St Peters Orthodox Church: Recent Episodes
St. Peter Orthodox Church
At St. Peter Orthodox Church, you will find a people committed to our Lord and to one another. Everything we do in our Parish is to either encourage us toward maturity in our Christian life or to be a means by which we can encounter the reality and grace of God toward the healing of our soul.
In Romans 8, St. Paul tells us that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in us. Stop for a moment; what a wondrous thought and powerful reality. St. Paul goes on to say, therefore, we can either live by the flesh, which produces death in our lives; or, we can live by the Spirit, which bestows life. Today we focus on living by the Spirit of God. What does a life led by the Holy Spirit look like? What are the results of living a life led by the Holy Spirit? These are our thoughts for the day.
have a negative connotation to us? It truly should not, if understood properly. Today we look at what a healthy Christian struggle toward Christ looks like. St. Anne (the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary), whose feast day we celebrate today, had a condition that brought her shame as she could not conceive a child all through her adult life. Yet everyday she kept struggling toward God with constant cries for mercy and to be released from this condition that brought her shame. The woman with the issue of blood struggled through a multitude just to get to Jesus and touch the hem of his garment. They are not unlike all of us. We struggle with besetting sins and dysfunctions that bring us shame. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. In this parable he invites us to keep coming to Him again and again until He acts on our behalf. What is the Christian struggle? How can we see it as a medicine provided by Christ that unites us to His grace and mercy. These are our reflections in this sermon.
If we are honest, I think we struggle sometimes to believe that we will ever overcome our core besetting sins or be released from our addictions. This is for, at least, two reasons. Perhaps we do not see and behold God clearly for Who He is and what union with Him affords us. And, we do not understand with clarity the Divine Grace of God that saves all who are in Christ Jesus. Today, we set our thoughts on the Divine Grace of God; for it is the very power of God that He shares with us so that we may be delivered, healed, and raised up to a new life.
In this sermon, Fr. James Rooney reflects on the story of the golden calf and God's call - we must abandon the false gods we create in our own image, and instead, learn to follow the living God on His terms. Rather than allowing culture, personal preferences, or worldly values to shape our understanding of God, we are called to encounter Him through worship, Scripture, and faithful obedience. As we surrender our preconceived notions and follow Christ along the narrow path, He grants us the grace to grow deeper into His mystery, continually transforming us and drawing us closer to Himself.
When we hear the term repentance, what comes to mind? A lifestyle of true Christian repentance is filled with joy and wonder. It causes hope to spring up within us and keeps hope before us. Too often, we are deceived by an enemy wanting us to believe that repentance is self-loathing; that repentance is some form of unhealthy groveling before God. When we live from that lie, repentance over our sinfulness and fallenness leads to despair, despondency, and even hiding from God. But this is not true Christian repentance. Today, we seek to have this lie undone. Repentance is the path back home to God. It is the path that brings us to what Christ our God has always wanted to offer us: His healing, a new life, the joy of experiencing His mercy; a very real coming home to Him.
life of those living in the realized and manifest Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. It is in Trinitytide that our Lord disciples us as to how we should live in His Kingdom for our salvation and the salvation of the world. On this first week of Trinitytide, we are taught that we are to become love by our encounters with Christ our God and become the expression of that same love to one another and to the world.
Eternal life, mercy, forgiveness of sins, covenant meal that keeps us in Christ and He in us. These are but a few of the very real benefits Christ our God bestows upon us through bread and wine that He has made His Body and Blood for us. Jesus teaches us this directly in the Gospel of John and chapter 6. The very generation following the Apostles testify to the experience of all of these benefits in this blessed Sacrament. And, the Church passes on the ministry of Christ to His people through the Eucharist even today. The Feast of Corpus Christi is the remembrance of the eternal benefits Christ has wrought for us in the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. And, this Feast is our opportunity to offer great thanksgiving to Christ this great gift, the gift of Himself.
On Trinity Sunday, the Church enters the long season of Trinitytide, often called Ordinary Time—not because it is plain or unimportant, but because it is the ordered season in which Christians learn to live out the faith revealed in the great mysteries of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. As living temples of the Holy Trinity, believers are called to contemplate the mystery of the one God in three Persons, a truth revealed throughout Scripture and faithfully confessed by the Church. Though God remains beyond full human comprehension, He has revealed Himself as both Trinity and Love. The eternal communion of self-giving love shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit becomes the pattern for Christian life. Throughout Trinitytide, the faithful are invited to grow in this Trinitarian love toward God, neighbor, and self, learning to hear Christ’s voice and follow His will in the daily journey toward salvation.
Christ our God, having Ascended, has opened the gates of Paradise to mankind for the first time since the Fall of man. He forged the path for us to ascend in Him to be with Him forever. Today, on the Day of Pentecost, we are given everything we need to be with Him forever. Today God sends Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit and He is poured into us. Today, the age of the healing of the souls of mankind and the redemption of all Creation has dawned. We have Living Water poured into us that we might be made whole again. And, this Living Water overflows out of us with the fruit and wondrous continuing ministry of Jesus Christ for the healing of all around us.
In this sermon for Ascensiontide, the faithful are reminded that Christ’s Ascension is not His departure from humanity but the exaltation of human nature itself, as Jesus ascends bodily to the right hand of the Father and prepares His Church for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Drawing from Scripture and the teachings of St. John Chrysostom and St. Seraphim of Sarov, the sermon presents Pentecost as the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to baptize His people with the Holy Spirit and fire, establishing the Church as the living Body of Christ. Through Chrismation, every Christian experiences a personal Pentecost and is called to pursue “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit” through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and every good work done purely for Christ’s sake. Rejecting mere moralism and worldly recognition, the sermon calls believers to live in communion with God despite misunderstanding or opposition from the world, preparing their hearts during Ascensiontide to receive the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who has overcome the world and invites His people to reign with Him in the age to come.
as St. Leo the Great taught. How far the Word of God went to restore us to our rightful condition and our rightful home. In Christ, we are all kept before the Father for all eternity that we may be saved and with Him, where He is, for all eternity.
The good works of Christ being manifest through us are, by far, not depended upon our perfection. They are completely dependent on His perfection being the strength in our weaknesses and frailties as well as the fullness that completes what we lack. Our created purpose is to know our God, and from knowing Him to glorify Him as He manifests Himself through us. There our joy is made full.
Today we celebrate Mass for the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross; a Feast Day that celebrates how the Holy Cross of our Lord was discovered by St. Helen, mother of St. Constantine, after the Roman persecution of Christ and His Church. What a blessing we have so soon after Holy Week of remembering the might and loving work of Jesus Christ for us upon the Cross once again. Today we remember two revelations of what Christ accomplished for us as He lowered Himself to suffering and death on the Cross. By the Cross, we are delivered as Satan and the demonic are thrown down and maimed. And, by the Cross of Christ, we are healed. The moments in time of Christ our God upon the Cross were the very moments where everything changes. The Fall is undone and the age of the salvation of mankind is opened.
The good is defined by the actions rooted in the virtue of the Shepherd on behalf of the sheep. Who He is and what He does for our salvation is what makes Him good. Today, we use the Icon of the Good Shepherd to see how it reveals the nature of our good Shepherd to us. Christ our God reveals Himself to us so that we might know Him, be drawn to Him, and follow Him all of our days.
All of the disciples wanted to believe Christ had risen, but they doubted and struggled to believe it was possible. They doubted, that is, until they experienced Him after the Resurrection. Christ knew precisely what the disciples needed to strengthen and mature their weaker faith, and gift them with a greater faith. It is the same for all of us. Today we talk about the disciples experience moving from their doubts to belief. We are reminded today that we are to take the experiences we had with Christ our God, both in Lent and Holy Week, and carry them forward. We are not meant to go back to the way we were before, but to move forward; keeping all that Christ has done for us and revealed to us right in front of us. Christ disciples are always moving onward and upward as they follow their Living Lord.
As is tradition each year in the Orthodox Church, on this day we hear the blessed Paschal homily once preached by St. John Chrysostom.
This sermon reflects on the Resurrection account in St. Matthew, drawing attention to the plural “Sabbaths” in the Greek to reveal the profound transition from the old covenant of rest under the Law to the new and eternal rest inaugurated by Christ. While Christ’s body lay in the tomb, His soul descended into Hades, as described by St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, to liberate Adam, Eve, and all the righteous, proclaiming victory over sin and death and calling humanity to rise with Him into new life. This moment marks not only the defeat of death and the devil, but the fulfillment of the Law and the beginning of a restored creation, where God’s commandments are no longer external but written on the hearts of His people. Living now in this “age after the Sabbaths,” believers are invited to enter into the eternal day of the Resurrection, where Christ, the Life Himself, leads humanity out of darkness and into the fullness of divine communion.
Tonight we have arrived where Christ has been leading us during the entirety of Lent. We have come to the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here, love is manifest for us all to see and experience. Not that we feel love only, but that we become the love that we see. How far Christ our God went that we might regain all that we had lost. When we see His great sufferings, we encounter His great love. The Prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 52, tells us that Christ's sufferings would render Him unrecognizable. His disfigurement would make the for us to regain the original form that we lost in the fall of man.
On Maundy Thursday, we see two Divine and extraordinary actions of Christ our God on behalf of us all. The Lord of all disrobes and puts on the garb of a common household servant and washes the feet of His disciples. And, our Lord instituted the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, on the night He was betrayed. At the washing of the feet, blessed St. Peter had trouble coping with what Christ needed to do for Him. At first, he denied our Lord what He desired to to him. Receiving the love and ministry of Christ to us is not always naturally comfortable to us. Yet, we are the ones in great need of that very love and ministry. Tonight, we look at this, that we may thankfully receive and keep receiving the love of Christ that heals the soul.
As we gaze upon the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see the most wondrous revelation of the love of God for mankind. We see the immense suffering. We see how far God lowered Himself so that our nakedness from the fall could be clothed with His glory. But we most certainly do not stop there. As we look upon the suffering, we rejoice in the victory. Our deliverer has delivered us. His blood is shed to cover the sins of mankind, reaching back to Adam, the first to fall. That precious blood stretches forward to cover the sins of mankind until Christ comes again. Tonight, as St. Paul instructs us, we glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This sermon calls Christians to recognize Christ’s suffering not as a substitute that removes their own trials, but as the perfect model by which they are to measure and endure their own crosses. Emphasizing that Christ descended, suffered, and endured mockery to lead humanity into glory with Him, the message insists that the path to resurrection always passes through suffering. Drawing on the witness of the martyrs and the profound prayer of St. Nicholas Velimirovich—written amid the horrors of Dachau concentration camp imprisonment—the sermon highlights the transformative power of suffering when embraced with humility, even to the point of blessing one’s enemies. Ultimately, believers are exhorted to bear the particular cross given to them with patience and love, trusting that through these trials God conforms them to the image of Christ and leads them into true spiritual freedom and eternal glory.
In Mark 14, we are given the testimony of the woman with the alabaster jar of oil coming to Jesus. She falls at His feet, breaking the jar open and pouring the oil upon His head and feet. Jesus says that this woman's actions will be proclaimed in every Gospel throughout the whole world. How important is this to us, then? The Church has handed down to us that the infinitely valuable jar of oil is indeed the human soul. This sinful woman poured out her worship and repentance before Christ. Her soul was broken and poured out upon Him. And there, she received and experienced the Divine mercy of her Savior. May our souls be broken and poured out upon Christ that we may experience the same.
This sermon reflects on Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as both the fulfillment of Old Covenant prophecy and a foreshadowing of His final return in glory, emphasizing the contrast between those who laid down garments and those who offered only palm branches as a symbol of varying degrees of self-surrender to Christ. As Holy Week begins, the faithful are called to move beyond partial devotion and instead offer their whole lives—heart, soul, mind, and body—to the Lord, uniting themselves more fully to His Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. The preacher urges intentional participation in the sacred liturgies of the week, renewed commitment to fasting and repentance, and a detachment from worldly concerns, reminding believers that this sacred time is uniquely filled with grace—enough to sustain the soul for the year—and that through sharing in Christ’s suffering, they may also share in His eternal glory.
The masses took up stones to stone Him for His blasphemy, and we are told that He was hidden from them as He passed through them, for it was not yet His time. From whom was He hidden? He was hidden from those who rejected the true revelation of His identity. He was hidden from those whose souls did not perceive the need for Him. But our Lord would go on to be greatly revealed to those who believed that He had come to minister to them and heal their lives. We want to be a people who see Christ for Who He truly is, and not as we make Him out to be. We want to be those who receive Him and, in our need for Him, come to Him that He might minister to us. Christ is hidden from all others, not by His will, but by the will of those who keep Him at a distance.
is not a suggestion, but rather a command. Our God is worthy of our praise, and we are in great need of making that offering. Rejoicing, thanksgiving, praising God; that spiritual discipline is oxygen to the Christian soul. We rejoice because, if we have failed in the little that Christ has asked us to do (to take the medication He has offered for our healing; fasting, prayer, and almsgiving), as long as we have breath we have another day to begin and experience Christ's healing and transformation. And we rejoice because He only asks us to offer a little. He fills what lacks in our offering with Himself and does wonders for our salvation.
