The Orthodox Vine

The Orthodox Vine

By Fr. Ninos OshaanaReligion & SpiritualityChristianity
Download on the App Store

The Orthodox Vine episodes

  • Woe to you Pharisees
    On the Gospel reading: "Woe to you Pharisees"
    A man went into the forest to choose a tree from which to make roof-beams. And he saw two trees, one beside the other. One was smooth and tall, but had rotted away inside, and the other was rough on the outside and ugly, but its core was healthy. The man sighed, and said to himself: “What use is this tree to me if it is rotten inside and useless for beams? The other it is rough and ugly, is at least healthy on the inside and so, if I put a bit more effort into it, I can use it for roof-beams for my house.” And, without thinking any more about it, he chose that tree.

    So will God choose between two men for His house, and will choose not the one who appears outwardly righteous, but the one whose heart is filled with God’s healthy righteousness.
    St. Nikolai Verimilovic
    8 min
  • Sermon: We are Children of Our Father

    Sermon on the raising of Jairus' daughter and the woman with the issue of blood and how in confession we need to tell "Our Father" everything with humility and love as the woman in the gospel reading.  

    13 min
  • Your eye is the lamp of your body

    What else does he mean by “the eye” than simply the mind, which will never become simple unless it contemplates the simple light? The simple light is Christ. He who has his light shining in his mind is said to have the mind of Christ. When your light is this simple, then the whole immaterial body of your soul will be full of light. If the mind is evil, that is, darkened and extinguished, then this body of yours will be full of darkness….We say, “See to it, brothers, that while we seem to be in God and think that we have communion with him we should not be found excluded and separated from him, since we do not now see his light.” If that light had kindled our lamps, that is, our souls, it would shine brightly in us. Our God and Lord Jesus Christ said, “If your whole body is full of life, having no dark part, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light."


    St. Symeon the New Theologian

    9 min
  • Because of their unbelief

    On the Gospel reading: "Because of their unbelief"


    “When you read a worldly magazine or newspaper, it is light and agreeable reading, you easily believe in everything in it. But if you take up a religious publication or book to read, especially one relating to church matters, or sometimes when you begin reading prayers? You feel a weight upon your heart, you are tormented by doubt and unbelief, and experience a sort of darkness and aversion. Many acknowledge this. From what does it proceed? Of course, not from the nature of the books themselves, but from the nature of the readers, from the nature of their hearts, and chiefly from the Devil, the enemy of mankind, the enemy of everything holy: ‘he takes away the word out of their hearts’ (Lk. 8:12). When we read worldly books, we do not touch him and he does not touch us. But as soon as we take up religious books, as soon as we begin to think of our amendment and salvation, then we go against him; we irritate and torment him, and therefore he attacks us and torments us on his side. What can we do? We must not throw aside the good work, the reading or prayers that are profitable to our souls, but we must patiently endure and in patience save our souls.”

    -St. John of Kronstadt

    12 min
  • Lord, teach us to pray

    On the Gospel reading: "Forgive us our sins"


    “When you pray that your sins may be forgiven, strengthen yourself always by faith, and trust in God’s mercy, Who is ever ready to forgive our sins after sincere prayer, and fear lest despair should fall on your heart — that despair which declares itself by deep despondency and forced tears. What are your sins in comparison to God’s mercy, whatever they be, if only you truly repent of them? But it often happens that when a man prays, he does not, in his heart, inwardly hope that his sins will be forgiven, counting them as though they were above God’s mercy. Therefore, he certainly will not obtain forgiveness, even should he shed fountains of involuntary tears; and with a sorrowful, straitened heart he will depart from the Gracious God: which is only what he deserves. ‘Believe that ye receive them,’ says the Lord, ‘and ye shall have them.’ Not to be sure of receiving what you ask God for, is a blasphemy against God.”

    St. John of Kronstadt


    Today we commemorate St. Abercius Bishop and Wonderworker of Hieropolis. 

    Get the Daily Meditation as an email. Sign-up here



    12 min
  • Blessed are the eyes that see the things you see

    Like the disciples to whom our Lord addressed these words, as Christians today, we also are blessed to be able to see what all the ancient prophets, kings and wise men of the world died not seeing. We are able to see God, face to face, in the person of Jesus Christ. Not in a symbolic way, but by participating in and living within a spiritual reality. Through the Holy Spirit, which is received at baptism and chrismation, I am made capable of knowing God and seeing him, experiencing him, of seeing him with the eyes of my heart and my soul. If I respond to this gift, if I exercise the power I have been given, if I commit myself to spiritual struggle, my life becomes one continuous opening, unfolding and revelation of an experience of God, of "seeing God" and this nourishes and grows my faith. The experiences will vary for each person. I may hear the sweet and loving voice of Christ as it enters my heart and touches my soul whenever I read the Bible. I may be moved to tears when I meditate on the suffering in the world due to sin and death, the brokenness of the human person, and how Jesus Christ came to heal us and save us by joining us to his own holy and resurrected flesh and blood and soul. I may receive consolation, relief, comfort, light, spiritual peace and joy when I go to confession, when I participate attentively and sincerely in the Divine Liturgy and receive Holy Communion in repentance and with love for Christ. In the astonishing miracles performed by Christ, his Holy Mother, and all the saints, from the days of the apostles to our modern times, I may finally be convicted in the belief that God is indeed with us. In the radical changes, through the grace of God, of my own mind, my heart, or that of someone I know, I may witness first-hand the power of God and become convinced that no matter what may happen in my life, a deep sense of hope and trust in our Lord is firmly planted in me and will continue to be nourished in me through both my joys and my trials. In all these ways and more, we are blessed to see and know God and to be known by Him.

