Watching and supporting a loved one who is suffering often causes us to suffer just as much and even more. Join Michael as he uses scripture and real life experience to illustrate five things we need to do and remember to get through this type of suffering.

Join Michael has he discusses in-depth how J.R.R Tolkien and his work were formational in preparing him to accept the truth of sacramental reality as experienced and taught in Orthodox Christianity.

Join Michael as he explores the webs and patterns of our life, and uses poem, story, myth, metaphor, and examples from his own life to show how we can recognize God and continuity within our myriad choices, and know His peace.

It’s terrible feeling to lose hope and feel like our circumstances are hopeless. It’s not how we are meant to live, but we can lose sight of this because of what we are going through. Join Michael as he shares his thoughts and experiences on this very difficult topic and how we can maintain or recapture hope no matter what we are experiencing. Michael also shares some exciting developments occurring with Ancient Faith Ministries and the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, an author whose fiction deals a lot with hope amidst hopelessness.

Inspired by the conditions of the coronavirus, but not about the virus itself, Michael reflects on why either our transcendent or immanent mindset makes a huge difference on how we cope with such trying circumstances.

In celebration of Mother’s Day, join Michael as he explores the language of the Genesis creation stories and what they teach us about the value of women and the feminine and motherly nature of God. He then reflects on the Theotokos and how her life and Christ’s demonstrate the value of women established in Genesis, and how they restore women to the place God intended for them. This podcast is based on a Zoom class Michael gave to a Church community and also includes responses from the question and answer period of the class.

Join Michael in an in-depth discussion about the self-defeating voice in our head that makes us feel like imposters who we will be discovered a frauds, the internal and external influences that feed this negative self-talk, and how we can overcome it in Christ.

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.

Great Lent is a holy and sacred time of year yet we can turn it into a secular practice and experience if we are not careful. Join Michael as he discusses our understanding and participation in Lent, and how to avoid subtle ways that lead us to experience Lent less than how we should.

Join Michael as he discusses how we are either living in repentance or rebellion at any given time in our response to God grace, and how this determines the quality of our existence both now and in the life to come.

Join Michael as he explains why we need to become, and always stay, “enchanted” by God through sacramental understanding and participation, and how this is our witness and demonstration of the truth of the Gospel.

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 provides an in-depth discussion of the many spiritual aspects of patience that are critical to our salvation and the salvation of others, and how lacking this virtue is more spiritually harmful than we may realize.

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 for a discussion on why forgiving ourselves is often so hard and what we need to understand and do to open our hearts to self-forgiveness.

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 living intentionally to embed hopefulness in our body, mind and soul, and accept death with the hope of eternal life.

Join Michael as he uses the symbolism of the North Star to take a deep dive into the true nature of repentance and why we often misunderstand it to our detriment.

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 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 the life of Saint Columba, and talks about spiritual fathers.

Father Seraphim reflects on some of the content from his past podcasts, and asks for forgiveness because of the brief hiatus he took in posting new material.

Fr. Seraphim begins a discussion on fasting and the importance of discernment in the spiritual life.

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

Fr. Seraphim Aldea delivers a talk in Atlanta, Georgia, about the importance of humility in extending our view of the world.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea delivers a talk in Atlanta, GA, about the power of our demons in those we meet, including the unborn.

Marriage is a sacrament—as important, as able to save you, as monasticism.

Fr. Seraphim apologizes for his time away and gives an update on the monastery. He also talks about his struggles with faith and what we must remember in those hard times.

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

When your heart and your mind are suspended, when there is no life in you, how do you find your way back to Christ, back to Life? How do you pray when you feel dead inside?

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.

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

On Violence and Power.

What would happen if we were all martyred for the Truth of Christ?

After we sin, our hearts freeze. For a while, we stay away from God on purpose. We need time to heal, we need some sort of ritual of cleansing, some manner in which to make ourselves (in our own eyes) acceptable again to God. But the way back to prayer must begin as soon as possible, if possible even during the act of sin itself. The sooner we turn ourselves back to face Christ's Light, the sooner we shall drag ourselves out of the depth of our fall. Remind yourself of those who were waiting in the darkness of hell for Christ's Descent - ask for their desperate desire to be forgiven, pray for their unceasing hope that Light WILL one day find them and bring them back to Life out of the death of their hell. For those who put their trust in Christ, there is always Hope, there is always Love, there is always a way back to repentance and Life.

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

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.

As we begin our Lenten journey, Fr. Seraphim Aldea reminds us of the importance of repentance for our salvation.

What is the Orthodox practice of total fasting? How do you keep it and why would you? What are the spiritual benefits of fasting for a period from all food and water for the love of Christ?

We often gather our forces to fight our spiritual enemies at the wrong 'gate' of our being. Most frequently, evil enters our life through the gates of our mind and heart, not that of the body. We need to pay attention and learn the behaviour of the evil one, so we may guard well the fortress of our being. Once we learn to decode his behaviour, we can finally begin to plan a strategy to fight back.

There is no fall too deep for Christ's love for us. Never lose hope, my brothers and my sisters.

Why can't I stop sinning when I want to stop with all my being? Why is it that I cannot pray with the strength with which I want to pray? Why can't I be the person I want to be for the love of Christ? And is there a way to actually move forward from all this sin and to grow in our spiritual life?

The devil wants us to forget him. His ultimate success would be to make us believe that he is not even real, that he is just the product of our imagination. Once that happens, the flood-gates of sin are wide open in us and our salvation is in great danger.

This video is part of a Lenten Retreat at St Seraphim's Cathedral in Santa Rosa, California. As we prepare to enter Great Lent, we might ponder on the impossible height to which we are being called—to be perfect with the Father’s perfection—an impossibility that becomes possible in Christ, as we open up to His presence. This paradox and the tension it creates in us keep our spiritual life safe from being reduced to empty piety and religiosity.

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.