A Prayer in Time of Trial

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I am sunk into the depths and there is no foothold to be found anywhere. I’m nearly worn out with calling for help. My throat is hoarse and my eyes fail me in looking for you. Scorn has [...]

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The Adoration of the Holy and Life-giving Cross (The Third Sunday of Great and Holy Lent)

Troparion Tone 1
O Lord, save Thy people/ and bless Thine inheritance./ Grant victory over their enemies to Orthodox Christians,/ and protect Thy people with Thy Cross.
Kontakion Tone 4
O Christ our God,/ Who wast voluntarily lifted up on the Cross,/ grant Thy mercies to Thy new people named after Thee./ Gladden with Thy power Orthodox Christians/ [...]

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I Think I Will Use This in My Interviewing Processes

[I regularly use a "logic" test when I interview applicants for open positions on my team at work.  This test is intended to draw out how the applicants approach sequential problems.  I think I will replace my current test with this one.]
The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you [...]

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The Mother of God

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And [...]

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The Mystery of Prayer: Consolation and Cross

Because in prayer we have to do with a Trinity of Persons, and not some cosmic divine process, there is a certain mystery to prayer, and in prayer, that continually confounds our best understandings. We know, by virtue of dominical revelation and authority, that our Father in heaven cares for us deeply and intimately. [...]

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The Mystery of Our Condition

I do not know what it means to suffer. But if I could imagine what might be among the most difficult kinds of suffering to undergo, it must surely be that sort of pain which the fracturing of our human relations with one another brings. In his inscrutable wisdom, God took the betrayal [...]

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A Sign of Lent

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The Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas (The Second Sunday of Great and Holy Lent)

Troparion Tone 8
Light of Orthodoxy, pillar and doctor of the Church, adornment of monks, invincible champion of theologians, O Gregory the wonderworker, praise of Thessalonica, preacher of grace, ever pray that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion Tone 2
Organ of wisdom, holy and divine, bright clarion of theology, we praise thee in harmony, O divine speaker [...]

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Praying in Faith

Stating the obvious, these last several posts on prayer have been my own personal working out of my thoughts and experiences of prayer. I no doubt carry a universalizing tendency in all these reflections, but I trust my readers to discern what is my own experience from theirs, and further to take all these things [...]

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Our Father Among the Saints, Patrick, Enlightener of Ireland

Troparion of St Patrick Tone 4
Most glorious art Thou, Christ our God/ Who didst establish our Father Patrick/ as the Enlightener of the Irish and a torch-bearer on earth,/ and through him didst guide many to the true Faith./ Most Compassionate One, glory to Thee.
Apolytikion of St Patrick Tone 3
O Holy Hierarch, equal of the [...]

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