Fr. Scott Haynes “Joy is the serious business of Heaven.”—C. S. Lewis We often think of seriousness as something heavy. A serious person is expected to be stern, restrained, and burdened by responsibility. Joy, by contrast, can seem light, spontaneous, or even childish. Yet the Christian faith overturns this false division. Heaven is not a place of grim duty. It is the kingdom of perfect joy, and every true joy on earth is a small ray escaping from that eternal country. The s

Fr. Scott Haynes A Meditation on Romans 6:19-23 7th Sunday after Pentecost Saint Paul tells us in today’s Epistle: “As you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity, unto iniquity; so now yield your members to serve justice, unto sanctification.” (Romans 6:19) That may sound a little severe at first, but Saint Paul is really describing something very familiar. Every day, we use our bodies, our minds, and our desires in one direction or another. We can give o

Fr. Scott A. Haynes In the Gospels there are two accounts of Christ multiplying loaves and fishes: the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. Why two accounts? What is the difference between them? The obvious answer: 1,000. All joking aside, there is a salient difference—location. As they say in real estate, what matters is, location, location, location. The feeding of the 5,000 took place near Bethsaida, close to the Sea of Galilee. In contrast, the feeding of th

Learn the Biblical wisdom of avoiding gossip, slander, and backbiting. St. Monica explains.

Fr. Scott Haynes Among the most mysterious images in the Book of Revelation is the vision of the two witnesses: "These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, that stand before the Lord of the earth." (Revelation 11:4) At first glance, the imagery appears obscure. Yet St. John expects his readers to recognize it immediately. He is drawing upon the vision of the prophet Zechariah, where two olive trees continually supply oil to a golden lampstand. The Old Testament p