Be Transfigured Ministries

The Church is not a Cafeteria

It may be popular these days to pick and choose what we believe and like about the Church, but is that going to help us get to heaven? Christ invites each of us, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” The Christian way of life is not a life of self-indulgence and easy living. It is the hard way, the way of the Cross. When Christ invites us to deny ourselves and take up our cross, He is reminding us that we have to move beyond ourselves in order to follow Him to heaven, and it begins with our ability to embrace the teachings and way of life of the Church in its entirety. If we think we can pick and choose what we believe and how we want to live, we haven’t yet begun to deny ourselves.

What God has done for us

God has done many great things for us. This ultimately includes bringing us with Him to Heaven when He ascended. In our daily life we are reminded of His love for us, and our obligation to Him for such a great gift.

The Promise of God Fulfilled in His Presence

When Our Lord spoke these words from the Prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," He declared, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Today God reminds us that everything we have hoped for from God, has been fulfilled in His presence.

The Storms of Life

When the storms of life seem unbearable and you feel the waves crashing over your head, you might feel like your sinking and that you may never make it out of the storm. At just that moment, remember the love and presence of God in your life, and remember the lesson of Peter walking on the water as told in Matthew 14.22-34. So long as Peter remained focused on Christ, he was able to stay above the waves. When he focused on the severe storm, fear took over and he began to sink because he took his eyes off Christ. Stay focused and stay afloat.

If God Doesn’t Heal

We have all experienced that moment when we asked God why He didn’t help us. It could have been when someone we loved was very sick, or as has been the case too often lately, yet another mindless mass-shooting in our society. We continue to pray that God would “do something” but it often seems like He chooses rather to sit back. Our experience seems to be in direct conflict with what we hear in the Gospel, when it seems that at every turn God heals and ‘makes everything ok’ for those hurting. Why didn’t God help us? God said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you.” Does that mean our faith, or lack of faith, is to blame?

Yiayiaisms – Part 1

We’ve all heard them; those pious commandments from our grandmothers (yiayias) about how we are supposed to live our Orthodoxy. Sometimes our yiayias are spot on, while at other times they’re not quite right. Either way, we are always blessed when we follow the advice of yiayia. They are the unknown saints of our day, faithfully praying for us. Thank you yiayias. In this episode, we answer questions about timing for baby blessings, female prohibitions, and godparents traditions.

To Know the True God

In the Gospel, shortly before He ascended the Holy Cross, we hear how Christ promised the Holy Spirit would come and guide the Disciples “into all truth.” (John 16.13) As Christ ascended His Throne 40 days after His Resurrection, He urged the Church to wait for the Holy Spirit. For the past two thousand years, the Church has protected the truth of God, as revealed to the Holy Disciples by the Holy Spirit. You learn about God by reading the Holy Scriptures and hearing the witness of those who knew Him personally, but there is only one way to truly know God. We can only know God intimately through Holy Communion. If you want to know the true God, come and be in communion with Him.

Two Signs of God; Do you Believe or not?

When God reveals Himself to us, as He did in the story of the healing of the man born blind in the Gospel of John, He allows us to use our free will to believe Him or not to believe Him. Then it is up to us to put that belief into action. Some “say” they believe, as the ancient Jews, but don’t follow that with action. When we see God revealed, will we believe and act?

Our Soul Craves God

We eventually learn in life that our bodies don’t always want what we offer them. Any casual trip to the refrigerator will prove that point. The same can be said about our soul. We go through life, searching and buying and never being satisfied. That is because out soul doesn’t want material things. Our soul craves God, and only when we offer our soul what it truly craves, will it ever be satisfied.

This One is for YOU!

Eight days after Pascha, the Church continues with the story of Christ’s resurrection that it began to tell us during AGAPE Vespers of Pascha. The story in the Gospel tells how Thomas had missed the first report of Christ’s resurrection, and would not believe the news until he saw Christ for himself. For St Thomas, seeing was believing, but Christ says, “Because you have seen Me you believe? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” We have not seen Christ’s resurrected body, but still we believe. God will always give us what we need in order to believe.