Author: Fr. Peter Kavanaugh

Where will you find God? You will find Him in the Temple.

Elder Roman Braga used to reminisce about growing up in his little Romanian village. A day’s work revolved around chiming bells calling the faithful to prayer. The year revolved around feast days. Men and women sought a priest’s blessing before starting a project. It was a life built on faith. Such recollections seem fanciful and romantic to the 21st century person, but are nothing of the kind. This life is, quite simply, nothing more and nothing less than Christianity. The Christian life is a communal life centered around the altar.

Continue reading “Village Life”

“Opta ardua pennis astra sequi”

“Desire to pursue on wings the high stars.”

A great Roman poet wrote this line, forever expressing the prick in our conscience. Pursue the stars. Life is summed up by this calling. We will never be content on earth because it burns in our hearts. We were made to pursue the stars. Christmas starts the year with the same message. Let every breathe and action be an attempt to reach up: desire to pursue on wings the high stars.

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“The pains of hell came about me; the snares of death overtook me. In my trouble I called upon the Lord…so he heard my voice out of his holy temple…The earth trembled and quaked…There went out a smoke in his presence, and a consuming fire out of his mouth…He bowed the heavens, and came down” (Psalm 18:5-10).

God’s coming is fearsome and sublime. Creation groans with anticipation for God. The stars foretell it. The earth forewarns it. Ants fortify their homes with mounds of dirt the day before a rain. Even so, prophets warn God’s people to prepare: he is coming. Apprehension echoes through the pages of the Old Testament. Today, John the Baptist cries: “Make straight the way of the Lord.” God is coming, and, in the original meaning of the word, God is awe-full.

Continue reading “Fearsome, Sublime, and Awe-full”

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?

The donkeys had a care-free life until the 4th century B.C. A few lazy farmers got tired of doing their share of the work. “Eureka!” someone said, “I won’t have to work so hard, if I can get this donkey to do it” — the invention of the donkey driven mill. It was a little clumsy at first. The donkey did not see the point of walking in circles all day, and he and the farmer quarreled a good deal. Then the farmer had another idea — a blindfold! Cover a donkey’s eyes and it will walk in circles all day long — head held down, submissive, and servile. Uncover the donkey’s eyes, it will quit kowtowing immediately and have one thing in mind: freedom.

Humans are very much like donkeys. If the demons can keep our eyes shut, they have us in their power — plodding along in meaningless circles, head down and compliant. If our eyes open, the demons lose their power — we become free.

Continue reading “What are We Seeking?”

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh.”

“Look up!” A homeless man wandered the streets shouting this at passersby. “Look up!” he cried to the youth who walked with heads hung down, punching buttons on smart devices. “Look up!” he called to the professionals who lost their humanity in business. “Look up!” he urged each man and woman wrapped up in their unique endeavors. “Look up!” God speaks through his prophets day and night, if we have ears to hear.

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“Above all else, guard your heart” (Proverbs 4:23).

In January of 2019, Patriarch Kirill warned the Orthodox world about addiction to smartphones. While the Church is not opposed to technology, he stated, we must be wary of becoming “slaves to our devices,” and especially slaves to devices “aimed at controlling a person’s identity.” Our dependency on world-wide web technologies will usher in the “coming of the Antichrist.” Of course, this remark triggered a wave of laughter and criticism all across the West and likely makes us squirm a little. Why is that? Why might this make us uncomfortable? How does such advice align with Holy Scripture and the Church Fathers?

Continue reading “Unplug from Antichrist”

“True freedom knows no attachments other than Jesus Christ…True freedom can walk away from anything – wealth, honor, fame, pleasure. Even power. It fears neither the state, nor death itself” (former Archbishop Charles Chaput).

Our Lord challenges our dedication today. In one ultimatum, he expresses what exactly God expects from us: Render to Caesar what is Caesars. Render to God what is God’s. If that does not convict you, look into your heart and get real.

Continue reading “On God and Government”

“If a man insults me, kills my father, my mother, my brother, and then gouges out my eye, as a Christian it is my duty to forgive him. We who are pious Christians ought to love our enemies and forgive them. We ought to offer them food and drink, and entreat God for their souls. And then we should say: ‘My God, I beseech Thee to forgive me, as I have forgiven my enemies” (St. Kosmas Aitolos).

We need to forgive everyone and everything. There is little in life so urgent and so healing as forgiveness. Forgiveness is so strong a medicine, that we must learn to see every insult, every slight, every misfortune as one of the greatest gifts possible: to teach us to forgive.

Continue reading “To Forgive Everything”

Every human action is a religious action.

Modern architecture was brought to America in the 1920’s, by refugees from the German Bauhaus art school. They were the leaders of a revolution, who aspired to design homes and buildings that fostered devotion to the ideals of Marxism. It took like wild fire. Over the next several decades, skyscrapers, apartment complexes, and Christian churches across the country celebrated the new look. America was transformed.

Continue reading “To Serve a King of Kings”

“Come, Creator, Spirit, come from your bright heavenly throne, come take possession of our souls, and make them all your own. You who are called the Paraclete, best gift of God above, the living spring, the vital fire sweet christ’ning. . . .O guide our minds with your best light, with love our hearts inflame; and with your strength, which ne’er decays, confirm our mortal frame.”

St. Rabanus composed this hymn during the reign of Charlemagne. As a schoolmaster, abbot, and eventually, archbishop, he spent his life contemplating, teaching doctrine, and pursuing holiness. During a famine, he was known to feed up to 300 people a day from his house. His heart and energy were strained constantly towards heaven.

Continue reading “Our Moral Stance Today”