...And here’s the biggie:  Have we sought and desired to be with God…more than we have desired air to breathe? 

These are difficult realities that we all must examine in our lives, now.  If we want this Lent to mean anything…if we want to have a transformative experience during the Great Fast…we must begin our preparations NOW.   We were reminded at the Dormition Dinner this past week, that you and I were put on this earth for one purpose:  to pray, worship, and come into communion with Him who put us here.  Today, we start the process of asking ourselves…how have we done?...

We live in a world that has been slowly programmed by fallen society to constantly be on the move.  The schedules of a typical family in today’s world is erratic.  We wake up early.  We grab our coffee to give us strength to get to work.  We drink an exorbitant amount of caffeine, and it has gotten so bad, that most of the world will tell you that coffee is now necessary in the morning, just so our bodies are able to function and keep up with the demands that the world has now placed on our shoulders!

"...It is difficult to conceive of an Orthodox Christian faith that does not include monasticism at the heart of its spiritual life.  The monastic orders in place today, in both the East and the West, are direct benefactors of the life and work of St. Anthony the Great and the brave men and women who over the centuries have decided to swim against the tide of their popular culture.  This is part of that rich treasury of the Orthodox faith that our predecessors have fought, and often died, to preserve.  It is now our turn to do our part to ensure that the monastic communities continue to thrive and provide an island of peace and sanity for future generations...."

...There is a temptation for us sometimes, as there was with Job the sufferer in the Old Testament, that God doesn’t understand our plight.  We are tempted to believe that He is on a different plane of existence than us…like the ancient Greeks believed with their pagan God’s lived up on Mt. Olympus.  We sometimes say in our minds: “God doesn’t understand our hardships in this life.  He doesn’t know what it is like to lose a loved one, or to take care of someone who is gravely sick or ill.” ...

...the Gospel lesson today is a wonderful reminder for us, that how we act within our families speak volumes about us and our devotion to God.  It shows us through Herod’s family…a clear picture of what happens when our priorities are not where they should be.  When God is absent from our homes…when we don’t take the time to converse with Him in communal prayer…when we don’t give thanks before our meals…when we don’t show gratitude for all that He has given us…and when we don’t praise him for all he has NOT given us (this is a difficult one to grasp)…we fall prey to the temptations that Herod’s family had fallen into....