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. 11h ago

    Holy Orders: The Priesthood of Christ [EP. 19]

    Whose hand rests upon a man's head at ordination? Beginning with his own ordination to the diaconate, Dcn Seraphim explains that the priesthood belongs to Christ, the one eternal High Priest, and that bishops, priests, and deacons receive particular ministries within His priesthood rather than possessing spiritual authority of their own. He shows how ordained ministry serves rather than replaces the royal priesthood of every baptized Christian, traces apostolic succession from Christ and the apostles through the laying-on of hands, and describes the distinct work of the bishop, priest, deacon, reader, and subdeacon. The episode then walks through the Orthodox ordination rite: the procession around the altar, the prayer that divine grace heals what is infirm and completes what is lacking, the cry of “Axios,” and the vesting of the newly ordained man. Dcn Seraphim closes by considering what clergy and people owe one another — faithful teaching, reverent service, prayer, honesty, accountability, practical support, and mercy — as they work out their salvation together in the body of Christ. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ub5iFJAGN6hCXhyfKSWoPA11qudSLKaA?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  2. Aug 24

    Monasticism: The Angelic Life [EP. 18]

    Beginning with the rite of monastic tonsure, Dcn Seraphim presents monasticism as a total offering of one's life to God and a counterpart to the self-offering of Christian marriage. He traces its roots through Christ's counsels in the Gospels, St. Paul's teaching on celibacy, and the life of St. Anthony the Great, then explores the communal, skete, and eremitic forms of the monastic life. Drawing on St. John Climacus, St. Basil the Great, St. Paisius Velichkovsky, and the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers, he explains the promises of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability without romanticizing either asceticism or spiritual authority. Finally, he shows how monasteries have preserved the Church's daily worship, the Jesus Prayer, the Philokalia, and the practice of spiritual counsel, and what Christians living in the world can learn from their witness without pretending to be monks themselves. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1chsUEqgt-1Be9u00Orh0qHYs9NzVnN3r?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  3. Aug 17

    Holy Matrimony: The Domestic Church [EP. 17]

    Why does the Orthodox wedding service place crowns on the heads of the bride and groom, sing a hymn to the martyrs, but includes no vows? Dcn Seraphim traces marriage from its institution in Eden through the wedding at Cana and St. Paul's vision of Christ and the Church, then walks through the rites of betrothal and crowning: the rings, candles, common cup, joining of hands, and threefold procession around the Gospel. With the help of St. John Chrysostom and the prayers of the service, he shows that Christian marriage is God's act of joining two lives into one, a royal vocation whose authority takes the form of sacrifice. The episode then turns from the church building to the household, where the icon corner, family prayer, fasting, hospitality, forgiveness, and the shared table make the home a domestic church, and closes with a pastoral word about struggle, divorce, and the married saints who carried their crowns faithfully to the end. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jxEjqQR6tymRYJHjIF3gF3YBzZtip79q?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

  4. Aug 11

    Made in the Image of God [EP. 16]

    Episode 16 of the How to be an Orthodox Christian Podcast, hosted by Deacon Seraphim Richard Rohlin.

  5. Aug 3

    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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

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About

How to Live the Orthodox Life

Information

  • Creator
    Dcn. Seraphim Richard Rohlin, and Ancient Faith Ministries
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Ancient Faith Ministries
  • Show Website
    How to Be an Orthodox Christian

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