Eastern Christian Insights

Becoming a blessing to others is the way to be blessed ourselves.

Have you lost your sense of wonder at God's presence in your life?

To be Christ's disciple requires taking up a cross, denying oneself, and losing one's life in the world.

To believe in the power of Christ's Cross is to bet our lives on His sacrificial offering.

Our baptismal garment gives a profound responsibility throughout our lives to live in a way that shines with the divine glory—that radiates the light of Christ to a world so filled with darkness, death, and despair.

Many times in the Bible, cultivated land is a sign of our relationship with God.

It is a mistake to approach the life in Christ as a list of chores to be checked off.

The Feast of the Dormition calls us to embrace the fullness of life—the deepest reality of what it means to be a human being in the world as we know it.

Contrary to many contemporary Christians, Jesus and the Apostles did not seek a happy or successful life.

Christ does not ask us to fix our own personal problems, much less to end wars or feed thousands. All that he asks us to do is offer what little we can to Him for blessing with the faith that He will do with it what is best.

In order to accomplish anything, we have to accept who we are, stay focused, and faithfully fulfill the duties that our particular calling gives us. Otherwise, we will likely fail in what we set out to do.

Jesus Christ calls his followers to something much more profound than being friendly, decent, or thoughtful.

In the name of freedom, we easily enslave ourselves to our own desires and passions in ways that make it very hard to set things right once again.

Fr. Philip reflects on the lives and witness of the early Christian martyrs and saints in Rome.