How to Be an Orthodox Christian

Dcn. Seraphim Richard Rohlin, and Ancient Faith Ministries
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How to Live the Orthodox Life

  1. 1d ago

    Holy Unction: The Healing of Soul and Body [EP. 15]

    Around a small table set with wheat, an unlit lamp, seven cotton-wrapped wands, and the book of the Gospels, seven priests gather to do one of the oldest things the Christian Church does — and, Dcn Seraphim suggests, the single most ignored sacrament in the modern West. Beginning from the plain apostolic command of James 5 — "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church" — he shows that Holy Unction (the Euchelaion, "the oil of prayer") has been practiced without interruption since the time of the Apostles. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ho4j_MC2k61Trud3vcZ3-aSjZwjw5FbJ?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  2. Jul 20

    Confession: Holy Repentance and the Second Baptism

    Taking up the first of the Mysteries of healing, Dcn Seraphim presents Confession not as a courtroom but as a hospital — the place where the oldest human reflex, Adam hiding among the trees, is finally undone. He recovers the meaning of repentance as metanoia, a change of mind and a turning toward home rather than a religion of guilt, and distinguishes the godly sorrow "mingled with joy" from the worldly sorrow that ends at the noose. Drawing on St. John Climacus and St. Symeon the New Theologian, he explains why the Fathers dare to call confession a "second baptism" — the renewal, not the repetition, of baptismal grace — and walks through the Church's gallery of penitents as the Triodion sets them before us: the Publican, the Prodigal, David and Psalm 50, the sinful woman, Peter, and Zacchaeus, gathered up in the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  3. Jul 13

    The Holy Eucharist (Part 2): Worthy Preparation

    In the second of two episodes on the Eucharist, Dcn Seraphim turns from what the Mystery is to how an Orthodox Christian prepares to receive it. He begins with St. Paul's sober warning that whoever eats and drinks unworthily is "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" and "eats and drinks judgment to himself" (1 Corinthians 11), and draws the Church's careful distinction: no one is ever worthy of the Eucharist, but we are asked to come in a worthy manner. He walks through the converging disciplines of preparation — a life of continual repentance, confession, the Eucharistic fast, the pre-Communion prayers, and reconciliation with the brethren (Matthew 5) — and then closes with the practical mechanics of approaching the chalice, the prayers of thanksgiving, and the Christian live as lived from chalice to chalice. Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  4. Jul 6

    The Holy Eucharist (Part 1): The Mystery of All Mysteries

    In the first of two episodes on the Eucharist, Dcn Seraphim explores what the Holy Eucharist is according to Holy Tradition: the fruit of the Tree of Life given again to the children of the new Adam, the sacrifice of Melchizedek brought to its perfection, the anamnesis of the Lord's passion, the very Body and Blood of the incarnate Christ made present by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts. Drawing on Nicholas Cabasilas's Life in Christ — "the clay is no longer clay when it has received the royal likeness, but is already the Body of the King" — he ends with the central claim of the whole Orthodox sacramental life: that the purpose of the Christian faith is to eat God so that we may become, by grace, what God is by nature. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FOxCuUeiWEKWzdt_6w2i121c6R82hjVK?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  5. Jun 29

    Baptism and Chrismation: The New Birth and the Breath of Life

    Dcn Seraphim takes up the first two mysteries of Christian initiation: Baptism, by which we are reborn out of the waters into the humanity of the new Adam, and Chrismation, by which the Holy Spirit Himself is sealed upon us. Drawing on his own background as a former Baptist minister, he traces the two great modern misconceptions about baptism — that it is only a symbol, and that it can only be administered to those old enough to consent — back to the Radical Reformation, and refutes both from a long line of New Testament passages. He then walks through the Orthodox baptismal rite moment by moment. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GSl_XdilbI9lDmaZYKufyh6pITpxmMni?usp=sharing Music Used: 11 Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  6. Jun 23

    Introduction to the Holy Mysteries: What's with All This Stuff?

    Every visitor to an Orthodox church eventually asks the same question — why so much stuff? The icons, the candles, the incense, the relics, the bread and wine and water and oil. In this episode Dcn Seraphim argues that the question itself is the wrong one, and that the Orthodox question is never "what is the bare minimum?" He diagnoses the quiet, unstated gnosticism that has shaped modern American religion and then lays out the central thesis that will frame the rest of the series: that the Holy Mysteries of the Church are the recapitulation, in Christ, of what God did with Adam in Genesis 1–3. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xZEu9Y48xE8Z4A_XC7bKLjxbK39ZTreB?usp=sharing Music Used: 11 Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  7. Jun 15

    The Moral Life (Part 2): Sexuality, the Sanctity of Life, the Tongue, and Possessions [EP. 9]

    Picking up the framework from Part 1, Dcn Seraphim applies it to the specific moral questions where the Church's teaching most visibly cuts against the assumptions of our age. He begins by rejecting the quiet gnosticism of the modern world and affirming the goodness of the body, then takes up sexual ethics at length, working from Genesis 1 and Ephesians 5 to chastity, marriage as the icon of Christ and the Church, fornication, pornography, and the image of God in the human person. Finally, he talks about the discipline of the tongue: lying, gossip, judgment, and the new domain of online conduct. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16IQ-i3cukC75VMFRqGP1q9oLoED_uXa-?usp=sharing

  8. Jun 8

    The Moral Life (Part 1): The Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Transformation of the Heart [EP. 8]

    In the first of two episodes on the moral life, Dcn Seraphim works through the two great moral texts of Scripture — the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Sinai, and the Sermon on the Mount given by Christ to His disciples on a mountain in Galilee — and shows how Christ does not abolish the law given to Moses but fulfills it, taking it inward into the dispositions of the heart. The Decalogue marked off Israel by clear external standards of conduct; the Sermon on the Mount addresses a new community, the Church, in which God is concerned not only with our outward actions but with our inner thoughts, our affections, and the very movement of our wills. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1z-OVpbdZqhEDT0v3M9tipcdb-_frY4zP?usp=sharing

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

How to Live the Orthodox Life

Information

  • Creator
    Dcn. Seraphim Richard Rohlin, and Ancient Faith Ministries
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Ancient Faith Ministries
  • Show Website
    How to Be an Orthodox Christian

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