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The First Day of Christmas Advent: Caring for the Lonely

By Fr John Breck, December 2, 2008 A woman in the parish recently buried her husband after his long and losing battle with cancer. A thirteen-year old girl still cries herself to sleep each night several months after her parents’ bitter divorce. A man off the streets, recently chrismated into the Orthodox Church, is waging a tentative battle with alcoholism, trying with too little support to keep himself in recovery. The priest’s wife, determined to

Care for the Soul

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 8, 2015  I do not understand Zombies. When I was a child, Zombie movies were virtually non-existent. The word referred to something like a Golem in Jewish thought – a creature without a soul. It is properly a frightening thing – for that which we think of as the soul, is also the seat of compassion and kindness. A creature without a soul would be driven by something other –

Happy Mother’s Day! Sunday of the Paralytic

Today is Mother’s Day in America. Emphasis is on the heartwarming aspects of the day and the contributions mothers have made to the lives of their children. A special place for mothers is established in the Ten Commandments. At a tender age we hear the words: “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you” (Genesis 20:12). Mothers are cast in a