Our Priests

Our world is plagued with fear, immorality, selfishness, war, and many other types of sin. As a result, some have lost hope in God’s goodness while others have become apathetic to sin. St. Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians speaks of the serious consequence of sin when he states, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:10). 

A paraphrased excerpt from "On the Baptism of Christ" by St. Gregory of Nyssa

One of the most common complaints I hear from the congregation is that “church is boring!” While I often hear this complaint from parents on behalf of their children, it would be naïve to assume that children are the only ones who express their dissatisfaction about going to church.  Adults, often secretly, also share in the same sentiment.  In the next series of articles, I hope to address some of the causes of boredom and provide remedies to help you stay engaged in Liturgy.

During a period of gloomy captivity and despair for the Israelite nation, the pre-incarnate Logos, Jesus Christ, appears to Prophet Ezekiel roughly 600 years before the incarnation.  At the time of the revelation, Ezekiel was sitting in his house in Babylon conversing with other Israelite refugees. Ezekiel, in awe of the glory of God, describes the Logos as “a likeness, like the appearance of fire – from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color amber” (Ezek. 8:2). The Logos then takes Ezekiel in the spirit from the gathering and shows him four abominations occurring in the most sacred, holiest, and consecrated place on earth – the glorious Temple.