After Jesus' Baptism, the Holy Spirit leads Him to fast and pray in the wilderness for 40 days. After the 40 days, Satan comes to tempt Jesus when Satan perceives Him to be weak. The deceiver was deceived and his temptations were easily thrown down. Jesus fasted and prayed for those 40 days to make a path for us to do the same. By fasting and praying for 40 days by grace, Jesus empowers us to share in the same victory over Satan in our own lives. But what is the fast God calls us to do? Is it just food? Absolutely not. Today we look at the fast our Lord has called us to.
We begin Lent with blessed ashes being placed upon our foreheads. The ashes remind us to keep our mortality daily before us, so that we press into Christ everyday as if that one day is all we have to experience Him and His wondrous healing in our lives. And, in the Old Covenant, God's people would put on sackcloth and pour ashes over their heads. This was always an external sign of internal suffering. It always accompanied the cry for mercy and relief from God. So, we walk into Lent invited by God to return to Him, come to Him. Come to Him with our pains, sufferings, wounded consciences. For He is the God of mercy Who delights in giving mercy to all who return to Him.
As the Church commemorates the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch, we remember not the greatness of a man, but the greatness of God’s mercy. Peter, who once denied Christ in fear and wept bitterly, became the shepherd of the Church because he chose repentance instead of despair. In contrast to Judas, whose sorrow led to hopelessness, Peter’s tears became the seed of restoration and mission. As Lent approaches, this feast calls us to the heart of the Christian life: receiving God’s mercy and extending that same mercy to others. Our fasting, prayer, and almsgiving bear fruit only when they are rooted in the compassion that restored Peter and continues to restore us.
As we are in our three-week preparation for Great Lent, we are reminded that, in Orthodoxy, Lent is known as the Springtime of the Soul. For one, Lent occurs as Winter passes and we enter into Spring. But it is also known as the Springtime of the soul because everything that we see happen in nature, as it comes out of its lesser existence of being dormant and begins to live and bloom, is precisely what our Lord desires for the soul of His beloved children. Today, we discuss this transformation and focus on the importance of the condition of the soil of our soul as this spiritual Springtime sets upon us.
Septuagesima is the Church’s merciful call to begin preparing for the Lenten journey, reminding believers that earthly life is a temporary exile and a pilgrimage back to the heavenly Jerusalem. Drawing on biblical symbolism of the number seventy and St. Gregory the Great’s interpretation of the laborers in the vineyard, the message emphasizes that we live in the “eleventh hour,” yet are promised the same reward of eternal life by God’s generosity rather than our merit. Pre-Lent is described as a motherly warning to simplify life, practice temperance, and prepare through fasting, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, and renewed spiritual discipline. Holding together sorrow for sin and hopeful joy in Christ’s healing, the sermon urges the faithful to respond with humility and urgency, remembering that time is short and the Master still calls all into His vineyard of repentance and resurrection hope.
In the Gospel of St. Luke 2, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph present Christ our God to blessed St. Simeon in the Temple. There, the Messiah is revealed to both the aged Priest Simeon and the aged prophetess Anna, both of whom had been eagerly waiting for the Consolation of Israel to come. Christ our God was revealed to them, which brought them great joy and welled up great praise from within them. They needed Christ to be revealed to them. We have the same need for Christ to shine upon us and reveal Himself to us again and again in our lives. Today, we consider how they waited for this revelation to learn how we, too, might wait upon God daily.
In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 8, we are given the testimonies of Christ our God healing the leper and the servant of the centurion. The leper comes before Christ to intercede for his own sufferings. The centurion comes before Christ to intercede for the sufferings of someone else, other than himself. Both of these men come before Christ with two very important virtues. Both the leper and the centurion petitioned Christ with faith and humility. This sermon examines the true faith and the humility with which we should come to Christ as His Kingdom of Priests; a Kingdom ordained by God for the ministry of intercession, both for ourselves and on behalf of others.
Today it is suggested that we start by offering our need and our brokenness to God for His help and mending. To those who do so, His Epiphany will be made manifest out of God's love for them.
This sermon reflects on the Feast of the Three Magi, tracing their Persian origins, their roots in Zoroastrian priesthood, and their remarkable response to a Messianic hope only dimly perceived through their own tradition. Drawn by the sign of the star, the Magi journey in humility toward a Messiah they do not yet fully understand, offering gifts that prophetically reveal Christ’s identity as King (gold), God (frankincense), and Healer who conquers death through suffering (myrrh). Their offerings mirror the true gift God desires from every believer: the total offering of oneself—hopes, sorrows, joys, and obedience—returned in thanksgiving to the One who gave all first. Their willingness to follow God’s guidance beyond familiar paths leads them not only to Christ but to transformation, as they “return another way,” a theme echoed by Pope St. Gregory the Great’s teaching on repentance and obedience. In this light, the sermon connects the Magi’s journey to the newly illumined entering the Church, reminding all the faithful that once Christ is encountered, there can be no return to former ways, only a continual movement toward deeper communion with God and the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Name of Jesus is His essence, His character, and His authority. God's desire, from the beginning of creation, was for mankind to represent God; to represent His Name to all of creation. Christ our God became incarnate, He took on a body and all of our fallenness. After His Ascension, the Holy Spirit was poured out, and He took on a body again; all of us, the Body of Christ. Those who live in prayerful humility, knowing their need for Christ, to those He shares His Name, saves them, and glorifies Himself through them to others.
All of the Feasts that center around something specific that our Lord accomplished (His conception, birth, crucifixion, Resurrection, etc.) reveal to us something that Christ our God accomplished, so very necessary for our salvation. In other words, God became man and by these wondrous acts, paved the way for us to ascend with Him to Paradise. In His Circumcision, our Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the Law, bringing an end to the Old Covenant. And, later, through His Baptism (so tied to His Circumcision), Christ our God inaugurates the New Covenant for the salvation of mankind. Our Lord is the bridge between the Old and New Covenants; He is the way to Paradise.
Today is the Feast Day of the Holy Innocents, those first martyrs at the hand of Herod for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. The presence of Christ in the world illumines the darkness, we say. It causes light to shine in our darkness, which raises to the surface all hidden darkness. It rises to the surface that Christ might heal. The love of God is a refiner's fire, as the prophet Malachi said. It brings the impurities to the surface by its heat, so that the refiner scrapes it away and the precious metal is purified. The fire of the love of God either consumes or it purifies. It consumed Herod. It purified Isaiah (from Isaiah 6). Whether it consumes or purifies us is utterly dependent on how we respond to what Christ reveals to us out of His great love for us.
St. Paul, in Philippians 4, teaches us to rejoice and that we are to rejoice even in times of anxiousness and troubling times and events. Our intercessions and cries in our times of suffering are to be interlaced with praise to God. Today we talk about keeping a living remembrance of the loving works of God on our behalf. For it is rejoicing that gives birth to hope and protects us from despair.
In Advent we remember the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We remember His coming at the Incarnation. And, we keep before us a living remembrance of His Second and final coming when all souls will go before Him. In the Gospel of St. Luke 21, Jesus teaches His paramount teaching on both the signs to watch for regarding His Second Coming and how to prepare for that day. Today, we heed His teaching and seek to live the life of His bride who prepares herself for the coming of the Bridegroom.
The prayer in Mass for the First Sunday of Advent sets the stage for how we should orient ourselves toward Christ in this blessed Season. The prayer asks for the grace of God to be given that we might cast off works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time that Christ has come to us in great humility; for He will come again in majesty to judge the quick and the dead. In Advent, we orient ourselves toward Christ, yoked to Him; that by His grace we may repent (cast off darkness and put on light and life); for we are in the age of Christ's salvation. At the same time, we keep before us His second coming when every soul will go before Christ our God on the last day. His second coming drives us into His healing arms now, that we may be transformed from glory to glory.
This sermon reflects on “Stir Up Sunday,” the Church’s intentional beginning to Advent preparation, marked by the repeated call of excita—“stir up”—found in the season’s collects. Just as the body must warm up before exertion, Christians must spiritually awaken before encountering the mystery of Christ’s Nativity, a coming both comforting and fearsome. The Gospel’s feeding of the five thousand becomes a symbol of Christ’s humble first arrival: unnoticed by most, yet able to multiply grace beyond measure from the simplest offering, like the boy’s barley loaves. Yet the other readings remind us that Christ’s second coming will be markedly different—He will arrive as King and Judge who separates sheep from goats according to their works. Advent, therefore, is a call to spiritual readiness: to prayer, fasting, self-examination, and concrete acts of mercy. Amid the noise of commercial celebration, the Church teaches that true preparation for Christ comes not through material excess but through embodying His love in the world. May we use this season wisely, stirring up our hearts to receive Him anew.
her parents. When we offer ourselves back to God in loving response for what we have received from Him, salvation comes to us and through us for the life of the world.
In order to truly participate in the Nature of God and become merciful and our Father is merciful, we must live from our life in Christ in two ways. We must truly be receivers of God's mercy, allowing our Lord to cover us again and again with the mercy He longs to give to us. Secondly, we must be the very mercy we have received from God to those who have offended or wronged us. As we both receive mercy and give mercy, we experience in a wondrous way the mercy of God towards us always. And it is only the experience of the Divine mercy of God that can transform us to become that mercy to others.
Spiritual warfare is a part of every Christian's ascension on the ladder of Divine ascent to Christ and Paradise. There is a war for our souls and every soul ever created. The Apostle teaches us the true nature of this spiritual warfare as he teaches us the identity of our real enemy, as well as how we are to battle in this spiritual warfare so that we might share in Christ's victory.
Christ has forever taught through His Holy Church that the Christian life is one lived always preparing for the day the soul will be separated from the body. The secularization of death is deeply rooted in the Satan lie that we should abhor death, don't look at death, it is too painful and too final; live for the pleasures in this life as distractions to this morbid reality. In reality, the Christian has been given one of the most powerful gifts and weapons so useful to our experience of the salvation of Christ our God, our mortality. Our mortality, living in this one blessed day, which is the only day we are guaranteed, thrusts us so dependently upon the mercy and grace of God. For those who live preparing daily for their falling asleep in this way, death becomes the very gateway to the experience of the eternal joys and bliss of Paradise through Christ our God.
Christ our God tells the parable of the Marriage Feast in the Gospel of St. Matthew 22. All are gathered for the Marriage, and the King discovers one who did not have a wedding garment. That man was then ordered to be cast out into the darkness. How important is the wedding garment and what is the wedding garment according to the unending tradition of our Faith. It is no less that the white garment of our Baptism. In our Baptism Christ dislodges us from the curse of the fallen condition we inherited and clothes us with Himself; His Nature that He has lovingly and mercifully shared with us. And we are charged to keep our wedding garment clean, undefiled, and holy. Today, we consider how we may live a life where we may be found to be clothed with the wedding garment on the last day, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
This All Saints’ Day sermon presents the idea that beyond the four canonical Gospels, there exists a “fifth Gospel” — the Gospel written in the lives of the saints. These holy men and women, diverse in background, vocation, and temperament, reveal Christ’s transforming grace made manifest in human variety. From emperors to hermits, scholars to the simple, their sanctity demonstrates that holiness does not erase individuality but perfects it — making each person more fully themselves in the image of God. The preacher connects this vision to the Beatitudes, emphasizing that true godliness flows not from mere virtue or moralism but from love and union with God. All Saints’ Day, then, celebrates not distant perfection but the invitation for every believer to become holy — to join the great multitude of God’s friends, known and unknown, who point us ever closer to Christ.
Lord of Lords through His loving kenosis; the lowering of Himself and offering Himself even unto death. He opened the gates of paradise by such a paradox. His eternal Kingdom of love, mercy, joy, power, and majesty was established by the King dying at the hands of those for whom He had come to establish it and offer it. He lowered Himself. How do we live as citizens of this King? By our own kenosis. We lower ourselves to simply be His children, His disciples. We lower ourselves offering ourselves back to Him and following Him all of our days.
And so many of those verses come with promises of God. Waiting on the Lord is such a vital and integral part of our daily relationship with Him. We must learn to wait upon the Lord in the mere moments of our temptations. We must wait upon the Lord in seasons of suffering and grief. Regarding Christ's healing work in our lives, mending the brokenness within us from which come our sinful actions, we must wait upon the Lord. But what does it mean to wait upon the Lord? Today we consider what Christ, through His Churc,h has revealed to us; for waiting upon the Lord is an active movement toward Him, knowing that we are always in need and He is the only One we need for deliverance, true life, and our salvation.
Christ’s healing of the man with dropsy is a vivid image of the soul swollen with pride and thirsting for self-glory. Drawing on St. Ambrose, the sermon contrasts the Pharisees’ obsession with religious prestige against the humility Christ commands—“sit in the lowest place.” The warning is that pride distorts the image of God within us, leaving us spiritually parched, while humility restores us to wholeness and communion with the Holy Spirit. Quoting St. Silouan of Mt. Athos, the message concludes that humility is not social posturing but the true descent into the presence of Christ Himself, where divine knowledge and peace are found.
Today, we have the compassionate nature of Christ our God revealed to us. For it is His compassion that comes to our gate of Nain where our sufferings and fallenness may encounter the procession of Life Himself. There, we encounter Christ. And where Life meets death, Life always wins.
