How Not to Sink Like a Stone in the Waves of our Passions

Eastern Christian Insights

#Religion #Homilies #Sermons #Texas #Orthodox #Church #Priest #Ethics #Theology #Abilene #Fr. Philip LeMasters and Ancient Faith Radio #Ancient Faith Radio #Fr. Philip LeMasters #Christianity #McMurry

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On the Season 2 debut of Lost Cultures: Living Legacies , we travel to Bermuda, an Atlantic island whose history spans centuries and continents. Once uninhabited, Bermuda became a vital stop in transatlantic trade, a maritime stronghold, and a cultural crossroads shaped by African, European, Caribbean, and Native American influences. Guests Dr. Kristy Warren and Dr. Edward Harris trace its transformation from an uninhabited island to a strategic outpost shaped by shipwrecks, colonization, the transatlantic slave trade, and the rise and fall of empires. Plus, former Director of Tourism Gary Phillips shares the story of the Gombey tradition, a vibrant performance art rooted in resistance, migration, and cultural fusion. Together, they reveal how Bermuda’s layered past continues to shape its people, culture, and identity today. You can also find us online at ⁠travelandleisure.com/lostcultures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

about a year ago

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If you are like me, there are times when you become worried or upset over matters of very little importance. It often does not take much to punch our buttons because we base our sense of self and wellbeing, as well as our hopes for the future, on illusions that cannot fulfill them. Due to our darkened spiritual vision, we do not see ourselves, our relationships with other people, or where we stand before the Lord very clearly. When the inevitable challenges of life cause us to catch even a small glimpse of these uncomfortable truths, we usually do not like it and can easily start to sink into the churning sea of our passions.

529 episodes

How Not to Sink Like a Stone in the Waves of our Passions

Eastern Christian Insights

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published about a year ago

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529 episodes

All episodes

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Our True Calling as Orthodox Christians

1 day ago

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Fr. Philip LeMasters is an Orthodox priest who serves St. Luke Orthodox Church and teaches Religion at McMurry University in Abilene, TX. You can find his blog at https://easternchristianinsights.blogspot.com/.

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Our One Essential Calling

15 days ago

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Eastern Christian Insights

1
Bearing Witness to the Lord

23 days ago

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Eastern Christian Insights

1
We Cannot Heal Ourselves

4 weeks ago

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During the season of Pascha, the Church calls our attention to how particular people responded to our Lord, Who rose from the dead as a whole embodied person on the third day. Thomas did not believe until he saw and touched the wounds of the Risen Savior. Joseph of Arimathea took Christ’s body down from the Cross and, with the help of Nicodemus, buried Him. The Myrrh-Bearing women became the first witnesses of His resurrection when they went to the tomb very early in the morning to anoint the Lord’s body as a final sign of love.…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Act out of Love, not out of Fear

5 weeks ago

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As we continue to celebrate our Lord’s glorious resurrection on the third day and victory over Hades and the tomb, we should admit that all too often we live as though death still reigned. We do so especially when we somehow convince ourselves that fear, anger, and resentment of those we perceive as our enemies are somehow Christian virtues.…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
If Christ is not Risen, Our Faith is Empty

6 weeks ago

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Today we continue to celebrate the most fundamental and joyful proclamation of our faith: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! He is our Pascha, our Passover, from death to life, for Hades and the grave could not contain the God-Man Who shares with us His victory over corruption and decay in all their forms. In a world enslaved to the fear of the grave, He has illumined even the dark night of the tomb with the brilliant light of heavenly glory.…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Entering the Mystery of Christ's Passion

7 weeks ago

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The Desert Father Saint Antony the Great once tested a group of monks by asking them, beginning with the youngest, the meaning of a certain passage of Scripture. In response to their answers, he said, “You have not understood it.” Finally, he asked Abba Joseph, who said, “I do not know.” Then Abba Antony said, “Indeed Abba Joseph has found the way, for he has said: ‘I do not know.’"…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Healing from the Ravages of Sin

9 weeks ago

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The more clearly that we see our personal brokenness, the more tempted we may be to think that there is simply no point in trying to reorient our lives toward the Lord.

