Be The Bee

When people pass away, we pray that their memory will be eternal. We're not simply asking God to think about them: we're asking Him to save them (and us) and bring us all into His Kingdom. It's the Church's answer to the loneliness and emptiness of death.

Living Orthodoxy is about love. Here are six ways you can deepen your love for Christ. Are you ready to start?

Parishes across the country will host their annual festivals and offer great food, music, and dancing to their neighbors. We also have something even more amazing to offer: Christ and the Good News of salvation.

A new study from the Pew Research Group has some interesting numbers. Do they show that Christianity is shrinking? While it's true that people are leaving the Church, we can't panic. Instead, we should use these numbers as a challenge. Our challenge is to be the bee and live Orthodoxy: to help people find God and to live the Faith everyday.

We sometimes describe people as cradles or converts; but instead of describing people, that can divide us. And they're a bit misleading: we aren't born into the Church, and there isn't a specific moment in the past when we enter the Church. We're actually pilgrims, making our way to Christ, growing closer to Him everyday.

Christ took on all that is ours so that we can have all that is His. One of those blessings is the ability to call God the Father our Father. That doesn't just affect the way we relate to God; it affects how we relate to all people, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Liturgy is the work of the people: our work. It brings us from a bunch of "me's" to a single "we" in Christ. Every episode is a great reminder of this, since Be the Bee comes from the love and work of so many people, including you!

We can summarize salvation in three words: Christ is Risen! Salvation, our participation in God's true and eternal life, only happens in the divine-human person of Christ. He took on all that is ours so we could have all that is His.

Many people think that heaven and hell are the places God sends us to either reward or punish us. But Orthodox Christians don't believe in this "two story" model of the universe. We believe that God is "present in all places and filling all things," and that what we interpret as salvation or damnation is actually our response to, and experience of, God's unconditional love.

Jesus Christ is our savior, but what does He save us from? To answer that, we need to take a closer look at Creation and the Fall. God made us neither mortal nor immortal, but with freedom: we could choose to either move closer to God, the source of life, or away from Him, and find death. When Adam and Eve sinned they separated themselves from God and each other, creating the wounded, sick humanity that they passed down to us.

Who is Jesus Christ? He's the God-man, the eternal Son of God who, in the fullness of time, took on flesh and became fully human--while remaining fully God. This is so important because of what it means for our salvation. If we understand who Christ really is, we can understand who we really are.

Being a Christian and living the Gospel isn't always easy; in fact, it's usually challenging. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., experienced that as he fought for justice. So did Archbishop Iakovos when, despite opposition, he chose to stand with Reverend King in Selma. Fifty years after the Selma marches, let's look ahead to how we can live with the same spirit of courage and love.

How can God be both 3 and 1? Christians are monotheists—we believe in one God—but many people don't understand how the Holy Trinity fits in with that. The Holy Trinity is One God, three divine Persons who express one divine Nature.

How can we even begin to talk about belief in God? We need to start by making something clear: we're not talking about belief in something; we're talking about belief in someone. That changes the way we see the question. It means God isn't something we think about. It means He's someone we're invited to encounter.

Some say Orthodox Christianity is one of the world's best kept secrets. So let's talk about what Orthodoxy is. At it's core, Orthodoxy is about the Gospel, the Good News of our new life in Christ. And there's a lot more to say, so we're going to spend a few weeks answering some of the basic questions people have about the Faith.

When we look at snow with the eyes of a bee, we can learn an important lesson for our spiritual lives. Snow is a beautiful metaphor for our ideal spiritual state, as we read in Psalm 50(51). If we're not careful, snow can slowly be transformed into disgusting muck. Thank God, the Church offers us a reset button!

Faith needs to be something we put into action. A wonderful example of this is the life and person of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. The Christian Faith teaches the equality of all people—and Dr King acted on that belief.

Sometimes, the Church can seem . . . boring. Is that because of the Church or the way we see and present it?

As Christians, we're called to union with each other and God. Yet we're constantly stuck in divisions, both external and internal. So how are we supposed to achieve true union? The answer is forgiveness: God's invitation to share the same space with Him.

It's a brand new year, a chance to look back on where we've struggled and look ahead to how we can improve. How can we draw closer to God in 2015, and share Him with the world?