Orthodoxy Live September 6, 2026

This is Orthodoxy Live with Father Evan Armitage, a live interactive call-in program where your questions about the Orthodox faith are addressed. Father Evan is the priest at St. Spirit and Greek Orthodox Church in Loveland, Colorado. Call in your question at 1-855-AF radio. That's 1-855-237-2346. Father Evan is the priest at St. Spirit and Greek Orthodox Church in Loveland, Colorado. Well, good evening and welcome to Orthodoxy Live, your live call-in show. About the Orthodox faith, her teachings and traditions, I wasn't sure we were going to be on air tonight. We were trying mightily from about 10 minutes before the program came on to get everything working and thanks to some pretty clever people behind the scenes, Simon and Mike, where you are able to get all the equipment working again and we're streaming to you live here on Ancient Faith. It's September 6th, 2026. It's a holiday weekend here in the United States, meaning that tomorrow is Labor Day. It's the first Monday of September here in the U.S. which means it's a long weekend for a lot of people. A lot of people here in the U.S. use this as their last hurrah before the school year takes effect and students are back in school and families are kind of in their normal routine. As a holiday weekend, it often means that our parish is sometimes empty out. They get a little quieter as people take advantage of a long weekend so people take the Friday before and kind of make a little vacation out of it. But I'm here and I hope to hear from you. I didn't take a vacation. Been working all week through the weekend as it is with a priest. So if you'd like to talk tonight, you can call in 1-855-237-2346. That's 1-855-AFRADIO. If you've got an email question for me, you can send it in at orthodoxyliveatancientfaith.com. If that orthodoxy live's got you confused, you could just use ask aske at ancientfaith.com. Of course, if you're streaming with us on YouTube or Facebook, welcome. You can put your questions in the chat box and our producer will get those over to me. It's been a while since I've been live. This happens a lot over the summer as various liturgical needs kind of take precedent. Most often, the beginning of the summer, which happened a couple of times and then towards the end of the summer is weddings, especially on a weekend. We tend to have a lot of weddings. I had one last weekend. But today, I'm here looking forward to hearing from you. Our producer engineer, Mike, was like, I'm excited for tonight's show. And I said, why? He said, I think because we're live, live. So here we are. A couple of things just to kind of orient us on September 1st, the church begins its ecclesiastical new year. We do that every year on the 1st of September. And in that first bit of the ecclesiastical year, there are a couple of feasts that come up pretty quickly. One of them is on this Tuesday, the birth of the Virgin Mary, right? It will celebrate the nativity of the Theotokos. And then on the 14th, we come across the Feast of the Cross, which is celebrated every year on the 14th. And then you sort of have this little bit of a dead space, liturgically speaking, before we get to the advent fast, which is not all the way until November, middle of November and November 15th when that kicks off. And after you turn the new year, things get really busy with theophany. And then you tend to move right into Lent within the first couple of months right after the new year. So as a priest, you always kind of enjoy this little liturgical lull. But when that happens, as in most parishes, you start up with your fall ministry programs. Church school starts up, and Bible studies and retreats, and you name it. They're all kind of going as people get back from their summer holidays. And so this Wednesday, we're going to be hosting a prayer retreat on the Lord's Prayer this Wednesday evening. If you happen to be in and around Colorado and you want to swing by St. Spyridon's and join us for that retreat. Okay. Well, again, welcome to the program. I'd love to hear from you tonight. We've got open lines 1855, 237, 2346. All right. So got a question tonight from Ryan who wrote in, after reading St. Paul's Epistle, was wondering why I have not gotten sick or even died from receiving communion in a Protestant church. I know I didn't partake in a worthy manner at that time. Was it because this sacrament that I took part in was not quote unquote legitimate? So here, what this listener is asking about is a warning that St. Paul gives related to Christians receiving the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ in an unworthy manner. And he says, you know, doing so leads to sickness or even death. Right? So that tells you kind of the seriousness with which St. Paul and the apostles took the Eucharist and certainly they, because of how St. Paul's writing here, we know that he obviously did not think, believe or teach that the Eucharist was simply bread and wine. Right? He believed, he taught and he preached that