Life Transfigured - The Podcast

Hebrews 11:33-42   This is the 41st sermon in a series of homilies on the Sunday epistle readings.   This passage includes one of the most powerful phrases in the New Testament.   After going through a long litany of old testament saints and a description of how many of them suffered for their faith he describes them in this way,    “of whom the world was not worthy.”   It is often said that the mission of the church is to produce saints.   It is my mission as your pastor to help you become saints so that through your prayers even a poor sinner like me might be saved.   We live in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile to the Christian faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to be in the world but not of the world. How do we do this?   Clearly we do not want to be in the world and also of the world. Sadly this has been the situation in our country for at least the last 60 years. Christendom has become very worldly and secular in our country. Even within orthodox circles there has been a tendency to accommodate the world at the expense of godliness.   There may have been a time in our culture because of its basic Christian roots that being American and being Orthodox were compatible and both taking us in the right direction.   Imagine a large boat going down a wide river surrounded by beautiful scenery,  hills and meadows and farm fields. This is our country moving through history and our church on the boat moving with it.    But now the scenery is less pleasing and the boat is moving faster, we see things breaking down and things on fire. On down the river we hear the roar and see the spray of a waterfall. What do we do?   Many see two options:   1)We can stay on the boat meekly obeying the commands of the captain and moving on towards the waterfall. In a certain sense that is what the American church has been doing for quite some time with very little resistance.   We have let others steer the ship while we have lived our quiet lives going to work every day going to church on Sunday and trying our best to be good Christians.   2) We can get off the ship. This is the Benedict option which many of us have studied and explored. The basic idea is to accept that the culture cannot be reclaimed, abandon it, and create our own culture by focusing on building true community centered around our Orthodox faith.   I would like to suggest a third option.   Imagine that in this river there is a fork. One way leads to the waterfall that we hear roaring and we see spraying down ahead of us. The other way continues on to a more peaceful and wholesome surrounding, more like the course we were on before approaching the waterfall. This brings us to the third option.   3) Use every means possible to direct the ship towards safety.   How on earth do we do this?   Let’s look to the mission statement of our church to find the answer:   Holy transfiguration orthodox church   Our mission is to experience and share the love of Jesus Christ in a traditional orthodox Christian community growing in godliness.   I see in this statement the combination of the Benedict option and the third option that I proposed.   In the Benedict option we are called to experience the love of Jesus Christ and to grow in godliness in a traditional orthodox Christian community.   But we also say that our mission is to share the love of Jesus Christ. This means we need to offer the same experience to the suffering world around us, and especially our beloved America.   I propose that we stay on the ship, build our own community in the midst of it, and with everything that we have determine to steer the ship to safety.   How can we do this right here in Hibernia, in Yountsville,  in our small orthodox mission parish?   First of all, we need to be keenly serious about being a traditional orthodox Christian community growing in godliness. This is how saints are produced. A majority of the Saints are martyrs. While it is true that many of them are saints because the of the fact that they were martyred, it is also true that they were martyred because they were saints. Do you understand what I mean?   They were martyred because they were saints, ”of whom the world was not worthy”.   Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and the reading of holy scripture, must be the foundation of our life and our lifestyle.   Secondly we must be brave, courageous, and bold in standing up against the totalitarian force of political correctness. 2020 has been a year of crisis and in every crisis we see the growing fascism of the left using these crises to force capitulation upon those who oppose them. Whether it be staying at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus or kneeling to black lives matter to show solidarity against racism the left wing is waging a progressive war against human freedom and religious liberty.   Thirdly, as a church we must offer our resources and our faith to the community around us. This is the sharing part.   Already we have been reaching out to our community by assisting local families, offering our food pantry and water ministry, as well as the Bible study at the Athena center, and our general presence as a source of Orthodox truth in this area.   We also have established a cemetery and committed ourselves to bury the dead in the traditional orthodox Christian manner.   Today we are going to ask the blessing of Almighty God on a new ministry to fortify our own community and to provide support to our neighbors.   This ministry is called Trail Life. This is a national Christian-based Scouting program that helps boys become men. It has a statement of faith entirely compatible with the Nicene creed.   This ministry will be an in reach and an out reach and we are praying that families will join our church as a result. We are also praying that God will send to us a family that can start a similar chapter for young ladies known as Heritage Girls.   As your pastor I am asking all of you to please be prepared to help with this ministry in someway. We will be calling on you.   My children in Christ, this is a moment in history in which we need to stand up for our faith and stand up for our country. At the end of our lives we want to know that we did everything we could to bring the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. May we all become saints in the process.

