On 29 August the Church commemorates the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist with fasting. What the Gospels and Josephus record, and how the Forerunner went before Christ even in death.
Why do we sometimes ask and not receive? Gethsemane, persistence, the will of God, and the way prayer first changes the one who asks.
The life of Saint Moses the Ethiopian, from robber chief to father of the desert, and the repentance he carried until death.
What we know about Saint Phanourios: the icon of Rhodes, the twelve torments, the antiquity of his veneration, the phanouropita and later traditions.
The life and teachings of Saint Poemen the Great on thoughts, humility, discernment, watchfulness and prayer. Commemorated on 27 August.
The martyrdom of Adrian in Nicomedia, Natalia's service in prison, and the Christian marriage that remained beneath the love of Christ.
The life of Saint Kosmas the Aetolian: twenty years of preaching through the Balkans, the schools he founded, and his martyrdom on 24 August 1779.
How Orthodox Churches became self-governing, who granted their autocephaly, and why there is still no single procedure accepted by all.
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: the rich young man, the camel and the needle's eye, and the one thing needful at the Leave-taking of the Dormition.
How Romanian laymen founded the first parishes in North America, how communism produced the break between two dioceses, and why the separation continues today.