the bread and wine in the liturgy became the body and blood of Christ. Right? He says as much in his letter and he warns us against drinking and eating of the blood in the body in an unworthy manner. So why didn't you get sick? You know, Ryan, and taking the Eucharist or communion in your church, is it because as you say it wasn't actually the body and blood? Well, you know, I don't want to sort of put a critique from my point of view towards your church. I would say rather you can probably understand your church's theology from their stance outwardly. In other words, most likely the church you're attending and the communion service you participated in does not hold nor believe nor preach or teach that the communion service is an actual participation in the body and blood of Christ. Right? That would certainly, I think not certainly, but most likely be the case. Right? So it wouldn't necessarily follow that you would get sick or die because you're partaking in commemoration or remembrance service, most likely. Now what about Orthodox Christians? You know, or what about Protestants who are, you know, still in a way profaning the Eucharist? Is it possible that they've become sick? It's possible. I couldn't draw, you know, sort of direct correlations as the apostle has. I don't know your situation. I don't know the specifics of others. Is it possible that people have passed from receiving unworthily, certainly also within the church? Right? Is that possible as well? Of course it is. Right? If sickness does not come about, if death does not ensue from receiving the Eucharist unworthily, that of course is completely under the mercy of God. Right? As we would understand God's mercy to be, you know, beyond not only our understanding, but if you will, even beyond our circumstances. Right? God can be outside of our unworthiness. Right? And can protect us. It's sort of like, you know, with a child, you know, especially a small child, they sort of go through the world very innocently without, you know, maybe even an eye towards the dangers that they're encountering. And it's the parent's job to sort of shepherd them through those dangers until they get to an age where they can navigate the world safely on their own. And we can look at the mercy of God, you know, that's kind of an imperfect analogy, but it may help to understand why it is that someone might not be getting sick or passing because God's mercy. Right? Because he understands the hearts and the intentions and the context of every human being perfectly. And so he protects us, you know, even when we didn't realize what we were doing was dangerous. Right? Well, that protection is of course not absolute. You know, if we as a child walk into the street while a car is passing by, we will be struck by that car most of the time. Right? I've certainly heard of miracles where that didn't happen or where the child was struck but miraculously was okay. Right? But usually, right, that person is going to be harmed by that behavior. And so it is also in the spiritual life. Right? Sometimes we don't even recognize the harm till later. That's also something that could occur. Right? That what we've done in our ignorance or even in our willfulness or pride comes back maybe not immediately in our minds or our lives but later. Right? And I can raise my hand and say that's true for me. There are several things that I look back in life and say, man, I am suffering for a decision I made, you know, in my teens still to this day. Right? An analogy for that would be, you know, I played sports and I played competitively and I injured myself my senior year but I didn't want to go to the trainer. I didn't want to see the doctor because I knew I had broken something and they weren't going to let me play so I just hit the injury. I have a lot of arthritis in my right big toe because of it. Right? At the time, you know, I was young, you know, didn't seem to bother me that much, it was painful and, you know, the pain went away in a few months and, you know, my season ended whatever but now my late 50s that toe aches, you know, and if I set my foot on the ground in the wrong way and leave it like that with my toe kind of bent when I straighten out my toe, whoo, not fun. Right? So anyway, all right. Well, you're listening to orthodoxy live here in ancient faith radio. It's September 6th. It's a holiday weekend here in the United States. If you would like to tie up to me on this program tonight, you can dial in at 1-855-237-2346. That's 1-855-AF radio. You can email me. You can also put your question in the chat box if you're streaming with us on YouTube or Facebook. All right. We're going to go out to the phones and take a call from Patrick. Patrick, welcome to the program. Hi, Father. Evan, how are you? Good. Where are you calling from? I'm calling from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania? Well, that's a big state, but that works. Yeah. Well, I could tell you where I am, but you wouldn't recognize it, I'm sure, unless you've ever been out here. Oh, really? So, yeah, I'm in the mountains. Yeah? So, rural? