Christian Saints Podcast

00:00 Introduction 01:09 If you want a good marriage, focus on your own healing 05:07 The Orthodox Church is THE Church, make the world The Church  11:24 There is no gap between the apostles & the bishops 23:50 The Epistle of St Ignatius to The Church in Smyrna 26:42 The relationship of the bishops to The Catholic Church 30:50 The Epistle of St Ignatius to The Church in Ephesus 34:06 The Churc...

00:00 Introduction 03:41 The Historicity of The Church 16:25 The Unity of The Church 27:30 Finding The Church is not Church Shopping 33:42 St Paul lost his cool about schism breaking The Church 37:41 Apostolic Succession requires hierarchy (bishops) 46:45 The therapy we need has never & will never change 54:58 Marriage counseling is about recognizing the need for individual repentance 61:41 Cl...

00:00 Introduction 00:57 Being sick in the hospital is not hypocrisy 07:16 Apostolic Christianity is not religious philosophy or psychology 19:06 Creation is an invitation to spiritual experience, not the experience itself 23:44 Why this spiritual life requires The Church in the formal sense 32:01 Making worship an obligation is like making romance an obligation 37:32 God taught us what the best w...

00:00 Introduction 02:10 Post-modernism in literature 03:40 What to expect from season eight 08:48 Be The Body of Christ, be The Church 12:48 Bad Ecclesiology causes parish problems & soul problems 16:17 Spirituality is deeply practical, the purpose is to be changed 20:04 Obedience is central to humility & repentance 22:20 Loving compassion is helping people cease to sin 28:28 It makes no...

00:00 Introduction 02:20 The structure of the vesperal portion 09:21 Why The Bible should have more than 66 books 11:22 The structure of the Divine Liturgy of St Basil for Holy Saturday 17:31 This service describes salvation in detailed images 31:55 Closing ~~~ Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great - What is Salvation?  ~~~ Reference materials for this episode:  Reference materials for th...

00:00 Introduction 02:55 The structures of the services 07:05 How do we face the apparent loss of trust & hope? 10:14 The three stasis of The Lamentations hymn  21:06 Closing ~~~ Winding Sheet & Lamentations - How Can We Go On? ~~~ Reference materials for this episode:  The rubrics of the services, in English translation, of  - Vespers of Holy Friday evening (known as the service of The Wi...

00:00 Introduction 01:42 Summary of the 12 readings 05:35 Jesus is condemned for claiming to be God 10:53 Why Saint Paul was a crucial member of The 12 13:32 The 2 odd Psalms which highlight Jesus’ teaching from The Cross 23:37 Closing ~~~ Orthros of The 12 Passion Gospels - How Did It Happen? ~~~ Reference materials for this episode:  The rubrics of the service of the 12 Passion Gospels in Englis...

00:00 Introduction 04:01 A service of healing 06:12 Prayer is always answered 14:20 From what does Jesus heal us? 18:55 We were created for the good life 21:55 Closing ~~~ Holy Unction - Do You Want to Be Healed? ~~~ Reference materials for this episode:  The rubrics of the service of Holy Unction in English translation Scripture citations for this episode: Readings from the service  - Psalm 50/51...

00:00 Introduction 01:43 The parable of the ten bridemaids 04:50 Distinct hymns & gospel readings  13:09 Jesus’ conflict with Jewish leadership 17:25 The twelve steps to humility by Saint Benedict 19:23 One - Reverence for God 20:03 Two - Doing God’s Will 22:05 Three - Obedience to Others 24:24 Four - Enduring Affliction 26:09 Five - Confession 28:27 Six - Be Content without Prestige 29:17 Sev...

00:00 Introduction 01:50 The focus of the four gospel accounts 02:40 The hymnody, apolytikion & odes for Palm Sunday 07:55 But what about us Gentiles? 11:59 We are from the ten tribes & we are grafted in to restore them 13:42 Closing ~~~ Palm Sunday - Is This For Everyone? ~~~ Reference materials for this episode:  Orthros for the Sunday of The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem  Scripture ci...

00:00 Introduction 01:19 The Gospel Account of Saint John's telling of the raising of Lazarus 08:53 The apolytikion emphasizes the general resurrection 11:29 Parallel to The Feast of Transfiguration 12:32 The verses of the odes for Lazarus Saturday 15:36 Our obligation to the evangelion of The Christ 19:45 Closing ~~~ Lazarus Saturday - From What Are We Saved? ~~~ Reference materials for this...

00:00 Opening 02:50 Fr Symeon's Sermon 21:30 Salvation isn't  heaven, or morality, it's illumination 28:11 The paranoia born of living in exile 37:18 Orthodoxy doesn't do philosophical apologetics, we seek illumination 54:10 You can't put an onion dome on The Academy 73:29 Closing & housekeeping ~~~ This, too, Shall Pass (Season Finale) - S7E20 ~~~ This is the end of s...