In Matthew 6, Christ our God says, "Do not worry about your life." Jesus tells us to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and how God cares for them all. How much more does He care for us? What our Lord is really saying is, "Do not worry or be anxious, consider Me. Keep your eyes set on Me so that you can know Me better." The Lord Jesus Christ is our rest and the answer to all of our anxiousness.
This sermon on St. Matthew the Apostle reflects on Christ’s call to sinners, showing how Matthew’s response at the tax booth reveals the Lord’s mercy and transformative power. It highlights the Pharisees’ failure to couple law-keeping with compassion, reminds us that God does not call the worthy but makes worthy the called, and encourages us to openly confess our sins so that Christ may heal us. Through St. Matthew’s example, we are invited to follow Christ as we are—trusting that He will refashion us into His likeness.
Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Today, we remember the discovery of the Holy & Life-Giving Cross by St. Helen, the mother of St. Constantine. St. Paul says in Galatians 6 that we are to boast or glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this reflection, we consider three "types" of the Holy Cross in the Old Testament that reveal so much of all that Christ accomplished for us by His Passion. We also look at how we can continually encounter and experience the fullness of what Christ did for us on the Cross. Every day can be a finding, a discovery of the Holy Cross.
Today we have the Parable of the Pharisee & the Tax Collector. The Pharisee trusted in himself. The tax collector threw himself at the feet of God and cried out to God that he might receive mercy. Jesus said it is the tax collector who went home justified; a word that communicates sins being covered, being made right in the eyes of God, and the blessed experience of the return of innocence to the soul. In the telling of this parable, Jesus gives us the very framework for a life lived in the constant experience of God's mercy and healing.
Today we have the Gospel reading from St. Mark 7, giving us the testimony of Jesus' healing of the deaf/mute. One born deaf cannot receive and process words and language, which hinders a person from being able to communicate by words themselves. Our spiritual life is the same. The fall of mankind made us all like the man who could not hear or communicate, for we lost our union with God, our ability to receive Him with all of our senses as we were created to be able to do in the Garden of Paradise. But Christ has healed our senses beginning at our Baptism so that we may now receive the fullness of God with all of our senses. And, therefore, He can now be manifest and proclaimed through our very lives.
Our Epistle reading today is from Acts 5. We find a description of the life of the newborn Church in Jerusalem as they would meet at Solomon's Porch in the Temple. The description is simple. His people gathered with the Apostles. And through the Apostles, Jesus continued the same ministry for the benefit and salvation of all that He did as He walked the earth. Jesus taught His disciples to pray by giving them the Our Father. In that prayer, He has us pray His will that "His Kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven." It was always in the mind and desire of Christ our God that His Kingdom be experienced by all who are Baptized into Him. Today we explore this wondrous reality.
St. Paul remind us in 1 Corinthians 10 of the Israelites consistent idolatry while following God in the wilderness journey. God had released them from their bondage and delivered them to Himself. There in the wilderness He shepherded them providing all they need for the journey to the Promised Land. But their restless hearts kept wanting more, departing the Lord their God, and pursuing something other than God to find their contentment. How often we do the same. It is time that we learn to find our rest in Christ and Christ alone who has delivered us from our oppressor and provided us with everything we need for life and salvation in Himself.
When Christ was born, the Blessed Virgin held Salvation Himself in her arms wrapped in swaddling clothes. In the Icon of the Dormition/Assumption we see the reverse. It is our Lord embracing His mother as He receives her into Paradise. Tonight we look to the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary to see how she lived a life embracing her Son our Savior. For as Fr. Alexander Schmemann taught, "She is, in every aspect of her life, not the great exception among us, but rather the great example of us all.”
Today we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Laurence, Deacon and Martyr for Christ. When the Roman emperor demanded the God's of Rome be worshipped by all, St. Laurence and the Christians in Rome refused to bow to idolatry. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend. Today we look at the testimony of the life of St. Laurence; a testimony of love for His Lord as he would sacrifice his life for the love of His Savior.
It is quite the wonder that a Holy Savior invites all of us, imperfect and frail as we are, to cooperate with Him in His Holy and good works of salvation on behalf of mankind. But that is just what He does. Today we look at examples of this from the Gospels of St. Luke & St. Mark, which were foretastes of what He desires to do through all who are in Him from Pentecost until He comes again. By Christ's design and in His great wisdom, as we open ourselves to cooperate with Christ in His good works, we are the ones blessed by encountering Him as He ministers to others through us.
In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew 5, our Lord teaches us how we are to live towards those we have offended. To forgive those who have offended us is one thing, but what is our relational responsibility toward those we have offended. Our Lord is very clear. He teaches us to put our offering to Him down, go and be reconciled first, then come and bring our offering to Him. To go to one we have offended and plead for their forgiveness is an act of great mercy. And, as we considered a few weeks ago, Christ our God calls us to be merciful as our Father is merciful.
St. James teaches us that the tongue is the rudder that has great strength in determining the direction of the soul. It both blesses and curses. When the tongue is not controlled and allowed to speak evil and negatively, the soul is darkened in the process. Equally, when the tongue speaks praises, prayers, and blessings, the soul is enlivened by the grace of God. Today we consider the importance of taming the tongue for the health of our soul and the blessing of God.
In the Gospel of St. Luke 6, our Lord commands us, "Be merciful as your Father is merciful. Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned." He also teaches us that as you forgive and give mercy, in the same way God will forgive and grant His great mercy to you. Today we consider how to live as vessels of His Divine mercy toward one another and to this world. And as we do, we consider the Jesus Prayer; the great gift and weapon of God's grace given to us to protect us from having a spirit of condemnation toward others, a blessed gift that opens our soul to experience the mercy of Christ our God. For only those who experience His mercy can become mercy toward others.
In the Gospel of St. Luke 15, the religious leaders of the day are accusatory of Jesus for receiving sinners to Himself and dining with them. Our Lord answers their charges by teaching the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. In doing so, Jesus is revealing the very disposition and heart of God towards the lost; the very lost He took on our flesh to save. Today, we hope to see the revelation Jesus is giving of the heart of God towards sinners. In doing so, we pray that He shares His Nature with us; for the Great Commission will only be filled by a people that are being transformed in His likeness, sharing in His love, mercy, and compassion toward the lost.
Today is the Feast Day of Sts. Peter & Paul, two prominent holy Apostles. In the Icon of this blessed Feast Day, we see the Church filled with Christ in the middle and the two Apostles are pillars upholding it. Sts. Peter & Paul were so very different in their weaknesses, upbringing, personalities, and gifts. And yet, by their repentance at the experience of Christ, they were made so profoundly useful to Christ for the revelation of His salvation and the building up of the Church. We look at their lives and ministries today to gain great hope and confidence that Christ takes each one of us, His living stones, and places us all together in a beautiful order for our salvation and that of those outside the Ark of Salvation; Christ's Holy Church.
By virtue of our creation by God in Paradise, we were created to be expressors; expressors of the nature and likeness of God to all creation. Therefore, at any given moment, we are always expressing something to the world. We are either expressing our fallenness and brokenness or we are expressing the nature of God Who brings healing to the nations. Today, the Apostle John in his Epistle 1 John, reveals the nature of God. God is love. On this day we examine the love that we are to become and the results of becoming love as God is love.
Today is Trinity Sunday. This day marks the very foundation of the entire Christian liturgical year. Everything begins with the knowledge of God as He has been revealed to His Church. And our God has been revealed to us as Trinity: Three Divine and equal Persons, yet one God. Today Fr. Rooney reminds us all of some of the basic tenets that have been revealed to us about God, the Holy Trinity.
The Day of Pentecost was one of the many feasts prescribed by God in the Old Covenant for His people to remember His mighty works on their behalf. All of the Old Covenant feasts were types that always pointed to something Christ would later fulfill. Today, we consider the fulfillment of Pentecost on the day of the birth of Christ's Church, His manifest Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. At Pentecost, we have been granted the opportunity to live a life as Moses who ascended the mountain, fellowshipped with God, and descended radiating from the glory of the God He has beheld in that blessed fellowship. We have had the fellowship with God restored to us that we lost at the fall of mankind.
When Christ Ascended to the Father, he brought humanity within Himself before the Father. The writer of Hebrews tells us that, there, He becomes our Great High Priest eternally. To understand Christ as our Great High Priest, we must understand the role of the High Priest in the Old Covenant once a year on the prescribed feast of the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. Christ our God eternally stands before the Father with the sacrifice of His own blood shed pleading with the Father that we receive the mercy of God and the covering of our sins.
How wondrous is the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. His disciples witnessed Christ's flesh and blood ascend into Heaven. The angels were amazed as they saw the Word of God with humanity joined to Himself ascend through them and beyond them. And, as Christ ascends, in Himself all humanity is brought directly before the Father. In His Ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to be the door to paradise, the ladder of our own ascension, and our Great High Priest eternally standing before the Father on our behalf that we might be saved.
In the Gospel of St. John 16, Jesus prepares His disciples for His Ascension, saying that He is returning to the Father. Knowing that they had sorrow over what He had said, our Lord encourages them by telling them that it is to their advantage that He leave them. For if He leaves them, He will send the Paraclete to them. That word Paraclete describing the Holy Spirit means comforter, helper, and advocate. It is the Holy Spirit that takes what is Christ's and gives it to us. God the Holy Spirit is such a source of illumination that shines into our souls. That illumination transforms our whole being giving us great comfort and bringing rest to our soul.
In John 16, our Lord Jesus Christ tells prepares His disciples for the time He will be betrayed and taken from them. He gives them hope of the joy that they will experience when they see Him again. At the same time, He is speaking to them and us of the last days between His Ascension and His second and final coming; we will call it today the age of the in between. What encouragement can we draw from our Lord's words in this passage? Our Lord teaches us in this reading how we should live in and from Him in the midst of the sufferings of this age.
The second Sunday after Pascha is the Sunday of Christ the Good Shepherd. In the Gospel of St. John 10, Jesus says "I am the Good Shepherd. I am the door of my sheep. I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father." Today we look at two aspects of the Nature of Christ our Good Shepherd. His Nature is to bind us up and heal us through Himself within Himself. And His Nature is that of a gatherer Who gives life as opposed to our enemy whose nature is to scatter and destroy.
Today on the first day after Pascha, we have the testimony of the faith of Thomas. Thomas, one who would be an Apostle and later a Saint, is given too often a bad wrap in some circles being referred to as "doubting Thomas." If Thomas was "doubting Thomas" then all of Christ's disciples were "doubting disciples." And we, His adopted sons and daughters must be labeled the same. The Christian journey is one from unbelief to belief every day. The key to our faith maturing and our believing is by placing ourselves in a position of encountering our risen Savior daily. For it is only the very real experience of the Living Christ that grants faith and heals the human soul.
As is tradition each year in the Orthodox Church, on this day we hear the blessed Paschal homily once preached by St. John Chrysostom.
As the Paschal Candle is first lit from the first fire struck of the Resurrection, we pray "May the light of Christ gloriously rising scatter the darkness of heart and mind." When Christ our God willingly gave up His ghost on the Cross, He immediately descended into the dark prison of Hades where every soul from Adam and Eve to that moment were held captive. He broke the gates of Hades open and bound Satan, crushing the serpent's head as prophesied in Genesis. There He revealed Himself in all of His glory and preached to all of those souls. The light dispelled the darkness. When light meets darkness, light always wins. If the light of Christ our God did this in Hades, do we not see what He can do in each and every soul He created? His light has descended into our Hades so that we may see Him and ascend with Him as well.
The death of our Lord Jesus Christ preceded His Resurrection. As Christ our God said in the Gospels, "Only when a grain of wheat falls in the ground and dies does it produce many seeds." Our fallenness must die with Christ and by His grace upon the Cross we have been commanded to take up as we live a life to follow Jesus. Only through that life of blessed repentance do we experience the wonder of the healing power of Christ that comes through the Cross granting us the experience of the Resurrection.
At the Mass of Maundy Thursday, two critical events done very intentionally by Christ our God are set before us to behold: Jesus' institution of the Eucharist with His disciples and His washing of their feet. In both, Jesus reveals to us His very Nature; a nature that by His grace we can now ascend to become. Tonight we gaze upon the love of God that we will eternally grow to comprehend, that we might be transformed into what we see in Christ our God.
The Orthodox Faith has a word describing the Incarnation that saves us all. That word is kenosis which is the self-lowering of the Word of God, by His own will entirely, that we may be raised up again. As we once again set the eyes of our soul to see Him in His Passion tonight, we consider many of the wondrous revelations from the prayer service of the Stations of the Cross showing forth just how far Christ our God lowered himself so that we might Ascend.
In the Orthodox Faith, we are taught that when we see the Cross we see our Deliverer and the instrument of our deliverance. Yes, our Lord suffered and was in agony upon the Cross. His suffering shows forth His unfathomable love for every soul. But, as St. Paul says, the Christian is to glory in the Cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is the wood of Aaron's rod that budded with life. It is the tree that made the bitter and harmful waters of Marah sweet and life-giving. As the Introit of this Mass reveals, "But as for us, it behoveth us to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, our life, and resurrection; by whom we were saved and obtained our freedom."