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, it's a shale country. I mean, it's, yeah, very rural, yes. What did you say, shale country? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. Who's that name? Not a sign that people outside of Pennsylvania. No, I've never heard of that. Yeah. So, shale is a type of stone. Yeah, we have shale out here. Yeah, yeah. So, there's so much of it. It's kind of a joke. There's a lot of farmers and the best thing we grow is shale. Okay. Got it. And is that you native to that part of the world? It's a home? Not exactly. I mean, I'm from closer towards Philadelphia. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, I spent some time in Pennsylvania and sort of infamously, I was there, I was a couple of winters ago to do a retreat and one of my classmates, I won't name him because he, he, he, he lives in, in Pennsylvania and it was one of your typical Pennsylvania winters, very cold and gray. And he picked me up and he's, he's Mediterranean like me, you know, he likes the sun, he likes it warm. And we had like about a two and a half, three hour drive out to this retreat center. And yeah, he used it as like a three hour like therapy session. He was just so over cold, gray winter. And he was like, I'm losing my mind here. He's like, I just need the Bishop to transfer me somewhere south. So I can't handle it anymore. And I commiserate with him. But I did say to him, I said, look, you know, winters in Colorado are sunny. You know, we don't, we don't have a gray that you have, you know. But, but I, you know, I kind of entered with him for a little while. No, he's still, he's still in Pennsylvania. He's, he's a great priest and he's beloved. Yeah. I don't think he's going to get out or many times soon. Poor guy, because I know we had a really rough winter last year. I'm sure he was probably bumming out. Yeah. Do you like that weather? Are you okay in it? Well, you know, if you have the right, it's, it's real nice. And I got a wood stove, which is, I mean, it's, it's like the tropics in my house through the winter. So yeah, I enjoy it very much. Okay. All right. Well, what's on your mind, Patrick from Shell Country, Pennsylvania? Sure. Sure, sure. Um, well, um, just to, um, I'll give you a brief, uh, I'll try to keep it brief. I, um, I'm an inquirer. Okay. I kind of, I ended up, uh, in an Orthodox parish. I mean, uh, you know, I see it as like, you know, the Holy Spirit, like my wife and I there. Um, and I've been trying to figure that out. That's a long journey. I don't have enough time for it to kind of get into, but, um, I have read your book, uh, Toolkit for Spectrality, kind of really immensely lovely and useful. So I just want to thank you for that. You're welcome. And, um, I have, uh, I actually wrote you an email a couple of weeks back and you encouraged me to call. So that's what I'm calling. Um, I've changed a little bit of the question though. Okay. Um, essentially, essentially like something that I kind of, um, have, one of the reasons I drifted out of, you know, I came from a Protestant background and one of the reasons I was looking for something else was I kind of see all the theology debating, you know, it's like we're all like little lawyers, you know, um, so like ferraceeical, right? In pursuit of the truth. Um, and, and I've been reading and memorizing and meditating on first John for about three years now. And, um, which is a book that if all you know is the God of justice and the law, everyone should read because it's just such not the God I grew up with. Yeah. But something that I've encountered in the Orthodox, um, tradition that I've really enjoyed is that, you know, we approach our faith with love and humility. And I had a Protestant friend last week who was just kind of like, well, yeah, but if you, if you don't have truth there, you know, then, then you're, you know, you're, you're going to be, you know, not falling the way either. And so I guess my question is, you know, from your perspective, how do we balance, you know, the danger of becoming either the ferracee or the heretic? Well, let me, let me disabuse or, or, or direct you in this way. You are going to continue for the rest of your life being a ferracee and a heretic. Get used to it. You know, there, there, there, there is this sort of mythical idea that somehow you can get all the theology right at some point. And that's just crazy. There's also the idea that, you know, you know, you can, you can maybe just move into this total abandoned, you know, abandoned reality of, of relational, you know, connection to Jesus, you know. Right. You know, you have a mind, you live in the world, right? Things are contextualized. It may be the wrong question, you know, how do I avoid being a ferracee or a heretic? We drop, drop the paradigms and say, well, okay, look, your pursuit of truth is not a concept. Like you're not pursuing a concept truth. You're pursuing a person. