1 Peter 2:17 “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” My good friend A.M. Hickman released his open letter last month to Orthodox Christians on why even after being an Orthodox catechumen, he returned to Roman Catholicism. As someone who considers myself to be thoroughly Western, with a…

Written Oct 11th, 2021 In the end, what will matter to you? What will you have left in the world? What will you have done for those you love? What will have you done for God? Questions piled upon questions that seem to drain our mind. Turning away from them we try not to focus…

Originally Written April 4th, 2021 We all have a journey, a story. Personal struggles and public defeats. You have been given a cross to carry. Mark 8:34 “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,…

(This piece was originally published on Philosophical Rambler on January 2nd, 2022.) Are you ready to go? Are you ready to leave this world at any moment? You don’t know when your name will be called. Your eyes will flutter, and your heart will slow, and you will fade away. Like jumping on the school…

(This piece was originally published on August 21st, 2021 on Philosophical Rambler. A portion of it was read aloud to a group of over 100 students at the nondenominational youth group I was attending at the time.) True prayer is one of the greatest gifts that the Lord has given us. Talking to the Lord…

If you spend any amount of time on social media or amongst recent converts to the faith, you will inevitably hear the name, Fr. Seraphim Rose. Why is it that Fr. Seraphim is so present in contemporary Orthodox discussion amongst converts? It boils down to a simple answer, he was uniquely American. Fr. Seraphim represents…