Help with my Godcasting

This is more of a question post. I'm looking for help.
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Does anyone know something about podcasting? I freely admit I know far less than I probably should.

I keep getting really interesting podcasts from the Orthodox Christian Network which I'd like to listen to (like the one below) rather than just read because the podcasts include Byzantine chant and song and music sometimes other things as well (which I greatly enjoy, it's kinda like sitting back and closing my eyes and listening to mass or an interesting theological discussion off my computer). But downloading these files is a hassle on dial-up (all we can get out here).

What I'm looking for is good podcasting software for Windows that will allow me to download or interface with podcasts far more quickly and efficiently.

I'm not interested in podcasts for my cellphone. I never use my cell phone for anything other than business or necessary communications or emergencies. It's nothing more than a big security hole as far as I'm concerned. But I'd like something really good for my computer.

If anyone knows of anything good and useful then let me know. I'd appreciate it.

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http://www.myocn.net/images/stories/...0900814_20.mp3


On Harmony of Thunder Orthodox podcast: The gospel of St. John tells us that no one has seen the Father except the Son. On this week's Harmony of Thunder, we explore a sermon of St. John Chrysostom that asks the questions: What does it mean that no one has seen the Father? And what does this mean for us as Christians? Join Fr. David in enjoying this wonderful and remarkable sermon.

Click below to listen.

Click here to download MP3 file. Click below to read a transcript of this week's program.

Harmony of Thunder, program 20 - St. John Chrysostom homily 15

I wasn’t always Orthodox. Of course, with a name like Smith, that probably doesn’t surprise you, dear listener. More about that later. But I wasn’t always an Orthodox Christian. Sometimes, when I was sitting in the church of my youth, I would hear sermons in which the preacher would try and tell us what difficult parts of the Bible meant, and I would wonder if he had really gotten it right. It’s one of the reasons that I spent so much time studying scripture – I wasn’t convinced that the preachers who were explaining the scriptures to me were doing a very good job.

In St. John Chrysostom’s fifteenth sermon from his series on St. John’s gospel, (I’m using a translation done by Sister Thomas Aquinas Goffin and published by the Catholic University of America in 1957 in their “The Fathers of the Church” series) the great preacher reminds his listeners and us that the scriptures must be studied and interpreted very carefully, as he says, “Moreover, the Lord also, by urging the Jews to search the scriptures made our study of them still more imperative. Indeed, He would not have spoken thus if it were possible to grasp them at once and from the first reading. No one would ever search out the meaning of what is evident, but only the meaning of what is obscure and found only after much seeking. It is for this reason, also, that He said that they are a hidden treasure: to spur us on to the search.”

And sure enough, in this sermon St. John Chrysostom does indeed search out the deep meanings of the scriptural passage: “No one has at any time seen God. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him.” Let’s take a look.

Hi, welcome to Harmony of Thunder, where we explore and enjoy the rich tradition of Orthodox preaching. I’m your host, Fr. David Smith. Each week, Harmony of Thunder chooses a sermon from scripture or from the works of a saint and we spend our time together looking at the style, the illustrations, and the spiritual message of the preacher.

Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother and of all the saints, bless your Holy Orthodox Church with great preachers and people who want to hear them. Amen.

Listen to the opening of the passage that St. John Chrysostom addresses in his sermon. St. John the Evangelist tells us that “no one has at any time seen God.” And yet, we have numerous Old Testament texts that tell us some of the prophets had seen God. In Exodus 33:11, we read, “So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” In Isaiah 6:1, 4-5, it says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. … So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” The same thing happened to the Prophet Daniel as well, in Daniel 7:9, “I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire.”

So what could St. John have possibly meant by saying that no one had seen God? Certainly he was familiar with these Old Testament passages, and certainly he would not have disputed with these Old Testament prophets that they had, indeed, seen God. St. John Chrysostom explains the apparent discrepancy: “How is it, then that John said: ‘No one has at any time seen God’? He was affirming that all those instances were manifestations of His condescension, not the vision of pure Being Itself. If they had actually seen the very nature of God, they would not have beheld it under different appearances. For, that which is itself, simply, and without shape, and not made up of parts, and not restricted by limits, does not sit nor stand nor walk about, since all these are functions of material bodies. However, He alone knows how He exists.”

Here we see the difference between the pure being of God and the impure becoming of mankind. We cannot behold pure being, since our minds and hearts cannot grasp its existence, and so God, in order to show Himself to men, must necessarily have visible energies that we can behold, as the preacher says: “However, what God actually is not only have the Prophets not seen, but not even angels or archangels. If you ask them, you will not hear them reply anything about His substance, but only singing: ‘Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among men of good will.’”

The message, then, of this passage of scripture, “No one has at any time seen God. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him,” tells us that there was indeed one man who could see the essence of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He not only saw God, as if he was some kind of mystical superman, but dwelt in the very heart of God, He who was in the bosom of the Father. The essence of God is not seen, He is dwelt-in. And so for us, our vision of God, our belief in God, our faith in Him, does not come through the sight of the eyes but through love. Through in-dwelling. We can see, “First, that even these very words manifest His power: second, we have received a much clearer teaching and know that ‘God is spirit’ and that ‘they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.’ We learn, too, the fact itself that it is impossible to see God and that no one knows Him except the Son; and that He is the Father of the true and Only-begotten.”

Here the great saint and preacher has made the main theological point of his sermon, that the Man-God Jesus Christ has dwelt inside the very essence of God the Father. But what conclusions will he draw from this point? What does it actually mean for us as Christians?

The fact is that the vision of God is born in a relationship of love, and so it must be with those of us who call ourselves by the name of Jesus: “Now, we must have for one another an intimacy, not merely like that which friends must have for one another, but as much as member must have for member.” And later he says, “It is for this reason that God have one house for all of us – this world; distributed all created things equally; kindled one sun for all; stretched above us one roof – the sky; set up one table – the earth. And he also gave another much greater table than this, but this, too, is one – those who partake of the mysteries understand what I say. He has bestowed one manner of generation, the spiritual for all; one fatherland for all – that in heaven; we all drink from the same chalice. He has not bestowed more abundant and more honorable largesse upon the rich and meaner and less upon the poor, but has called all equally; He has furnished temporal things as generously as spiritual.”

I wasn’t always Orthodox. Of course, with a name like Smith, that probably doesn’t surprise you, dear listener. Since becoming Orthodox, I have had to become much more familiar with the cultural differences that separate people than I would have liked to. It’s an odd place to be – I’m living in my own country, the country of my birth, and in my hometown as a matter of fact, and yet so often when I go to church on Sunday I feel like a foreigner. I’m not saying that I don’t love and appreciate the culture of the people in church, not at all. And I’m not saying it’s uncomfortable either, or that we should seek to eliminate cultural differences in the Orthodox Church. Instead, I’m saying, along with St. John Chrysostom, that these cultural differences must not separate us. This is what St. Paul says about our cultural differences around the table of the Eucharist: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

How can you, dear listener, embrace this very important truth, even today?

Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, fill us all with your Holy Spirit that we may worship you in spirit and in truth as one body, with you as our head, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.