NM Athansios of Attalia. 01-07 Stop expecting life to be fair!
NM Athanasios made his glorious witness 01-07-1700, after he was overheard saying something that sounded to the Moslems to be part of their confession of faith. He was therefore dragged before the judge, threatened, imprisoned, tortured, and eventually beheaded. Life isn’t always fair. We should not expect it to be fair. We moderns have this character defect that we expect our politicians and other worldly people to be fair. Let’s stop expecting our society to be fair, and let’s start living true Christian lives, be ready for whatever might happen.
Sunday of the Last Judgment- We must find many ways to formally and informally love. (mp3 format)
SYNOPSIS:On the Sunday of the Last Judgment, we read about the last judgment from the Gospel of St. Matthew. This gospel clearly teaches that the sole criterion by which we are judged is whether or not we love. This is the task of the Christian who wants to become a true human being, to learn to love as God loves. We explore formal and informal ways to learn to love and how Great Lent should assist us greatly on opening a small crack in our heart, so that God would come in and teach us how to love, and we would be changed. Matthew 25:31-46 2020-02-23
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpTRibQbZuA
There are numerous wars in the world today, but the one you should be most concerned about is the war on your soul, waged by the forces of sin and the devil. This is the interior war. Every other war — every other death, injustice, and calamity — is a result of this war. On this Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy we celebrate the fact that God became man to save us from this fallen condition. By becoming man, Christ shared in our human frailties so that he on our behalf could overcome them. Why people of good intention continue to sin is a mystery. Jesus came to give us belief and humility so that we can be saved. Acquiring these qualities with God’s help is the very purpose of Great Lent.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Vo4UKSgAk
What Great Lent is really about. What will happen at the Last Judgement. The importance of having purpose in life.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao1Lx2JAAlo
Palm Sunday. The Lord is at hand. Be like Ezra!
When the Lord entered Jerusalem, the words of the apostle Paul from the epistle today were certainly true: “The Lord is at hand”. How do we behave when the Lord is at hand? He is always with us. The Pharisees were “sore displeased” that the children were worshiping Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. He told them: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.” These two things reminded me that my beautiful baby grand boy, Ezra and his reaction when he saw his father come home. We should all be like Ezra! We explore this idea, that we should obey the apostle Paul and not be so caught up in our passions and our difficulties in the world’s troubles and: Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. 5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kFIOZEUGAE
An incident from the book "Escape from Camp 14" (which is about a North Korean slave's life in the labor camp into which he was born to live, work, be hungry and tortured, and die) , when he was taken into the home of a Chinese farmer, not because of kindness, but further exploitation, illustrates a truth about the Christian life - if we are not kind and honest, we are DEAD, no matter how much we pray, or fast, or whatever we do.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/-dDJNWOW6js
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dDJNWOW6js
A Christian should live circumspectly, rightly discerning the signs of the times. A frank talk on the pandemic and its aftereffects — where we are now, and things to come.
Readings: Hebrews 6:13–20, Mark 9:17–31 and Ephesians 5:9–19, Matthew 4:25–5:12
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmyPeDEL8UM
Monster movie! Why should we pray for our enemies? Three reasons, but if you understand the first, you do not even need the other two, although you will likely start there.
https://youtu.be/NZcyLmwxUPU
https://www.facebook.com/orthodoxnet/videos/378701709483596/
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcyLmwxUPU