235. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: The Fifth – Family Values. The Sixth – Honoring Human Life

Parchment of Decalogue by Jekuthiel Sofer, 1768 COMMANDMENT FIVE: Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.  Orthodox often expand this Commandment to include the wider topic of: The Family By that we mean the Traditional Family: father, mother, and children […]

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234. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: The Third – Do not play games with God. The Fourth – Take some time off!

from the Altar Screen at Temple Church, London (Creative Commons) The Third Commandment You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.  In the Old Testament, a name is not merely a label for identification. A name […]

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233. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: The First – Are you an idolater? The Second – Are icons forbidden?

Once during a sermon I asked my people “What is the Eighth Commandment?” and they all just stared at me. Well, I caught them off guard. I probably would have done the same. But then I thought: In my fifty years as a priest, I had never once done a teaching series on the Ten […]

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