorious saint and shine brightly with eternal glory.

The season of Pascha has only just begun. Because of His bodily resurrection, we must become holy in our bodies and treat our suffering neighbors accordingly. Let us continue to celebrate by participating as fully as possible in the joy of the empty tomb. Now nothing other than our own refusal can hold us back from becoming truly human, for “Christ is Risen!”

If we have received the Lord’s mercy, we must extend that mercy to our neighbors, especially those we are inclined to hate, condemn, or otherwise disregard.

There is simply no way around the truth that how we relate to other people reveals whether we participate in the life our Lord. What we do and refuse to do for neighbors who need our time, attention, and generosity in any form, we do or refuse to do for Him.

Those who have put on Christ in baptism and who receive the Communion of His Body and Blood must become epiphanies of His fulfillment of the human person in God’s image and likeness. As we prepare to celebrate Theophany, let us gain the spiritual clarity to behold the glory of Christ’s baptism by straightening the crooked areas of our lives.

We have everything that we need to follow in the path of the apostles and saints in humbly obeying our Lord. That is how we can become radiant with the divine glory and obey the Savior’s calling: “Follow Me.”

It is terribly tragic when people fall into the delusion of thinking that they love God and neighbor, when in reality they are using religion to serve only themselves and the false gods of this world. One symptom of doing so is to narrow down the list of people who count as our neighbors to the point that we excuse ourselves from serving Christ in all who bear His image and likeness. When we do so, we disregard not only them, but our Lord Himself, the God-Man born for the salvation of all. Our actions then reveal that we are not truly united with Him because we seek to justify ourselves by serving nothing but our own vain imaginations.

Fr. John discusses cosmology, a concept that was very important to the early Church.

Fr. John looks at some of the actual texts of early Christian hymns and the way in which they gave expression to the vision of early Christendom.

Returning after a long absence from the podcast, Fr. John in this episode introduces a new reflection on the crisis of western Christendom prior to the Reformation by discussing the penitential context of Martin Luther's famous Ninety-Five Theses.

Father John welcomes listeners back to the podcast with the opening to its third part, the age of utopia. He also summarizes some of the main points of his recently released book The Age of Division, which tells the history of Christendom covered in the second part of the podcast.

In this episode the "father of humanism," Francesco Petrarch, broods over his sense of guilt and despair, seeking a new path for Western Christendom known as the saeculum, or "secular."

In this long-delayed episode (due to work on The Age of Nihilism, available at store.ancientfaith.com/the-age-of-nihilism-christendom-from-the-great-war-to-the-culture-wars), Father John presents the historical origins of liberalism as a modern secular ideology. Atheistic philosophers like Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill provided the philosophical basis for hope in a secular "kingdom of posterity."

Fr. John Strickland continues his account of the rise of secular ideology with a presentation on the Russian intelligentsia and the case of Karl Marx.

Fr. John Strickland concludes his account of the origins of modern political ideology with the rise of nationalism, a force that not only proved to be a counterfeit to traditional Christianity, but the cause of one of utopian Christendom's greatest tragedies.

Fr John explains why “Lord, send me!” has its name, and challenges us with Isaiah 6.

Fr John reflects on Dr. Peter Bouteneff’s podcast concerning “Post-Episcopalian Stress Disorder,” and suggests a course-correction.

Fr. Chad Hatfield, Dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary, gave a Lenten retreat at Fr. John Parker's Holy Ascension Orthodox Church. He spoke on Basic Christian Discipleship - Three Proven Methods for Holy Living. This is part 3.

Fr. John interviews Fr. John Dunlop, Dean of St. Herman’s Seminary, Kodiak, Alaska, about the seminary, the incredible Archives (which include the handwritten documents of St. Innocent as well as the journals of St. Iakov Netsvyetov), and his own missionary work in the villages.

In this brief episode, Fr. John is reporting from inside the Hagia Sophia, remembering the visit from the Russian emissaries who "knew not if we were in heaven or on earth."

Fr. John recently spoke at St. Basil's Mission in Wilmington, NC, on their parish feast and on the occasion of the blessing of land for the construction of a church. He discusses the definition of "success" for a mission and parish.

Fr. John talks about the history of the church in Jerusalem, and the holiness of the tomb of Christ.

Fr. John Parker shares reflections from Crete at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care. He tells about Olga, a woman he met at the conference who is editor of the Russian magazine, Foma. Learn more about Foma. Learn more about the conference.

Fr. John Parker speaks to the graduating class of St. Katherine's University about the importance of living the truth of the Resurrection.

2 Peter 2:9-22; Mark 13:14-23.

2 Peter 3:1-18; Mark 13:24-31.

Jude 1:1-10; Luke 22:39-42, 45-23:1.

Genesis 2:20-3:20; Proverbs 3:19-34.

Genesis 9:8-17; Proverbs 12:8-22.

Genesis 22:1-18; Proverbs 17:17-18:5.

Exodus 2:5-10; Job 1:13-22.

Acts 3:1-8; John 2:12-22.

Acts 6:8-7:5, 47-60; John 4:46-54.

Acts 10:1-16; John 6:56-69.

Acts 10:34-43; John 8:12-20.

Acts 23:1-11; John 16:15-23.

Romans 1:18-27; Matthew 5:20-26.

Romans 1:28-2:9; Matthew 5:27-32.

Romans 8:2-13; Matthew 10:16-22.

1 Corinthians 1:1-9; Matthew 13:24-30.

1 Corinthians 7:35-8:7; Matthew 15:29-31.

1 Corinthians 11:31-12:6; Matthew 18:1-11.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19; Matthew 21:18-22.

1 Corinthians 15:29-38; Matthew 21:23-27.