Fr. John Oliver discusses the true meaning of repentance, becoming the person that God desire us to become.

Fr. John Oliver considers the motivating forces behind Zacchaeus' movement up the tree and towards Jesus.

What do these three have in common? Listen as Fr. John reflects on the power and beauty of the Psalter.

Fr. John Oliver wonders what might happen if we were to reach out for vital connection and deep healing.

Fr. John Oliver explains how we can repel the Holy Spirit, and how we can become alive in the Holy Spirit instead.

Fr. John Oliver invites us to think about how we would treat others if we had our own little island.

Fr. John Oliver explores the desire to change one's life.

As we begin the Nativity fast, Fr. Joseph has some helpful reminders for us. He's also looking for your questions on fasting - serious, humorous or otherwise. Write him at his email address above.

From Oral Roberts to Black Oak Arkansas, strange things happen. Whoa! There goes Uncle Ernie runnin' 'round the church! Then, there's bread and wine. Oh, you'll just have to listen (no interpretation necessary).

It's not often that one gets scalped by a Christian, rarer still is when a priest willingly airs his failures (of "Biblical proportion"). Protestants may cheer this episode as much as the Orthodox, but with both sides on differing sides. This episode of the Orthodixie podcast eavesdrops on some arguments concerning Scripture and Tradition at St Michael's in Beaumont, Texas.

A Roman Catholic priest, two Orthodox clergymen, a Baptist boy and an Episcopalian gal, along with a Greek layman—unexpectedly—share a Thanksgiving campfire. What do you think happens?

In our last episode: a Roman Catholic priest, two Orthodox clergymen, a Baptist boy and an Episcopalian gal, along with a Greek layman—unexpectedly—share a Thanksgiving campfire. In the end, Fr Joseph asked: "What do you think happens?" This week, an answer (provided almost entirely from AFR listeners).

Fr. Joseph gets lost in Houston, loses his wallet in the airport and becomes invisible at stop lights -- all from Dallas, Texas.

First it was "live podding," then the dread, the guilt and the heavens were separated from the earth (which, naturally, led to a parody of the theme song from "Green Acres"). Clean Monday blows through quickly; pigs don't fly, but kites do (and don't miss Fr. Joseph's fun outtakes at the very end).

Is it Real—or is it My Big Ol' Hairy Godmother? That's the question that hits a depressed Fr Joseph as he faces up to Change, and he tries to get up ... in anticipation of falling again.

Last year's "listener supported" Thanksgiving podcast featured a Roman Catholic priest, two Orthodox clergymen, a Baptist boy and an Episcopalian gal, and a Greek layman, who—unexpectedly—shared a Thanksgiving campfire. Here are the combined episodes, slightly edited; stay tuned for details regarding this year's contest at episode's end!

A 3-year-old Thanksgiving "tradition": The Eighth Ecumenical Campfire—and contest. This year's contest winners will receive the new book by Fr. Michael Keiser titled Spread the Word: Reclaiming the Apostolic Tradition of Evangelism. Tune in to this encore episode for details.

Fr Joseph slips into something a little less comfortable, but it's what everyone wears in the Kingdom!

This ecumenical Thanksgiving tale has developed over the years—in large part thanks to AFR listeners. Enjoy!

This week, Fr Joseph gets real: "The thing about Confession is that it is natural. That is, it is Real. Almost everything else we do with our sin is false and unnatural. We punish ourselves, justify our actions, and hide. Yet, in Confession -- in opening ourselves to God the Light -- we expose the hypocrisy of our double life. In truth, we've been living a lie. Without Confession, Absolution, and Reconciliation we live a lie before God and Man as if it were Reality. In reality, no one is fooled -- not our neighbor, not ourselves. And, let's be real, certainly not God."

Fr. Joseph tells of his recent visit to a psychiatrist and his annual struggle with The Guess Who.

In this episode, Fr. Anthony talks about Great Lent in the Lehigh Valley (PA) and about how the Lenten disciplines - and especially the Prayer of St. Ephraim - can protect and heal us from the damage of war.

In this episode, Fr. Anthony Perkins interviews Rdr. David Kessler. Rdr. David is the choir director at Holy Annunciation parish in Berwick, PA and a graduate of St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary. They talk about how important good communication is between parish priests and music leaders. Enjoy the show!

