Listen to stories about Mat and Hector enduring the cold Toronto winter, by Fr. Nicolaie.

Listen to two stories from Fr. Nicolaie about people who spend time at St. John the Compassionate Mission.

Listen to stories written by Brother Luke at St. John the Compassionate Mission.

"The love he experienced, and still does, is deeper in his heart than the harm brought about by drugs."

Listen to reflections from Fr. Nicolaie at St. John the Compassionate Mission.

Fr. Nicolaie writes about language and communication--reflections on the Friday before Pentecost at St. John the Compassionate Mission.

Another story written by Brother Luke of St. John the Compassionate Mission in Toronto.

Reflections written by Brother Luke.

Listen to Fr. Nicolaie's reflections on Ezra that he shared at the recent Volunteers Appreciation Night Celebration at the Mission.

The Mission will receive a relic of its patron, St. John the Merciful (Compassionate), and Fr. Nicolaie invites us to discover who we are by asking the least of these who we are.

Reflections written by Fr. Nicolaie for the Sixth Sunday of Luke: the story of the farmer who wanted to build more barns.

Reflections about hospitality, written by Fr. Nicolaie.

A Prayer of Welcome on the Occassion of Someone New Coming to Live with Us, written by Brother Luke.

Stories from St. John the Compassionate Mission written by Brother Luke.

Stories written by Brother Luke during Holy Week.

More stories, written by Brother Luke, from St. John the Compassionate Mission.

Reflections written by Fr. Nicolaie.

A story written by Fr. Nicolaie.

Reflections written by Fr. Nicolaie about the gospel story of the father of the demon-possessed boy.

Glimpsing the hope of the resurrection, modeled by the insights of one displaced by war.

Both Hector and Mohamed share their wisdom, encouraging each person to use their God-given creativity and humbly open their hearts, in order to build community and open the door to holiness.

A community member and Father Nicolaie each reflect on their experience with an aspect of the Gospel story of the young man who was possessed.

Father Nicolae writes about how both the blind man in the Gospel reading, and Angela (a member of the community) have been changed by Christ to such an extent that they are nearly unrecognizable. This gives all of us hope of restoration through Christ.

Brother Luke shares some new stories from the mission.

Brother Luke shares three stories from community life.

Today's episode addresses spiritual warfare, demon dishwashers, Palm Sunday as a fish, wine and oil day and the wisdom of Fr. Alexander Schmemann.

Join Martha this week for some practical tips to help with your Lenten meals.

Join Martha for a couple of anecdotes, more tips to simplify your Lenten meals and words from the Lenten Triodion. (15:40)

the course of medication that cures Hepatitis C costs $84,000 at $1,000/pill, but can be produced for only $700 or $0.83/pill #

very sad to hear this but I'm grateful for their effort, and loved having them at XOXO to talk about their weird and special community #

you'll just have to trust me on this one; recommended for desktop browsers #

a technically-playable (but just barely) hack using iOS Shortcuts to download remote screenshots compiled into videos #

the creator of A Short Hike relaunched his charming interactive ghost town where players design and share jack-o-lanterns #

Liverpool tattoo artist Rachel Baldwin made charming tattoos for each line of the Talking Heads classic and made it into a music video #

in some cases, Meta is automatically creating the pages #

getting it to run DOOM is only a matter of time #

the incredible web-based Mac/NeXT system emulator somehow keeps getting better #

I didn't even realize iOS automations could do this #

How important is it for the people to be there when the Divine Liturgy starts?

Fr. Lawrence Farley speaks at Daniel Chapel at Furman University on February 6, 2018. Fr. Farley explores the nature and end of humankind from an Eastern Orthodox Christian perspective.

In the baptismal prayer in which the priest blesses the baptismal water, there is a line that baptism will bestow upon the candidate the loosing of bonds, the remission of sins, the illumination of the soul and “the gift of adoption to sonship”. The phrase “adoption of sonship” is a reference to the words of St. Paul, who used the word to describe our salvation in Christ in Ephesians 1:5. There he sums up our salvation by saying that God “predestined us to adoption to sonship [Greek υίοθεσία/ uiothesia] through Jesus Christ to Himself”. Given that this adoption to sonship serves to encapsulate and summarize our entire salvation, we must pay it closer attention and to what it all means.

Everyone presumably acknowledges that there is nothing wrong with children dressing up as fairies, Disney characters, Marvel superheroes, and (my own favourite when I was a child) black cats in order to go door to door with their friends after dark to collect candy. The argument against Halloween is that it also glorifies violence, gore, and death, so that it is unsuitable for Christians to participate in Halloween. Collecting candy is fine; it is the frightening stuff that comes afterward that is the problem. Halloween trades in things like graveyards and corpses and ugly witches on broomsticks and bats and cobwebs and Frankenstein monsters. So, the question arises: why do people delight in such scary stuff?

G. K. Chesterton wrote that he once left fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery and hadn’t found any books so sensible since (from his Orthodoxy, “The Ethics of Elfland”). I suggest that Christianity is one such fairy tale, and also that it is a myth. But it is a fairy tale come true, and a myth that became a fact.