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Jesus is the truth. Right. Jesus is the way it's sort of like, you know, when, when the disciples are struggling over the idea of the resurrection, you know, and, and he's there with Martha and Mary. He says, I am the resurrection. Like it's not an idea. It's me, you know, or then later with Thomas, you know, I am the way I'm the truth. I'm the life. So, so the first thing that we would say is that truth has been embodied. It's it became incarnate. And, and ultimately the church is protecting that reality. Right. So, you know, I remember when I was a high school student, you know, I got asked, you know, it was like a college essay, like, who would you most like to have dinner with? Jesus. You know, I wrote down, you know, I was, oh, I want to have dinner with Jesus. And, and then I think, and I think later my spiritual father was like, you've been having dinner with him. And I was like, oh, you're right. You know, like it's not out there. The experience of, of the Christ has been given to us in the church. That's all the church is. It's a vehicle to encounter Christ. Okay. Now, you know, out, outside of the church, right, there's all sorts of things that sort of become, you know, important, but, but really they're peripheral. And so you can get involved, like you said, like little lawyers, right, into all these types of arguments. The same thing was happening in Paul's day. That's why he says, you know, these endless genealogies, it's not going to help you. Right. Right. Where Christ is, is in his body, the church. And as you encounter him in the church, you know, there's a, there's a reality that the theological debates, the theological questions, they get answered in him. It's sort of like Job, you know, eventually you're like, well, I've encountered Christ. So that's sufficient. Now, right. As far as moving forward in that relationship with Christ, in the church, through the sacramental life, right, through the scriptures, through its holy traditions and its mode of life, its spiritual auschies, like it's, you know, it's not like you, you buffet it, you know, it's, it's a tapestry that's been woven together. And as you live in that, you're, you're like, let me ask this question. When you think of the word faith, it typically means things you believe, right? Yeah. Okay. Well, even that, that way of understanding faith is, it's, it's not helpful. Right. Do the demons believe that God exists? Right. Yeah. Of course they do. Does it help them? No. Right. No. So, so it might be better to think about, am I leaving faithfully with Christ? And then we don't need to worry about Pharisee or heretic. We're just trying to live faithfully in Christ, right? So were you in church today? Yes. Did you hear the parable that we had of the man at the banquet who's found without a robe? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Think about that. The guys in the banquet, but he didn't have a robe on. He just got pulled out of the highways. How is he supposed to have a robe on? Right. The answer is, look, you're invited to be part of the truth of Christ in his body, the church. And now you have to respond by changing. Because when the King comes to him and he says gently friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment? And the text says he was speechless. He had no answer. Right. He didn't, he didn't respond to the invitation. So I know this seems a bit nebulous, but what I'm trying to do with you, Patrick, is move you beyond that and say, wait a minute, what if this becomes about living faithfully in this relationship with Christ, who is the truth? Yeah. And that's transformative. And then do you really care about getting things right? Well, I actually don't. But I, and to confess, you know, like I said, maybe my question, I wanted to truncate it because I was worried about how much time, you know, I think one of the problems I'm encountering is, is I'm trying very much to turn inward. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and so like, you know, because, and what I'm, what I'm being exposed a lot to is kind of like, yeah, I agree with you. Yeah. I'm not as concerned about like the guys, right? But I'm encountering a lot of people who are basically, they're like, you're, you're gonna, you know, you're leading your children to hell, like on this side or that side from like all different angles. And it's like, and it breaks my heart because I'm like, I think you guys are missing the point, but I don't want to say that because then I'm afraid that I'm having pride and judgment. And, and so like, I don't know how to deal with that. Just invite them to come taste and see themselves. Right. Okay. I mean, that's what, you know, Philip did to Nathaniel. Yeah. You know, just come and see. And look, look in the end of the day, there are people that exist in the Orthodox world that you could turn your friends to and say, well, if you want to debate this question, you know, do it with Father Josiah Trenum, do it wi