On Palm Sunday, God's people rejoiced in the coming of their Savior with palm branches and crying out, "Hosanna," which means Lord save! These same people days later would reject Him shouting "Crucify Him!" While we might see them with great disdain, we should consider the ways in our lives we tend to reject Christ without even knowing we are doing so; the ways we separate ourselves from Him and turn away from Him. Today these ways are examined along with helpful guidance as to how we might grow out of these patterns in our lives.
A sinful woman comes to Christ our God in Bethany. She breaks open an alabaster jar of precious oil and anoints Jesus with the oil and her tears. Jesus says that wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will be told as a memorial to her." The Church Fathers teach us that one of the interpretations we must know is that the very valuable alabaster jar of oil represents the soul. True repentance is the broken soul poured out upon Jesus in blessed repentance. In return, Christ our God pours out the oil of His mercy and healing restoring the condition of the souls of mankind.
Today is Passion Sunday. As our Lord Jesus Christ declares Himself publically to be the "I AM" in the Gospel of St. John 8, they took up stones to kill Him for His blasphemy. We are told that Jesus hid from them and passed right through the crowd without them seeing Him. Jesus was hidden from those who had set themselves by their own will against Him, not wanting to see Him for His true identity. But to those who came to Jesus with an open soul knowing their need and crying out for mercy, to them He revealed Himself and healed them. The damage done to the human person from hiding from God goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Today we explore the great downfall of hiding from Christ our God compared to the great blessing of presenting ourselves in all of our brokenness to Him.
Today's Mass is entitled and bears the theme, "Rejoice!" Here in the middle of Lent we are reminded that the life of the Christian is a life of rejoicing in the good works of Christ our God. With this theme, today we consider the role we play in one another's lives by lifting one another up as we share all that God is doing for us. The community of faith, most certainly, shares struggles and bears one another up during times of hardship. But it must equally strengthen each member of the Body of Christ by sharing the wonders God is doing in our lives out of His great love for us.
Every year on March 25th, the Orthodox Church all around the world celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation, for in nine months we will all join together celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ conceived this day. Today we focus on three aspects of the wonder of the Annunciation. We see an Archangel in awe and wonder at the Blessed Virgin Mary. We behold our recreation in the waters of Baptism prefigured this day. And, we see the salvation that occurs as the will of a human is joined to the divine will of God.
In Luke 11, after Jesus casts out a demon that had rendered a man mute, He taught "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils." Jesus was speaking of Satan being the strong man. Then our Lord speaks of Himself as the stronger man that breaks in and steals what the strong man had. From the Fall of mankind to the Incarnation, Satan had been robbing God of what belonged to Him; all of us. But when Jesus came, He rendered the strong man powerless and robbed the robber of what rightfully belonged to God from the beginning. He continues to do this in the soul of everyone who welcomes Christ there. And He let's us be joined to Him and participate in His robbing the robber.
In Lent, as we fast from food we are to also fast with the assistance of God's grace from the sin that so easily entangles us. St. Paul communicates in 1 Thessalonians 4 that the will of God is our sanctification. His paramount will for each of us is that we are transformed, becoming holy as He is holy. As we seek to fast from our sin, how do we approach moments of temptation by Satan and the demonic? Why do we so easily fall when Satan has been robbed of his power and we have been endued with power from on high? Today we reflect upon these matters.
We consider two teachings from the Rule of St. Benedict today, on the first Sunday of Lent. First, "All of our life should be a continual Lent." Secondly, "Practice now the virtues that will serve thee for all eternity." In Lent we strive to simplify our lives and get back to the basics. So many distractions have limited the greatest experience of fellowship we are offered with the Lord our God. And, so, in Lent we allow God to reorder our lives so that our souls may be reordered toward our Savior. We do this so that, after Lent, our lives will continue to ascend out of our disorders and into the blessed order of God that He has truly created us to enjoy.
Today we begin the 40-day fast of Great Lent. But what is the fullness of the fasting that our Lord has prescribed for us. Is it just to limit our food intake and abstain from types of foods? Today we look to the repentance of the people of Nineveh as they put on sackcloth and ashes. But these physical actions were accompanied by turning away from their wicked ways and turning to God. This is true repentance. And the result is that they were spared what they truly deserved and given what they could never earn; the mercy of God. The fullness of Christian fasting is the same. We fast from food, yes. But at the same time we turn from our fallen ways and put on Christ to be about His good works of righteousness. And in that fullness of the fast, He grants His Divine mercy and heals the souls of HIs beloved.
Today's Gospel reading from St. Luke 18 shares the testimony of Christ our God healing the blind man, Bartimaeus, near Jericho. As our Lord approaches Jericho, Bartimaeus cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Some in the crowd tried to quiet him, so he cried out even louder, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Bartimaeus would not let this moment go wasted where the only One who could heal was passing by. We must learn something so important from Bartimaeus. The prayer he prayed was is known as the Jesus Prayer. Today we examine both this prayer and the disposition of this blessed man who needed Christ's help and mercy. It is the authentic cry for mercy from the heart of God's children that attracts our Lord; a very real need that He is delighted to fulfill.
In agriculture, we know that the success or failure of a harvest is largely dependent on the health of the soil into which seeds are planted. Our Lord Jesus Christ uses this very truth when He tells the Parable of the Sower in the Gospel of St. Luke 8. Jesus sows seeds of His life and salvation. But He mentions three types of soil that prevented the seed from blossoming to life and growing the intended harvest. Today, as we continue in our weeks of preparation for Great Lent, we inspect the soil of our soul. What is it in us that stands in the way of the seed planted by Christ growing into the harvest of His life and salvation within our soul? It is time for us to seek the Lord so that we may join ourselves to Him in cultivating healthy soil within our soul.
Three to four years after Pentecost, the Apostle St. Peter left Jerusalem to go to Antioch. There he would oversee churches of that region for seven years. St. Peter was the first Bishop and Patriarch of the Antioch as he sat upon the "cathedra", the chair, in Antioch. Today we remember the Icon that the chair is to us and what it reveals to us. But as we are in the weeks of preparation for Great Lent, we look at the life of St. Peter to see true Christian repentance; the repentance that brings us to the mercy and restoration of Christ our God.
In the Gospel of St. Matthew 20, we hear Jesus tell the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. Jesus tells us that the landowner comes to those in 11th hour and asks, "Why do you stand here idle all day?" And he calls them to labor in the vineyard. All who are in Christ are called to labor in His vineyard to produce a great harvest. But what is this labor? We are not called to labor so that we earn our salvation. No, our labor is both a labor within our own souls; a constant movement toward Christ and to cast away all things that stand in the way of our relationship with Him. So, here in the 11th hour, why do we stand in the vineyard idle all day?
In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares. It is a parable teaching us about the last days, the days from Christ's Incarnation until He comes again at His 2nd coming. And it also reveals an eschatological reality, a revelation of that 2nd coming and what Christ will do. Our focus today is learning what Christ through His Church has taught about living in this last age as wheat among the tares of this world.
Today is the Feast of the Presentation of Christ to the Temple/The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day, according to God's Law, Joseph and Mary present Christ to the priest in the Temple. There, Simeon who was told he would not die until He had seen the Lord's Christ, takes Jesus into His arms. In that moment, Simeon held in His arms the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What a wonder this is to consider. That which was invisible could now be seen. And He Who was untouchable could not be touched and touch humanity. From the Incarnation forward, God has come to be experienced and known by all.
Jesus first miracle was the miraculous transformation of water into wine in the jars of clay at the wedding feast in Cana. The Early Church Fathers teach us that this miracle done in the presence of His disciples showed the reason for the Incarnation. That we, the jars of clay as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, are so completely transformed within by the healing work of Christ that we become earthen vessels distributing the blessedness of Christ to every soul around us.
Last week we considered this truth: by the wisdom and power of Christ, the Church has become the continuing Epiphany of God to mankind for the salvation of souls. How is this possible? How does God manifest Himself through us? Today we consider these two questions.
As we are in the Octave of Epiphany, we remember that Epiphany means the revelation or manifestation of God to man; in this case through the Christ child. St. Paul teaches something profound in Ephesians 3 when he says that the manifold wisdom of God is now made known through the Church. By God's wisdom, from Pentecost to the end of this age, we are the continuing Epiphany of God to this world and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. What an incredible thought. So how shall we live in order that God's will be done through us. We present ourselves to God and we offer ourselves to God. There we see Him and know Him and are transformed into His likeness for the world to see.
The Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord celebrates the 8th day of our Lord's life. On that day He is obedient to the Law of Moses in being circumcised. It is also on that day that the father was to give the child a name. Joseph gives Him the Name that is above all other names. He names Him Jesus in obedience to God through the message of an angel. Circumcision is fulfilled by Baptism in the new and eternal covenant. When we are Baptized, we are both washed clean and given a new name. Our new name is an adopted child of God.
Naming was very important both among the Hebrew people of the Old Covenant as well as those in the secular world outside of God's covenant. The Name reveals the identity of a person. The Name of Jesus literally means deliverer and Savior. Here at the turn of both the calendar year and near the beginning of the liturgical year, the Name of Jesus is set before us. Will we receive the revelation of Who He really is into our lives? Those who do so will find transformation throughout their lives.
When the world was in darkness, Christ our God leaped down from His throne and came to us. He leaped down so that we may rise up. St. Paul, in Galatians 4, tells us that by His coming to us we have become adopted sons and daughters of God. We have been brought through Christ into a family order here on earth established by God to heal and transform all of us. As we live in that order, we become the nature of the God Who ordered it all. Today we look at the virtue of God's humility. We grow in this virtue of humility as we live life in this blessed family. And, the practice of this virtue changes us as we become the love of our Heavenly Father.
We say as a foundational point of the Christian faith, "God became man and dwelled among us." But do take moments to consider the realities of what it truly means that God became man. At ever point of His life, from His conception to His death, He entered into every suffering of fallen mankind. He willed Himself to suffer our entire existence that He might relieve us of our sufferings from the fall of man. Tonight, at the First Mass of Christmas, we ask God to reveal to us just how far He lowered Himself so that we may be raised up.
From our Introit in the Mass this day, "Let the earth open and bring forth a Savior. O Lord, raise up, we pray Thee Thy power, and with great might succor us." That word succor means this, "Lord, come with your strength to aid we who are so weak and in need. Come and help us." The Prophet Isaiah in chapter 40 says that this help and strength comes to those who wait upon the Lord. But what does it mean to wait upon the Lord? It does not mean that, in time, we wait for a God who is distant from our moments to come from afar to us to help us. It means, that He has already joined Himself to us and His strength is ever-present.
The Mass for the Third Sunday of Advent is given the title rejoice. It is a day to remember the great works of Christ our God on our behalf. And, as we do, it is a day for our souls to be lightened and lifted as we offer thanksgiving to our God. Praise, thanksgiving to God, is most certainly a spiritual discipline; one through which Christ our God reveals Himself to us and lets us know just how close He is to us at all times. Today we consider how the discipline of rejoicing in God is a path for our soul to open and encounter Him. Every encounter with God, ever Divine revelation of Himself to us is indeed a path to experience true joy.
Saints Joachim & Anna lived their entire adult life bearing the shame of barrenness as they could not conceive a child. Daily they asked God to grant them mercy by providing them a child. God gave them beyond what they could ever ask or imagine. He not only gave them a child, but their child would be the Mother of Christ our God. They were given mercy beyond all hope as St. Anna became pregnant at such an old age. We are all given mercy and being granted salvation beyond all hope.
We often think that our greatest problem is that we are filled with sin which is the source of our addictions, idolatries, and disorders. While sin is a problem that creates a great deal of suffering in our lives, it is not the problem. The problem is that our lives are not filled with Christ. Today we go back to the basics of salvation. We need mercy and healing. Jesus has come to grant both and is the only One Who can do so. If we would only live a life that allows Christ to fill it. All things, then, would be made new.
Advent is a season of preparation. But what is Christian preparation? Today we see the truth that everything our Lord has called us to do in order to prepare ourselves for His coming is truly the preparation of the soul to open itself to the Divine experience of Christ our God.
Today is the Sunday Next Before Advent, the one week we prepare to enter into this blessed season. In Advent, we prepare for the coming of Christ both at His birth and at His second and final coming where every soul will be brought before Him. It seems appropriate that we consider the nature of the One Who comes to delivers us. What is the heart of our Savior toward all of us who are oppressed by the results of the fall of mankind? If we saw clearly Christ's disposition toward us, we would run to Him for our healing, renewal, and relief.
How distracted we get by the non-eternal things of this world when joys beyond compare are there to be had by all in Christ our God and His Kingdom now manifest to us in the earth. The contentment to our discontent lies only in one place; making our dwelling place under His wings where we find our refuge. Today we are reminded that when we take our eyes off of Christ, we descend into the madness of the world and manifest our own brokenness therein. But when we pursue Christ and make Him that dwelling place, we ascend by His Divine grace where to see Him and come to know Him. And as we do, we manifest Christ and His Kingdom in the world around us.
In the Gospel of St. John 5, our Lord comes to the Pool of Bethesda. Many who were blind, lame, or paralyzed came to this pool to be healed; for every so often the waters would be stirred and the first one to enter the waters would be healed. Jesus comes up to a man paralyzed for 38 years and asks him a most interesting question, "Do you want to be healed?" What an important question He asks the man. It is a question our Lord poses to us every day of our lives.
