Join Michael in a discussion about what well-being and non-being really mean, and how we often do things we think are beneficial but really are not in our best interest and lead us father from God rather than towards Him.

Well-Being or Non-Being - It’s Our Choice

Join Michael in a discussion about what it means to create “heat” without “light” and how ego driven self-motivation and self-focus is poisoning society, and what we should be mindful of not to be contributors to this.

Heat Without Light

Join Michael in a discussion about living intentionally to embed hopefulness in our body, mind and soul, and accept death with the hope of eternal life.

Living Intentionally to Live Life Hopefully

Join Michael in a discussion about what the Scriptures and our Holy Tradition teach us about the importance of clothing as it relates to salvation, communion, or lack thereof, and what our attitudes and actions toward clothing reveal about us individually and culturally.

Clothed in Christ

Join Michael in a discussion about what is means to be feel like a stranger in our own surroundings and in this world in general and why this actually a good thing.

Strangers in a Strange Land

Join Michael in a discussion about the many different aspects of tears, why some tears are good, some are evil, what they indicate about our hearts, and why they are necessary for salvation.

Tears

Join Michael in a discussion about how we often neglect our bodies, the physical and spiritual ramifications to ourselves and loved ones, how this is profoundly unspiritual, and what we need to think and do to treat our physical selves the way God intends us to.

Our Bodies and the Sin of Self-Neglect

Join Michael for a discussion of the primacy of focusing on loving more not sinning less and why this will be the basis of how God judges our lives.

How Much We Loved Not How Much We Sinned

Join Michael in a discussion about prayerful and practical ways to frame our understanding in regard to our difficulties and setbacks, and deal with them in a spiritually healthy way.

Dealing with Difficulties and Setbacks

Join Michael in discussion of what it means in the Liturgy when the Priest prays “And let us ask for a Christian end to our life, peaceful, without shame and suffering, and for a good defense before the awesome judgment seat of Christ” and how that should drive our daily behavior.

Mutual Accountability and the Awesome Judgment Seat of Christ

Understanding Christianity as a Way of Life - Sacramental Living is a series of podcasts by Michael Haldas about how to understand and live our Orthodox Christian faith in the context of real life and real world issues and continually grow closer to God.

Great podcast Michael! I’m thinking of making it required listening for my clients. It definitely underscores the importance of keeping silence each day, and not only for health reasons.  I’m interested to know what commentary you referred to.

Loved it!

We know a lot about living, not much about dying. We&#39;ve become removed from it over the years. This stigmatizes it, makes it tabu rather than a fact of life. This podcast helps bridge our lack of understanding on a subject that is very difficult to talk or think about for many. Well done.

Excellent. More please.

Sacramental Living

Michael discusses the top five regrets of the dying from the popular article and best-selling book of the same name by Bronnie Ware. What do we typically regret and why? What can we do to avoid such regrets? Michael explores these and other related questions from an Orthodox Christian perspective.

Regrets of the Dying

Life’s often not fair and we all suffer from illness and affliction at times that are not of our own making. It is then we are often confronted with a choice – to continue to want to be with God even though we don’t understand why certain things are happening to us; or to let the seeming unfairness of our circumstance drive us away from Him.  Join Michael as he uses a whimsical episode of the Brady Bunch to illustrate and discuss this profound truth we all experience.

What Do You Want – Fair or Me? Choosing God Amidst the Unfairness of Illness and Affliction

In Orthodoxy we often hear and read about the Uncreated Light of God. What is this Uncreated Light? Can we experience this Divine Light or is it something only Saints can experience? Join Michael as he explains certain Scriptures that illuminate our understanding of God’s Uncreated Light, and shares thoughts and experiences that demonstrate how all of us can partake of the Divine Light and experience the Transcendent in our ordinary daily lives.

Uncreated Light: Experiencing the Transcendent

How should we fast as Orthodox Christians? Is there really a right and wrong way? What is the real intent and purpose of fasting? Join Michael as he discusses the deeper meaning of fasting and compares the various ways people fast, how we often misunderstand fasting, and how it relates to our awareness of God’s presence in our lives.