September 6, 2020   Divine Liturgy Series, Number 1   Genesis 1:26   “Let Us make man in Our image.”   In preaching I follow a three-year cycle: the first year I preach from the Gospel reading appointed for the divine liturgy, the second year I preach from the epistle reading, and the third year I preach a series of sermons specifically about the divine liturgy itself.   This is the third year in the cycle and so this today is the first sermon in this series of homilies about this unique service of worship which we call in the Orthodox Church “the divine liturgy.“   How do we worship?   This is an essential question for any serious Christian.   Any serious discussion of worship must begin with the question “who is God and who are we because of him?”   This is because worship is basically about a relationship between persons.   The basis for this relationship is found in the very first chapter of Genesis verse 26 “let us make man in our image“.   Many of us may have been told in Sunday school when we were growing up that God created man because he was lonely. This is not true.   Who was God speaking to when he said “let us make man in our image.” ?   God the Father was speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit.   God exists outside of time and space in a community of divine love between the three persons in one nature. God was never lonely, he was never alone, and God is beyond all human constructs of what it means to exist.   From the overflowing of his love and goodness and creativity He brought the world into existence and created man in His image.   God is Trinity.   Throughout the creation narrative in the book of Genesis it is repeatedly said of creation that it was good but when it came to the creation of man for the first time we hear a negative statement “it is not good for man to be alone.”   As a being created in the image of God, man was fashioned for relationships. God did not intend for the first created man to be alone. Not only did God desire for Adam to have a relationship with Him as his creator, but he also desired for Adam to have a relationship with other humans, beginning with the first woman, Eve, of whom Adam said, “this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.”   Therefore worship in its most basic form is the expression of a relationship between a personal God and His creation, human beings created in the image of God.   This relationship is characterized by love and freedom.   Before we begin speaking about the divine liturgy itself I want to go through holy scripture from the beginning in genesis to the end of revelation and show you the development of worship in the history of the world and the history of the church.   In so doing it will become clear that the divine liturgy is not a human construct but is indeed God‘s revelation to man of how we are to worship him in spirit and in truth.  

