Celebrating Freedom…but are we really free? “I am freer here in prison than I was ever on the outside!” Over many years of being a prison chaplain, I have heard that statement countless times. How could that possibly be? How could someone experience more freedom inside a prison than on the outside? On the 4th of July […]
Seeing the Beauty Within Christ is Risen!! My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Recently I came across this wonderful quote from Metropolitan Anthony Bloom of Sourozh: Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by […]
Fasting and Prayer I began serving as a prison chaplain more than thirty years ago. That makes for a lot of Great Lents spent in prison. One year, two men were about to participate in the fast for the first time since becoming Orthodox. They were determined to keep the fast very strictly. In that […]
Over the centuries, many people have been blessed by God to know the time of their departure from this world. Most of us will likely not be told. But what if we knew that this Great Lent would be our very last one? Would we make any changes to our Lenten life? As Orthodox, we […]
Dandelions – A Valentine’s Day Message by Fr. Stephen Can you tell the difference between a flower and a weed? Many folks in our society view people in prison as weeds. But as Orthodox Christians, we take a different view. We believe that every person has the potential to be a flower—people in prison, and […]
As we begin 2016, many of us have set goals with the hopes of becoming a better person. When I served as a prison chaplain, I gave a pre-release class to men who would soon get out. They too were setting goals with the hope of becoming better people. One of the things I stressed […]
Christmas Day!! For many of us, those two words bring to mind cherished images: a joyful celebration of the Divine Liturgy rejoicing at the Birth of our Savior, the mystery of presents under the tree, the smiles of children as they unwrap their gifts, the savory smells of Christmas dinner and the warmth of family […]
Giving Thanks to God In the Gospel of Luke, we read the story of the 10 lepers. Imagine how desperate these men were for healing, living as pariahs in a society that shunned them because of their leprosy. One day, as Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord have mercy!” And the Lord healed […]
There is a battle that rages within people, both those in prison and those on the outside. It is described well by St. Paul in Romans 7: the battle between good and evil inside of us. Here’s a wonderful old story for us to think about today: An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about […]
Loving someone…because He loved us first! Loving someone…because He loved us first! A dear sister in Christ shared the following story with me and gave her permission to share it with you. May we learn to love others, because it is the right thing to do and it is what we are made to do!! […]