Fr. Stephen De Young completes the discussion of Galatians, Chapter 2.

Fr. Stephen De Young reads and discusses verses 1-8 of Galatians, Chapter 3.

Fr. Stephen De Young continues the discussion of Galatians, Chapter 3.

Fr. Stephen De Young discusses verses 19 and 20 of Galatians, Chapter 3.

Fr. Stephen De Young concludes his discussion of Galatians, Chapter 3.

Fr. Stephen De Young begins the discussion on Galatians 4.

Fr. Stephen De Young concludes the discussion on Chapter 4, of Galatians.

Fr. Stephen De Young begins reading Galatians, Chapter 5.

Fr. Stephen De Young concludes St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, by discussing chapters 5 and 6.

The guys watched Pixar’s newest installment, Finding Dory, and they both loved it, but only one of them cried! Listen to discover which one cried, to hear discussions of how Pixar teaches us about personhood, and how the story of a fish is a story about God’s love bringing us home. They also discuss the Top 5 Sequels of all time. Spoiler Alert: Independence Day 2 was not one of them.

At the beginning of the new season, Steve and Emma stir things up with the first ever crossover episode of PCCH! They take a look at HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones. They address the controversy surrounding the show’s grittier content, the possibility of personal transformation, and the only true battle that matters: the battle between Life and Death. They close with their Top 5 Tragic Heroes.

The girls read Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, and even Christina loved it. They discuss how each of us is broken, how our response to that brokenness shapes us, and how each of us is called to become holy in a unique way. They close with the Top 5 Women With a Cause.

In the longest PCCH ever, the guys finally take on the entire Star Wars Saga! All of it. They pay special attention to the original trilogy while they explore the transcendence of the Force, the rage of the Dark Side, the passionlessness of the Light, and the need for love to balance them both. They close with their Top 5 Trilogies.

The girls discuss the recent and somewhat controversially themed Met Gala. They discuss what makes for good art-inspired art, the significance of imitating the saints, and the role of beauty in worship. They close with their Top 5 Met Gala Looks of 2018.

The girls take on not one, not two, but three dystopian stories! They take a look at Battle Royale, The Hunger Games, and Lord of the Flies, in order to discuss the question of whether human beings, at their core, are good. They also cover how fear drives people to commit heinous acts, how perfect love casts out fear, and how sacrifice is the ultimate expression of God’s love. They close with their Top 5 Dystopian Books.

The guys are pumped to talk about the final chapter of the first decade of the MCU, Avengers: Endgame! They discuss how grief and loss affect everyone differently, the sticky implications and universal appeal of time travel, and how sacrifice will always win the day. They close with their Top 5 Final Chapters.

This week the girls revisit the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. They discuss the need to be clear on our lives priorities, how where we are shapes who we become, and how each of us is called to follow Christ authentically. They close with their Top 5 Songs Released in 1960.

The girls take on the Netflix series, The Queen's Gambit. They discuss the needs to take responsibility for ourselves, how love is not the same as turning a blind eye, and the need for healthy emotional boundaries.

Our baptismal garment gives a profound responsibility throughout our lives to live in a way that shines with the divine glory—that radiates the light of Christ to a world so filled with darkness, death, and despair.

We must accept a kind of death in order to become our true selves—one that includes a rejection of legalism and self-justification.

Fr. Philip encourages us to find ourselves in the story of the Prodigal Son, and to come home to the Father who is ready to forgive.

Our favorite sins drive us into the isolation of the wilderness, away from the healing power of Jesus. Once healed, the best witness to the transforming power of Christ is the personal story of those set free.

Fr. Philip LeMasters invites us to embrace the courageous humility of the Prodigal Son as we prepare to enter Great Lent.

Fr. Philip LeMasters calls us to a life of humility, that goes beyond a prideful legalism, leading to the healing of our souls.

Fr. Philip LeMasters explains the parable of the Wedding Feast which shows us that Christ came to save the entire world through union with him.

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.

When we truly know that we are the chief of sinners and recognize that our very existence is dependent upon the mercy of the Lord, then we will no longer be driven to condemn anyone else.

The themes of exile and return are prominent throughout the entire narrative of the Bible. Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise. The Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt until Moses led them back to the Promised Land. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah went into exile in Assyria and Babylon, respectively, with only Judah returning home. The Jews endured a kind of exile when the Romans occupied their land and longed for restoration through a new King David. Our Lord provided the true restoration of a kingdom not of this world, leading all with faith in Him back to Paradise through His Cross and glorious resurrection. The canon of the New Testament concludes with the Revelation or Apocalypse, which portrays the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, the joyful fulfillment of all things in Him.

