Light Of The East

How can we experience the Joy of the Resurrection when we are immersed in so much sadness? The women and men who came to care for Jesus's body will provide some answers.

The Liturgy of the Church immerses us into the events of Christ's life on earth. These events become our events and are heightened in their reality by the world wide pandemic.

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen! Together with you and Luke the Regular Guy we will share and proclaim the joy of this Day of Days, the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the Dead.

In Eastern Churches it is the Week of the Bridegroom begins this Sunday and includes the story of the wise Virgins who were ready for the coming of the Bridegroom, a relevant theme for a time of pandemic.

Empty shelves at the grocery stores, social distancing, bars and restaurants and all places of communal gathering closed, sporting events cancelled. The Corona Pandemic has essentially turned us into good monastics.

The great spiritual master who lived on Mt. Sinai, St John Climacus, will take us higher and higher on his Ladder of Divine Ascent. The first two rungs of the ladder will be renunciation and obedience.

Every Eastern Christian church has its own ancient and indigenous chant which is sung by the faithful during liturgical services. This gives cantors a special place in Eastern Christian Liturgy

The Season of Lent, the Great Fast, is a return to our living experience of the Scriptures and to our real selves

Silence, God's Uncreated Energies, the Divine Light and coming to know God by Unknowing were taught by a 14th century saint and which are relevant for our own time, especially during Lent

The Sunday evening before Ash Wednesday begins the Lenten Season for many Eastern Catholic Churches. Worshipers take on the posture of Adam exiled from Paradise and also share in a gesture of mutual forgiveness.

There is a lot of discussion today in the Latin Rite about priestly celibacy. A monk from an Eastern Catholic monastery will share a perspective on this that the discussion to baptism and the episcopacy.

The Scripture parable of the Prodigal Son is our story - a choice for the delusion of ideology or a choice for reality, right reason and our ultimate glorious destiny.

On this glorious Feast day, as the Christ child and the Elder Simeon encounter each other through the Temple and the Law we will encounter Christ in our suffering, persecuted Christians of the Middle East

For young people seeking spirituality and the mystical, or guest Anthony Dragani, A Byzantine Deacon and Professors of religious studies will tell young people they need not look outside the Church.

In between the season of Christ's descending and His ascending, the Incarnation and the Resurrection. We turn to the great spiritual masters of the desert to serve as our guides.

From the birth of Christ through to his presentation in the Temple to his baptism, this time of epiphany of manifestation is ingeniously expressed through the prayer of the Church.

Devotional practices between the Eastern and Western lungs of the Church are often different from each other yet they arrive at the same point. These differences are not deficits but rather, complements.

The Sunday after the Birth of Christ calls us to examine and renew the relationships in our lives, beginning with Christ and those closest to us. We also turn our attention to the event and relevancy of the slaughter of the innocents.

All families have their story from sinners to saints. So it is with the family of Jesus Christ. But God still works out His divine plan which is the miracle of this season.

Get rid of it! Just get rid of it! The clutter in our closets, our souls and in our lives. God will come in the flesh on Christmas day to bring order out of the disorder of sin. Now is the time for us to do the same