In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew 2, Jesus gives the summary of the Law which is to "love God and love mankind." God is love and our salvation is the healing work He does deep within our soul, restoring us and redeeming us. The result is our becoming like our God. Today's message is a message of simplicity. We cannot become what we do not experience. Unless we allow Christ to love us and show us mercy all throughout our lives, we simply cannot respond to God with love nor love all of those around us with His love.
Today we celebrate All Saints. On this Feast Day we are given a wondrous picture of eternity with Christ for all those who are in Him. At the same time, we are given the teaching of Christ our God from St. Matthew 5. He led them up the mountain and taught them the Beatitudes which reveal to us what we were always created to be; for the Beatitudes show forth the very virtues of Christ our God. How do we become Saints? We allow Christ to transform us from within, healing us and redeeming us. For out of the transformed soul flows the virtues of God.
As we gather together as the Kingdom of Priests, today we pray for all souls. We pray for mercy, forgiveness, and the blessedness of paradise. And as we lift up each name, we visit those who have gone before us like the monastics visit their brother monastics who have gone before them. This remembrance places the gift of our mortality right before us. And mortality is a gift that thrusts us into the saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we open our eyes to have Jesus Christ as the King of Kings & Lord of Lords revealed to us. On this day, we look at three aspects of His Kingship: What is it that elevated Jesus Christ to the dignity of King of Kings & Lord of Lords? In this present age, this King has set Himself to be our deliverer. And, how will this King appear when He returns again on the last day?
In St. Luke 7, a multitude following Jesus comes to the gate of the city of Nain. At the same time, a funeral procession of a multitude of people for the burial of the dead son of a widow comes to the gate of Nain from within the city. There the procession of death is met with the procession of life, and life always wins. Our Lord is constantly the gate of our soul. Will we both come to the gate and let Him in so that He may raise us from our fallenness?
When the ten lepers came to Jesus crying out for mercy, our Lord sent them to show themselves to the priests. This is precisely what God in Leviticus 14 commanded lepers who had been healed of their leprosy to do. Today we look at the sacrifice to be done on behalf of the healed leper. We find that it is a "type" that is wonderfully fulfilled by the finished work of all. While the nine lepers who did not return had a "thankless forgetfulness" according to the Church Fathers, the one healed leper who returned had a "memory of Christ's mercy." Every liturgy done in the Church is the journey to Christ for the healing of the leprosy of our soul. We experience His healing again and again; and we keep returning to Christ living in the memory of His mercy.
Today is the Feast Day of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel and all Angels. Today we have revealed to us that the vastness of the Kingdom of God on earth contains both the seen and the unseen. The prayers Christ has given His Church to pray reveal truths to us; truths about God's Nature and truths about His Kingdom. Today we look at the prayers of the Church as well as Holy Scripture to see in part the angelic ministries God has ordained to assist us in our salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
A deaf and mute man is brought to Christ our God. Jesus, with fingers that can be touched, touches the man's ears so that he could hear. Christ spat on the ground and touched his tongue so that it could speak the praises of the One Who had healed him. Our faith, our healing, our salvation only comes by encountering Christ with our whole being and not just with our intellect. Today we consider how the physical touch of Christ continues through bread and wine, His body and blood; so that we may encounter the Divine and be made like unto Him.
At the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we encounter the fullness of the sufferings she endured as the chosen Mother of Christ our God. Today puts the reality of human suffering right before us; something we will all endure in this life. And today we have great hope that because Christ joined Himself to our suffering, suffering (which our Lord never desired for us) becomes a means for us to encounter Him and know Him in ways we never could before.
In our Gospel reading from St. John 12, looking ahead to His Crucifixion our Lord says these words, "Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out." What judgment of the world and its ruler is our Lord speaking about? The judgment of Satan who deceived and wronged every soul. Tonight we hear the Church Fathers speak about Christ on the Cross being both prosecuting attorney against Satan and for us. And we hear them speak also of Christ as the judge who condemns our enemy and grants us acquittal that we may be freed.
From the barrenness of Sts. Joachim & Anna came the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the mercy God; prefiguring shame and sorrow being taken away by the Son she would bear and deliver into this world, our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, as always, as we gaze upon our Lord's Mother we see Christ and His salvation of us all. Our Lord came to us to remove our shame and grant us great joy.
So many Scriptures speak about the damage idolatry does in our lives and to our souls. The reality is that, while we face temptations and distractions, we are the ones that set up and attend to our idols. Idolatry is anything we attend to or love more than the Lord our God. Our idolatry divides our hearts and lessens our experience in this life with the God who desires to pour the great blessings of Himself and His Kingdom into our lives.
Why do we do all that we do in the Church? Do we fast, give alms, pray, offer ourselves to God in the Liturgy because we are told to do so? Is it a checking off of a task list or is it something more? St. Paul tells us that we are children of God, not slaves to Him. Everything we do is a response to an invitation by God to come to Him and let Him heal our lives. We do all that we do as a response of love to the love that He has offered. And, as we do these things, we cooperate with Him in the healing of our souls.
Jesus, out of His great love for us, invites us to cooperate with Him in His wondrous works of salvation. We offer Him only that which we have, no more and no less. He takes anything lacking in our offering and fills it with Himself accomplishing His great works. We see this in the testimony of Christ feeding the 4,000 men plus women and children. Here Jesus invites His disciples to cooperate with Him in the miraculous by offering the little they had. What might He do through each of us if daily we decide to participate in the great work of our Lord in the salvation of our souls and the souls of many?
Our Gospel reading today is the miraculous catch of fish in St. Luke 5. Today we look at all that transpired to see the true framework for the fulfilling of the Great Commission by Christian evangelism. Evangelism, and every good work, begins with our encounter and experience with Christ our God. There faith is born enabling us to follow Christ beyond our human reason. At the catch of fish, Christ invited Simon Peter to cooperate with Him in this wondrous miracle. Simon Peter, when asked to go into the deep waters and cast the net, said to the Lord, "At your word, I will." Christ did the rest and the miraculous catch of fish took place. Our Lord is the beginning and the end of all Christian evangelism. And we are changed as we cooperate with Him.
It can be said that the Christian life is broken down into three phases. First, the joy and excitement of conversion. Second, there is a season of struggle where God can feel very distant or absent in our lives. The third phase is the blessedness of a grown and matured faith that grants us such a deeper experience of God in our lives. Today we focus on how to best live and weather the storm of the season of our journey with Christ through the sufferings of this life. Allowing Christ to be a part of our great sufferings helps us to know Him in ways we never could before.
In 1 Peter 5 St. Peter teaches the entire Church, both Clergy and Laity, how they are to live in relationship to God and to one another. The Apostle implores all to live from Christ's Nature of Humility. Today we open our souls to see the value of this great virtue and how Christ desires to free us from the service of ourselves and the consuming thoughts we have about ourselves. May Christ set us free so that we may live in the joy of doing His will.
In the Parable of the Great Supper from St. Luke 14, our Lord reveals the heart of God and His framework for the salvation of mankind. It is God Who prepares the banquet inviting all to come in and partake of His goodness. But some who were invited make non-eternal excuses for why they cannot accept His invitation while many others come and receive the goodness of God. In this parable, our Lord wants us to see that our priorities are excellent indicators of that which our heart truly desires. May we all allow our Lord to turn our hearts to love Him above all things that we may enjoy the fullness of His banquet of salvation.
In Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" Ebeneezer Scrooge is described as a self-absorbed old miser who lives only for himself. He is devoid of any community and, in this brief life, lives only for the gain and preservation of things non-eternal with blinders on to suffering humanity all around him. This is the same description Jesus gives of the rich man in the Parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus. Both Scrooge and the rich man were on a collision course with an eternal fate that no one would desire. Today we look at how Scrooge was brought to beautiful tears of repentance which freed him to become love and be enabled to receive love in one of the most beautiful descriptions of the transformation of a very broken person. There is a little of Scrooge and the rich man in each of us, how might we come to enjoy the fullness of life that is only found in becoming the love of God for those around us?
When the Blessed Virgin visits Elizabeth, who is far along in her pregnancy with St. John the Forerunner, St. John leaped in the womb of Elizabeth with joy at the presence of Christ. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." The Blessed Virgin responds the Magnificat, a great praise to God alone for what He has done for her. In the Magnificat, our Lord's Mother says that God has regarding the humility of His handmaiden. God was attracted by this humility. He turned His gaze to her due to her humility. Tonight we consider the humility that God regards and what it means that He turns His gaze to the humble.
God has given us many revelations regarding God the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Yet, we will forever be growing in this mystery of Three Divine Persons yet one God. One of the revelations given to us is that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in an undivided unity. We were created in His image according to His likeness which means we were created to exist in undivided unity both with our God and with one another. Today we consider our dwelling in an undivided unity and how God reveals Himself through that oneness to all of creation.
Today is the Feast of Pentecost and on this day the promised Holy Spirit is gifted to God's people. This morning we remember the Old Covenant Feast Day of Pentecost and how Christ fulfills it on this day. All those who are Baptized into Christ are given the great gift of God the Holy Spirit for the healing of our souls. But we are also given this gift so that, by that healing, we become the fragrance of Christ to all souls. We have become recipients, carriers, and deliverers of Christ our God to this present world. The more we allow Christ to heal our souls, the more His Living Water flows through us for the salvation of others.
Today is the Sunday after the Ascension of our Lord. We are in that time between His Ascension and the sending of God the Holy Spirit to us. On this day we look at the eternal ministry our Lord has taken on for us. He has become our Great High Priest forever. What great joy we should have that He eternally stands before the Father pleading for God's mercy to fall upon us all. At the same time, we are now waiting for this Great High Priest's return to bring every soul before the Father. How then shall we be about our waiting? This sermon offers teaching on both of these important topics.
When our Lord Jesus Christ Ascended into Heaven, the Angelic hosts were amazed at what they witnessed. For the first time since the fall of man, in Christ the second Adam, humanity entered Paradise. There in Christ our humanity is kept before the Father that we might be able to follow His path and ascend; returning to the Father and to the Paradise we were all created to enjoy. Tonight we let the Early Church Fathers teach us the incredible benefits Christ afforded us by His glorius Ascension.
In the Gospel of St. John 16 our Lord Jesus Christ tells His disciples, "Whatever you ask the Father in My Name He will give it to you. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." But what does it mean to ask the Father in Jesus' Name? This is such an important aspect of our life in Christ and speaks greatly to the fulfillment of our vocation as His Kingdom of Priests. Today we learn from the Early Church Fathers what it means to ask, to intercede before the Father in Jesus' Name.
After the Resurrection, Christ's disciples were elated to continue in fellowship with Him as He continued His ministry. Imagine their sadness when Jesus told them He was returning to the Father. To ease their sadness, He tells them that it is to their advantage that He returns to the Father. There was a greater experience of God to be had beyond their journey with Him thus far and this greater experience is for us as well. Jesus returned to the Father so that He may be with us and we with Him forever.
In 1 Peter 2, the Apostle teaches that we are to live as sojourners and pilgrims abstaining from fleshly lusts and letting our good works in Christ be used to the salvation of all. Today we consider this life of a sojourner and pilgrim in this world; a life that began with our Baptism through which we were washed, cleansed, given mercy, and uprooted from the world of darkness into the Kingdom of light and life. It is of utmost importance that we live in this world from our new and true identity as well as our citizenship in the Kingdom of God.
Today is the Sunday of the Good Shepherd. In the Gospel of St. John 10, our Lord teaches, "I AM the Good Shepherd." Today we look at this teaching along with the 23rd Psalm to see what is revealed to us about the nature of Christ our Good Shepherd. We conclude with a few thoughts about how we are to live as the sheep who have been brought into His fold; living in this life as sheep to the Good Shepherd.
As is tradition each year in the Orthodox Church, on this day we hear the blessed Paschal homily once preached by St. John Chrysostom.
Today Fr. James Rooney teaches us the development of the Office of Matins. We look at Matins in the context of the entire prayer rhythm of the Church. We also look at the Matins service itself to learn why we pray what we pray as part of that rhythm.
How do we take our leave from such a profound week as Holy Week? How do we move on from here? Today we look at St. Thomas and the disciples' experience both after the crucifixion of their Master and after they experience the Resurrected Jesus Christ. These men had profound experiences of Christ for years as they journeyed with Him in His ministry. And yet, when Jesus was crucified they were still filled with doubt and confusion. They needed further experiences of fellowship with their Lord and Savior. I think we will find that we are very much the same. Faith is living, always growing, and forever tied to relationship, union, with Christ our God.
When our Lord gave up His Spirit, He immediately descended into the darkness of the prison for every soul up to that point called Hades. There the darkness gave way because the Light of the World had come. He broke asunder the gates of Hades and crushed the head of Satan, the serpent. And upon His Resurrection, the darkness of the tomb became brilliant with the Resurrection light. Tonight we consider that Christ's descent into Hades and His Resurrection in the tomb is the story of us all. He has, at our Baptism, descended into our Hades to release us. And, the tomb of our soul is now filled with His life.