00:00 Opening 01:04 You can't put The Faith on the screen & do it well 04:23 Stop debating if Jesus was an undocumented immigrant or refugee 07:54 Don't use Christian images as a foil for ideological vision 10:42 I care if the vulnerable meet God, which means I have to feed them 18:40 Silencing the monstrous is the only righteous anger 22:33 Response videos & click bait breed arr...

00:00 Introduction 02:20 Opening 06:17 We are all nuts 10:36 The sins others can't see are more dangerous 13:30 Living enslaved to Sin is standing on a cliff 17:39 We Can't Build Utopia 18:45 What we do has far more consequence than we realize 23:00 The Dream of The Enlightenment breeds cattle & monsters 25:27 Pursuit of Eutopia breeds Dystopia 28:45 A rabbit trail about our favorite...

00:00 Introduction 05:25 Competing ideologies 09:46 The fundamentals - vision of humanity 12:27 Are humans good or evil 16:20 Are people evil or deluded? 19:46 Can we agree on what good & evil are? 22:55 The sinless passions 25:29 Issues of identity 28:00 The Prince of Peace is Born! 31:44 Too much Emmanuel Kant 33:36 Christmas proclaims Love Incarnate 35:00 Genesis 3, The Lie is "Be Unco...

00:00 Intro/lead in from previous episode 02:49 Icon of The Nativity, concentric circles 09:05 She Isn't Looking At Her Baby?! 13:00 We Are Joseph, Trying to Understand 18:18 Everyone Has Doubts, We Can't Stay There 22:06 Joseph As Exemplar for Masculinity 29:29 There is Doubt & There is Doubt 33:31 Overcoming Sin Is Target Practice 35:50 Bethlehem is The Church 39:30 Wanting to Beli...

00:00 Intro/Catching up together 04:48 Pairing Old & New Testament Icons 11:42 Fr Symeon tells a story 17:12 Adoption, grafting, Friendsgiving & the cherry on top 24:05 Saint Paul explaining the reality of Israel in Romans 34:07 The secret in The Nativity icon about Joseph & Mary 37:37 The presence of The Son at both ends of The Tree of Jesse 41:10 Saint Paul at Mars Hill, is the probl...

00:00 Intro 02:04 Chapter 1 09:59 Chapter 2 20:11 Chapter 3 30:09 Chapter 4 40:10 Chapter 5 50:08 Chapter 6 61:13 Chapter 7 65:09 Outro The second half of our conversation about how a huge part of the problem with "politics" in The United States is both "sides" have the same underlying assumption: we can't live the good life until everyone agrees with us & the laws ref...

00:00 Intro/Back from China 03:56 Journalism in China & The West 09:51 Harmony, rancor, journalism, editorial & social media 19:49 Saint Paul to The Church in Rome on quiet living 23:07 Vacation vs daily life in a place 27:29 Nominalism cannot be the path to social harmony 35:57 To love neighbor & enemy we must participate in God's holiness 40:12 Humble repentance is the path to a...

As we continue our discussion of the difficulty in integrating the journey on the way of the life of faithfulness to the evengalion of Jesus, The Christ, the Orthodox Christian way of life, into contemporary western culture, Jim & Fr Symeon take the opportunity to discuss "the other side". Last conversation we defined & critique "woke" as the civil religion of the so-ca...

As we continue our discussion of the difficulty in integrating the journey on the way of the life of faithfulness to the evengalion of Jesus, The Christ, the Orthodox Christian way of life, into contemporary western culture, Jim & Fr Symeon take the opportunity to discuss "the other side". Last conversation we defined & critique "woke" as the civil religion of the so-ca...

Our ongoing discussion of the difficulty in integrating the journey on the way of the life of faithfulness to the evengalion of Jesus, The Christ, the Orthodox Christian way of life, into contemporary western culture continues as Jim & Fr Symeon talk about the tower of babel as the proto-story of humanity's quest for control over our own destiny & God, repeatedly, making us aware we&a...

Our ongoing discussion of the difficulty in integrating the journey on the way of the life of faithfulness to the evengalion of Jesus, The Christ, the Orthodox Christian way of life, into contemporary western culture continues as Jim & Fr Symeon talk about the tower of babel as the proto-story of humanity's quest for control over our own destiny & God, repeatedly, making us aware we&a...

Part two of our conversation with friend of the show & Iconograhper Nick Papas, who is once again our most welcome guest for this conversation. Our previous discussion about Independence Day having individual meaning for Jim & Fr Symeon got Jim to thinking about how much this actually inverts the purpose of public holidays. This lack of unity as a country reminded him of an increasingly po...

Don’t Go Back to Babylon - S7E7  Friend of the show & Iconograhper Nick Papas is once again our most welcome guest for this conversation, which will be presented in two parts, the second of which will be episode eight. Our previous discussion about Independence Day having individual meaning for Jim & Fr Symeon got Jim to thinking about how much this actually inverts the purpose of public h...