Steve the Builder

The internet and social media are a permanent part of our lives now. It opens the door to a lot of opportunities for good but are also the key that opens the doors to temptations and our passions. In this Lenten retreat Steve discusses the two parts of the Prayer of St. Ephraim: "Take from me..." and "Rather, give to me..." and how the passions are manifested and the virtues are cultivated on social media.

There are always questions about how to keep fasts and prayer rules etc., especially during holidays and with non-Orthodox family, young children, sometimes under difficult life circumstances. Steve discusses a lot of topics pertinent to living ascetical disciplines in "real life":

How people became saints for over a thousand years without our current "fasting rules" and no calendar with pink days blocked out.

The misperceptions of the history of fasting rules.

Why fasting is easier for monks than families.

How a four-year-old held an entire monastery hostage for two hours.

Who and what do we fast for?

How we fast wrong.

How to pray during a fast.

Is it possible for Impossible Burger to save you?

Can phoney baloney make you St. Sophrony?

Guilt, shame and fasting.

When life itself is a fast.

And more.....

Steve learns that he and his ego crucified Christ from a ten year old child.

Steve learns that he and his ego crucified Christ from a ten year old child.

Steve discusses his struggle with his recent diagnosis with cancer while caregiving his dying parents. He takes an honest, hard look at the common sayings and spiritual counsels often given to people who are suffering.

Steve discusses physical and spiritual dementia and remembrance in the sacramental life of the Church".

Steve discusses his death at birth, his life-long desire to be old, his "death wish," and what it means to "live is Christ and to die is gain."

On an ordinary night, like ten thousand other nights the shepherds experience the extraordinary: The transcendent God is revealed in our ordinary flesh.

Steve discusses the realities of becoming Orthodox, being Orthodox, and staying Orthodox.

Steve discusses mediocrity, the struggle with being ordinary, and the reality of what it means to be an "everyday saint."