Thank you dear Fathers for coming together to share Orthodoxy! I'm a Canadian living in southern France. I became Catholic but moving to Orthodox. I came into contact with a local Orthodox monastery and can't look back! Thanks be to God.🙏🏻

I love Orthodox Priests so much, so humble and amazing men. God Bless you both and your families and the beautiful baby on the way ❤ ,I’m Roman Catholic on a journey to Orthodoxy. Thank you for this information.

Living Orthodox changed my life! Glory to God! God bless you Father Mikhail!! - Zackary

Fr. John we need more Spanish speaking priest down here in Miami. I feel that’s one of the missing things here I am so glad to see a Cuban/Central American like myself is a priest. May the lord bless you and your family.

From Stockholm, Sweden. Thanks for a educating moment, 🙏 my God lead ya both in finding our loss souls and bring them closer to God ☦❤

My wife and I were at Fr. John's ordination at St. Tikhon's Parish in Cambridge, and went through Grand Prairie twice last year, lamenting that the nearest Parish with a priest was in Edmonton. So glad to hear Fr. John and Matushka may be moving out West to serve that community!

Since being Baptised and Chrismated on Dec third, with the Patron Saint Tsar Martyr Nicholas II. I'm now serve in the Alter as a Alter server and in the Church choir on Sundays. Serving in the Alter is so indescribably different. Glory to God in the highest! ☦

Congratulations, Fr John and Matushka Maria!!!!!❤❤❤❤

Social Media helped me find Orthodox Christianity, there I Found some good in it

I found my faith in the Orthodox Church..it really is the one true Church and is a beacon for all of God’s children to come and receive His glory thru Christ. I love the Church and the Lord our God more than anything else in this world.

Thank you Fathers for coming together in such a way. 😊 There's so much excitement here in Grande Prairie for your visit. God willing. ❤ Of course, congratulations Father John and Matushka Maria on your little bean, What a blessing. ❤

Algo boost. Great stream

By far my favorite video from your channel, Fr. Mikhail! Glory to God. I sat through this whole thing in one go. Well, I technically was working but it was fantastic nonetheless. I definitely will tune into the next one LIVE this time.

53:40 Many times it's the stress in other areas of life that we are overwhelmed with, but we shift the blame onto our prayer life. It's counterintuitive but a lot of our thoughts are upside down. Lord Have Mercy. 🙏🏻😞

God Bless you all and this channel 💕🙏🏼☦️

I just gave my life to God 3 days ago and I heard Orthodoxy is the one true church so I'm trying to learn everything I can about Orthodoxy I plan on going to St John of Damascus next Sunday I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life now except church on Sunday. I've been experiencing some weird anxiety panic even fear I woke up last night at 2:00 a.m. for no reason and I was interesting fearful for nothing I need prayer and help I don't know what to do. Thank you

@Desertfox21

2 ай бұрын

I hope you were able to find help ar your church, speak with the priest, get as close to him as possible.

So excited to have Fr John bringing Pascha up north this year!

I'm really grateful to have found this in its inception and look forward to learning more from these learned and eloquent Fathers. God be with us 🙏

Love the reference to St. Xenia, my parish is named after her.

Thank you both for this. It is like getting a cold refreshing shower in the summerheat.

Excited about a Canadian online store!

Thanks Fathers for this Podcast

Admirable Fathers

Thank you fathers.

Thank you. Looking forward to your next show. God bless

Great stream, thank you both!

Καλά Χριστούγεννα!

I think that establishing a prayer rule may depend somewhat on the type of person we are, for example, if undisciplined in most if not all areas of our lives, it may initially be difficult but over time, if you refuse to give in to the devil (or one's own weakness) and persist, it becomes a necessity; for me these prayers are the bookends to my day and without them I cannot imagine my day. This is only due to the help which I believe comes from God. I truly could not do my life without His help. So ask for help. Your Guardian Angel will help, the Blessed Theotokis will help you; your Patron Saint will help you. I am a Catechuman (one year) and will be baptised in 3 weeks time. This rule has taken me many months to get to this point, but be patient, be committed, and it will happen for you. For me personally there has been a huge change in my life since my introduction to Orthodoxy. It really is the one core thing we must have in our lives. Praise be to God for leading me home, for His patience, His love, and His forgiveness. (I apologise for what sounds like pride, it is more like eternal gratitude to God...)