Fr. Anthony and Fr. Gregory continue their discussion on personalities and the priesthood, focusing primarily on the attributes/predispositions of agreeableness and openness. Along the way they end up talking about Jung, Flannery O'Connor, and Jordan Peterson. Enjoy the show!

Priests don't just serve their parishes, they serve their communities. In this episode, Fr. Anthony talks about a couple of the things that came up recently for him in Allentown, PA. He also talks about how the advice "not to forget where you came from" means different things to different people (and how that is something to celebrate). Enjoy the show!

Despite our intention and our ability to justify our words, our witness has been damaged by our response to this crisis. We run the very real risk of strengthening the misperception that Orthodoxy is at odds with science. This episode grew out of the result of several long discussions Fr. Anthony had with believers who had been hurt and driven away by claims that are, in the language they know, illogical and dangerous. Fr. Anthony makes the case that we need to learn the language our audience speaks so that we can teach them the Gospel in way they will understand. You can find the article this episode is based on at orthoanalytika.org. Enjoy the show!

Join Fr. Anthony as he talks with Fr. Gregory Jensen, PhD, to get some advice on the role of the priest/pastor in crazy times. It's a difficult conversation, but it's important for us to have trusted friends in our lives who will tell us things we don't want to hear. Fr. Gregory is wise, experienced, and courageous enough to say things that will satisfy precisely no one. Enjoy the show!

Listen to find out which of the many conspiracies is occupying space in Fr. Anthony's fool head. Without it, he argues that the other problems (e.g. injustice, riots, elections, presidential narcissism) would have been handled as normal rather than extra-ordinary problems. We should have seen it coming! From his YouTube Livestream of 1/16/2021.

Fr. Anthony talks again with Fr. Harry Linsinbigler, the Canonist for the UOC-USA about what the Canons say (and don't say!) about clergy attire, hair, and beards. They make the case that, unless their bishops say otherwise, priests can adjust to what they discern is best going to meet the needs of the Gospel where they are. A bonus: you can hear just how bad Fr. Anthony is at liturgical math! Enjoy the show!

Many clergy report an increase in people visiting our parishes. This wave is unique in Church history because these inquirers have primarily, perhaps even exclusively, learned about Orthodoxy on the internet. The growing number of internet evangelists can be a great blessing if that work leads people to immerse themselves in the life of an Orthodox parish. But we need to be ready and able to serve these inquirers well. Are we? In this episode, Steve Christoforou describes how a healthy parish can build upon the work internet evangelists have done while making up for the deficiencies of the on-line experience. As a veteran internet evangelist (e.g. through Be the Bee, We Are Orthodoxy, Pop Culture Coffee Hour) and the Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministries (Y2AM), Steven brings a wealth of insight to this critical and often misunderstood topic. In the episode, Steve shares the five needs of young people which are further explored in Y2AM’s online ministry training course, Effective Christian Ministry. Listers can use the code GGWB at checkout to register for 50% off. EffectiveChristianMinistry.org Enjoy the show!

Elissa reminds us that if God were fair, we would be in big trouble.

Elissa recounts her week at Camp St. Sava, the official Orthodox summer camp of the Serbian Orthodox Church's Western American Diocese.

Elissa is teaching middle schoolers this year at Sunday school, and she will be using the film The Butterfly Circus as the grounding image.

The Holy Spirit can be a difficult and abstract concept to explain to young people, so in honor of the feast of Pentecost, Elissa explores the story of the tongues of fire, as well as the prayer "O Heavenly King," to find ways to describe this most mysterious person of the Holy Trinity.

Fr. Michael shares important things to think about in the quest for a spiritual father or mother.

Fr. Michael shares from St. Isaac the Syrian, "How one speaks of spiritual things is perhaps more important than the very spiritual matters themselves."

At this point in Great Lent, are you frustrated with your ability to draw near to God? Fr. Michael reminds us that we are not alone, and shares encouragement from St. Isaac the Syrian.

