Ancient Faith Ministries

Dec 10, 2021 • 21 min

Hear three short stories of people who are part of the community at St. John the Compassionate Mission.

Dec 10, 2021 • 3h 50m

Dr. Jenkins and John Heitzenrater discuss the Renaissance author Leonardo Bruni and his wonderful encomium of Florence; what Bruni can tell us about rhetoric and history; how this small city pursued goodness, truth, and beauty; and what both of these can tell us about classical Orthodox education.

Dec 9, 2021 • 30 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green reads the first essay she ever published, a secular, feminist presentation of the pro-life cause.

Dec 9, 2021 • 34 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green explains that traditions can be beneficial for a family or community, and that all churches have their own “tradition.”

Dec 9, 2021 • 54 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green ponders the tremendous amount of work it took to weave fabric by hand, and how it felt to be clothed in someone’s labor; what we miss, by living entirely amid machine-made things.

Dec 9, 2021 • 57 min

The Mother of our Lord is often a stumbling block for Protestants who are exploring Orthodoxy. Frederica Mathewes-Green discusses how to disregard medieval excesses, and see how the early Christians saw her.

Dec 9, 2021 • 39 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green presents a Romanian elder’s take on the simple faith that is held by many Americans, and how God responds to it, and she also reports a prayer experience that conveyed the same idea.

Dec 9, 2021 • 30 min

Recently, I uploaded an old video to YouTube, of one of the strangest and funniest experiences I ever had with an interview. It was 1996. A producer for a viewer-call-in political talk show, "Capital Watch," phoned me about the work I was doing with a group called Common Ground for Life and Choice. We brought pro-life and pro-choice people together in dialogue, to get better understanding of each other's beliefs. (To get past misunderstanding so we could arrive at genuine disagreement, I used to say.) I put it on my calendar, and drove to the studio on Capital Hill. But while I was standing just off the set, waiting to be introduced, I heard the host say I was going to talk about common ground between Republicans and Democrats. I knew nothing about that. I didn't follow politics at all. But in a matter of seconds I had to walk on the set, sit down, and basically fake it for 20 minutes. I guess the producer had written "Common Ground" on the schedule without any further explanation, and that's what the hosts thought I was there to talk about. It's pretty funny. You can see me making guesses about what answer the hosts expected me to give, trying to sound like I actually knew something about the topic. Afterward I wrote a column about it, and how you can see someone on a talk show who appears to not know what they're talking about, "the idiot beside the potted plant." Well, that would be me. Watch the interview at www.youtube.com/watch?v=SneiaHIiogA. Read the column at: frederica.com/writings/whos-that-idiot-next-to-the-potted-plant.html.

Dec 9, 2021 • 56 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green explores, in three parts, her experience as a beekeeper. She mispronounces “propolis” every time!

Dec 9, 2021 • 51 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green explores, in three parts, her experience as a beekeeper. She mispronounces “propolis” every time!

Dec 9, 2021 • 51 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green explores, in three parts, her experience as a beekeeper. She mispronounces “propolis” every time!

Dec 9, 2021 • 2h 26m

Frederica Mathewes-Green reads the life of St. Mary of Egypt as found in her book First Fruits of Prayer.

Dec 9, 2021 • 20 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green recounts an unusual and somber dream.

Dec 9, 2021 • 23 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green offers an analogy for the way prayer sometimes “clicks” and becomes a genuine connection with God.

Dec 9, 2021 • 1h 52m

Frederica Mathewes-Green explores the ways the 22nd/23rd Psalm reflects a year of shepherding a sheep.

Dec 9, 2021 • 28 min

Frederica Mathewes-Green defends pro-lifers’ right to wear that name, and choose for themselves what causes to support.

Dec 8, 2021 • 1h 1m

In this episode, we consider the Great Entrance of the Eucharist, the rest stop at the Cherubic Hymn, and the Creed. We also look at some of the scenery on the liturgical journey, such as the people reaching for the priest’s vestments and the meaning of the doors in the altar.

Dec 7, 2021 • 3h 14m

Our “Random Questions” series continues on Search the Scriptures LIVE! with discussions covering a wide variety of subjects, including whether our pets will go to heaven, the difference between the heart and the nous, Protestant arguments against the ordained priesthood, how Catholics interpret the Scriptures to support their claims of papal supremacy, and whether the Fathers are infallible.

Dec 7, 2021 • 2h 42m

Doxacon is a gathering of Orthodox Christians with an interest in fantasy, sci-fi, and gaming. This year they asked me to deliver the lay keynote (conference theme: "Making Virtuous Decisions in Fiction"), and I confessed that I don't know much about those popular forms of media. So we compromised. First, I speak about Charles Dickens, and how some non-virtuous personal decisions affected his life and his writing; then my son, Fr. Stephen Mathewes, relates the "virtuous decisions" question to some popular books, movies, and videogames. At the end I came back with a few thoughts about bees. Enjoy!

Dec 3, 2021 • 2h 59m

Are we in the end times? Are we seeing signs of the end of the world? Is the COVID vaccine the Mark of the Beast or a precursor to it? How are we to interpret the book of Revelation? Dr. Jeannie will discuss these issues through a careful discussion of the Book of Revelation and the Fathers of the Church on Search the Scriptures LIVE TONIGHT.