Prayer and Confidence

For those souls given to a belief in God and to the practice of praying to him, a difficult struggle inevitably undergone is that between faith and doubt. Even events that could be labeled unmistakably miraculous are subject to reinterpretation, and more so those events that on the surface seem to be answers to [...]

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Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee

Troparion of the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee Tone 8
The doors of repentance do Thou open to me, O Giver of life,
for my spirit waketh at dawn toward Thy holy temple,
bearing a temple of the body all defiled.
But in Thy compassion, cleanse it by the loving-kindness of Thy mercy.
Theotokion Tone 8
Guide me in [...]

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Petitionary Prayer, Faith, Providence and Mystery

When it comes to prayer, the faithful man or woman of God is confronted by a host of seeming contradictions. On the one hand, God respects human free will so much that he will allow a man or woman to freely reject him forever. And yet, so much of the way God provides for his [...]

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Kansas Rain

The darkening Kansas skies of spring are not always a welcome sight, for they can bring chaos and destruction in the blink of an eye. But when the grey clouds begin to gather, and the dusty wet smell fills the nostrils, a man can welcome the coming rain. The drama of a Kansas thunderstorm, with [...]

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Kansas Darkness

The Kansas I know was, and is, a place of light and beauty, of space and expanse, of long, rolling hills and flat, squared wheatfields. It was, and is, a place of vocation and the means to a man’s realization of himself. It was, and is, a place suffused with peace and stillness.
But I must [...]

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Our Father Among the Saints, Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople

Troparion of St Photios the Great Tone 5
As a radiant beacon of wisdom hidden in God,/ and a defender of Orthodoxy revealed from on high,/ O great Photios, adornment of Patriarchs,/ thou dost refute the innovations of boastful heresy,/ O light of the holy Church,/ preserve her from all error,/ O luminary of the East.

Kontakion [...]

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The Fatherhood Chronicles CXV

Delaina Feeds the Squirrels
So, I stepped out of the shower yesterday, and walked into the kitchen. I felt something crunchy under my feet. There on the floor were scattered a few, as I soon learned, tiny handfuls of peanuts. On the girls’ table was the open can from which the peanuts had come. My first [...]

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The Meeting of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple

Troparion of the Meeting Tone 1
Rejoice, thou who art full of grace,/ Mother of God and Virgin,/ for from thee arose the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God,/ to give light to those in darkness./ Rejoice thou also, righteous Elder, who didst take in thine arms the Redeemer of our souls,/ Who also gives us [...]

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Saint Brigid of Kildare

[Our daughter Delaina's patron saint]
Troparion of St Brigid of Kildare Tone 1
O holy Brigid, thou didst become sublime through thy humility,/ and didst fly on the wings of thy longing for God./ When thou didst arrive in the Eternal City and appear before thy Divine Spouse,/ wearing the crown of virginity,/ thou didst keep thy [...]

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