Many of us have had mountain-top experiences at one time in our life or another. We have had times when God seemed right there, so close that, at that moment it seemed like nothing to offer God everything, to sacrifice all for the sake of Christ. These mountain-top experiences, at least for me, are very few and far between. It is a kind of miracle when this happens. But like most miracles, it happens not so that we don’t have to suffer, don’t have to slog through the rest of life on the plains. Rather, God gives us these moments as signs, as encouragement to keep us on the way, as a foretaste so that we know what the coming main meal will be. But the wonderful experience of nearness to God soon passes and we find ourselves back in the world, back in the arena of our salvation, back now having to fulfill the promise of giving our life to God. On the mountain top it seemed that it would be so easy, but on the plains, in the mud and snirt (a Canadian term referring to snow mixed with dirt), in the messiness of the lives we actually live, giving our life to God is much more difficult and messy than we ever imagined it would be.

As an Evangelical, I had been taught that everything that is really important (spiritually speaking) has to do introducing people to Jesus Christ. Presenting Christ was almost everything. I believed that once one was reconciled with God through Christ–which I understood to be a legal transaction–everything that was really important in one’s relationship with God had been taken care of. This assumption, or something very like it, pervades Evangelical writing.

People sometimes flee the Church because they encounter abusive people or situations there. And yes, we need to love, minister to, care for and most of all be patient with those who flee the church because of the bad experiences they have had. But still, there are no Lone-Ranger Christians. We are not taught to pray to “My Father in heaven,” but “Our Father in heaven.” God is the God who sees. God sees our suffering. God knows what we have been through. And God wants us to find our safety in Him. But this safe place in God is not a place far away from the Church—after all, all you have to do is pick up a newspaper to realize that the Church has no monopoly on the abusive use of power. There is no place on earth to flee in order to escape the risk of being abused by people with power. There is no place on earth, but there is a place in heaven. And so Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven.”

A catechumen once asked what he could do to get victory over bad dreams: especially lustful dreams that roused his passions and often led him into temptation. I told him that this is one of those aspects of life in a fallen body that must be resisted and endured. One of the ways Satan seeks to weary and wear out the saints (or those who strive to be holy) is through the constant going astray of our flesh. Our job is to resist and to return our attention to God and to whatever is good, true and beautiful. When we turn our attention to Jesus, then Jesus fights our battles. One of the desert fathers said that trying to confront our own wicked thoughts is like trying to drive off wild dogs by throwing biscuits at them. We end up feeding the very thing we are trying to drive away. But if we turn our attention to Jesus, to the One who saves, to the One who made us and loves us and calls us to Himself, then the barking of the dogs fades away into the background. Then Christ Himself fights our battles, and we return to our natural place as worshipers of God, as those whose minds and hearts are attending to the one thing needful.

I have a great six-year old German Shepherd named Kota. Kota is very obedient, most of the time. It’s the rest of the time, the time that is not most of the time, that you have to be careful about. I summed up the situation to a friend recently in the following way: “Kota is very obedient unless she is tempted by easy food, or she is bored—in which case she goes looking for something to tempt her.” On hearing this, my friend said, “Wow, that sounds like a problem lot of people I know have.” And then I thought about it. Oh my goodness, Kota and I have the same problem, only Kota is a dog and has an excuse, I don’t.

If we are really interested in helping others who are sick, who are in sin, and who have fallen, then St. Isaac tells us, “know that the sick are in greater need of loving care than of rebuke.”

St. Isaac the Syrian refers to zeal as a guard dog. He refers to sinful and unwanted thoughts and impulses as birds that fly around our soul. Zeal is the guard dog that barks and warns us that these unwanted thoughts are there and motivates us to chase these birds away.

Many holy fathers and mothers of the Church have pointed out that spiritual words are like powerful medicine. If taken inappropriately, what was designed to heal ends up causing harm.

"Those in the monastic life have spiritual fathers and mothers to help them in obtaining humility. We in the world have the very life in the world itself to humble us. "

Fr. Michael talks about the difference between inwardly-focused spiritual zeal and outwardly-focused emotional zeal.

Fr. Michael Gillis answers the question of “how to overcome thoughts of pride in our hearts that inevitably come after labouring on good works for our families and people around us.”

The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives always takes place on two levels, both on the level of what is outside us or what comes to us, and on the level of what is within us or how we receive what comes to us.

For those of us who are still working on getting that first few rows of stones around the foundation of faith, focusing on acquiring a little bit of every virtue helps us to keep picking up the stone (of virtue) that is needed at a given moment and putting it down at the correct place in our spiritual house. Baby steps for baby Christians. May God grant that we are all found to be children in His Kingdom.