Parable of the Sower. Any ground can become good ground. The parable of the sower describes four kinds of ground, and only one of them brings forth fruit, that is, leads to salvation. Many times, we think statically about this parable and think that a person is one kind of ground or another and does not change. Actually, any ground can become good ground. The epistle and second gospel tells us two things that we must know and do in order to become good ground. In the Epistle of St. Paul today, he talked about glorying in his infirmities. This is absolutely essential but we must understand what this term means. We also must understand as we glorying our infirmities that God loves us will never abandon us. If we understand these two things, any ground can become good ground. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kQGwKe52A4

On the day we celebrate the beheading of St. John the Baptist with a mixture of joy and sorrow and all we consider a day that is a day of death and life and way of life that is of life and way of life that is of death. Because of the times we are in when people are calling death life and life death, we make comments about the pandemic and mandates and how we are to live in such times if we want to follow the way of life. Yes Jim, YouTube:https://youtu.be/ygPVzO6gd1k Audio:http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/saints-08-29_2021+beheading-of-john-the-baptist+way-of-life-or-of-death.mp3 ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygPVzO6gd1k