Fathers, I see that you are both ROCOR. Glory to IC XC for ALL things. How were you both able to discern your call to serve the Church and Christ? Definitely a good topic for a future podcast/video! Christ bless us all!

❤

I began exploring Orthodoxy a few years ago. The only church within an hour of my home happens to be Greek and that is where I’ve begun to attend. Trying to explain to my Protestant friends and family that I’m going there because of Orthodox part of the name and that I’m not trying to be Greek, has me wanting to pull my hair out.

@kalash2874

3 ай бұрын

I feel you, when i explained to my family i left the Greek out and just said Orthodox. Its like you want to just transfer all your research you have invested to them instead of trying to give them a 60 sec answer to explain that part lol

Fathers, Fr Peter confirmed what another priest (a Fr Lawrence, I think) said that the original Greek of the NT doesn't say "call no man Father" but rather, "call no man my Father". So, we are not call any man "my Father".

Glory to Jesus Christ! Can you please post online seminary options , the links to recommended books and resources for daily Liturgical readings ?

Regarding the Sam Shamoun question, I love him and he is part of what led me to the ancient church and Orthodoxy, for which I am eternally grateful. I do agree with your general assessment of some of the problems with his behavior as well as theological issues as he wrestles with what direction to go in the ancient churches. However, I think you may have misunderstood his issue with David Erhan. I believe the reason he got so heated, and critical of David was because of some comments that David supposedly made about some oriental orthodox, and essentially saying that they deserved some of the slaughter that they had gone through. He did mention that he was a Turk, but that wasn’t specifically why he was angry with him. If my memory serves me correctly. I think that is a point worth clarifying, because it wasn’t ultimately motivated by David’s ethnicity.

@living_orthodox

4 ай бұрын

Part of the problem is that he also misunderstood David. David wasn’t saying the Coptics deserved any of the awful things that happened to them. He rightly said we cannot call them martyrs as this word means to witness the Truth, which they have not. St John Chrysostom said the sin of schism is so severe not even the blood of martyrdom can wash it away. David was merely saying we cannot and should not be venerating Coptic icons, nor Coptic icons of these martyrs. Sam’s understanding of Orthodox Ecclesiology and how this ties into our theology and soteriology, is oftentimes absent or to be fair, he is simply ignorant of our views. He gets angry when that doesn’t align with the still very earthly mindset he approaches things with. Like I said, I love Sam, but I think he needs to be careful to not try to sound like an authority or like he has any right to correct the Church, or a well educated Orthodox man such as David, who has a blessing to teach. David’s authority outstrips his on this matter.

That would be difficult.

@Fr. Mikhail Good evening if you please answer a question I have it'd be much appreciated. For some context to the question I'll use quotes from The Saints. Live in peace with not only your friends but only with your personal enemies and not with the enemies of God. - St Theodosius of the kiev caves I maintain to hate the enemies of God is lawful, such a hatred pleases The Master. By enemies I mean those who deny the Glory of The Master, whether the jews or those who are idolaters or those who thought arius' teachings make an idol of creation. - St Gregory of Nyssa Love your personal enemies, hate the enemies of Christ, destroy the enemies of the fatherland. - St Philaret of Moscow With all this in mind Father what are some practical ways to love my own personal enemies from day to day?

@Desertfox21

3 ай бұрын

I am not priest but I think I can give solid answer. Pray for them daily, make every effort to forgive them, and do not seek vengeance when they wrong you.

I was considering Orthodoxy . I converted from Protestantism to Catholicism because of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who was of my ethnicity. That would make it hard to leave the Catholic Church.

@living_orthodox

4 ай бұрын

Jesus was of Levantine Palestinian descent. We should never make a choice based off ethnicity, rather it should be faithfulness to Christ.

@philipschaffer9414

4 ай бұрын

@@living_orthodox He came from Judea of the tribe of Judah. I guess St. Paul was Palestinian as well.

@living_orthodox

4 ай бұрын

@@philipschaffer9414 There are twelve tribes Not twelve ethnicities. I am describing the genetic background. Don’t split hairs.

@LadyMaria

4 ай бұрын

I know many who go to my Parish who aren't Russian. It isn't a requirement. Ethnicity isn't as important as people make it out to be.

The orthodox church is like the Ents from lord of the rings. They are ancient, and partially because of that it takes a long time for them to change anything, and that's good, though us hasty folks have a hard time understanding that.

@Desertfox21

4 ай бұрын

It's not that we take a long time to change. The point is to never change. Why would we want to variate from the deposite of faith passed down from the apostles?

