Light of the East

Getting weary of the Lenten fasting? Sneaked that piece of chocolate or gossiped about someone? Take heart, encouragement is here on this Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross.

Abstaining from meat, dairy, sweets, wine, oil I-phones and entertainment and adding more prayer seem unreasonable? It is actually the norm that Lent seeks to bring us back to,

Behold the Church is covered with a heavenly garment by the icons thus preserving the true faith. May those who do not believe this be covered with shame.

The season of Lent emphasizes almsgiving for which the Eastern Catholic Churches are a worthy focus as they are at the epicenter of much global strife.

In a temple the Elder Simeon holds Christ in his hands and then asks to be dismissed from this world. What do we say with God entering our entire being.

St. John Paul II reminded us that the Church breathes with two lungs, two complementary expressions of the one same Faith. But what is it that the two lungs have in common?

Perhaps the single greatest genius of the Eastern Christian spirituality is the art of living in the both/and – where something can be this and that at the same time. This first Sunday of pre-Lent will make this clear.

In a baton race, two runners overlap for a moment as the baton is being passed. So it is with the past and upcoming seasons in the Church's Liturgical "passing of the baton."

As though being born and laid in a manger in Bethlehem was not humbling enough, Our Lord chose to lower himself in the lowest spot in the Earth’s surface, the river Jordan. There he would be baptized for our sake and God as Trinity would be revealed.

Providentially in the civil calendar as we cut away from the previous year and open to a New year, Our New Born Savior likewise undergoes a cutting away and an openness to the new.

All families have their story from sinners to saints. So, it is with the family of Jesus Christ. But God still works out His divine plan which is the miracle of this season.

Do NOT 'celebrate the Holidays.' Rather, contemplate and be transformed by the Great Mystery of the Incarnation. Don't just buy gifts. Become a gift now and in every moment after December 25th.

So much decorating! So many lights to put up. It is the ancient iconography of the Church, even one painted by our Blessed Mother herself, that will explain our need for imagery.

"Do not celebrate Christmas. That's Right. Do not celebrate Christmas. Rather, rely on the Church's preparation for Christmas to help you enter the mystery of the Incarnation and be transformed by it.

Both inside and outside of the Church, hope, self-sacrifice and courage, much needed in our world, seem to be so scarce. Our two guests Rinju Chenet and Kameron Traxler serve as signs of hope for the Church and the world.

This week you will listen to a milestone moment here on Light of the East. With gratitude to Almighty God and to all of you, we will broadcast program number 1,000.

Do you want to remain hopeful, faithful and negotiate the strife, division and confusion of our times? Look into the timeless wisdom of the Church's Liturgy and saints.

I hear the echoes of the coming Christmas Season. And it presents us with not only a spirit of gift but also of saints and angels to focus upon in our preparation.

So ancient yet so new. How late have I found Thee.” The words of St. Augustine to Our Lord might also be the words of those who have found a place within the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Do you want to remain hopeful, faithful and negotiate through the strife, division and confusion of our times? Look into the timeless wisdom of the Church's liturgy and saints.

Every Eastern Christian church has its own ancient and indigenous chant which is sung by the faithful during liturgical services. This gives cantors a special place in Eastern Christian Liturgy.

We are not PC here at "Light of the East Radio." We are BC, Byzantine Catholic. But there are some questions from RCs that are not very PC to pose to a BC. Is this making sense?

As we draw near to the Nativity of Our Lord we look back on the ancestry of Christ and the many foretellings and prefigurements of Christ in the Old Testament

There is in our times a big, round, painful hole in the very soul of western civilization. It could very well be that it is the Eastern Catholic Churches that can help fil that hole.

Our children have gone back to school and so are we. We begin our school year with the question: What is the THE difference between the Eastern Rites and the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church?