In part 1 (click here to read it) I encouraged active preparation to receive Christ in the Eucharist. However, it’s very easy to misunderstand the rules for communion preparation. Some ways people have misunderstood the rules include: A question of power A question
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In part 1 (click here to read it) I encouraged active preparation to receive Christ in the Eucharist. However, it’s very easy to get caught up in the rules for communion preparation. In fact, some people asked me some very good
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Last week I mentioned our tradition of being properly prepared for communion: arriving at least before the Epistle and Gospel reading, keeping the fasts of the Church to the best of your ability, and praying the pre-communion prayers before coming.
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Being a priest puts me in a position to have many interesting conversations with people. One topic that seems to come up quite a bit is: Christians behaving badly. SOME CHRISTIANS DON’T KNOW HOW TO ACT! Some people I speak
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As I go around town and I meet new people, one of the first questions I get asked is, “what do you do for a living?” I usually respond with, “I’m the priest at the Orthodox Church in town.” After
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Some Sundays I don’t feel like going to church. On a typical Sunday morning, I have to get there 2 hours before everyone else. In that first hour, I have candles to light, entrance prayers to say, vesting prayers to
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Last Sunday I had the privilege of marrying a wonderful couple. At the wedding service, I read from the Gospel of St. John, chapter 2. You probably know this story, and you’re probably not surprised that this is the one
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This Sunday I will have the pleasure of performing a wedding. Weddings are always happy events, and I always look forward to performing them. Orthodox weddings are especially beautiful, and it’s actually composed of two ceremonies: the betrothal and the
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Yesterday I had the privilege of receiving two people into Holy Orthodoxy. Since they had been previously baptized (outside the Orthodox Church), they were received by anointing only. This ceremony is called chrismation (it’s typically done as a part of the
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Lately my time has been taken up by a capital campaign to rebuild the church I pastor, St. Elias Orthodox Church. About a year ago we discovered that three of the four trusses that hold up our building’s roof had
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