The Bible Study for residents of the Athena Center in Crawfordsville. Fridays at 11am. These studies are recorded and posted for the benefit of the residents.
Brothers and Sisters - Christ is risen! This we proclaim every year in a sacred memorial feast, where we enter into the Bright and Glorious Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Death received a man and behold encountered God! The Gates of Hades could not prevail, but we broken down and those captive there were let out! --- Now we enter a special time of year - Paschaltide. For traditional Christians, that is Christians who still keep the traditions of the last 2000+ years of God's work in the world, only the Eastern Orthodox Christians today, Easter is not merely a one-day commemoration. I laugh even to write it! The whole week after Easter is called Bright week and it is held in special festivity, if we are willing and able. The doors of the Church are left open, the discipline of fasting is suspended and we read special prayers throughout each day in place of our usual prayers. --- These prayers are called the Paschal Hours and they are very joyful and exuberant. This podcast is a recording of the way we sing these Paschal Hours in the Prostopenie system of church music, as we practice it at Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church in Indiana. It does not need to be sung in this way, but it is one example. Listen to get an idea how it can be sung. Then intone or sing it in your own way as you are able, or just read it. Here is the link to the text you can download, print or read on your device: https://www.orthodox.net/pascha/paschalhours.html These prayers are to be used by Orthodox Christians on Monday thru Saturday of Bright Week in place of morning and evening prayers, all the hours of prayer throughout the day and in preparation for Holy Communion. On Antipascha, Sunday of St. Thomas, we resume our prayers, with some variation for the Paschal season. *I apologize for the sub-quality of this recording.
Here I posit an analysis of movie culture in the life of Orthodox Christians. I beg the listener’s feedback. Am I on to something asserting my commentary into the community conversation. Or had I better mind my own business?
Here I offer an encore to today's Oratory podcast! The reason has to do with the contemplation. I tried contemplating the creation of the heavens as we were encouraged to do. But it is beyond comprehension. So we turned to our own modern American holy church father, Fr. Seraphim (Rose) of thrice blessed memory. Reading from his book Genesis, Creation and Early Man, we are blessed to delve deep and profoundly into the mystery of the early creation. IF YOU LIKE THIS SORT OF THING PLEASE CONTACT ME AND CONSIDER JOINING ME WHEN YOU ARE ABLE. jamillerfamily@gmail.com
The Oratory: A School for the Lord's Service Each week on Friday at 6AM a few good men gather in an office chapel called the "Oratory" in Crawfordsville, Indiana for a particular agenda 1. We sing together the prayers of the First Hour 2. We read the scripture readings of the day 3. We read the daily entry from the Prologue of Ohrid including lives of the saints of the day, a Hymn of Praise, a Reflection and a Homily 4. We then have an accountability session where each of us shares a list of the things his has read, watched or listened to in the past week. If there's time we discuss whatever may be of interest. 5. As we depart, or end the recording, we read the Contemplation of the day from the Prologue and leave with that thought on our minds for the next few minutes. IF YOU LIKE THIS SORT OF THING, PLEASE CONTACT ME AND JOIN ME WHEN YOU ARE ABLE. jamillerfamily@gmail.com
Read life of St. John Chrysostom, whom we often quote in studying the Bible Luke 12:13-59 - Against greed and anxiety - Against laziness and forgetfulness - Against lack of discernment I also gave a call to join the great unity found in the Orthodox Church along with a warning that Jesus says this unity will divide families and other relationships. In reading the prologue and the interpretation of the Scriptures I often mentioned certain keywords and concepts that may or may not be familiar with our listeners and so I ask you to email me questions that you may have about certain things and you may email those questions to Justin.miller@orthodoxtheologicalschool.org
Read from Prologue Luke 11:29-12:12 - Spiritual perception: A Sign - The Pride of the Pharisees - Against Hipocrisy
Luke 10:38-11:28 - Read from Prologue for Oct. 30 - Talked about death, corruption, incorruption and resurrection
Luke 9:28 - 10:37 - The transfiguration of the Lord - Unbelief - Who is the greatest? - Undivided commitment - The 70 apostles - The good Samaritan
Read Luke 8:16 - 9:27 - Healing of the Gaderene demoniac - Raising of Jairus’ daughter - Woman healed - Twelve disciples sent out - Five thousand fed by miracle - Peter confesses Jesus - Take up your cross
Read Luke chapter 6. We talked about the soul’s departure at death and the first and last judgements.
