Episodes 82
Avg. Duration 17m
Activity Highly Active
Since Oct 2023
Latest Episode Mar 2026

Publishing Details

Schedule
Every 2 Weeks
Format
Episodic
Consistency
65%
Hosting
api.substack.com

Contact & Outreach

About This Podcast

Sermons and miscellaneous musings from St. John of Shanghai Orthodox Church in Vancouver, BC, Canada - mostly by Fr. Justin Hewlett.

translatingthetradition.substack.com

Explore Statistics

Recent Episodes

Our Desert Struggle

Mar 30, 2026 24m

So we’re getting to the end of Great Lent, and the Church gives us, on this Sunday, St. Mary of Egypt to think about.I won’t go through the whole of the story of St. Mary of Egypt, but just very…

The First Sin after the Flood

Mar 24, 2026 9m

So on this Wednesday of Great Lent, we’re given the story of Noah just after the flood to meditate on. The story is about the first recorded sin after the flood. Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and…

St. Gregory Palamas Sunday

Mar 09, 2026 21m

There’s supposedly an ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Well, apparently we’ve all been cursed. People are concerned. Some are worried that Islam is encroaching on our…

The Warning and the Nature of the Last Judgment

Feb 16, 2026 22m

Those of you who have been coming to St. John’s for a while will know that the Sunday of the Last Judgment and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus are my two least favourite passages on which to…

Waiting

Feb 02, 2026 16m

We spend a lot of our lives waiting. And it can be really tough. We’re waiting for justice. We’re waiting for, I don’t know, an appointment at ICBC or something like that. We’re waiting for the…

Zacchaeus, the Publican and the Pharisee, and the Right Response to the Squandering of Our Talents

Feb 02, 2026 22m

As an experiment, I thought I’d try getting Google’s NotebookLM AI to summarize my sermon, and I was rather impressed with the following (lightly edited) results:In his sermon for Zacchaeus Sunday,…

Pray and Do Not Lose Heart

Jan 19, 2026 17m

So in today’s Gospel reading, our Lord is approaching Jericho, and there’s a blind man sitting by the side of the road. He’s begging, because if you’re blind in those days, they didn’t have a lot of…

The Great Blessing of the Waters

Jan 06, 2026 7m

As we’ve been going through Father Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World, one of the things that Father Schmemann is very careful to point out is this dichotomy that we human beings…

The Point of Prophecy

Jan 05, 2026 14m

So today, as we get ready for the great Feast of Theophany, we begin with the beginning of the gospel of Mark. And the gospel of Mark begins with prophecy. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus…

Wisdom, Folly, Prophecy, and Free Will

Dec 29, 2025 15m

Somewhat similar to the pattern that we see at Pascha (and, indeed, Christmas is for us in many respects a mini Pascha—you’ll notice I’m wearing white), the Sunday after the great feast, we have a…

How Can We Refuse the Heavenly Banquet?

Dec 15, 2025 15m

Today’s homily was (for me) relatively short, so, rather than posting the transcript here (the automated version of which is already readily available), I want instead to add an addendum: “the sermon…

What Do We Do When the Days Are Evil?

Dec 08, 2025 19m

[The how of all that follows here is outlined in the preceding parts of the homily, in the audio recording. What follows is the conclusion of the matter:]All things are exposed or made manifest by…

Adoration: The One Thing Needful

Nov 24, 2025 10m

So on this joyous day of Raissa’s baptism, we have a fairly solemn Gospel reading, in which our Lord tells a parable of a certain rich man, who had lots of stuff—like too much stuff, so he didn’t…

Holiness and Joy

Nov 21, 2025 9m

Sources cited:from II Samuel 6:14-22:Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord…

Who Is This Man?

Nov 10, 2025 22m

So in today’s gospel reading, we get two stories for the price of one. And these intertwined stories actually are the culmination of this particular section of the Gospel of Luke, which begins with…

Hellfire, Brimstone, and Sodom

Oct 27, 2025 22m

So we come again to the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and, since I don’t really want to talk about this story, I feel like that probably means that I should talk about this story. One of the…

Little Children, Love One Another

Oct 06, 2025 14m

If our starting point for love as Christians is “love your enemies”, and if our ending point is “love one another as I have loved you”, and if this is supposed to be what characterizes us as Jesus…

Broadening Our Understanding of Repentance

Sep 29, 2025 14m

So today I want to draw our attention to one phrase from the Gospel reading, or at least focus in on that, and talk a little bit about repentance.Repentance is one of those words, of course, that we…

Our Most Political Feast

Sep 15, 2025 17m

Of all the 12 great feasts of the church—or 17 great feasts, or 17 ranked feasts if you’re following Father Alexander Rentel—this is probably one of the most political. This feast, the Feast of the…

Recognizing Reality in Retrospect

Sep 09, 2025 17m

It is the way that things transpire afterwards that reveals the true significance of events; it is in retrospect that we see the hand of God. And where we see the hand of God and how we understand it…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Translating the Tradition have?

Translating the Tradition has published 82 episodes since October 2023, covering topics in Christianity, Philosophy.

Is Translating the Tradition still active?

Translating the Tradition is currently highly active with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 17m.

How do I contact Translating the Tradition for sponsorship or guest appearances?

Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Translating the Tradition, including email and social media links.

Similar Podcasts