September 20, 2020 Divine Liturgy Series, Number 3   Genesis 1:6-8   This is the third sermon in a series of homilies on the divine liturgy.   We have begun our study by looking at the first chapter of Genesis to know clearly who God is and how he has created us and the world in which we live.   We have begun this way because it is essential in worship to know who you are worshiping and who you are because of your creator.   The nature of the one you are worshiping shapes the way you worship and the action of the worshiper is shaped by one’s self awareness.   In the first two sermons we looked at the nature of God and we looked at the first day of creation.   Today we will address the second day of creation which often is overlooked and misunderstood.   In fact it is safe to say that the meaning of the second day of creation is so obscure that it is mostly ignored.   “Then God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the water let it divide the water from the water and it was so. Thus God made the firmament and God divided the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament so God called the firmament heaven and God saw that it was good and there was evening and morning the second day.”   It appears that after the first day of creation all that existed was basically disorganized water.   So on the second day of creation God begins to bring order to the created world and begins to organize and set up the water system that would eventually be one of the primary sustainers of creation.   We now have three components of the material world: we have the water below the firmament, the water above the firmament, and we have the firmament itself.   The water below the firmament is basically the sphere of what we call earth completely covered with water,  we have space or sky surrounding that sphere and then we have water above the sky whose nature is not completely understood.   Scientifically we understand now that the world is set up with a water system and interaction between the water that exists on the earth and the water or humidity that is in the atmosphere or above the atmosphere.   We Know that this system is very sophisticated and very intelligently designed to keep the world relatively stable in terms of temperature and environment.   Firmament represents what we call the sky or atmosphere or space.   It’s possible that before the great flood the the waters above the firmament or sky existed in the form of some type of canopy or greenhouse cover extremely dense with moisture and which allowed light from above but kept out some of the more harmful radiation of the sun which would be created later.   (In the description of the great flood we read about catastrophic changes to this water system, both the waters below the firmament and the waters above the firmament. We will not say more about that at this time but will address it in greater detail when we discuss the fall of mankind and the great flood.)   The reality is that we do not know the exact nature of the firmament and the waters above the firmament in the beginning but we do know that the fathers of the church interpreted it so that this is exactly what happened on the second day and that it was the second step in the creation and the ordering of a sustainable and nurturing world.   We see that God in a very intelligent and ordered way step-by-step is preparing creation for the inhabitation of some special form of life, that is humanity.   Going back to the first few verses of Genesis we see the action and involvement of the holy trinity,  the Father speaks,  the Son creates and the Holy Spirit hovers over the water.   God is Trinity and we must worship him as Trinity otherwise we are not really worshiping him at all. This is the foundational point of the divine liturgy which we are going to be studying throughout this liturgical year, God as Trinity and humanity in the image of God.   The second day is an affirmation of this one basic premise: Creation brought into existence by The Trinitarian  God prepared and ordered for mankind created in His image for the purpose of perfect communion.   The fathers repeatedly use the analogy of a conquering army capturing a city and setting it up for their triumphant king.   Once the city has been captured the king remains outside the walls until the army has gone in and totally set things in order providing for a residence for the king for food and shelter and water and protection.   After all has been accomplished the king is escorted in and placed upon his throne to rule and govern the city.   The second day of creation is a key and orderly step in this preparation for humanity to become the benevolent steward of all that has been made.

Hosted this week by Reader Justin Miller of Holy Transfiguration Church.    

October 18, 2020   Divine Liturgy Series, Number 7   By Fr. Alex Miller   This is the seventh sermon in a series of Homilies on the divine liturgy of the holy orthodox church.   By the way the divine liturgy is often referred to as the holy Eucharist. Eucharist is from the Greek meaning “the Thanksgiving.”   This is in reference to the most important moment in all of the divine services and that is the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  Last week we completed a brief study of the foundation of the divine liturgy,  that being a discussion of who God is and who we are because of him, based on the creation narrative from the book of Genesis.   We saw in the creation narrative that at the end of each day the lord said there was evening and morning, the first day, the second day, the third day and so on.   This pattern of marking time is knit into the fabric of humanity and was adopted by the Jewish people and subsequently by the orthodox church which is the continuation or rather fulfillment of what God began in the nation of Israel.   Therefore when we speak about the divine liturgy we need to understand that the liturgical day begins in the evening with great vespers.   The opening song of great vespers is Psalm 103 the beautiful creation narrative hymn.   Another prominent hymn of great vespers is Gladsome light:   “Oh gladsome light of the holy glory that shines from the heavenly Father,  the holy , the Blessed, Jesus Christ.”   Could this be that light that shone on that first day of creation when God the Father said “let there be light?“   Some of the church fathers speculate that this is so.   Sunday morning the procession towards the divine liturgy continues with matins, or morning prayers.   When the priest comes into the church before vesting he stands before the closed royal doors and prays the usual prayers.   When he recites the hymn to the theotokos (birth giver of God) that begins “open to me the doors of compassion...”the royal doors are opened.   So it is that at the beginning of matins  it is if we are standing in the presence of God in perfect creation before the fall with no barriers and the priest swings the censor  over the altar in the form of a cross and pronounces, “glory to the holy consubstantial and life-giving and undivided Trinity now and ever and unto the ages of ages, amen.”   Immediately after that very beautiful and moving moment the priest closes the royal doors and the six penitential psalms are chanted.   This rubric is a symbol of the fall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the garden of Eden.    The penitential psalms are chanted in a subdued and quiet manner, no candles are lit, and no activity takes place within the nave at that time.   At the conclusion of the penitential psalms we begin to chant “God is the Lord and has revealed Himself to us, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”   The lampadas are lit and hymns of the resurrection begin to be sung and the procession towards the joyful celebration of the Eucharist begins to ascend and continues this ascent throughout the rest of matins until the beginning of the Divine Liturgy.   The full celebration of the Eucharist is this: great vespers, matins, and Divine Liturgy.   For me this liturgical experience is much like sitting down to a three course meal.   Great vespers is the salad and appetizers, matins is the main course, the meat and potatoes, and the divine liturgy is the dessert.   Growing up in a protestant culture most orthodox Christians have adopted the one hour a week  Sunday only mentality and therefore only partake of the dessert.   How healthy do you expect to be spiritually if all you ever do is eat the dessert?   I invite all of you to partake of the entire meal.

