There were two main problems with the garments of leaves. The garments were taken from a tree that didn’t belong to Adam and the woman as a selfish, external sacrifice, and, The leaves were an insufficient cover for their sin because they were too different from man.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support

Here's some encouragement from Holy Scripture as we approach the mid-point of the great fast. "And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach" Isaiah 58:12 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support

After The Fall, Adam and the woman's instinct for self-preservation resulted in them taking and making clothing from fig leaves.  They dimly perceived their lack of self-sufficiency and attempted to cover themselves, to hide their shame, and to hold themselves together.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support

According to the Genesis 3 account of the fall of Man, the first and most immediate result of Adam and Eve’s consumption of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil was the realization that they were naked.  According to St. Ambrose of Milan: "Whoever has lost the covering of his nature and virtue is naked." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support

The law written by the hand of God on stone tablets represents the law’s inability to enliven the dead, for when Moses descended the mountain, the people had already created the golden calf.  Therefore, the tablets were remade and Moses wrote on the stone tablets. But Christ, who fulfilled the law and took His life back up again, now writes the law on living hearts of flesh. Visit https://thepodvig.com to sign up now! Support the show!...

This episode focuses on sharing the afflictions of Christ through bearing our own cross. Sacrifice was established as soon as mankind was expelled from paradise where Adam and Eve did not sacrifice their own will, but instead took the fruit for themselves.  Love in sacrifice and sacrifice in love are the cornerstones of true Life. Without love, sacrifice kills; without sacrifice, love is barren sentiment.   Visit https://thepodvig.com to sign up now! Support the show!...

This episode delves into the concept of the cross as baptism from the Old Testament to the New, in which Christ calls His crucifixion a baptism. Sign up at https://thepodvig.com to get the full transcript episode! Support the podcast here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support

Like the wooden horse given to the city of Troy, the Cross of Jesus Christ is not at all what it seems. It is dead wood that produced the ripened fruit of eternal life; it's a sword disguised as gallows. Sign up at https://thepodvig.com to get the full transcript episode! Support the podcast here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast:...

The prophecy of St. Simeon the God-receiver involves both Christ and His mother. This episode explores the biblical, liturgical, and theological meaning of the Theotokos becoming the new Eve and her essential role in the Kingdom of God. Get the full transcript by signing up at https://www.thepodvig.com/ Support the podcast here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support...

Your life, beloved, is a war and temptation precipitates each battle.  Saint Theophan the Recluse said it this way: “The arena, the field of battle, the site where the fight actually takes place is our own heart and all our inner man. The time of battle is our whole life.”  St. James tells us that every man is tempted from within, being lured away by his own lusts and passions, and is enticed.  (James 1:14) In Mark 7, our Lord says this: “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: There is...

St. Peter teaches that “as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16 So how does one be Holy? Is that just a platitude or is it actually achievable?  Support the podcast to help keep this thing going! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support Visit https://www.thepodvig.com/ and sign up for full podcast transcripts and more! --- Send in a voice message:...

In its ancient understanding, technology (“techne” in Greek) is a form of spiritual knowledge and skill granted to humans by the divine for their empowerment. Although we tend to think of technology as its physical application, it universally originates from the spiritual realm. Therefore, the use of technology doesn’t just have physical repercussions but spiritual ones as well. St. John of Damascus, in the “Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith,” writes: “Prayer is the raising of one’s...

A simple life is not about depriving ourselves of earthly joy, comfort, or material possessions. Rather, it is a deliberate choice to reorient our lives toward what truly matters. Simplifying our lives allows us to shed that which weighs us to this Earth, while at the same time knowing that: "The spiritual life does not remove us from the world, but leads us deeper into it." - St. Seraphim of Sorov. Get the full transcript and other exclusive content by becoming a member at...

