Articles
Short, practical reads on becoming someone different, a little at a time.
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- 155Minutes in all
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5 min What to say on Orthodox Easter, Good Friday and Christmas
What to say to an Orthodox friend at Easter, on Good Friday and at Christmas: the greetings, their answers, and what to know about the fasts around them.
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5 min Christ is risen in different languages: Orthodox Easter greeting
“Christ is risen!” and its answer in more than 30 languages, as the Orthodox Churches print them, with what the greeting means and when it is said.
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8 min Why do Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7?
Orthodox Christmas on January 7 is December 25 on the older Julian calendar, 13 days behind ours. Why, and which Churches keep which date.
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6 min How to control anger: what the Church Fathers teach
How to control your temper, from the Bible and the Church Fathers: why one sharp word makes you so angry, whether anger is ever right, and what to do.
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6 min Why do I get distracted while praying? The Church Fathers' answer
Why your mind wanders when you pray, whether it's a sin, and how to keep your attention, from the Bible and the Church Fathers, phones included.
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6 min How to deal with intrusive thoughts: the Desert Fathers' advice
Blasphemous, violent or shameful thoughts you hate? What the Bible and the Desert Fathers teach Christians about intrusive thoughts, sin and OCD.
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5 min What happens at an Orthodox funeral: a guide for first-timers
What to expect at an Orthodox funeral: the open coffin, the hymns, the last kiss, what to wear, flowers, the meal afterwards and cremation.
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5 min 40 days after death: why the Orthodox pray on the 40th day
Why Orthodox Christians hold a memorial 40 days after a death, what happens at it, what koliva means, and how the third and ninth days fit in.
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5 min What to say when someone dies: Orthodox words of comfort
What to say or write when someone dies, from the Bible and the Church Fathers, with the words Orthodox Christians use, such as Memory eternal.
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7 min How to stop being lazy: what the Desert Fathers teach
What acedia means, how it became the deadly sin of sloth, and how the Desert Fathers fought laziness by staying put, working and praying.
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6 min How to recover from burnout: what the Desert Fathers teach
Burnout isn’t laziness. Learn what the Bible and the Desert Fathers teach about rest, sleep and sharing the load at work, in caregiving and in prayer.
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7 min How to mend a broken friendship: what the Church Fathers teach
How to make peace with a friend after a falling out, from the early Church Fathers and Scripture, and what to do when a friendship cannot be mended.
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7 min How to pray the Psalms, the way St Athanasius taught
St Athanasius wrote a letter in the 300s about how to pray the Psalms. Here is his advice, and how to use it today.
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7 min What was the Reformation about?
Indulgences lit the fire. Underneath were five questions, and five hundred years later churches still answer every one of them differently.
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6 min How to be content with what you have
Paul says he learned contentment, which means it can be learned. Scripture is specific about what it rests on and what it costs.
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6 min How to be humble
Scripture rarely tells anyone to feel humble; it tells them to take a seat, pick up a towel and keep quiet about a gift.
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7 min How to be patient
Scripture means two things by patience — being slow to anger with people and being steady while you wait — and gives practice for both.
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6 min How to forgive someone who hurt you
Forgiveness in Scripture is a debt cancelled, not a feeling summoned, and it is a separate thing from trusting the person again.
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7 min How to love difficult people
Scripture commands love for difficult people in verbs, not feelings, which means it can be done before it is felt.
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7 min How to tame your tongue
James says no one can tame the tongue, and then expects you to bridle it anyway. Both halves matter for what you do next.
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6 min What are spiritual gifts?
The New Testament gives four lists of gifts, one stated purpose, and no method for finding yours. That tells you more than it seems to.
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6 min What the Bible says about worry
“Do not worry” comes with reasons attached, and with something to do instead. A careful reading of four passages.
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6 min How to be grateful
Gratitude in Scripture is a practice before it is a feeling — which is good news, because practices can be learned.
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7 min What does it mean to be Christ-like?
Not a personality, not a mood, and not a set of manners — Scripture is unusually concrete about what the likeness consists of.
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6 min How to be joyful
Biblical joy is not cheerfulness, and it is not the opposite of sorrow. Knowing the difference is most of the work.
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