Blog entries

Orthodox Life Tips: You Hypocrite!

Jason Barker — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:04:32 +0100

St. John Climacus on ridding ourselves of the temptation toward hypocrisy.

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Whatever a person’s moral standards, there is one thing on which almost all people agree: we cannot stand hypocrisy.

St. John Climacus says, “Hypocrisy is the mother of lying, and often its occasion. For some define hypocrisy as none other than meditation on faRead More...

Orthodox Life Tips: Overcoming Lust

Jason Barker — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:24:26 +0100

A Holy Father on overcoming lust with spiritual remembrance.

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Much of modern advertising and entertainment is directed toward building up and promoting lust. You might wonder, then, how is it possible to overcome this passion?

A brother once asked a holy father, 'With what is a man able to overcome lust?'

The Old Man answered, 'With spiritual Read More...

Orthodox Life Tips: The Only Opinion that Matters

Jason Barker — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:01:49 +0100

Archimandrite Sophrony on caring more about God's opinion than the world's.

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It can seem like life is simply a popularity contest: most people strive to be more liked, more noticed, more “successful” than others around them. But Archimandrite Sophrony tells us that we need to be concerned about the only opinion that matters:

Christ gave usRead More...

The Future of Get Wisdom is in Your Hands!

Jason Barker — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:41:31 +0100

For over 6 ½ years I’ve been producing Bible study materials for Orthodox Christian teens, and for almost 2 ½ years I’ve been producing the Get Wisdom podcast. I've created a special episode of Get Wisdom because I need your feedback.

I love studying the Bible, and I love sharing Bible study with Orthodox Christian teens and adults. But now, after years of creating these—and other materials—I have a bit of a dilemma: I need to make some choices abRead More...

Orthodox Life Tips: Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Jason Barker — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:49:33 +0100

St. Benedict of Nursia on depending upon God to overcome temptation.

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Among the things for which we ask in the Lord’s Prayer is, “Lead us not into temptation.” St. Benedict of Nursia tells us we’ll never overcome temptation without God’s help:

These words, brothers, are warning enough that we should be on our guard. We muRead More...

Orthodox Life Tips: Overcoming Listlessness

Jason Barker — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:38:25 +0100

St. Symeon the New Theologian on the spiritual danger of being listless.

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Most of us have experienced days where we don’t want to do anything—even get out of bed. Sometimes we truly need physical rest, but other times we’re simply listless or sluggish.

St. Symeon the New Theologian puts listlessness into its spiritual context when he sRead More...

Fill the Earth and Subdue it!

Fr John Parker — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:29:48 +0100

Pardon my delay in writing. I fell from my discipline. But here is a good picture to remind us what Lent is all about.

In the last few days, we are reading from the First Book of Moses, called Genesis. Today, we finish chapter 8 and move into chapter 9, with the following command:

Καὶ ηὐλόγησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν Νωε καὶ τοὺς &upsiRead More...

Orthodox Life Tips: Created for Eternal Life

Jason Barker — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:37:57 +0100

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk on making our eternal life our primary concern.

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As I record this we’re at roughly the half-way point in Great Lent, where some of the disciplines of the season can begin to feel a bit wearying. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk reminds us why we discipline ourselves like this now:

Beloved Christians! We are created not for temporal buRead More...

Orthodox Life Tips: A Prayer for Great Lent

Jason Barker — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:17:07 +0100

St. Gregory the Dialogist with a prayer for Great Lent.

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Here’s a prayer for Great Lent from St. Gregory the Dialogist:

O Almighty Lord, who hast made all created things in wisdom, and by Thine inexpressible providence and great goodness hast brought us to these all-holy days, for the purification of body and soul, for the controlling ofRead More...

Orthodox Life Tips: If You Know It, Do It

Jason Barker — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:21:27 +0100

St. John of Karpathos on true spiritual knowledge and virtue.

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You might have heard there's a difference between theoretical knowledge and applied knowledge. This might be the case in intellectual studies, but it's not the case in the Orthodox Christian life.

St. John of Karpathos says:

Some hold that the practice of the virtues constiRead More...

Orthodox Life Tips: The Kingdom of God

Jason Barker — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:02:17 +0100

Blessed Theophylact on the kingdom of God and our lives.

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We often hear about the kingdom of God, but what exactly is it? Blessed Theophylact answers:

When a man's disposition and way of life are like that of an angel, most assuredly this is the kingdom of God. For God indeed is said to rule as King when nothing worldly meddles in the governing of ourRead More...

Come to your senses!

Fr John Parker — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:58:43 +0100

The Matins and Vespers texts for the third week of Great Lent include a return to the Pig-pen, a living flashback to the Parable of the Prodigal Son. We are not reminding ourselves that we read this parable a few weeks ago; rather, we are reminding ourselves that we are still the Son (all of us, men and women) who have wished our father dead (for that is how we receive inheritance), taken our share of the wealth of our Read More...

Orthodox Life Tips: What Have You Done for Christ?

Jason Barker — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:21:59 +0100

St. Ephrem the Syrian on whether we sacrifice ourselves for Christ.

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President John F. Kennedy famously said, "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." St. Ephrem the Syrian says something similar about our relationship with Christ:

On that dreadful and amazing day, You shall say to us sinRead More...

He will give his angels charge over you

Fr John Parker — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0100

Buried in Tuesday's readings from the Psalms, one hears a verse in Psalm 91 that sounds familiar—but from where? “For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone”.

If yesterday’s reading from Genesis was heavy, with “he died. He died. He died,” today’s reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, while rooted in the wars and disasters against God’s people Israel, is one of hope. And not only hope, but it is of the three “big ones” in the early chapters of Isaiah, the first, in fact. The other two specifically in the first chapters of Isaiah are Isaiah 9Read More...

And he died

Fr John Parker — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:42:36 +0100

Thursday’s reading from the First Book of Moses called Genesis, in Chapter 5, is remarkable in many ways. It recounts for us a number of Generations from Adam, by naming many sons, noting the birth of daughters, and listing some remarkable life-spans.

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and femaRead More...

Orthodox Life Tips: Think Always of God

Jason Barker — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:08:43 +0100

A story about Abba John the Dwarf and a camel driver.

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The Christian life should always be focused on God. I love this story about the focus Abba John the Dwarf had:

A camel driver came one day to pick up some goods and take them elsewhere. Going inside to bring him what he had woven, Abba John forgot about it because his spirit was fixed in God. So oRead More...