Archpastoral Reflections

In our previous reflections, we have focused on the theme “Gather My People to My Home,” as it relates to our calling to reach out to all people and invite them to come and see the power and beauty of faith and experience the love of God within our communities. As we have examined, this calling is to reach out to those who have become disassociated from their Orthodox faith, to the unchurched, and to others who are struggling to find answers to the questions of life. Another group of people that we need to engage with the truth and love of the Gospel consists of those who openly profess that they do not believe in God.

We continue our reflections on the theme “Gather My People to My Home” by focusing on the challenging task of gathering those who are struggling with deep and serious questions about life and God. In previous reflections we have addressed our calling to gather both “disconnected” Orthodox Christians and the unchurched.

In our last reflection, studying the theme of our most recent Clergy-Laity Congress "Gather My People to My Home," we focused our attention on the word "Gather." As a consequence, a serious question was raised: Who are the people whom we are trying to "gather"?

Since our 39th Clergy-Laity Congress last summer, we have been consistently and methodically devoting a series of reflections to analyzing various elements of its theme: “Gather My People to My Home.”

Last month we began to reflect more deeply into what we precisely mean when we refer to “God’s Home” as the gathering place for His people, in view of the theme of our most recent Clergy-Laity Congress, “Gather My People to My Home.”

We continue our series of reflections by identifying and applying certain aspects of the theme of our most recent Clergy-Laity Congress, “Gather My People to My Home.”

We conclude our series on renewal by addressing the most significant purpose of our spiritual transformation to salvation and eternal life. Over the past few months, we have examined the importance of the renewal of heart, renewal of spirit, and renewal of our lifestyles.

As we continue our series of reflections on the topic of renewal, we encounter a specific area that is in certain need of constant renewal. This is the area of our everyday life, of the manner by which we lead our lives. Practically, this is the issue of what is called “lifestyle.” In this case a pertinent, two-fold question arises, “What is our lifestyle, and how can it be renewed?”

Over the past few months we have given attention to the topic of “security” as it is understood within our Orthodox faith.

In continuing with our series of reflections on authentic sources of security, we turn to consider the holy angels and their roles in our lives as "ministering spirits sent for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation" (Hebrews 1:14). As God's appointed messengers and guardians, we may gain a real and lasting comfort knowing that the holy angels are with us throughout our lives in times of danger and distress. This is what we mean when we pray to the Lord at our divine services for "an angel of peace, a faithful guide, and a guardian of our souls and bodies."

During this month, there is an abundance of opportunities for worship and for our spiritual and intellectual growth as Greek Orthodox Christians.

Our consideration of the topic of security is a growing one in our contemporary age. Before elaborating upon this important topic, we should ask some fundamental questions: First, how do we understand the notion of security?

Each and every day of our lives we are confronted by different ideologies and philosophies that attempt to answer for us some of the great questions of life. Some of these are very obvious, such as the views of different religions or the multitude of political and economic theories and systems that we find in our modern world. Others are much more subtle and can often affect our lives in significant ways.

Our careful attention to the subject of our finances is an important element of our religious education as Orthodox Christians. Examples of the role of money in society and its proper use abound in the Holy Scriptures, in the homilies from the early Church Fathers, and in the actions of notable people who have gone before us.