Today I decided to introduce the Daily Mid-Day Prayers I read from The Holy Cross prayerbook. I do this most days that I am in my office during my lunch break. I have an icon corner / chapel in my small office where I offer up these prayers as part of my small ministry to the residents of the building and anyone else the Lord may draw to Himself through it. The image posted here is the icon of Our Lady of Cicero. Here is my private oratory where I read my daily prayers as well as a weekly service with some men of our Orthodox Church community: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11OZhAo1sG6oGLiDdkupcOaIrS8hOrM2U/view?usp=sharing
Read Mark 10 and 11. Especially discussed: Marriage Divorce Contraception as a separation of what God has joined together in the marriage. Jesus forbids this.
We talked about parables, stories of feeding multitudes and the Transfiguration of the Lord.
Today we read a few notes from a Christian Spaniard on the evangelization of Spain. St. Paul did go to Spain after all! We began the Gospel of Mark, reading thru 2:12.
We finished the Rpistle to the Romans with chapters 15 and 16. In it we read of St. Paul’s zeal for apostolic work and strong desire to carry the Gospel to Spain which was the very western edge of the known world at that time. But as far as I know he never made it there. From Acts we know he came to Rome and from the Tradition we know he met his martyr’s end there, being beheaded under Emperor Nero. But today we think of Spain as a historically Christian country, albeit no longer Orthodox. Next week I hope to have something to share that will reveal to us how the Gospel eventually came to Spain and how the church faired there over the centuries.
Romans 9:30-11 Jerusalem Holy Fire has come to Crawfordsville
Homily Thirty-Six On Saint Matthew’s Gospel For the 11th Sunday after Pentecost About the parable, which says, “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, which would take an account of his servants” Also on forgiveness of wrongs and compassion
This special Edition of the Athena Bible Podcast is brought to you by the LifeTransfigured Podcast, visit lifetransfigured.podbean.com for the weekly sermons of Fr. Alex Miller, and featuring the 50 Sermon Challenge of 2019, check it out at LifeTransfigured.podbean.com today. Brothers and Sisters, residents of the Athena Center in Crawfordsville, and listeners worldwide, Christ is risen indeed! Today is the Friday after Easter of 2019 and I want to share something truly wonderful with the world. As if the Resurrection from the dead of a Man Who happens to be the incarnation of the Son of God is not wonderful enough to share again and again, to contemplate and proclaim incessantly and never tire of it, God Himself offers us gift upon gift. I am going to read for you an article published last Saturday on the internet and you can also go and read it yourself from the link in the show notes. After the short article, I will share my thoughts and podcast updates. --- Please read the article for yourself at http://orthochristian.com/120898.html --- Brethren! If you are Orthodox, this miracle is your boast! This only happens on Orthodox Easter, on Pascha. This is a strong confirmation that God is with us. Few other miracles recur every year with such deniability as this, and with such precision as to involve the same man in the same office, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the same place on the same variable commemoration day. Let us Orthodox give thanks for this blessing, if not boast in it. If you are listening and you are not an Orthodox Christian, consider this carefully. There are many reasons to consider returning your family to the one true Church of Christ, found today most fully in the various Eastern Orthodox Churches throughout the world. Even without such a confirming and confounding miracle as this, there is every reason to undo the schism in the world that has separated your ancestors from the Holy Church and reunite with Her, to join Her united life in Christ. But consider this miracle to be a big one. Whether you are protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Muslim, Spiritual but not Religious, Religious but not Spiritual, just complacent or lukewarm, secular or atheist, the outstretched arms of Christ are open to you, the doors of the Church are open to you, though the gate be narrow and the way hard. I personally invite you to challenge me on this. If you are using the podbean app on your mobile device, you can leave comments in the app. If you are using iTunes or the podcast app on your apple device, then you can get the podbean app or you can go to athenabible.podbean.com on your computer or web browser and click on the contact us page. Use the form to leave comments. I look forward to it. I yearn for it! As an update, this podcast has been subject to over 1000 downloads since it's beginning, up to 1400 actually. And we have recently gone international having had now three downloads from Russia as of April. This is amazing and perplexing to me, because I have not had any feed back and no one has gone so far as to follow the podcast via Podbean. Nevertheless, I am assured by the Podbean people that the downloads are authentic, so I assume someone is listening. Please contact me, because I need to know if there is anything amiss in the content I am presenting. Otherwise, listen on. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen! Alleluia! --- Popular YouTube Host Steve Turley offers a scientific analysis of this phenomenon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgEL7kiMu40&feature=share
Greetings friends and Listeners! Today I have a special treat for you. Here in Central Indiana, we are blessed with a wonderful tradition. Every Great Lent, the council of Orthodox priests hosts a series of four Lenten Vespers services, followed by a sermon and a fellowship meal. The sermon is usually given by a selection of the local clergy. This year the theme was parenting and education for the Christian family. That is certainly something near and dear to my heart as a father of six and administrator of a home school. It happens that one of the preachers was my own brother, Fr. John Miller. Since my mother-in-law was not able to go, she asked me to record the sermon. When it was learned that I had recorded, it I was asked to publish it somehow. Here you go!