October 25, 2020 Divine Liturgy Series, Number 8 By Fr. Alex Miller   This is the eighth sermon in the series of homilies on the divine liturgy of the holy orthodox church.   Christian worship in its most basic form is participation in the Lord’s Supper.   Our Lord Jesus Christ himself laid the foundation for this on the evening before he was crucified when he gathered with his disciples in the upper room to celebrate the Passover with them.   In preparation for the passover Christ said to his beloved disciples “with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for  I say to you I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”   Notice that the Passover is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.   When the Lord sat down for the Passover meal with his disciples, a ritual which Jews had been practicing for centuries, he laid down for them the basic rubrics or framework for the divine liturgy.   “And he took bread,  gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying ‘this is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me, likewise, he also took the cup after supper saying, ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.’ “   Everything that we do liturgically, beginning with Vespers,  then matins, then the various elements of the divine liturgy all prepare us for participation in the Lord’s supper.   This includes all of the other services of the church conducted throughout the week and prayers that we pray at home around our family altars.    As orthodox Christians we live from Eucharist to Eucharist,  from the Lord’s supper to the Lord’s supper.   This is Christian worship,  plain and simple.   This is the fulfillment of the kingdom of God.   Saint Paul affirmed the simplicity of the liturgy and the centrality of the Lord’s supper in one of his epistles to the church of Corinth,   “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night when He was betrayed took bread and when He had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me’ in the same manner He also took the cup after supper saying ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood this  do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.“   1 Corinthians11: 23-25   Saint Peter refers to the mystery of the Lord’s Supper in more theological terms in one of his letters where he makes the profound statement,   “Grace and peace be multiplied to you and the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”    “We have become partakers of the divine nature.”   2 Peter 1: 2-4   So we see from Jesus Christ himself and from his apostles that partaking of the Lord’s supper is the very heart of Christian worship, and that the Lord’s supper is the fulfillment of the Passover.   Therefore to truly understand what is happening in the divine liturgy we need to understand the Passover.   Beginning next Sunday we will be looking at the old testament beginning in the book of Genesis all the way through the book of Malachi to plumb the depths of the meaning of the Passover.    We will look at how it serves as a foreshadowing of what Christ would accomplish through his life on earth, his death, his burial, his resurrection,  his ascension into heaven,  and the establishment of the Lord’s supper, the Divine Liturgy, the eucharist, as the primary means by which we participate in His divine life and the Kingdom of God.  