Subdeacon Nektarios 😢 I was sorry to hear that. 16:39 pastor Jimbob?!😅

@living_orthodox

4 ай бұрын

Thank you. Keep Subdeacon in your prayers. Haha poor Jimbob lol

Hello father, Can you tell me what happened to Jesus between the age of 12 and 30, where did he go, Is it possible he travelled to India?

@Desertfox21

4 ай бұрын

I responded to one of your comments about this already. Don't spam it. No he didn't goto India and there is nothing besides gnostic garbage to say he did.

Father John..being Hispanic, were u born and raised Catholic?.. I heard something about a baptist private school. ☦

@Desertfox21

4 ай бұрын

He says in the video he was never catholic. His grandparents were catholic, it didn't really get passed down to his parents and so he was never roman catholic.

Subtitles please😢

@slowboywhiteboardv4

4 ай бұрын

Maybe it wasn't done processing yet when you saw this but the closed captions work now, they are not totally accurate though.

Are there Orthodox Missals

Father Mikhail..ur last name looks polish..is ur family polish? I know u were brought up protestant, but, especially if ur polish, was or is the majority of ur family, grandparents etc, Catholic?

@living_orthodox

4 ай бұрын

Actually my last name is of old Russian Ukrainian origin. More specifically, my family hails from a line of Zaporozhian Cossacks of whom I inherited the name from. My wife is polish though! :) My mom’s side was all Protestant, but my dad’s side was actually Orthodox. My great grandfather was an Orthodox priest and was also named Fr Mikhail Baleka

How am not supposed to "tune out" when 90% of the service is in slavonic? I cant even "tune in" to begin with.

@slowboywhiteboardv4

4 ай бұрын

He said, read in your own language as it's being spoken and ask your priest where to find the resources.

@levitatingpotato109

4 ай бұрын

@@slowboywhiteboardv4 my priest gave me the book for the hours, but if you can't follow along as they are saying it then it's like watching a movie, not understanding any of it then getting the English script afterwards.

@OnlyCatechumen

4 ай бұрын

Go to a parish that speaks English

@levitatingpotato109

4 ай бұрын

@@OnlyCatechumen only one near me is OCA and they are just like a catholic church (mixed sex, pews, no head coverings, general lack of reverence).

@LadyMaria

4 ай бұрын

If you're ROCOR, Fr. David Straut compiles texts for services in English. I use his compilations and those of St. Sergius Orthodox Church too to send the service texts to those who need them. Just Google "Archpriest David Straut, Groups". Should be the first link. He has one group for Vigil and one for Menaion.

next stream with brother nathanael when?

Promo SM

Why does every american orthodox priest almost develop this funny accent like theyre pretending to be from russia or greece or something

@Desertfox21

4 ай бұрын

He's Canadian 🤡🤡🤡. He has a Canadian accent. Also because many orthodox priests spend a lot of time with russian or greek people so they begin to develop a bit of an accent.

The ethnic thing throws me off. I am American

@soundsnags2001

4 ай бұрын

That's fair -- OCA is throughout the country and other jurisdictions speak English as well.

@EO-John9540

4 ай бұрын

Many parishes do bits in English now as well, since their kids are mostly Americanized. Try vigil/vespers, and you can attend a few parishes (if possible) to see where you are drawn the most. As another mentioned, OCA is typically all English, and a lot of ROCOR missions are English (typically American convert priests). Assemblyofbishops has a parish listing, or orthodoxyinamerica for listings. You can also find some talks by Bishop Luke of Holy Trinity, through Orthodo Ethos, which discusses tradition and ethnicity - conservatism vs traditionalism, and Americana in general.

@beaubranson2515

4 ай бұрын

I’m also American. I’ve never had any issues with people of other ethnicities. We’re all God’s children, and we are all one in Christ.

@arnoldvezbon6131

4 ай бұрын

@@beaubranson2515 To be fair he probably doesn't have and issue with the ethnicity of the parishioners just the language of the services.

@beaubranson2515

4 ай бұрын

@@arnoldvezbon6131 That's certainly fair. I wish people would phrase it as an issue with language, rather than ethnicity if that's what it is.

I SEE HE Is SPANISH WHy he says greek or whatever HE is spanish it is obvious he is spanish !

@living_orthodox

4 ай бұрын

I think you need to go back and listen. It’s clear you don’t understand. He said he’s been mistaken for being Greek or other ethnicities.