Finding the Freedom to Live

The fathers tell us it is important to know ourselves, but how many of us can really say that we do? Read the transcript HERE.

How do I deal with toxic shame that seems to close off the avenue back to God. Read the transcript HERE.

Andrew says seeking union with anything or anyone outside of God gradually takes away our freedom, takes away our personhood, takes away our ability to be uniquely ourselves. Read the transcript HERE.

In this episode, Andrew says that sex or pornography may be a way for us to try to fill our emptiness, to meet our fear of being alone and unloved. Read the transcript HERE.

Jesus said “Everyone who practices sin is the slave of sin!” (Jn. 8:34). But we know so long as we live, we live only through God’s dynamic, life-sustaining power active in us. Read the transcript HERE.

How talking about anything — including violence and sexuality — can lead to consequences in others’ lives, intentionally and unintentionally. Read the transcript HERE.

What’s a good time to have such a conversation? Well, it shouldn’t just be a one-off conversation… it should be an ongoing dialogue and discussion. Listen to the podcast and read the transcript HERE.

St Theophan tells us that “the four weapons of which we have spoken receive their power from the forces and gifts of grace, obtained for us by the blood of Christ.” And the mystery of holy communion “is Christ’s blood itself, and His flesh itself, in which Christ is Himself present as God.” Find the transcript HERE.

Today Andrew continues his practical advise for freeing ourselves from addiction by offering St. Theophan's four spiritual weapons for our contimplation . Read the transcript HERE.

Andrew tells us that will power and relying on ourselves is an ineffective strategy for dealing with addiction to pornography. Read the transcript HERE.

In the next 4 episodes, Andrew gets very practical on ways to find our way out of addiction. Part 1 asks "How Do We Live?" Read a transcript HERE.

We live in a world of broken reality, of mere facts that exist without the truth of love and communion. The holy icon draws us into communion. Pornography cuts us off from communion. Transcript is available HERE.

The scourge of pornography use in our society is also itself an image — an image that manifests certain unpalatable realities of our culture and relationships. Read a transcript HERE.

The holy icon defines for us what an image should be. But pornography is an anti-icon because it breaks the link between the image and the archetype and replaces it with a link between image and fantasy. Read the transcript HERE.

In this episode, Andrew suggests that the mask is our attempt to save and build our own lives, and yet when we put it on, our life is lost. In the same way, the mockery of intimacy in pornography shrinks and deforms us. Read the transcript HERE.

Andrew reminds us that we can use our creativity in cooperation with God’s creative power or we can use it apart from God. Read the transcript HERE.

In episode 5, Andrew continues to explore the transformation of our desires and how that relates to addiction. Click HERE for a transcript.

In episode 4, Andrew helps us understand the transformation that takes place when we begin to see iconographically instead of pornographically. The transcript can be accessed HERE.

Andrew continues from the last episode about unfaithfulness being the characteristic act of immorality by exploring how pornography is a rejection of the ultimate significance of marriage. Read a transcript HERE.

That which calls me to embrace the icon and that which calls me to embrace pornography is at root the same thing. Read the transcript HERE.

Pornography has become a social, spiritual, and physical epidemic in the world. Andrew's first podcast is part one of a series of conversations which will identify the real issues we must face in dealing with pornography from an Orthodox Christian perspective. This first episode in that series talks about pornography, iconography, and idolatry. A transcript of this episode is available HERE.