Overview of Romans from Archbishop Averky Read Romans 1:1-4
Genesis 49-50 We talked about Orthodox burial practice.
Lenten Series - Monday of Second Week Today we read the story of the banishment from Paradise and the first offspring of the first parents. Cain and Abel were the first two sons and they followed two different career paths. They each possessed the God-given human instinct to offer a sacrifice of their produce to God. But for some reason, God accepted Abel's and not Cain's. Rather than repent and offer a fitting sacrifice, acceptable to God, Cain became envious.
New Lenten Series! In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the lectionary of daily scripture reading appoints selections from Genesis every week day during Lent. Today is Friday of the first week of Lent. The reading appointed is Genesis 2:20-3:20. This reading gives us an account of the creation of woman from man and the sin and fall of the first parents. I am reading from the book Genesis Creation and Early Man by Heiromonk Seraphim Rose of blessed memory. Find the book here. I invite you to tune in every day throughout lent until we finish the commentary.
Genesis 33 through 35 - Jacob and Esau meet, monogamy - Violation of Dana - Jacob called by God again - Clothing is important - Death of Rachel and Isaac
Today we read Genesis 36-38 - I told a little about the life of St. John the Barefoot, patron of the food pantry at Holy Transfiguration Church. - The long, cumbersome genealogy of Esau can reveal to us the serious implications our sins and mistakes can have for generations of our descendants or how our conflicts and struggles today can be the consequences of the actions of our forefathers. - We read about the dastardly deed of the sons of Jacob, selling their hated brother Joseph to slave traders. - This should remind us that today the slave trade is alive and well today and all the worse for being illegal. I urge all the listeners to tune in to the work of Million Kids, an organization that communicates factual stories about human exploitation through a couple of books by Opal Singleton and her weekly radio show called Exploited: Crimes Against Humanity. Tune in to the program at least once. It is a lot to listen to it every week, although the topics change and are interesting. She's trying to train the public in the work of ending this terrible crime.
Genesis 29-32 - Jacob with Laban - Gains two wives, birth of eleven sons - Jacob becomes Israel
BONUS EPISODE! I am starting a new class this semester at the OrthodoxTheologicalSchool.org: Survey of New Testament! It has inspired me to read aloud for the listeners the Gospel of Matthew, and point out the structure so well described in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUh9Bsiee_U Open your heard and rest your mind. I read half of this gospel in only 16th of my day, 1.5 hours. Your creator gives you time to read the Bible. You have 24 hours a day, just like everyone else. Most of us are not bonded slaves with no control of our time, though we may have many responsibilities. Those of us in freedom will be held responsible for our time. Therefore at least listen to the scriptures being read to you!
Genesis 24-25 Abraham sends his Servant to find a wife for Isaac, Rebekah. We did not discuss them in great detail, but a few interesting topics come up from this beautiful love story: - Arranged marriage - Courtship - Modesty - Life-long monogamy I believe these are such important topics for our days. As we raise our chilren (my oldest is 13), we should raise them with an expectation that they will be getting married soon, that we the parents will find a spouse for them, that there will be an orderly, godly process to it that prayer and loyalty play a part, that the young men will seek a modest young lady, and the result is to be life-long marriage, divorce not being an option. The story of Isaac and Rebekah reminded me of a song I heard over 15 years ago by a young man who is now an Orthodox priest in Indiana, Fr. Peter Jon Gillquist. I found this song on a youtube video. Please enjoy this complete concert from 2002. The song "Rebekah" is found around the 35 min. mark. https://youtu.be/MvSEHQdM6_4?t=2175
Genesis 16-19 Hagar and Sarai Three angels visit Abraham Sodom and Gomorrah This podcast is sponsored by mrappliance.com
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