    14 min
  • Take up your cross

    Daily meditation: "Take up your cross".   Today we commemorate St. Lucian the Martyr.  


    When we were baptized, we each received a cross around our necks. This wasn't simply a beautiful ornament but an outward sign of an inner calling. The calling to remain loyal to Christ no matter what may happen in our life. Loyal in the sense that one believes all things come from God, whether good or bad, and that one trusts in the Providence of God, that he is in control, even in the most desperate and difficult times. This is the essence of faith. And yes, our faith may waver at times when we try to make sense of how or why bad things happen. But we can't allow such wavering to lead to doubt of God's love or even his presence. The most powerful example of this is when Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaak. He didn't understand why and it was the most painful and difficult thing he had ever faced. Yet his love for God was so great that he accepted God's plan, God's will, God's wisdom above his own, firmly believing that there was a reason for it and that, whether in this life or the next, all will be revealed, all will be restored, and all will be exceedingly good. St. Paul speaks on this in his First Letter to the Corinthians 13:12, he writes: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

    St. Nikolai Verimilovitch offers the following explanation on the words, "take up your cross," writing: “What does it mean to take up your cross? I means the willing acceptance, at the hand of Providence, of every means of healing, bitter though it may be, that is offered. Do great catastrophes fall on you? Be obedient to God’s will, as Noah was. Is sacrifice demanded of you? Give yourself into God’s hands with the same faith as Abram had when he went to sacrifice his son. Is your property ruined? Do your children die suddenly? Suffer it all with patience, cleaving to God in your heart, as Job did. Do your friends forsake you, and you find yourself surrounded by enemies? Bear it all without grumbling, and with faith that God’s help is at hand, as the apostles did.”

    14 min
  • You give them something to eat

    Daily Meditation

    We find in the gospels many references to food and eating. In particular, having to do with the miracles that Christ performs, as in today's Gospel reading where he feeds 5000 people. Other examples are when Christ is visiting the outcasts of society, the publicans and sinners, and dining with them. Elsewhere we see him dining with the religious leaders such as the pharisees. Before his passion, he gathers his disciples for the Passover meal, where he first institutes the sacrament of Holy Communion, offering his own body and blood as the sacrificial lamb. After his resurrection from the dead, he appears to his disciples and again he eats food in their presence to prove that he was truly there in his body and not a ghost. And finally, he appears to the two disciples as their were traveling on the Road to Emmaus and while they at first didn't recognize him, their eyes were opened when he blessed and broke the bread and gave it to them.

    All these examples tell us that the act eating has been transformed by Christ from something base and carnal meant only to satisfy our taste buds and stomachs, to something spiritual through which we experience an intimate encounter and union with the divine and one another. Just as Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree and it led to hostility between themselves and separation from God, physically and spiritually, so the act of eating the Body and Blood of Christ causes us to be reunited to God and renewed physically and spiritually. And since we all received from the one chalice, we also now are joined not only with God, but also with one another so that there is no longer any hostility and separation between us but we are truly one, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:17,

    "For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread."

    But having received this wonderful and life-saving nourishment, we are now responsible and accountable for it. It perfects within us love for God and love for others. In the gospel reading, thousands of people have been following and listening to Christ. They are hungry and thirsty. Christ tells the apostles "You give them something to eat."  St. Ignatius of Antioch, in his Epistle to the Smyrneans dated to about the year 100 AD, makes a connection between faith and love, specifically, how faith and belief that what we eat is truly the Body and Blood of Christ then inspires love and care for others. But how the lack of faith, and disbelief leads to a lack of love. He writes:

    "Let no man deceive himself. Both the things which are in heaven, and the glorious angels and rulers, both visible and invisible, if they believe not in the blood of Christ, shall, in consequence, incur condemnation. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. Let not [high] place puff any one up: for that which is worth all is faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred. But consider those who are of a different opinion with respect to the grace of Christ which has come unto us, how opposed they are to the will of God. They have no regard for love, no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed; of the bond, or of the free; of the hungry, or of the thirsty. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes."

    Listen to this episode for the entire meditation on this gospel reading.  

    17 min
  • The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few
    Daily Meditation, Scripture readings, Saints of the Day: St. James son of Alphaeus

    On the Gospel Reading Matthew 9:36-38; 10:1-8: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few"


    With these words, our Lord is referring to the disciples who, although only twelve of them, will go out into the vast world and spread the Gospel. The harvest are all the people in the world who were desperate for the message of salvation, who were helpless and had no hope, who were enslaved to the power of the devil and death. As it was then, so it is today. The Gospel message that Christ is Risen and has destroyed the power of the devil and has given life to all who desire it, continues to be relevant to us today, in fact, one could say, even more today. Another way to understand this reading for an Orthodox Christian today is that the harvest is not the world outside but the world within: your own heart and your own soul. In these are plentiful riches and treasures of God's image and likeness which must be labored for. The labor, the work, is your own prayer life, your repentance, your ascetical struggle, the work of the Divine Liturgy and ultimately your love for Christ and compassion for others. As we labor to purify our hearts and minds, to restore the image of God within us, to continually grow in the likeness of God by acquiring the Holy Spirit, the change in our behavior, in our life, in our disposition, will silently declare the truth and power of the Gospel message to the world around us as well.

    10 min

About The Orthodox Vine

From the publisher's feed

A podcast by Fr. Ninos Oshaana from Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Vallejo, CA offering spiritual inspiration and encouragement through meditations on the Orthodox Christian…