Sacramental Living

Join Michael for a discussion about the meaning of hypocrisy and what Christ said about it in the Gospel, and how to understand and protect ourselves from this deadly sin that causes us to wear “masks” and fall into self-deception, deception of others, and spiritual death.

Join Michael in a discussion about experiencing God's healing and redemptive beauty and goodness even in the worst of life's circumstances.

Join Michael in a discussion about what well-being and non-being really mean, and how we often do things we think are beneficial but really are not in our best interest and lead us father from God rather than towards Him.

Join Michael in a discussion about what it means to create “heat” without “light” and how ego driven self-motivation and self-focus is poisoning society, and what we should be mindful of not to be contributors to this.

Join Michael in a discussion about living intentionally to embed hopefulness in our body, mind and soul, and accept death with the hope of eternal life.

Join Michael in a discussion about what the Scriptures and our Holy Tradition teach us about the importance of clothing as it relates to salvation, communion, or lack thereof, and what our attitudes and actions toward clothing reveal about us individually and culturally.

Join Michael in a discussion about what is means to be feel like a stranger in our own surroundings and in this world in general and why this actually a good thing.

Join Michael in a discussion about the many different aspects of tears, why some tears are good, some are evil, what they indicate about our hearts, and why they are necessary for salvation.

Join Michael in a discussion about how we often neglect our bodies, the physical and spiritual ramifications to ourselves and loved ones, how this is profoundly unspiritual, and what we need to think and do to treat our physical selves the way God intends us to.

Join Michael for a discussion of the primacy of focusing on loving more not sinning less and why this will be the basis of how God judges our lives.

Join Michael in a discussion about prayerful and practical ways to frame our understanding in regard to our difficulties and setbacks, and deal with them in a spiritually healthy way.

Join Michael in discussion of what it means in the Liturgy when the Priest prays “And let us ask for a Christian end to our life, peaceful, without shame and suffering, and for a good defense before the awesome judgment seat of Christ” and how that should drive our daily behavior.

We live in a consumer culture. Businesses gather and sell data and information about us to target us as consumers. We are increasingly treated more like consumers than persons. The Christmas season for many has become nothing more than frenzied consumerism. John Michael as he discusses the human person in the context of consumer culture, comparing and contrasting the language of consuming used in our Liturgy and throughout the Bible with modern notions of consuming and how this relates to our love and growth as human persons.

Join Michael as he discusses the deep theological truths of simple hospitality and how it directly relates to our salvation.

Join Michael as he discusses how we should understand time and reconcile our past through the eternally crucified Christ, and let Him transform it and free us of guilt, shame, and regret.

Join Michael as he discusses how we should see and experience ourselves and others as living icons of Christ, and how we achieve this through the difficult task unknowing ourselves.

Join Michael as he discusses the complementary nature of light and darkness, how both are under God's control, and how we can understand this to maintain hope during tough times, grow in faith, and shine the Light of Christ to others.

Join Michael as he recounts a story of a good friend's nervous breakdown and his experience of theophany, theosis, repentance, and God's beauty amidst his trauma and suffering.

Join Michael as he shows why restraint is Christ-like and liberating, and the path of ultimate freedom out of the self-inflicted tyranny of our own thoughts and behaviors.

Join Michael as he reflects on the recent Supreme Court decision and why we need more than ever to remain prayerful and faithful within ourselves, and civil with each other.

Join Michael as he discusses the success of failure and the failure of success, and how our worldly success can be a blessing or a curse depending on we approach it spiritually.

Join Michael for a discussion on how to understand and overcome the subtle spiritual deafness and spiritual blindness we can suffer from that leads to spiritual heart disease.

Join Michael for a discussion on how to avoid being paralyzed with guilt and shame over our worst failures, and experience God at work within them.

Join Michael for a discussion on why forgiving ourselves is often so hard and what we need to understand and do to open our hearts to self-forgiveness.

Join Michael as he examines trauma and traumatic episodes from his life, and explores how to use them to develop a deeper trust in God.

Join Michael as he examines what it means to experience true freedom, and why what we think is freedom is a form of bondage we don't recognize.

Join Michael as he examines the role expression of opinion plays in society today, how to guard ourselves against our own and other's opinions that fuel our pride and cause anger and division, and what to do to maintain humility, thoughtfulness, and love of others.

Join Michael as he discusses how we should understand God's authority versus secular notions of authority, and why rejecting and tearing down authority does not result in liberation and freedom but rather the opposite.