December 6, 2020 Divine Liturgy Series, Number 15 By Fr. Alex Miller   This is the 15th sermon in this series of homilies on the divine liturgy of the holy Orthodox Church.   Thus far we have been going step-by-step through the book of Genesis detailing God‘s revelation to man of who he is,  who we are because of him, and how he desires to be worshiped.   Today we come to one of the most perplexing, challenging, and foundational events in this narrative.   After many promises from God and after many years of waiting Abraham and Sarah are finally given the gift of their son Isaac, the fulfillment of God‘s promise that from Abraham he would make a great nation and out of his loins would come one who would be a blessing to all nations.   Then God asked Abraham to do something totally contrary to every human way of thinking, he asked him to offer up his son Isaac as a burnt offering.   If god is good how could he make such a demand of Abraham.   This raises the important question, “is God good because he is God or is he God because he is good?” Neither question can be answered adequately. The truth is that God is beyond all human constructs or ways of thinking.   And yet he has chosen to reveal himself as Trinity, as father son and holy spirit, three persons sharing one divine nature. God by nature is other oriented because he is three persons not one. God is love which by definition is relational, always oriented towards the other.   And this is the essence of who man is created in the image of God to be in a relationship with God and with other humans.   Abraham in a way which we cannot comprehend seemed to have a perfect understanding of this reality. He trusted God absolutely and therefore when God challenged him to do something totally contrary to nature he obeyed.   Scripture does not fill us in on the psychology, the drama, the emotional aspect of what this must’ve been like for Abraham. We can only speculate on the difficulty that he faced in seeing his beloved son and his dreams and hopes all coming to a violent end at his own hands.   Of course Abraham was well acquainted. Of course Abraham was well acquainted with the concept of sacrifice Every place that he lived he built an altar to God and he offered animal sacrifices upon these alters as part of his expression of his devotion to God.   It is very likely that other tribes and cultures either through their own imagination or through the instigation of the evil one we’re practicing human sacrifice in order to appease a God that they did not know.   But the true God in his revelation to mankind as we have studied this far makes no such demand upon those created in his image. And yet in this story we find God doing exactly that.   This story like the rest of the narrative is all at the same time historical symbolic, typological and prophetic. It actually happened in space and time but was symbolic of a deeper reality and prophetic of something that was going to happen in the future.   “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and he said take now your beloved son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains I tell you.”   Notice how carefully God emphasizes the beloved does of Isaac “your beloved son whom you love.”   So Abraham went with Isaac with wood for the altar with fire (tinderbox) and with servants to the place God appointed.   When they arrived at the place Abraham instructed his servants to remain there while he and Isaac went up on the mountain. The mountain is Calvary Abraham is the father Isaac is the son. (Mount Moriah is the mountain where God instructed Solomon to build the temple).   So Abraham took the firewood of the whole burnt offering,  and laid it on Isaac his son. The firewood is the cross which Jesus himself carried to Calvary.   When they arrived Isaac said to Abraham “my father,  here is the fire and the firewood,  but where is the sheep for the whole burnt offering.”   This is a type of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane speaking to God the father.   Then Abraham utters the most profound prophecy in the Old Testament thus far “my son, God will provide for himself the sheep for a whole burnt offering.“   What was going on in Abraham’s mind as he uttered those words?  Saint James explains “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of god.” James 2:22-23   Abraham’s prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. God the Father provided for himself the Lamb by offering his only begotten son, his beloved son, as a living sacrifice for the sins of the world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16   The eternal word of God eternally born of the father before all ages took on human nature, took on flesh, which he received from the blessed virgin Mary and joined it to his divine nature and then in the fullness of time was sacrificed on the cross for the salvation of the world.   In a similar way that Isaac was delivered from death because of the faith of Abraham so also God the Father did not allow his Son to be conquered by death but rather resurrected him on the third day.   This, my children in Christ, is the essence of what we celebrate every Sunday in the Lord’s supper in the divine liturgy of the holy Orthodox Church.  