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Keep Your Mind in Hell, But Do Not Despair

10 weeks ago

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If we have embraced the spiritual practices of Lent with any level of integrity, the weakness of our faith has surely become apparent to us. Our minds wander when we pray and so much else seems more important than being fully present before the Lord, both in the services of the Church and in our daily prayers at home. We often make excuses not to fast to the best of our ability and, regardless of what we eat and drink, routinely indulge our self-centered desires for pleasure. We justify being stingy in sharing our resources and attention with our neighbors, especially when we fear that doing so will compromise our dreams of self-sufficiency and comfort. By this point in Lent, we have all gained insight into how we have failed to entrust ourselves to Christ to the point that we can say with the brokenhearted father in today’s gospel reading, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Halfway Through Lent We Venerate the Cross

11 weeks ago

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Today we venerate the precious and lifegiving Cross upon which Christ offered Himself for the salvation of the world purely out of love for those enslaved to the fear of death, which He conquered through His glorious resurrection on the third day. Contrary to popular opinion, the Cross is not the sign of a civil religion that grants spiritual sanction to any power structure of this world. Neither is it a magical good luck charm that makes all our problems go away or gives us what we want on our own terms. It is certainly not a means of escape from the daily struggles of living faithfully or a way of demonstrating our superiority over any person or group. In fact, the Cross of Christ is the complete opposite of such distortions, for it stands in radical judgment of those who would attempt to use religion to help them seek first the things of this world, such as power, pleasure, and possessions.…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Lent Calls us to Grow in our Knowledge of God

12 weeks ago

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We will misunderstand these blessed weeks of Lent if we assume that they are intended to help us have clearer ideas or deeper feelings about our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection. We will be even more confused if we think that our intensified prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and repentance somehow earn God’s forgiveness or make us better than other people. Quite the contrary, Lenten disciples are simply opportunities to open ourselves as embodied persons to the gracious healing of the Lord so that we may share more fully in His life. That is another way of saying that the point of Lent is to grow in our personal knowledge of God through true spiritual experience, encounter, and transformation.…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Homily for the First Sunday of Great Lent (Sunday of Orthodoxy)

13 weeks ago

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On this first Sunday of Great Lent, we commemorate the restoration of icons centuries ago in the Byzantine Empire. They were banned due to a misguided fear of idolatry, but restored as a proclamation of how Christ calls us to participate in His salvation in every dimension of our existence. The icons convey the incarnation of the God-Man, Who had to be fully human with a real human body in order to be born, live in this world, die, rise from the grave, and ascend into heaven.…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Great Lent Calls Us Back to Paradise

14 weeks ago

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The gospel readings from the last few Sundays have called us all to return home from our self-imposed exile. Zacchaeus was restored as a son of Abraham when he gave more than justice required from his ill-gotten gains to the poor and those whom he had exploited. The publican returned to his spiritual home by humbly calling for the Lord’s mercy, even as the Pharisee exiled himself by his pride. The prodigal son took the long journey home after coming to his senses about the misery that stemmed from abandoning his father. Last Sunday we heard that the ultimate standard of judgment for entering into our true home of eternal blessedness is whether we have become living icons of the Savior’s merciful lovingkindness.…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Homily for the Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meat Fare)

15 weeks ago

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In case you have somehow not noticed, Great Lent begins a week from tomorrow. On this Sunday of the Last Judgment, the Church reminds us that the point of the upcoming season of repentance is not the keeping of religious rules or the performance of any form of piety as an end in itself. Our vocation in Lent is, instead, to open our souls to the healing mercy of the Lord so that we may enter more fully into His victory over sin and death at Pascha. The ultimate test of whether we will do so this Lent is not simply a matter of how strictly we fast, how many services we attend, or how much money we give to the poor. It is, instead, whether we will unite ourselves to Christ such that His love permeates every dimension of our character to the point that we treat our neighbors as He treats us.…

Eastern Christian Insights

1
Repentance Requires Our Free Cooperation with the Merciful Grace of God

19 weeks ago