Join Michael as he discusses why we need separation that is holy before we can have true unity with each other; and how many are choosing an unholy type of separation based on fear, ideologies, and other things are the entry to the wide gate leading to destruction.

Join Michael as he addresses our choices and what we consent to that results in us either growing in holiness and union with Christ, or an unholy union with the devil that leads to our gradual and eventual complete destruction.

What do we deserve in life? Anything? Everything? Join Michael as he addresses the various ways we can focus on what we deserve and how most of them lead us in the wrong spiritual direction.

Inner darkness. We all have it whether we admit or not. How do overcome it? How do we find our way to Christ the Light and master our inner darkness? Join Michael as he addresses these questions in-depth and shows we can find our way to the Light no matter what darkness we are in.

Join Michael as he provides an in-depth discussion of the many spiritual aspects of patience that are critical to our salvation and the salvation of others, and how lacking this virtue is more spiritually harmful than we may realize.

Join Michael as explores the subtly of idolatry and the little gods that lurk behind our idols that lead us slowly down a dangerous spiritual path.

Join Michael as explores the question is our Orthodox Christian religion the only true religion or the completely true religion, and the how our answer to this question affects our internal self and outward behavior to detriment or betterment of ourselves and others.

Join Michael as he discusses why God's wrath is an expression of His love, what hinders us from understanding and accepting this, and why it is debilitating when it is intended to be transformative.

Join Michael as he discusses what eros and agape really mean and why they cannot be separated, how growth in love is deeply linked to suffering, how disordered desire can grip us, how we never truly sin alone, and how it always affects both us and others when we act on our disordered desires.

Join Michael as he discusses what a darnel is and what it means to us, how easy it is to be deceived by the spirit of the age, and what we need to do to ensure we gain and apply Christ-like discernment in all matters.

Join Michael as he discusses the challenge of living our Orthodox faith and Holy Tradition fully and without compromise, and witnessing effectively and lovingly to others outside of the faith. Listen as he explains how easy it is to fall into the trap of putting God in neat little box in our minds and hearts how this is detrimental to ourselves and others.

Join Michael as he explains why we need to become, and always stay, “enchanted” by God through sacramental understanding and participation, and how this is our witness and demonstration of the truth of the Gospel.

Join Michael as he expounds upon these words we sing and chant between Pascha and Ascension Thursday and what they should mean to us even as we continue to face the reality of death.

Join Michael as he discusses false power versus real power, our attraction to the former at our own expense, and how the powerlessness Christ demonstrates for us is the true power we gain when we let go of our need for control and surrender to God.

Join Michael as he discusses how we are either living in repentance or rebellion at any given time in our response to God grace, and how this determines the quality of our existence both now and in the life to come.

Join Michael as he discusses the failure of the first fast in the Bible and its implications to us; how fasting is not about food the way we typically approach it; and fasting’s corporate and communal nature and what it means to us as persons not individuals.

Great Lent is a holy and sacred time of year yet we can turn it into a secular practice and experience if we are not careful. Join Michael as he discusses our understanding and participation in Lent, and how to avoid subtle ways that lead us to experience Lent less than how we should.

So many people love a good conspiracy theory. But these theories do damage and harm to individuals, communities, and our society. Join Michael as he discusses the primary reasons people believe them and why doing so is antithetical to our faith.

Cancel culture is a culture of hate, division, and destruction. Join Michael as he uses the Gospels and other scripture to show just how wicked this culture is; what the current culture is doing to us; why we are knowingly or unknowingly participating in it; and what we should do to combat it.

Christ says “your faith has made you well” specific to three healings in the Gospel accounts. This phrase means much more than we think it does and understanding it in full opens our eyes to how we should be living our faith and why many of us are not. Join Michael as breaks this simple phrase down with all of its layers of meaning and what we should be doing daily to be made well.

What’s the difference between testing and temptation? How can we discern God’s at work in our lives versus the enemy’s attacks? Why does the Greek in the scriptures use the same word for testing and temptation? Join Michael as he addresses these questions and compares and contrasts testing and temptation.

St. Porphyrios wrote, “Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet.” Most of us are not poets so does this preclude us from being true Christians? Join Michael as he explores God’s poetic and artistic nature and how to understand and connect to Him through the divine language of symbol, beauty, and our own personal artistry even while living in a culture dominated by utilitarianism and reductionism.

Join Michael as he discusses the Book of Job as a case study in suffering and the importance of how we receive our suffering; how it is often what defines our salvation and belief in and relationship to God; what God gives and does not give to us in our suffering; and how our suffering can be a mystery and those closest to us can often create obstacles for us to receive it well.