Author: John Figel

My Memories of Christmas

As a young boy—waking up at first light on Christmas Day before everyone else in the family to check out what gifts were under the tree for me!  I especially remember a battery powered, remote control tractor-trailer truck about three feet long that I could drive all over the house. As an older boy—enjoying the […]

Feast of Saint Andrew

November 30 is the feast of Saint Andrew, the first-called apostle. He is also the patron of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, who by tradition traveled to the ancient city of Byzantium and founded the Church there. In some years over the last 20, I have been privileged to travel to Constantinople and be present for […]

Our Christian Life

In a recent edition of Unirea-Canton, the monthly newsletter of the Romanian Catholic Diocese in America, Bishop John Michael (page 3) and Hieromonk Maximos (page 14) give us insightful “food for thought” for how we live our Christian lives. His Grace talks about how we live in the world and respond to the continual temptation […]

Video Recordings with Metropolitan Kallistos

Over the last few years, OLTV has been producing recordings of past Orientale Lumen Conferences, both plenary lectures and liturgical services, as well as several special events around the world. We have also been making special recordings by scholars and theologians on various related topics dealing with liturgy, spirituality, theology, history, and ecumenism. The idea of these […]

Visiting with Metropolitan Kallistos

Last spring, Msgr. George Dobes and I had planned to travel to Oxford, UK and record some additional lectures for OLTV by Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia, retired Spaulding Lecturer in Eastern Christian Studies at Oxford University. Our flights were cancelled because of the disruption to trans-Atlantic air travel to and from Europe due to the volcano […]

Plans for Orientale Lumen XV

We have already started making plans for the Orientale Lumen Conference for next year. Since it will be our fifteenth anniversary, we are hopeful to have a great turnout. In discussions over the summer, Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) from Oxford, one of the founders of the OL Conferences in 1997 and frequent speaker over the years, […]