Made to Be a Kingdom

Fr. Harry talks about the need to foster a healthy culture now and laments that we were not better at it sooner. Fr. Anthony agrees but notes that the previous century atrophied some of the institutions that make such an approach seem natural. They also note the way our weakness and the dire state of the world combine with social media to turn the usual Orthodox approach to discernment on its head. Enjoy the show!

This episode delves into the question of the relationship of culture to salvation. Items discussed include the Gospel message from St. Peter on the day of Pentecost and its relationship to our encounter with culture today.

How do we as the Kingdom “not of this world” deal with things in this world such as the culture wars? Our hosts discuss how to tackle the matter of our relationship to culture and in this case a culture “post-Christendom.” How do we deal with it in our homes, or in the workplace? How do we know when to “make a stand” and when not to do so? Whence do we get our barometer, from hierarchy or from monastic prophets? These and other topics are discussed.

Here our hosts discuss how our “worldly” jobs, be they one career or many different callings throughout life, are not worldly at all for the Orthodox Christian, but are part of our sacrificial and royal calling as members of the Royal Priesthood

The place of vacation and leisure in the lives of children of God’s Kingdom. How do we strike a balance? Often vacations are not restful. How do we fit in rest?

The Christian family is the primary way most of us grow the Kingdom of God. We are called to make disciples of all nations but that also means in all nations, in the place where we are. We fulfill this calling by reciprocally nurturing our spouses and raising children to be followers of the Creator and Redeemer of all. The hosts also discuss the role of the family in satisfying Christ's calling to minister to "the least of these" (St. Matthew 25:45). Enjoy the show!

The hosts talk about the logistics of family prayer and individual prayer and the role these prayers play in growing us in The Kingdom. The topics addressed include variations of prayer rules and the extent to which listening to recorded prayers are useful. Enjoy the show!

We often compartmentalize our lives. Last episode we talked about how just as your parish priest is a priest to the faithful, so also are the faithful priests to the world and its people. Just as the church functions as priests for the world and all its people—Orthodox Christians, other Christians, and even heathens, so also in our families, at least in our extended families, we have all these partitions, and we are called to be priests for them—intercessors before God. Today we talk about the act of eating together makes us into a priesthood. Eating is a religious act. Eating together even more so. At the center of the iconostasis above the holy doors are two images, both of which depict communal meals. Eating together is a royal act and a priestly act. We need to regularly eat together with our families and have it covered in prayer, asking God each time to bless us and the food which we are about to eat, and to thank him for these things. Enjoy the show!

Being part of the Kingdom requires repentance; today the hosts talk about some of the ways of thinking (even about Orthodoxy!) that have to change in order for us to better fulfill our calling as the Royal Priesthood. For example, we often think of ourselves as what we are not rather than what we are (i.e. we are “not them.”). That, however, is quite different from what God thinks of us and our calling. We are to be priests of “them,” other Christians and non-Christians, animals and the entire world, as the most basic level of human brotherhood mentioned by St. Gregory Palamas in his first homily. Enjoy the show!

In this episode which continues a discussion of the way the two Kingdoms are present in the theology of Holy Week, Fr. Harry blows Fr. Anthony's mind with his presentation of the way the Mystical Supper brings all Christians into the death and resurrection of Christ. So awesome.