Christ reconciled the entire human race through his death, burial, and resurrection, and, like Adam, provided both a body and the blood necessary for His bride, the Church. Pentecost is the recreation of the woman, wherein God breathes the Holy Spirit into the body and blood taken from the side of His Son on the cross. The power of the Holy Spirit, the uncreated energies of God, now animates the unified Body of Christ, which is the Church. Get the full transcript and other exclusive content...

Humility is the preeminent Christian virtue. It is a disposition of the heart and mind, which recognizes one’s true self and one’s complete dependence on God. According to St. Isaac the Syrian, “The sum of all virtues is humility. By it, the soul is made like God." In this episode, we will briefly explore ‘humility’ from an Orthodox perspective, and discuss how to begin its cultivation. Get the full transcript and other exclusive content by becoming a member at http://thepodvig.com! ---...

We are terrestrial beings, being made from Earth. Therefore we have physical bodies, but we are enlivened with God-breathed souls.  Therefore, mankind is made from a unique combination of earth and spirit. We have physical bodies, but we are not primarily earthen. While there is no official Orthodox dogma on the subject,  Sts. John of Damascus and Gregory the Theologian thought Angels were the first things created, because, according to St. John, “it was fitting that the mental essence...

Please forgive me for not posting an episode in a while. My wife gave birth to our 9th child recently and priorities had to shift. Not to mention the lack of sleep that made writing this episode much more difficult. The episode explores Divine Light as well as create light. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support

St. Gregory Palamas teaches that “[God] is not revealed in his essence (ousia), for no one has ever seen or described God's nature; but he is revealed in the grace (charis), power (dynamis) and energy (energeia) which is common to Father, Son and Spirit … Distinctive to each of the three is the person (hypostasis) of each… Shared in common by all three are not only the transcendent essence - what is altogether nameless unmanifested since it is beyond all names, manifestation and participation...

Pride was the first sin to enter the world through man. Adam and the woman desired to “be like God,” and consumed, without a blessing, the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. St. James tells us, God is neither tempted nor does He tempt, but “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown brings forth death.”  James 1:14-15 The words of the serpent, according to St....

Psalms 103:2 describes God as one: “Who cover[s] [Himself] with light as with a garment…” God’s first creation was light. Genesis 1:3 But it is not until verse 14 that God creates the heavenly bodies in the firmament that give off light. There was light before there were lights. This makes sense. We know there was light before there was creation at all. For our Saviour said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” -John...

It's been a few weeks since I posted an episode. Forgive me. There's been a lot going on over that time and now Orthodox Christmas is upon us. For about 12 days recently  I was stricken with a debilitating health issue. I endured a lot of pain and required a cane just to walk for several of those days. One night last week I couldn't sleep because of the pain. I managed to get out of bed and I ended up lying on the floor before our family icon corner praying the Jesus prayer for a few...

In the Unseen Warfare, Saints Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and Theophan the Recluse tell us that “the enemy watches [us] constantly, waiting for an opportunity to sow evil in [us].” They implore us, “be doubly watchful over yourself, lest you fall in the nets spread for you.”  St. Maximos the Confessor observes that “God allows the demons to attack us for five reasons: through being attacked and fighting back, we should learn to distinguish virtue from sin. having acquired virtue by...

Acquiring patience is a hard lesson and one that persists to the end of our earthly sojourn. In the Church, patience is considered a virtue. St. Paul famously lists patience in his discourse on the fruit of the spirit. Noah Webster defined Patience as The suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation or other evil, with a calm, unruffled temper; endurance without murmuring or fretfulness. Patience may spring from constitutional fortitude, from a kind of heroic pride, or from...

“The heart is but a small vessel; and yet dragons and lions are there, and there likewise are poisonous creatures and all the treasures of wickedness; rough, uneven paths are there, and gaping chasms. There also is God, there are the angels, there life and the Kingdom, there light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasures of grace: all things are there.” - St. Marcarius the Great (, Homilies 43:7) Many of us in the West have a distorted view of salvation based on faulty...