Every Covenant of God with His people since creation was given to bring God's people deeper into the knowledge and mystery of Himself. The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the finalization of the final Covenant of God with His people. How are we to respond to God regarding this final and everlasting Covenant? As we gaze at the Cross, we consider what Christ has done and how we are to live being drawn deeper to God through the Cross.
Tonight is Maundy Thursday and the word "Maundy" means command. Tonight our Lord gives two commands. He takes bread and wine saying this is my Body and my Blood, do this in remembrance of Me. And, He washes His disciples' feet and commands them that they should do the same for one another. It is the command to receive love and mercy from Him and to become His love and mercy to all.
Today our Father in the Faith, His Eminence Metropolitan SABA, reminds us that in Holy Week we truly return to creation. In the Garden of Paradise, we were created in the image of God to grow in His likeness as we fellowshipped with Him and learned from Him. The finished work of Jesus Christ re-opened the gates of Paradise to us all. Through Him we may now ascend to our most true selves, that of the likeness of God. God became man so that man might become like God.
One of the many themes of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is that the suffering of One makes way for the healing of the many. The more we consider the suffering of Christ, the more we see just how far Christ lowered Himself so that we may be raised up. One of the great revelations Christ has given His Church is this: anything Christ joined Himself to and took within Himself becomes a means of our salvation. As Christ suffers the deepest of human sufferings, He turns human suffering (something He never intended for humanity) on its head and makes it a means by which we can be healed and transformed.
The glorious Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is one of the greatest examples of paradox. How could something so torturous be glorious? The Apostle St. Paul says "the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us it is the power of God unto salvation." St. Paul knew the paradox of the Cross. Tonight we look at the teachings of St. Cyprian regarding the depth of this paradox and how it reveals to us so clearly the full extent of the love of God for us all.
On Palm Sundays, there are two services joined together as one. On this day we have the Blessing of the Palms and the Gospel is read regarding Christ's entrance into Jerusalem to go to His Passion. And in the Mass of the day, one of the Passion Gospels is read. So we have something festive and something sorrowful all at once set before us. The Jews welcomed Jesus crying out Hosanna which means "save us." But they misunderstood the salvation Christ came to offer all, for it was not an earthly but an eternal salvation He came to grant to us all. But we know why He entered Jerusalem. So we do rejoice rightly. But at the same time, we cry out "save us" from humble hearts knowing our need for mercy; the mercy His blood would be shed to eternally pour over every one of us.
Today is Passion Sunday marking a significant turn toward the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The iconography and all images of our Lord Jesus Christ are hidden from us. Why would our Lord give us this prescription for the last two weeks of Lent? Today, as we consider this question, we find that it has everything to do with the true sense of remembrance by God's grace in His Church. There is something to be experienced in the hiddenness of our Lord and today we set ourselves to walk these final two weeks of Lents that we might encounter Him in His hiddenness.
If Adam's lament is the lament of every soul, we need help in discovering the powerful lament within us for God. We also need the help of God to redirect that lament to Him so that our souls may finally come to rest and enjoy His peace. Today we look at how the spiritual disciplines given to us by Christ in Lent help us to uncover our true lament. We also are exhorted to pray the Psalms. 65 of the Psalms are considered Psalms of lament. As we pray the Psalter, we receive help in redirecting and voicing our lament to God alone.
Today, in the testimony of Christ our God miraculously feeding the 5,000, we are reminded of what Christ can do with the little that we have to offer Him. And yet, even though what we have is little and always deficient, He invites us to join with Him in His wondrous works to sustain and fill many. Satan has us always focus on what we lack which leads us to spiritual paralysis denying ourselves the joy that comes to us when we are united with Him in His good works. Our Lord asks us to look upon Him and see that all He asks us is that we offer Him only what we have. He knows it is insufficient. He fills what we lack with His sufficiency. Thank God our salvation is not dependent on us, for we lack much. It is utterly dependent on us keeping ourselves joined to Him Who has everything.
When we think of Lent and repentance, we tend to think mainly about overcoming our sins and coming out of the ways of our fallenness. While this must be, with the help of the grace of God, a necessary part of repentance; it is truly only one aspect of the repentance through which Christ brings healing to the soul. Repentance is two motions all at once. It is the movement away from our fallenness. But it is also a movement of turning to God seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness. It is both/and, truly a putting off and putting on all at the same time. The Church Fathers teach us that we become that which we do. Today we seek to bring balance to our repentance as we step out to do the good works in Christ that are met with His grace and lend themselves to the healing and transformation of our souls.
Have you ever gone through a season of life where, no matter how faithful in prayer you remain, our Lord seems to be very distant from you? Or, have you been in a season of suffering where your prayers for mercy and relief seem to be met with silence? Journey with Christ long enough and you will encounter one or both of those experiences. Today we hear from the Gospel of St. Matthew15. A Canaanite woman comes to Jesus pleading with Him to release her daughter from demon possession. Her plea is met with silence and then with what would seem to be a rejection of her by our Lord. How does she respond to all of this? As we look at her response to the silence of the Lord, we see how we are to live in Christ when He seems both silent and distant.
In Holy Scripture, there were three who fasted for 40 days: Moses, Elijah, and Christ our God. And through each one's fast idolatry was cast down and destroyed or left behind. Today we look each of these to see Christ's great prescription of the 40-day fast of Lent which He sanctified and consecrated for us; that by His presence in our fast our idolatries might be cast down and overcome and we might ascend the mountain to behold Him.
Today Father James shares with us several texts: The Lament of Adam, Lamentation chapter 1, St. Nicolai Velimirovich "Prayers by the Lake" (prayers that aid us to love and pray for our enemies, and the Litany of Humility. As he goes through each, we discover meaningful ways in which we can experience a true change of personhood within ourselves to, by the help of God's grace, become more like our God.
Jesus says in Matthew 6, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." The reality for us all is that God is not entirely the treasure of our hearts. Throughout our days we give in to the many temptations and distractions of this world. The good news is, our Lord has always known this would be our human struggle. We are given the season of Lent to, as the God through the Prophet Joel spoke in Joel 2, "Turn to me with all your heart; with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness." Lent and its spiritual disciplines are the grace-filled path to return to the Lord our God; that He might become more and more the treasure within our hearts.
We are told in Hebrews 4 that, since we have a High Priest Who is compassionate toward us, we should come boldly before His throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. When the blind man near Jericho cried out loud for mercy, Jesus was attracted to Him in His weakness. It is hard for us to consider that our Savior is attracted to our weaknesses when we cry out for help and mercy; that He is not repulsed by them. Let the lie be put to death that He is anything else. From the Incarnation until He comes again, we are in the age where He sits upon the throne of grace and mercy to save us. Let us come boldly that we might receive what He longs to give.
The word ontological, when used regarding theology, has everything to do with the nature of God Himself. For us, that word encapsulates all that has been revealed by God to His Church regarding Who He is and how we understand Him. Since we are created in His image to grow in His likeness, we also use the word ontological to understand the truly created human person by God; in other words, how we see our most true selves. Today we consider the truth revealed to us that the only way that we become ontologically our more true person is to receive the very revelation of God. For it is that revelation that transforms us entirely healing our lives.
In our Gospel reading from St. Luke 8, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Soils. In this parable, our Lord lists three reasons for the unhealthy soil in our soul in which the seed of our new life given through Him cannot grow. While we all have each type of unhealthy soil within our souls, today we focus on the first type that our Lord mentions; the hard and unyielding soil. Lent is a season in which we yoke ourselves to Christ so that the hard and fallow ground may be churned up. Underneath the hard ground, the rocks, and the thorns we discover that which is most natural to the human creation; the very real and pure hunger and thirst for God.
Today is Septuagesima Sunday, the beginning of our three-week preparation for Lent. We are asked today to consider a question. What is the true priority, the true degree of urgency, that we place on the care and healing of our souls? In truth, throughout this life, our urgency waxes and wanes. We simply allow ourselves to be derailed by distractions. Today, by a few parables told by our Lord as well as the words of St. Paul, we are reminded of the sense of urgency with which to open our hearts to Christ; that He may heal, mend, and transform our lives. This is the season to refocus and to be re-centered regarding things most important.
Charismata is a word that means gift. It is easier to see repentance and humility as as gifts from God when seen correctly. But despair, a gift from God? Yes! Anyone who follows Christ will go through a season or seasons in their lives when it feels like God is no longer present or anywhere near to us. But where can God go if He is in all things at all times? This despair is better understood as our awareness of the presence of God diminishing. But it is in those times, as a gift from God, that our faith can most grow very strong. Today we look at this gift of despair and how we should walk with God in those times.
Three words that Jesus utters in St. Matthew 11 give us the framework for our salvation. He says, "Come to me." Come to me you who are wearied with the sufferings of the daily round of life. Come to me you who are beaten down trying to be righteous in your own strength. He says, "Take my yoke upon you...and you will find rest for your souls." Take a yoke upon yourself and find rest? Once again, the wisdom of Christ in the Kingdom of God confounds the wise. Today we consider what it means to take up His yoke and come to Him that He may exchange our heavy burdens for His rest and refreshment for our soul.
Tonight we celebrate Mass for the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch. The life and testimony of this blessed Apostle should give us great hope. St. Peter failed and fell many times including his denial of the Lord He loved dearly. He would fall, weep tears of repentance, cry out to the Lord to help him, and the Lord in His great love and mercy would stretch out His arm and lift the Apostle up again. This is the life of repentance unto salvation. And through his blessed vessel, the Lord Jesus Christ would continue His ministry to the salvation of many.
It is important to know ourselves and our current spiritual limitations. If we do not know these limitations, we fail to understand our clear starting place. Not knowing our measure, in this way, can cause us to either strive to do too much spiritually which results in perceived failures; or, it leads us to never make attempts at spiritual growth and healing. When we know precisely our limitations, we can be encouraged that we truly have a starting place. The spiritual journey is step by step rather than great leap by great leap. When we know our measure, we can begin a journey with Christ that will avail to true spiritual growth and healing by the experience of our Lord.
In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew 18, St. Peter asks Jesus, "How many times must I forgive my brother?" Jesus answer was seventy times seven. Today we look find that the meaning of the number our Lord gives equates to the full extent of the mercy of God. The more we consider the mercy that God is, the more we should be in wonder and awe knowing that this profound mercy is constantly directed at our lives. If we will just open a part of our soul, it will flood in. Those who experience the mercy and forgiveness of Christ in their own lives find it much easier to give mercy to their offenders and be freed from harboring unforgiveness to those who have offended us.
God, in all His saving power and wonder is always moving toward each individual soul He has created. In this way, we are each the target of God. The question is never God's disposition toward each one of us. The question is will we open, even in the smallest way, an avenue to our soul for God to flood in and show the wonder of His salvation within us as He shares all He is and all He has with us? In this session, we look at ways we can live that attract God. In other words, God is always looking for an opening. When He finds it, out of His great love, He moves immediately in to help us and save us.
The way to true personhood is through communion with the One Who gave us life. In this introduction, Fr. James sets the table with concepts to be used throughout this series. The emphasis here is on true personhood and true becoming as we encounter God and respond to such a Divine encounter.
St. John the Apostle in 1 John 3 tells us that he is in wonder at God's love for all of us. That we, who were once slaves to the Fall of Mankind and to a cruel oppressor, have had our identity completely changed. We were once slaves to the father of lies. We are now children to a Heavenly Father, rich in goodness and mercy. The Apostle also shares with us how we should live as God's children. We are to spend time with our Father like children to their daddy. As we spend time with Him, we become like Him as He reveals Himself to us more and more over the course of our lives. The Apostle also says that God's children, when they behold God, see also what they are not. We see how we are not like our Heavenly Father. As these revelations come to us, they come for the sake of healing and redemption. We are to live a life of time with our Father which includes offering to Him the ways we are not like Him; so that He may heal and redeem relieving the burden that these disfigurements have caused in our lives.
St. Paul, many times in his Epistles, exhorts the faithful in Christ to a life of putting off that which has been put to death in Christ and putting on Christ Himself. This is the active life of relational cooperating with Christ, by the grace that He has given us, of becoming. It is a command of God that flows from His heart of love desiring us to become all that He has created us to be; which is like Him. Today we particularly focus on the fact that this putting off and putting on work closely together at all times. In order to put on something of Christ, we must work with the help of Christ to put off that which is distracting us from the greater good.
Tonight our Lord Jesus Christ is brought to the Temple by St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary. There He is placed in the arms of blessed St. Simeon. It is through the life of St. Simeon that we learn something very important about our life in Christ. In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 2, we are told that the Holy Spirit had communicated to St. Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. And it says that St. Simeon, then, waited for the consolation of Israel to come to him. Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is the consolation of the souls of mankind. Tonight we look at what it means that He the consolation of our soul. We also look at a life, like that of St. Simeon, that eagerly and actively awaits Christ to be our consolation.
Today we hear in the Gospel of St. Matthew 8 the testimony of the healing of the leper and the healing of the centurion's servant. The leper brings his own suffering before Christ. The centurion brings the suffering of another to Jesus. As we are going through pains and tribulations, or when one we love is going through them, we tend to pray out of an imperfect love seeing through a glass darkly. How can we learn from the leper and the centurion how best to pray in times like these? Today we seek to learn the most appropriate way to bring our sufferings and those of others before the goodness of Christ our God.
