Author: Fr. Peter Kavanaugh

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Into the Sea of God

“Launch out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

God expects us to go farther into the water. We all have times in our Christian journey when we become complacent. We get comfortable with our faith, and would be comfortable remaining just where we are. God asks more of us.

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Community Built on Compassion

“Kindness is one of God’s many qualities; therefore, it always spreads joy, drives away the clouds, and opens up hearts like the spring sunshine which makes the earth blossom” (St. Paisius of Mount Athos).

Compassion is the sign that God is in your heart. We come together as a parish not only to worship God. We are here to learn compassion. How are we loving one another?

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Extremism: A Word on God’s Expectations

“In the evening, the communal prayer would end with an impressive ‘God is with us’ sung by three hundred voices. On the top floor there was a room reserved for ‘unceasing prayer.’ A prisoner would pray…for an hour each day, stopping only when his replacement would arrive.”

Elder Arsenie Papacioc describes his earlier years in prison. He and his companions dedicated their days to meditation and scripture reading. They stayed up for all-night vigils and set aside one day a week for complete silence, “with the goal of attaining a mystical depth, an encounter with God,” and for scrupulous self-examination, exploring and confessing “every moment and deed of one’s life.” The elder went on to become a monk after his release and was imprisoned for his faith over forty times.

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Distracted and Restless

“If a hen stops sitting on the eggs, she will hatch no chickens. The monk or nun who goes from place to place grows cold and dead in faith” (St. Syncletica).

We must learn to be still in order to know God. Distraction is the prevailing temptation of our time. Always restless, always looking for a change, always blaming our wellbeing on people, places, and circumstances around us, we get stuck in an endless labyrinth. In modern times, we have built an entire civilization around distraction. We must rip ourselves apart from it, settle down like a chicken on an egg, and be still.

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To Spread Heaven on Earth

“The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed…God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here am I.” Then he said, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:2-5).

The Holy Spirit is in our midst with an objective: to sanctify our lives. In a world choked in darkness, God’s Spirit comes down as fire. We are the torches to spread that fire, to touch and make sacred space, time, and the human heart.

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A Separate Culture

“The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15)

These words were like a bolt of lightning from heaven. They fractured humanity and ripped it in two, imposing two separate kingdoms, two races, two cultures: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. Too often, we fail to recognize the separateness of these two worlds. Today, as society drifts farther from the Kingdom, we share a challenge: can we rediscover what it means to be Christian?

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A Heart at Rest

“Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22).

Joy is the byproduct of a heart at rest in God. We lack joy because we are distracted. We are troubled because our heart is fixed on everything transient and temporary. True joy comes when our heart is anchored on Jesus Christ.

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