The Field

This is the final episode of the Field! I thank those who suggested that I use this wonderful book. I pray that my listeners will be spiritually strengthened and that Orthodoxy will be made clearer for those who wish to walk the narrow path!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

There will be one final episode after this one! What causes weakness in our monasteries today? And, how can this weakness be traced back to the parish and Orthodox Christian home? Fr. Methodius offers some insights.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

I am literally following a fictional conversation between a monk and a layman on this episode. As I follow along their soul-profitting dialogue, I hope you will find the same benefits I do.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Saint Ignatius includes this fictional dialogue toward the end of his book. This is my attempt to draw practical applications from it.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Many people who refuse to humble themselves before men swear that they would do so before God. What does it mean to take the Cup of Christ? And who is it that truly takes it up?Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

This episode discusses the reality of the life of a layperson and the need for Virtues. I have said it elsewhere, but now we have it from the Saint. Without Virtue, there is no salvation. Listen to how attentiveness, fasting, prayer, and many other things depend on each other to work.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Join me as we make our way through the classic book "The Field" by the Russian bishop and mystic, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

It's been some time since the release of Episode 31. This section of the book required me to approach it differently from the others. I hope you will find value in it and remember me in your prayers!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

This is the third and final episode dealing with Chapter 26, On Purity. Sexual sins, carnal lust, self-abuse, and other lustful passions are discussed. Purity is the necessary prerequisite for anyone to see God. Let us purify ourselves!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

What is the relationship between having pews in church and purity? Why are certain questions practical for some but harmful if asked by others? Check it out here!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Can a man purify himself from lust? What is possible for one who asks God for purity? How does this virtue prepare one to do things beyond simply restraining oneself?Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

If you think you have an idea of what this episode is about, think again. Patience is what someone has gained who has not wasted his life. We really need to listen to our God-bearing fathers!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Have you ever considered how humility and people pleasing are opposites? Has it ever occurred to you that the more humble you become, the less humble you feel? Join Fr. Methodius as he explores True and False versions of this virtue!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Humility, Virtue, Reasonable Asceticism, and humble-wordedness are all words you need patristic definitions for. Follow Fr. Methodius as he walks through the Field of spiritual guidance.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Repentance should occupy a central place in the Christian life. Why should we associate it with the Kingdom of heaven, and how is repentance much more than a simple changing of the mind? Fr. Methodius explores this and other topics here.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Believe it or not, this episode completes the chapter on Prayer, and includes the entire chapter on Faith!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Have you ever told heterodox Christians or even non-Christians to pray about something? Have you ever considered that this could be bad advice? Listen as I try to clarify the teachings of prayer.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

What do I need to know before I can pray? What must I do, if anything, to make my prayers acceptable? Does God always answer every prayer? Listen to Fr. M as he interacts with God illumined teaching on the virtue we call Prayer.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Listen to this episode, then talk to your spiritual Father. This is strong food for Christians living in the last days.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Lots of people think that they "love God." Did you know that He only accepts certain kinds of offerings though? One of the earliest experiences of Christian worship ended with one brother killing another and it was because God accepted the one while rejecting the other. Listen as Fr. M explains how we can detect the quality of our love.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

What does it mean to Love my neighbor? What does it mean to Love God? How are these two one thing? It may surprise you to learn that what you call love is actually something very different! Listen as Fr. Methodius explains the teachings of the holy Fathers.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

We have already talked about passion and how our whole life is affected by them. Are you ready to hear about the virtues that war against them? Join Fr. Methodius to learn about virtue and how to acquire it as he interacts witht the teachings of Saint Ignatius!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

When you think of pride do you automatically equate it with an inflated view of oneself? What about Vanity? How many ways does vanity corrupt our lives? Listen here to learn why many Christians are blind to spiritual progress and how to recover from it.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Have you ever wondered what the conscience is? This episode explores inner voices and the impressions we are often told to act upon as the "leading" of God.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

What is a habit and what makes it good or bad? What should I do with bad habits? And what can I expect if I struggle to develop good habits?Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

If we wish to make progress, if we wish to know ourselves, we must learn about passions. Learn why, after the fall, self-knowledge is associated with knowledge of passions.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

This episode explores the manifold temptations experienced by the Pharisee within each of us.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

More on the Pharisee here. It is no fun going through this stuff, but, if we are going to be healed, we need courage.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

I wrote this on election day. You may wonder how politics and Pharasaism are related. Hear what Metropoltian Anastassy Gribanovsky said about political rulers.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Life is full of traps that keep us from our salvation. What are they like? And how do we avoid them? Listen as Fr. Methodius attempts to explain these foul snares.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Join me as I look through the window, out at the sea of life with St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. The waters are dark. What kinds of dangers are found in the deep?Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

What does it mean to be distracted? St. Ignatius teaches us how destructive tendencies to allow the mind to wander can be our downfall as Christians.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

In America today, conversations about salvation are often preconditioned by Protestantism, sometimes thought of as "American" Christianity. Mistakes are made when Orthodox people allow foreign notions into their soteriology. This episode provides an Orthodox foundation.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Maybe you have a hard time discerning between commandments, beatitudes, virtue, fruit of the Spirit. If so, this episode will help you. Fr. Methodius follows St. Ignati explaining what these are and how we relate to them.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

This follow-up on episode 3 builds upon some difficult notions discussed previously. May God give us wisdom to do all He commands!Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Was it your impression that the Law of God has somehow lapsed or that it isn't applicable in the New Testament? Listen as Fr. Methodius explains the teaching of St. Ignati on how Christians should view the Law.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

How should we approach our studies in Orthodoxy? Is there a right and wrong way to read the Gospels? Listen here as Fr. Methodius transmits the teaching of the saint for modern listeners.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Do we really consider the invitation our Lord gave to those who would follow Him? To what degree must I renounce the world before I can become a Christian? How do I renounce my own soul? Listen in as Fr. M interacts with St. Ignatius Brianchaninov.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy! 

Join me as I study the Field by St. Ignati Brianchaninov. In this episode, we will learn something about this modern Saint and certain contemporaries that made his earthly ministry unique and salvific.Our ministry is supported by the offerings of our small mission parish and your generosity! Help us, through your financial gifts, to broadcast True Christian Orthodoxy!