159. Five Christmases

Christ is born! Glorify him!  1. Secular Christmas Some of our Christmas customs are fairly modern by Orthodox reckoning (we’ve been around for a long time): Christmas cards and gifts *, special family traditions, candy and cookies ( I can still taste the anise Christmas cookies my German grandmother made). “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”, and […]

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158 How the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer brought 2000 Evangelicals into the Orthodox Church

Campus Crusade Leaders Searching Before we look at Saint Ignatius himself, let’s tell this story. About fifty years ago some Campus Crusade leaders were filling Big Ten university stadiums with great crowds of young people, converting them to Jesus Christ. I heard some of these dynamic men speak after they became Orthodox. It must have […]

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157. Daniel in the Lion’s Den and the Young Men in the Burning Fiery Furnace

On December 17 we Orthodox honor four Old Testament men of faith: the Prophet Daniel and the Young Men Ananias, Azarias and Mishael, also known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and sometimes called the Three Holy Children. This is a great story. I learned it in Protestant summer Bible School, but I wonder how many […]

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155. The Church’s Teaching about Charitable Giving, Part Two – The Fathers

First, Two Stories about Clinging to Things Saint Spyridon, a shepherd on Cyprus both before and after (!) he became a Bishop, once came home to find thieves busily stealing his sheep. He spent a long time trying to persuade them to turn to an honest life. Then he let them go, giving each of them a sheep so, […]

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