Multifaceted episode --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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The Sunday Before Theophany, Great Vespers stories, Sunday sermon Divine Liturgy series. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This is the 20th sermon in this series of homilies on the divine liturgy of the holy Orthodox Church. We have been systematically looking at all of the types and shadows and prefigurements of the Divine Liturgy in the Old Testament and today we come to a close look at the tabernacle of the Jewish people as they wandered through the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt. Moses spent 40 days with God on Mount Sinai and during that time God showed to him all that happened in the creation of the world and then revealed to him how he desired for the people of Israel to worship Him. He begins with a very general and overall description of what He wants them to do: “Speak to the children of Israel that they take first fruits from everyone who gives it willingly from the heart. Then you shall take my first fruits. This is the offering you shall take from them: Gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and Scarlet cloth, finespun linen and female goats hair, ram skins dyed red, and skins dyed blue and incorruptible would, oil for the light and incense for anointing oil, and for the composition of incense. Sardis stones and stones for the carved work of the breast plate and the full length robe. Also you shall make me a sanctuary and I will appear among you according to all I show you that is the pattern of the tabernacle in the pattern of all its furnishings so you shall make it.” God is asking the people to give the first fruits of their lives, a tithe of all they have for the sole purpose of building and furnishing a special and unique place where God can dwell among them. Look around you! Isn’t that what we have done here? Willingly from our hearts we have given the first fruits of our lives to build this church, to furnish it, and to continually supply it with what is needed for divine worship of the Most Holy Trinity. This introduction concludes with a statement that is repeated over and over throughout this lengthy description of how the tabernacle is to be constructed, “And see to it you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” My children in Christ it is so important that we have this concept deep in our hearts and our minds and in our physical lives. That is to live by divine revelation given to us through holy scripture and holy tradition and a spirit-filled life. “God is the Lord and has revealed Himself to us, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.“ To be in the church is to live in that divine cloud that descended on Mount Sinai where God revealed Himself to Moses and showed him the pattern of divine life. Every encounter with God follows this pattern: Moses went up the mountain and God came down from heaven to meet him there. When we pray, when we make the sign of the cross, when we turn to God in despair or thanksgiving, when we gather here at the church, we are ascending to Him and He comes down to meet us. This ascension can be as simple as lying in bed and whispering “Lord have mercy.“ It is the offering up of a broken and contrite spirit. “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken and humbled heart God will not despise.” --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This episode includes the series about St. John Maximovich and the series on the Divine Liturgy --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today we learn about the way Orthodox Churches are modeled after the divinely revealed structure of the tabernacle of meeting in Exodus. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today Fr. Alex Miller continues his series on the life of our patron Saint, Archbishop John Maximovich, a real close up look at this marvelous man. Also continuing this year’s series on the Divine Liturgy --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Fr. Alex Miller concludes the review of the articles in the tabernacle of Moses and the corresponding arrangement of the Orthodox temple --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Fr. Alex Miller continues his series on the divine liturgy

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Guest Homilist: Fr. Radoslav Philipovich of Indianapolis served the Liturgy for us today while Fr. Alex is out of town.

Each year we kick off with the Eighth Day after Christmas, commemorating the circumcision and naming of the Lord Jesus as well as the Day of a great Father of the church, Basil the Great! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Fr. Alex reads to us from the Life of the Virgin Mary. http://archangelsbooks.com/proddetail.asp?prod=HACLIFETHEO-01 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The Nuns of Shamordino

Father describes for us the sources for all that we know of the life of the blessed Virgin Mary.

Fr. Alex Miller continues his series on the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Fr. Alex takes us through the experience of St. John Maximovich deciding to evacuate the Russian community from Shanghai to the Philiines. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

A sermon regarding the Russian people in diaspora --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

I regret that I am behind getting these published in a timely manner, but hereafter it won’t matter. These are excellent teachings from Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Fr. Alex Miller reads the pre-Lenten message of metropolitan Gregory, ruling hierarchy of the American Carpatho-Russian orthodox diocese.

M for ‘Merciful’

The topic of this first paper is the subject of Original Sin. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app