442. The Parable of the penitent Prodigal Son and the forgiving Father and the stupid Elder Brother, in three Scenarios

The word in New Testament Greek is άσωτος/asotos, “dissipated, debauched, dissolute”. The old English word for this was “prodigal”. This guy who has wasted his life on nothing, worse than nothing, thrown away his family inheritance on pig’s slop: What kind of fuzzy-minded liberal would forgive somebody like that? I still remember my granddad feeding […]

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440. Do you know this remarkable modern Saint? Papa-Nicholas of Athens – Part One

Old age mind fog has caught up with me. Here it is only mid-February, and I have prepared a Post for a saint whose feast day is not till March 2, Ah well, we’ll certainly be prepared for it. Saint Nicholas Planas Introduction I love that in our Orthodox churches we have icons in all […]

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427. Saint John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria

“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:35-36 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will […]

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424. Evil Spirits

“boo” Only a little tiny “boo…“? from something that looks as scary that? Really? Well, that’s what the Orthodox Troparion/Apolytikion for martyrs tells us. Please take note of the portions in italics. From the Greek Archdiocese: “For since they possessed Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption.“ From […]

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422. The Sermon on the Mount: Part 4 – Matthew wraps it up: Chapter 7

God bless you! You’ve hung in here for four Posts as we’ve looked at Christ’s great Sermon, His teachings about Christian living in Matthew Chapters 5 and 6 and, finally today, Chapter 7. * “Chapter 7″? Did you know: For most of Christian history there was no Chapter 7. The Bible was originally written in […]

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