Fr. John explores what could be called the catacomb culture of the Church in relation to the Roman Empire.

In this anecdotal introduction to Reflection 21, Father John relates a remarkable but short-lived revolution in fourteenth-century Rome that served as a sign of what the age of utopia would bring. Listeners who enjoy the music of Richard Wagner will recognize the ill-fated revolutionary's name and understand why the turbulent nineteenth-century composer was attracted to him! And speaking of music, if you are wondering about the new closing sequence, it is a chorus from Mozart's utopian opera The Magic Flute and consists of the following (in translation): "When virtue and justice strew with fame the path of the great, then earth is a realm of heaven, and mortals are like the gods."

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."

Modern historians often bring attention to the effects of secularization on the West. Once traditional Christianity ceased to influence Western culture, the experience of the kingdom of heaven naturally diminished, something the famous German sociologist Max Weber called the "disenchantment of the world." In this episode, Fr. John describes how the concept of the saeculum, a kind of neutral cultural space cut off from the life of the Church, first appeared, and how, with Petrarch, it became a haven for humanists fleeing the pessimism of the fourteenth century.

In this episode, Father John relates a case in which the early humanist Petrarch confronted one of the new Christendom's chief architects, Pope Innocent III. Applying his newly developed secular thinking, he rejected the pope's notorious treatise entitled On the Misery of the Human Condition.

In this episode, Fr. John Strickland recounts the efforts of three Italian humanists of the quattrocento ("fourteen hundreds") to rescue the dignity of man from the pessimism of Western culture. Departing from traditional Christianity's dignification of man through communion with God, they looked instead to Neoplatonism and there found a model of the fully autonomous human being, Prometheus.

Fr John explores a Barna Group study on the state of Christianity in North America and asks how the observations impact us as Orthodox Christians. The study can be found HERE.

Fr. John reflects on the apostle/missionary—the Gaderene demoniac—as an image of the Resurrection.

Luke 15:11-32; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Hosea 14:1-9; Isaiah 55:1-7

This week we take a break from the dismissal hymns to the Theotokos, and consider the rich imagery of the hymn (in tone 5) to Mary after the Aposticha. Its symbols are illumined for us by the Psalter, Ezekiel 33-35, and Isaiah 6.

We move on in this episode to consider the second royal psalm of Matins, Psalm 20 LXX/21 Hebrew, and see it in the light of Psalm 36/37, as well as 2 Samuel 3. Amazingly, the glory that the LORD Jesus shares with His Father makes its mark on us, as well!

The Hidden Garden by Jane G Meyer, illustrated by Masha Lobastov (Conciliar Press, 2012)

"The Parable of the Prodigal Son" from The Parables of Christ by Spiritual Fragrance Publishing (2012)

"Saint Olga," from The Lives of Our Saints, Illustrated Biographies Book 7 (Spiritual Fragrance Publishing, 2012)

"Saint Margaret of Antioch," from Women of Faith, written by Calee M. Lee, illustrated by Lisa Graves (Xist Publishing, 2015)

Dawn’s Gentle Light, "Home Again," by Renee Riva (Pink Heart Press, 2017)

"Saint Irene of Hungary," from Royal Saints: A coloring book with stories of saintly royalty throughout the history of Christianity (Draw Near Designs). Saints drawn by Marian Adams. Stories & Borders by Abigail Holt. Layout by Caroline Gann.

"Queen Abigail," from Royal Saints: A coloring book with stories of saintly royalty throughout the history of Christianity (Draw Near Designs). Saints drawn by Marian Adams. Stories & Borders by Abigail Holt. Layout by Caroline Gann.

"Saint Olga of Kiev," from Royal Saints: A coloring book with stories of saintly royalty throughout the history of Christianity (Draw Near Designs). Saints drawn by Marian Adams. Stories & Borders by Abigail Holt. Layout by Caroline Gann.

Queen Abigail the Wise, Chapter 1, written and illustrated by Grace Brooks. Create Space (2015) Available from Amazon

Queen Abigail the Wise, Chapter Two, written and illustrated by Grace Brooks. Create Space (2015) Available on Amazon

Queen Abigail the Wise, Chapter three, written and illustrated by Grace Brooks. Create Space (2015) Available from Amazon