I, a sinful soul, confess to our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, all of my evil acts which I have done, said or thought from baptism even unto this present day. I have not kept the vows of my baptism, but have made myself unwanted before the face of God. I have sinned before […]
Archpriest Peter Galadza, PhD is Kule Family Professor of Liturgy at the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. He is immediate past president of the Society for the Study of Oriental Liturgy. In 2003-2004 he was a research fellow at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Research Center, and […]
Sometimes it does not seem to matter how hard we try to weed a garden, the things keep coming back. There are times, even after doing what I thought was a thorough job at pulling up weeds I would come back even a few days later, still with an aching back and hands, to discover the […]
What is the hardest thing to accept in Christianity? Is it the doctrine of the Trinity? The idea that God became man? Or that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ? While these teachings may meet with obstacles in our minds, the hardest thing for us to accept in practice is the absolute […]
Quality edging is one of the tell-tale signs between a well tended garden and one that has been neglected. A well edged garden not only looks neater in that it has defined borders, but also has fewer weeds and grass that can creep in. The beauty on the inside of the garden is protected from […]
Priest: Blessed be our God at all times, now and for ever and ever. All: Amen. Glory be to You, our God, glory be to You! Heavenly King, Advocate, Spirit of Truth, Who are everywhere present and fill all things, Treasury of Blessings, Bestower of Life, come, and dwell with us; cleanse us of all […]
by Fr. Thomas Hopko. Be always with Christ. Pray as you can, not as you want. Have a keepable rule of prayer that you do by discipline. Say the Lord’s Prayer several times a day. Have a short prayer that you constantly repeat when your mind is not occupied with other things. Make some prostrations […]
The Fast of the Apostles which follows the feast of Pentecost concludes with two special commemorations: on June 29 we remember the glorious leaders of the apostles, Peter and Paul; on the next day we observe a synaxis (assembly) for all Twelve. The feast of Saints Peter and Paul is particularly observed as the throne-feast […]
As a young junior high school student, I wasn’t fast enough to run most track and field events. But one event I could participate in was the relay race.
A large part of our training was concerned with handing off the baton. The idea was to sprint as fast as you could to the next runner on your team. His job was to meet you about fifteen yards before the hand-off and run with you, being careful to match your pace exactly. In this way, you didn’t have to stop to hand him the baton; you could continue the race without losing momentum. If everything went smoothly, the baton was passed from one hand to the next and the race progressed.
The hand-off was the single most important part of the race. Not that it was that difficult, mind you; it just led to the worst of consequences if it wasn’t managed properly. The running part was easy. You simply did your best and that was that. But the hand-off had to be conducted with care lest – horror of horrors – you dropped the baton and thereby cost your team precious time and probably the race as well.
When we think of slavery it is the experience of blacks in America which most often comes to mind. Africans targeted by commercial slave traders as ignorant savages were captured in raids, transported across the Atlantic and sold on the open market like livestock.
