Youth?

So you think our culture doesn't worship youth?  Just find a 35 year old woman and tell her she looks 50.  I guarantee, she won't give you a pleasant response.

Ideological homosexuality

In the heavy metal music scene, the sub genre of black metal, to be exact, there is a fairly common thread that is found.  Oddly enough, in this dark, violent, ugly, male dominated scene, the practice of homosexuality is common.
From one perspective, this makes absolutely no sense, considering the stereotypical image society has of rock stars.  But when one understands the philosophy behind black metal, this deviation makes sense. 
The genre of black metal is intellectually, philosophically and deliberately founded upon Satanism. This is not the kind of Satanism like one sees in the movies.  Aside from a very small (and i mean very small) group of actual devil worshippers, the kind of Satanism promoted by black metal even denies the very existence of God, Satan, or anything beyond the physical.   For the Satanist, this life is all there is, the grave is the end.  They believe that there is no absolute right or wrong and that one should do whatever one wants. One thing that is common with the Satanist is the lifestyle of antithesis toward Christianity.  They see organized religion as slavery and inhibition, as contrary to normal life.
Thus the commonality of homosexuality.  It is contrary to the Christian faith and completely self serving. The Satanist acknowledges this and deliberately pursues that which is contrary to organized religion and morality.
What is the point of all this explanation?  What can we learn from this?  We can learn to be committed to our faith.  If the Satanist can practice homosexuality based on its meaning, rather than on its passion, how much more so should we as children of God live according to life and truth, rather than by our passions?

Your own business

One of the many things I have learned in the Orthodox faith is that of minding one's own business.  On the surface, this sounds so unloving and self centered, but as is often the case, that is an incorrect perception.
To mind ones own business means to not be looking around, trying to point out everyone else's sins and struggles.  We all have our own sins that should take a huge amount of our time to address, if we are doing it right.
I have to admit this is not an easy thing for me to do.  Refraining from looking around and instead looking within at my own sin.  Fighting our own flesh, learning to love and not judge others and learning to follow the lead of the Church instead of our own desires, these are the most difficult.
Right or wrong, people don't like unsolicited advice.  It is not received well.  We are called to love God and neighbor, not correct neighbor or try to be God.
God has provided us the church to lead and direct us.  God has protected the church, he has led the church, and he is purifying the church.  The church is not man's idea or invention.  It is the body of Christ, of which we are part, to our growth and sanctification.  We can be part of her and become more like Christ, or we can follow our own passions and end up like the world.
This fact alone should remind us of how much work we have to do in our own lives, without trying to correct everyone else.

Pragmatism?

We eat because something tastes good, but should we?  We have sex because it's enjoyable, but should we? And what about things that have no pragmatic purpose?  Entertainment, sports, art, fashion?
Should we live only for pragmatic reasons? Where does pleasure come into the picture? Is doing something simply because it's enjoyable acceptable?

Thoughts on children

I have a few thoughts on children, their sin and our own sin. From my own interactions with various people, from all the things I have done and from raising my own children, it seems that our own sin has a direct influence upon the formation of our own children and their subsequent sinfulness.
I would say that the sins we see in our children is a clearer manifestation of our own sin.  Children learn, in part, by imitation. As they see in life, they imitate.  Their imitation may be rawer and less refined, it may be less rationalized and defensible, but therein lies the value.  Are we willing to look at our children's sin and see ourselves, possibly in a way that we were unable to, simply looking at ourselves?

Hatred in the face of perfect love

It's a really ponderous thing that someone can actually hate God.  It makes no sense, from many different perspectives.  For one, God is love.  Everything he does is good and for our benefit.  Even when we don't understand or see the immediate fruits.  Two, God is all powerful.  How can it make any sense, whatsoever, to hate someone who is in absolute control? 
I suppose it could be argued that a particular person doesn't hate God specifically because they don't even believe in God, they simply manifest a hatred toward organized religion, usually in the form of Roman Catholicism.
But even this fails a logic test.  It is one thing to hate the way a professed follower of a particular religion unfaithfully practices that religion as opposed to hating the God of the religion itself.
Or possibly one hates the concept of organized religion in general and the requirements it places upon them.  This is probably more often the case, as rebellion is a common seed in man.  But if this is the case, at least be honest about it. 
But sadly, more often than not, many of the criticisms raised against Roman Catholicism are somewhat legitimate, at least the abuses therein that are so common.
So what do with this realization?  There are two ways to address this.  From a negative perspective, we must live in a way that gives no one any grounds for despising the faith.  From a positive perspective, we must know and love out our faith in a way that we can display the love of God.  In doing so, we will draw men, even those who hate and despise.

Our responsibility

Jesus made it very clear that the most important thing is loving God and loving neighbor.  We see this emphasis in the Orthodox church, but in a very interesting way.  The monastic ideal, if one believes themselves so called (as opposed to the married path), is about totally coming oneself to God for the purpose of purity and prayer for the world. 
It is here that we see Jesus' directions lived out.  We love God by hating sin and striving after purity and communion with God.  We love neighbor by praying for them, a lot.
But how does obedience to Jesus' manifest itself in the married life.  Really,  in exactly the same way.  We commit ourselves to purity within the married state, which is a very real form of chastity, we love God by hating sin and striving after holiness and we love our neighbor by praying for them, a lot.
We are all in different situations but we all have the same goal, loving God and loving neighbor. It is our responsibility to work out how. A good place to start is in gaining guidance from your priest.