From Christmas moving forward, we are now in the season where God is made manifest in Jesus Christ for the salvation of all souls. The shepherds were led by the angelic to witness God born in the flesh. By that experience, they were forever changed. The Magi were led by a star to the Savior as a child. Just by beholding Him, they worshipped Him and gave Him gifts. Their lives would forever be changed. And today, the servants at the wedding in Cana are led to Christ by the Blessed Virgin Mary because there was no more wine at the wedding. Jesus transforms the nature and substance of the water into wine manifesting His glory. Those who witnessed this would never be the same. We are like the water transformed into wine. We are always being led to the manifestation of Christ. And, at His manifestation, our lives a transformed like water into wine.
What is with all the singing? The Scriptures are sung, the prayers are sung, the Psalms are sung...why? As long as God has had a people so much was sung in the prayers and worship within the Tabernacle, Temple, and Synagogues. Today we hear the wisdom of our Lord as to why singing has been such a critical piece to prayer and the worship of God.
The Church teaches us that Jesus did not need the waters of Baptism, the waters needed the Word of God. At Jesus' Baptism, may types are revealed to be fulfilled in Him. As Joshua led God's people into the Promised Land through the Jordan Rivers, so Yeshua (the name given to Jesus which is Aramaic for Joshua) enters the waters of the Jordan that we may follow and be granted the Promised Land, Paradise. And when Jesus is Baptized God the Father declares His identity to all. So, when we are Baptized, our identity of fallenness and shame is put to death in the death of Christ and we are raised to a new identity; children of the Father and children of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul writes to us in Philippians 2 that we are to have the same mind of Christ; that is, His nature to lower Himself to raise the souls of all upward. This is Christ's virtue of self-emptying humility. We see this in our Gospel reading today from St. Luke 2 as a 12-year-old Jesus is in the Temple. Today we consider Christ our Passover obediently keeping the Feast of Passover. We see the humility of Christ when He sat with the teachers in the Temple. And we see the self-emptying nature of Christ Who created Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary subjecting Himself to those He has created. It is a challenging wonder when we consider the self-emptying love and nature of Christ our God; a virtue to which we are graced to become.
Today is the Feast of Epiphany, a word meaning the manifestation or revelation of God to man of Himself. Today Magi, priests and philosophers from the East, are led by a star to worship Christ our God as a child. God knew precisely how to capture their attention that they might come and experience Jesus, to the end that they might be saved. As we celebrate God offering salvation to the Gentiles, we focus today on the reality that all evangelism begins and ends with the God Who manifests Himself. Today we consider our part in the Great Commission.
Jesus had no need to be circumcised any more than He needed to be baptized. So why is the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Church? At His Circumcision He receives His Name, brings a close to the Old Covenant, and now lives on to inaugurate the New Covenant, the final Covenant that will bring mankind salvation.
When Christ our God was born, "He bowed the heavens and came down." As our Lord took on flesh, He bent heaven to earth so that fallen man may experience Him and His Kingdom and be elevated toward heaven. Therefore, He would be called Emmanuel which means "God with us." But do we live our lives as Christians in the reality that God is with us every moment of every day? Today we are challenged to ponder the wonder of God coming to earth and dwelling among us and within us. We would live so differently and be filled with such greater joy if we embraced the truth that God is ever-present with us and we are the same with Him.
The home is the continuation of the Church. In the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, God takes two living stones and unites them together with Himself; each living stone a gift and vessel used by Christ to heal and transform the other. As these living stones journey through this life with Christ in their midst, our Lord is reshaping and refashioning them in the likeness of Himself; they are becoming love as He is love.
Throughout Advent, we have entered by grace into the longing of all creation to be redeemed. And, throughout Advent, we have cried to God for mercy and deliverance. Tonight, our cry and the cry of all creation has been heard. Our Lord comes to earth so that we might be raised up to heaven. This night is a night of peace, joy, and great hope.
The Mass for the Vigil of the Nativity signals a pivot, a change of focus and direction away from Advent where we prepare for the manifestation of God coming to man in Jesus Christ. We now move in this Mass to set our souls to the experience of His manifestation on earth; a manifestation not only at His birth but through His ministry upon the earth for our salvation. Today we set ourselves to experience His ministry to us, as He did for all, from now through Trinity Sunday.
On the third Sunday of Advent, we are given a command by our Lord to "Rejoice!" It is a command rooted in the love of Christ for His people. It is a prescription by our Great Physician Who knows the result this medication will have on the human person. We were designed to glorify God in thanksgiving and praise. Today we seek to understand the benefits to body, mind, and soul that rejoicing in God will produce in our lives.
In this session, Fr. James Rooney teaches the history and development of the Sacrament of Confession & Absolution, a practice that has always existed in the Church. This Sacrament that is a gift from Christ to His people is for the easing of their conscience and the healing of their souls. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this Sacrament and this teaching is offered in hopes of helping all understand the heart and wisdom of Christ in giving to us the opportunity to encounter is mercy and salvation.
What comes from our soul and out of our mouth will have an impact not only on our own soul, but the souls of others around us. St. Paul in Ephesians 4 tells us "let no corrupt word come out of our mouth, but rather what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." In the Didache we find these words, "Where the Lord's nature is discussed, there the Lord is. Every day you should seek the company of the saints to enjoy their refreshing conversation." Today in Advent, we ask the Lord to inspect what comes out of our mouths when we are in fellowship together. Do our words drain us and others, robbing one another of the peace of Christ that is there to be experienced? Or, is our conversation filled with Christ Himself, uplifting the souls of one another; ministering joy, His peace, and contentment to all?
Have you ever been in a season of suffering or great need, prayed for mercy and relief, and felt that God was not hearing your prayer or was very distant from you? At some point in our lives, we will all face times like these. How shall we live when God seems to be silent? Tonight we look at Saints Joachim & Anna, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for answers to that question. They lived their whole marriage to an old age barren, unable to conceive a child. They prayed to God for mercy and relief faithfully all of those years. In their old age, God granted them great mercy as they would become the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Why is the worship of the Orthodox Church liturgical, fixed, and repetitive? This is a common question asked about our faith. Today we examine the historical worship of God's people reaching back to Judaism. It is God Who instructs His people as to how He is to be worshipped, for He is worshipped eternally. The worship of the Church manifests the eternal worship of God here on the earth. And the way in which God's people worship Him on earth is the created role and purpose of the priesthood of all believers.
Every human being knows when they are ill. Many say that pain is an unwanted gift, but it is a gift. Our physical pain tells us something is wrong with us. And when we are suffering we go to our trusted physician so that he might, in his wisdom, give us a path to healing. And when our bodies are healing from those prescriptions, our sufferings are diminishing. Christ is our Great Physician and He invites us to come to Him with our symptoms and our sufferings. He is perfect in judgment and wisdom. And He is the only one Who knows how to heal and restore order to the soul that He has created. And as He heals, our sufferings rooted in the illness within the soul begin to go away.
Today's Mass is called the Sunday Next Before Advent. it is a week given to prepare for this blessed liturgical season. We turn a corner from the long season of Trinitytide where we have reflected on how we should live from the finished work of Jesus Christ. Advent is the Season where we begin again preparing both for His coming and His Second Coming. St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that "If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged." Today we understand this to mean if we would come into agreement with God each day on how He sees us, we would be in agreement over our sin and our fallenness. If we live in that way now, we encounter the Divine mercy of God on a daily basis and find great healing and transformation in our lives. We see that if let God judge us and give us His mercy now, we shall surely have it on the last day.
An easy answer to this question would be that Sunday is the Sunday of the Resurrection. But there is a great deal more in the answer to this question. Today Fr. James Rooney teaches us the reasons behind Sunday worship and the rhythm and pattern of this worship. As much as it has to do with the Resurrection, the answer to this question also has to do with Creation & Recreation, the redemption of all things in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is not one soul that goes through this life without being damaged or harmed by someone. The humanity of others damages us and wounds us just as our humanity does to others. Forgiveness can be such a challenge and even feel impossible, particularly in very abusive wounds that are done to us. Left to our humanity, we will not be able to release our offenders in forgiveness which means that we will be forever bound in our own chains of unforgiveness. But we are not left to our humanity. We have been joined through Christ to God's Divinity. We are able to participate in the Nature of our God. Today we focus on how to live in fellowship with God in such a way that we are enabled to forgive our greatest offenders; by participating in God's ability to forgive. And, as we do so, we are released from our own chains finally set free.
Today the Blessed Virgin Mary is presented to the High Priest Zacharias by her parents Sts. Joachim & Anna at the Temple in Jerusalem as a young girl. There she would live a life of prayer and service to God. Even at an early age, she lived a life offering herself to the Lord. Her whole life is a picture of what we all have been rescued and redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ to become; a people who respond to the love of God by offering their lives back to Him. As the Blessed Virgin offered herself to the will of God, the Lord made her His dwelling place for her salvation. And, because she lived this life of self-offering, salvation Himself came through her for the salvation of the souls of all who would receive her Son. The same is true for all of us. What wonders God would do in and through us if we follow in the Blessed Virgin's footsteps making our lives an offering to Christ in response to His great love for us.
We are beginning to turn the corner from the Liturgical Season of Trinitytide to the Season of Advent. In the Season of Advent, we enter into a longing for the deliverer to come and deliver us. We also enter into a preparation of our soul for the Second Coming of our Savior. Every one of us needs healing and deliverance from our fallen condition and the suffering that condition causes us. Thanks be to God that this is our Lord's desire, to deliver us and lift us up. Today we look at an authentic cry for deliverance as our prayer even in preparation for our journey through Advent.
When God gave the Law to Moses, He said "You shall have no graven images." So, why does the Orthodox Faith make use of Iconography in both worship and the experience of the faithful in their homes? In this session, Fr. James helps us understand what "graven images" were and we will clearly see that Iconography is not a disobedience to the Law. We also delve into the spirituality of Iconography and how it is such a gift to our experience of and growth in our Lord Jesus Christ.
In our Gospel reading from St. John chapter 4, we have the testimony of the healing of the nobleman's son by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of a number of examples showing how our Lord knows how to bring someone with a weaker and less mature faith to a stronger and more mature faith. He takes the nobleman on a journey knowing precisely how to relate to him so that the nobleman would truly come to know Him. This is the faith journey of us all.
In the Mass of All Saints, we are told that the angels are in wonder of Christ's restoration of the dignity of His Saints. The extent to which Jesus took the fallen condition of mankind and raised it back up to its truly created design has the angels and the innumerable Saints in heaven in constant awe and praise. Tonight we look at this revelation given to us of Paraidise. And we consider the path forged by Christ and graced by Christ for us to come to the eternal experience of these unspeakable joys.
Every year at the Feast of All Souls, our Lord graciously places the gift of our mortality before us. We live as though we have an eternity left in this life. Christians are to live as though this life is a vapor that could end at any moment, and if we allow Christ to be our healer in the moments of each day, we will receive the promised unspeakable joys of eternity. Today, we look to see how the gift of our mortality moves us to Christ so that we become His love to others.
Today we examine the revelations given to the Church about our Lord's Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Everything we understand about her points to and glorifies her Son, Christ our God. And, all that we see in her reveals to us our most true identity as those who are being re-created by her Son our Lord. In this session, we see how Holy Scripture reveals these truths that have been handed down to us.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines paradox as a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement that when investigated proves to be well-founded and true. The truths of Christ our God are often revealed through paradox. Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. Today we see the Divine Nature of Christ the King revealed to us through paradox. As we reflect on how Christ came to be elevated by the Father as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we discover that our path as citizens of His Kingdom is to follow the path of paradox to become like our King.
Many outside of the Orthodox Faith test various theologies using Scripture alone believing that Scripture is the highest authority for Christianity. While the Orthodox Faith holds Scripture in the highest esteem and it is infinitely important to our growth in knowing God and drawing near to Him, Scripture alone is not the absolute measurement. We do not ask, "Is it Biblical?" Rather, we ask the question, "Is it Apostolic?" Today we discover what that question means and how Scripture does indeed fit into that most important question.
One of the ways God revealed Himself to His people in the Old Covenant was by giving them a Name by which to know and understand Him. In this Mass, He reveals to us that He is Jehovah Rophe. That Name in Hebrews means I AM healing, I am both Physician and Cure for my people. The context of His healing work in our lives is always relationship. Today we examine the relationship between the Great Physician and those with illness and disfigurement of soul, mind, and body. The One Who is healing is always pursuing us, knocking at the door to let Him come in and be Who He is for us. Are we responding to the knock; opening the door so that He can come in and heal?
The question is not, "What is our faith?" The question is, "Who is our faith?" If Christ our God is our faith, then it is most certainly our faith that defines us. We do not define the faith. And Christ our faith shares Himself with us. Christ our faith reveals to us who we truly are as a people who have been made one with Him. And this God shares with us that we are His children of the light; those who now call Him Abba, our Daddy.
