Recently, I had the blessing of attending a college youth meeting in which they were discussing the sanctity of marriage in Church and society. Not surprisingly, the issue of same-sex marriage came up and the servant asked the youth, “If you were invited to the same-sex wedding of a close friend, would you attend?” Quite surprisingly (at least to me), a couple of Orthodox Christian youth indicated that they would indeed attend out of a sense …

I am a sinner. Quite easily, I fall into the sin of fornication and greatly enjoy it. I feel as though it is the most pleasurable feeling ever. I met a holy hieromonk who encouraged me to repent and confess my sins. Initially, I thought the meeting was a coincidence, but now, I realize it was by the grace of God. When he encouraged me to confess, I looked at him with derision and mockingly …

For God commands us to be peacemakers, and in agreement, and of one mind in His house; and such as He makes us by a second birth, such He wishes us when newborn to continue, that we who have begun to be sons of God may abide in God’s peace, and that, having one spirit, we should also have one heart and one mind. Thus God does not receive the sacrifice of a person who …

Love is to be directed first to GodIf we wish to understand love in its true scriptural foundations, we must set before us (and understand) the following truth:Love should be directed to God, before anyone or anything else This is what God revealed to us in the Book of Deutoronomy: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Dt 6:5).So then, if this …

Today, on the Fourth Sunday of the blessed Coptic month of Paouna, our Mother, the Holy Church, nourished us with a passage from the Gospel according to Luke 6:27-38 in which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to us about love, and especially the love of our enemies.Perhaps no word is used more in the language of the modern world than “love,” but in what way? After the United States Supreme Court’s sad decision legalizing same-sex …

“Love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10), commands the apostle to those who cling to Christ. How can we say that we adhere to the meek and All-pure Christ, if we daily poison the air with tales about the sins and shortcomings of others? To conceal your own virtue and the shortcomings of others, this is the preeminent spiritual wisdom. – St. Nikolai Velimirović