Father Michael’s Blog
Be Faithful in Small Things
If I had to compose a list of the mistakes that we make in our spiritual efforts, even if we’re serious and well-intentioned about our Faith, somewhere near the top of that list of mistakes would be focusing on big changes that usually never get made, while ignoring all the small changes that, in the […]
Be Totally Honest, First of All with Yourself
We might think that of all the people we could fool in this world, the last person we could fool would be ourselves, but this is just not the case. In Maxim #26 of Father Thomas Hopko’s 55 Maxims for Christian Living he addresses a problem that all of us have, to varying degrees: not […]
What Can WE Do?
Last night our parish was blessed to once again host our annual Middle Eastern dinner, in which delicious, hot food was served up at a rate of one meal every 10 seconds, for three continuous hours. Sure, it was a remarkable sight in terms of efficiency, organization and culinary skill. However, as impressive as it […]
One Day at a Time
In the 23rd of Fr. Tom Hopko’s 55 Maxims for Christian Living, he offers what we might mistake is just another common adage: to live “one day at a time“. While this may seem like a simplistic teaching, it is actually more complex than it seems and if we are honest, much more of a […]
EXERCISE REGULARLY
Maxim #22 of Father Thomas Hopko’s 55 Maxims for Christian Living brings us another topic that perhaps seems out of place in a discussion of Christian living: “Exercise Regularly.” But to demonstrate that assuming our incorrect thinking based on a false dichotomy of body and soul, we have a reflection of a fairly contemporary saint, […]
Live a Day–or Even a Part of a Day–at a Time
Maxim #23 of Fr. Thomas Hopko’s 55 Maxims for Christian Living is “Live a Day–or Even a Part of a Day–at a Time.” Based largely on Christ’s command “not to be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for ourselves” (Matthew 6:34), this maxim identifies a struggle in which many of us are engaged. […]
Hopko Maxim #21: Have a Healthy, Wholesome Hobby
This won’t be the first time that I write about the importance of rest and recreation in the spiritual life. A previous blog post spoke about the importance of rest in general, and another focused on the importance of regular cycles of rest of varying amounts. In the next of Father Thomas Hopko’s 55 Maxims […]
Maxim #20: Maintain Cleanliness and Order in your Home
We continue our reflections of Fr. Tom Hopko’s 55 Maxims for Christian Living with #20–Maintain cleanliness and order in your home. Our first reaction might be to say to ourselves “What does cleanliness have to do with Christian living?” The experience of the Church is that EVERYTHING in our lives impacts our Christian living. As […]
RUDE TO GOD
In today’s blog post, I really wanted to talk about how important it is to keep learning about the Faith, since we begin our Fall series of Family Night Dinners and Pathways to Spiritual Growth tonight. I also thought about writing about all the excitement I saw around the various ministries which were on display […]
IF NOT YOU, WHO?
It’s not entirely clear whether it was Ronald Reagan or a first century Jewish rabbi, but no matter who said it first, a certain phrase has since become an important reminder that when something needs to be done, before we look elsewhere we should ask: If not you, who? If not now, when? Reagan repeatedly […]
Be Polite with Everyone, first of all family members
In our ongoing reflections on Fr. Thomas Hopko’s 55 Maxims for Christian Living, we now come to number 19: “Be polite with everyone, first of all family members.” So let’s face two things right off the bat: politeness is in short supply in our world in general these days, and ironically, most of all within […]
VISION, WORK, & BELIEF
This week’s Mid-week Reflection is provided to us from Archdeacon David’s excellent homily from this past Sunday. Enjoy! In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. In preparing for this morning’s sermon I took a look at the liturgical calendar of the church to see what the readings were, […]