Lent, Fasting, and God’s Presence

Bondage to sin and wrong behavior and struggling with things we can’t seem to overcome plague us all to lesser or greater degrees. Join Michael as he talks about three typical forms of bondage that grip us and what we need to do to overcome them.

Freeing Ourselves from Bondage

Join Michael has he discusses in-depth how J.R.R Tolkien and his work were formational in preparing him to accept the truth of sacramental reality as experienced and taught in Orthodox Christianity.

Sacramentality in the Lord of the Rings

Michael examines the Star Wars phenomenon from an Orthodox Christian and sacramental point of view, and with a special focus on comparisons between the Force and the Holy Spirit.

The Force, The Holy Spirit and Star Wars

What happens when life delivers a blow we were not prepared for? Michael shares the story of how one person reacted and what we can learn from it.

Judging Our Circumstances Prematurely

Michael offers in-depth thoughts on death from an Orthodox perspective.

A Perspective on Death

If we are honest, we will all admit that we struggle from time to time with doubt. Michael reflects on that reality and helps us understand the meaning of doubt as well as faith.

Doubt and Faith

How do we continue to love unconditionally amidst our suffering, especially when this suffering is caused by the people we love best? How do we attain and maintain the maturity of faith we need to be Christ-like, let God be in control, and recognize the grace in our lives despite the pain. Join Michael as he shares his thoughts and experiences on this very difficult topic.

Suffering and Unconditional Love of Others

Comfort, and feeling comfortable, is a desire all of us have and we strive to fulfill this desire. But it can come at a cost because the root of our desire and the means by which we achieve it are not always in our best interests. Join Michael as he explains why comfort can lead to spiritually harmful complacency and blind us to the real purpose of our faith.

Comfort, Complacency and Spiritual Death

Mindfulness is a growing movement in the United States. It’s finding its way into schools as well as into the daily practice of the lives of many. So what is mindfulness and what are its many benefits? How is it different from prayerfulness, or is it? Join Michael as he discusses prayerfulness and mindfulness, nepsis or watchfulness, and what some Orthodox Christians who are also priests, professors and psychologists have to say about mindfulness.

Prayerfulness and Mindfulness

How do we understand God’s grace and providence in the direction of our lives? Is there such a thing as chance and coincidence, or is it simply our lack of spiritual perception that makes it seem so? Join Michael as he thoroughly explores this topic and shares personal examples, thoughts and the insights that apply to all of us.

Grace and the Guiding Hand of Providence in Our Lives

Michael looks at the story of the Woman at the Well and extracts lessons for understanding how Christ can forgive sexual sin.

Christ and Sexual Sin

Michael explores the source of our inspiration when we create for the glory of God.

Holy Inspiration and Creativity

It’s terrible feeling to lose hope and feel like our circumstances are hopeless. It’s not how we are meant to live, but we can lose sight of this because of what we are going through. Join Michael as he shares his thoughts and experiences on this very difficult topic and how we can maintain or recapture hope no matter what we are experiencing. Michael also shares some exciting developments occurring with Ancient Faith Ministries and the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, an author whose fiction deals a lot with hope amidst hopelessness.

Hope When Feeling Hopeless

Many of us can remember when we learned the truth about Santa Claus, but what truth did we learn? Using examples from J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, the Polar Express and our Orthodox Christian understanding of mystery, join Michael as he shares a recent conversation about Santa and what the story of the Christmas gift giver may actually be teaching us.

What Do You Mean Santa Isn’t Real?

We live in a pace driven and action oriented culture where we are always on the go. We achieve much yet feel mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausted. We have forgotten how to just be. Join Michael Haldas as he explores this topic in depth and offers some thoughts on the hierarchy of action and contemplation in our lives.

The Action of Contemplation

Michael challenges us to avoid the extremes as we attempt to live in an increasingly dark culture as Orthodox Christians. Christ has given us the example.

Condemn or Condone

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