Tradition in the Church is the deposit of faith. It is the revelation of Christ our God and His Kingdom to man for the salvation of souls. Tradition is the pure and perfect lens through which we understand the Nature of God and God's perspective on all things. Holy Scripture, for example, is an integral part of the Tradition of the Church but can only be understood correctly and clearly through the lens of this deposit of faith given to us from and kept by God the Holy Spirit. Today we seek to grow in our understanding of the miracle and blessedness of the Tradition of the Church.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the beginnings of the Church, poured out gifts and ministry so that each living stone in the Church could minister His salvation one to another and to this world. Satan used the humanity in the Church to twist those gifts into tools of division. St. Paul writes about this in Ephesians, 1 Corinthians, and Romans. In each of those writings, St. Paul corrects and exhorts the children of God giving them the remedy to this problem. Today we look at St. Paul's writing in Ephesians chapter 4. There the Apostle teaches the Church that the foundation for every ministry in Christ must match the Divine Nature of our Lord. That foundation is love which stands upon the pillars of the virtues of humility, meekness, and longsuffering.
Many outside of Orthodoxy wonder why the Orthodox Bible has more books than Bibles used by protestant Christians. Today, Fr. James Rooney takes us on a historical journey of the development of Holy Scripture beginning with the development of the Old Testament and ending with the New Testament. From that journey, we grow in understanding why the Church has always had the particular Canon of Holy Scripture through which God reveals Himself to the faithful.
In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 7, Jesus raises the son of the widow at the gate of the city of Nain. Two different processions of many people collide at the gate of Nain. One is a procession of life and consolation led by our Lord. The other is a funeral procession of death, great mourning, and suffering. As they meet, Christ our God is filled with compassion for the widow. He raises the son from the dead and, in doing so, takes away the source of her pain and suffering. While this is a real testimony of a miraculous work of our Lord, it is also the very story of our salvation as we meet with Christ at the gate of the city of Nain within our souls.
Living in America, particularly in middle America, the Orthodox Church seems to be a small portion of all who call themselves Christian. In reality, it is the second-largest body of Christians in the world. It is pre-denominational. What does that mean and what is the basis of this claim? Today Fr. James Rooney shares with us historical realities and understandings of our Faith that will help us all to answer the question, "What is the Orthodox Church?"
How often we are anxious and worried about our finances; sinking in the storm of concern that we will not have what we need when we need it. When we find ourselves burdened with such fears, it shows us that we have great room to grow in knowing God Whose very Nature is to provide. The antidote to all these fears is to make a path in our lives for the Lord our God to reveal Himself for Who He really is, the LORD our provider.
Just because we are in the Apostolic Church does not mean that we have the mind of Christ on the great theology, the revelation Christ has given of Himself and His salvation, that is kept therein. Today is an overview of the series "Giving Answers to Our Faith." As we look in this series at many topics in our Faith for which we are asked questions, the goal is that we grow deeper in an understanding of how our core beliefs and practices bring us into the experience of Christ that brings healing and salvation to our souls.
In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 17, 10 lepers are healed by Christ. Only one turned back to give thanks to the Lord Who healed him. Giving thanks to God, a response that wells up from our souls and comes out of our mouths is a great and important part of the spirituality of the Christian. We were created in the beginning to be an expression of the Divine giving glory to God for all that He is and all that He does on behalf of mankind. Today, we are given help toward opening our eyes to see the many reasons we have to voice thanksgiving to God for all that He has done for us. And, in doing so, we grow in the enjoyment and knowledge of Him.
How do we perceive Jesus Christ our Savior? How do we know Him? And what to we understand His Nature and Disposition is toward us? How we see Him is directly proportional to how we see ourselves and how we respond to Him when we fail and fall short. Today, Jesus shows us His true nature in the telling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We must see Jesus correctly as He has revealed Himself to mankind. If we knew Him in that way, we would run not walk to Him when we fail. We would press toward Him for the healing He desires to work in us.
Even as we remember the birth of our Lord's Mother, as with any remembrances of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we see something so wondrous and joyful about Christ's salvation of our souls. Saints Joachim & Anna lived in the shame of barrenness, even to an old age. After pleading a lifetime with God for mercy and for their shame to be taken away by the conception of a child, our Lord goes beyond their request. He grants them a child; a daughter who was chosen before time to bring forth for the salvation of the world the Son of God. The Blessed Virgin's parents' barrenness was made fruitful. Today we rejoice that the barrenness of our soul has been made fruitful. We were once devoid of true life, but Life Himself has been poured into our barren souls and now our souls can be fruitful bringing His salvation to the souls around us.
As if the miracle of Christ healing the deaf-mute was not enough to consider, Christ through His Church has revealed that this very miracle shows us the healing and salvation of us all. Today we consider how we were deaf and mute spiritually from the fall of mankind. Our Lord has touched our ears so that we could receive God from God. And from what we now receive into ourselves from Him, the tongue of our soul has been loosed to speak clearly the good things of Christ and His Kingdom through our very lives.
8/28/2023 - Today we look at the virtue of humility which is a virtue of God Himself. Humility is such a fascinating virtue. On the one hand, we need the grace of God to grow in His humility. On the other hand, the virtue of humility attracts God and we are told He gives grace to the humble. Both our Epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 15 and our Gospel reading from St. Luke 18 (the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector) show us parallel truths about the virtue of humility. After reflecting on the virtue of humility, we reflect on the Jesus Prayer as a path toward growth in the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ.
St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 says, "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." What an incredible truth that the glory of God has shone in our very soul to give light to all around us. St. Paul goes on to say, "We have this treasure (the glory of God Himself) in earthen vessels." The Divine power and love of God are made known as He reveals Himself through our frail and weak flesh and blood. Every Christ has been made a steward of the glory of God. Today, we reflect on this incredible truth and mystery.
This blessed Feast Day, one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Church, is the celebration and remembrance of the falling asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the translation of her soul into the bosom of her Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and her being granted her resurrected body. Our Lord gave us such a gift by what He has done for His Mother. As always, when we grow to understand truths about her we are growing to see clearly truths about ourselves. And all of it points to the glorification of Christ in our lives. This Feast Day answers the question regarding what happens to the Christian soul when it departs the body with a particular focus on the promise of the Resurrection. This is why this Feast Day is called the Summer Pascha. When we approach what Christ did for the Blessed Virgin at the Assumption, we see what our Lord Jesus Christ will do for all those who remain in her Son Who is the Resurrection and the Life.
Today we are reminded by our Lord how to be true disciples of Him with material goods in this life. In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 16, our Lord tells the parable of the unjust steward. The purpose of the teaching is to remind us that we have ownership over absolutely nothing. Everything we have belongs to God and He has made us stewards of what we have on loan. In the parable, the unjust steward takes what belongs to his master and shows mercy to those who were in need. As we live out our stewardship obediently to God, by His grace He uses this stewardship to transform us into His very Nature. And we experience profound joy as we become vessels of mercy with everything that belongs to God.
Today is the Feast Day of the Transfiguration. What Christ accomplished on the Cross made it possible for every soul to experience a true transfiguration, a metamorphosis of personhood. The Transfiguration marked both the revelation of Christ as the Word of God to man in all of His glory as well as showing forth mankind's truly created identity. When we see the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see the return of every soul to what we would have become in Paradise had the fall of man never happened. By the Cross, our Lord released us from captivity so that we could be led in an ascension to worship and experience God on the mountain. It is in that experience of Christ our God on the mountain that the darkness within us rolls away and we are refashioned in His image and likeness.
Though sin is an issue that goes deeper than our habits and patterns, there is no denying that these habits and patterns are very much a part of the sins we commit. Today we talk about the putting off of habits that keep us bound in sin and replacing them with virtuous habits that, by the grace of God, transform our lives into the very likeness of God. The Church Fathers often teach that we become that which we do.
At the core if Christianity is a life and faith of oneness. Oneness between us and God as well as oneness among us with our God. We were created for community and Satan, from the creation of humanity has been seeking to divide mankind from God and mankind from one another. In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 5, our Lord Jesus Christ reveals two of the strategies Satan uses to divide relationships. The first is anger which has gone beyond the bounds of self-control. The second is in regard to the most dangerous weapon that is a part of our human creation; the tongue. Today, we reflect on Christ's words seeking help to bring anger under self-control and to tame the tongue with the help of our God. When we follow Christ in this way, Satan's strategies are thrown down and true unity is both preserved and grown in the Body of Christ.
Our Gospel reading today is from St. Luke chapter 5. It is the testimony of the miraculous catch of fish and the calling of the first disciples. What we really see here is the progression of an experience Simon Peter has with the Lord Jesus Christ that would forever change his life. In this progression we not only see important truths about our life with Christ, but we also see important truths about fulfilling the Great Commission. The fulfillment of the Great Commission begins and ends with Jesus Christ Himself. In His wondrous love for mankind, He invites us to join Him and be a part of all that He does for the salvation of souls.
The Gospel of St. Luke chapter 1 gives the testimony of the Blessed Virgin Mary, then pregnant with the Word of God Jesus Christ, visiting Elizabeth who was pregnant with St. John the Forerunner. In this narrative we see an unborn child leaping with joy in his mother's womb at the presence of His Savior Who is in the womb of His most blessed mother. We also see great humility in the Blessed Virgin Mary in how she responds to Elizabeth's words regarding her. As Elizabeth is led by the Holy Spirit to give accolades and prophecy regarding our Lord's mother, Mary receives the truth of those words takes no credit for any of it as she would glorify God as she voiced the Magnificat.
In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 14, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches the Parable of the Great Banquet. The Church has forever taught that the great banquet in this parable is indeed the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This table was prepared by the suffering of Christ upon the Cross so that He might deliver to us everything we need for true life and salvation. Every time we gather together by His loving invitation, the One Who prepares this feast grants us every benefit He accomplished for us upon His Holy and Lifegiving Cross.
Trinitytide is the liturgical season that teaches us how to live as Christians with the finished work of Jesus Christ accomplished and the Holy Spirit having been poured out. It is no surprise that on the first Sunday of this season, our Lord puts before us the foundation virtue and tells us to become it. The greatest of all virtues is Divine love. The Apostle St. John taught in 1 John 4 "If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us." Today we look at the Divine love of God and how the greatest daily litmus test indicating whether we are actively abiding in Christ or not is this: are we becoming love?
Fr. Zacharius, a contemporary Orthodox monk, taught "Correct faith creates the right relationship with the Lord. It gradually leads to repentance illumining and strengthening this relationship until man's heart unites with the Holy Spirit." Today is Trinity Sunday; a foundational day in the life and rhythm of the Church. This day has everything to do with God's revelation of Himself to man. In this homily, we note the importance of seeing the faith as it has been passed on by a Church that experienced the revelation of God to man. To take to oneself the faith revealed by God to man, we now are postured to be recipients of a continued fellowship with God that leads to our salvation.
In the Vidi Aquam we sing, "I beheld water that proceeded from the Temple, on the right side thereof: and all they to whom that water came were healed, everyone." These words come from the Prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 47 and are fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Jesus said in the Gospel of St. John chapter 7, "He that believes in Me, as Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." The next verse tells us that this He spoke concerning the Holy Spirit Who would be poured on on the Day of Pentecost. We are the Temple, Christ's Body upon the earth, from which flows living waters for the salvation of souls until He comes again. Today we embrace the truth of God's Divine wisdom and plan to make us earthen vessels that contain this living water. Through us, He intends to heal the soul of all mankind and restore humanity to its originally created state.
The psalmist in Psalm 27, "When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” What does it mean to seek His face in prayer? What will we see when we do so? To seek the face of God is to open our hearts to both His disposition and nature towards us and all that we bring in intercession to Him. Today we use what is known as the Sinai Christ Icon to consider all that we will encounter in Christ when we seek His face in prayer.
There would be no salvation without the Ascension of Christ our God. As our forerunner, He ascended to the Father with our humanity eternally joined to His Divinity. As He did, it would be the first time the created humanity He took to Himself would ever enter Paradise, for He was the forerunner of us all. By His Ascension, the ladder was not put in place joining heaven to earth where all mankind could now ascend out of the Fall and return to Paradise through Him. Today we rejoice in Christ's wondrous Ascension and we set our souls to follow Him up so that where He is we may also be.
As our Lord prepares His disciples for His Ascension in the Gospel of St. John chapter 16, He teaches them something so very important about the nature of prayer. He teaches them, "Whatever you ask the Father in My Name He will give you...that your joy may be may be full." What does it mean to pray "in the Name of Jesus?" Today we see that, as St. Cyprian taught regarding this question: "Let Christ Who dwells within our hearts, also dwell within our voice." This message is a reflection on this very understanding of praying in Jesus' Name.
As the Resurrected Christ would appear to the disciples in St. John chapter 20, the disciples saw the eternal future of all of those in Christ. When they saw the Resurrected Jesus Christ, they saw their own resurrected bodies. And in the same visit, our Lord would commission them to be sent to the world to continue His ministry. The words of their commissioning are astounding. Today we consider the authority, power, and grace they were given toward the calling He placed on their lives.
In the Gospel of St. John chapter 16, Jesus tells His disciples that He would be returning to the Father. Our Lord calms their sadness by telling them that, "it is to your advantage, the greatest good for you, that I return to the Father. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you." Today we consider all of the advantages the Helper, the Paraclete, God the Holy Spirit would bring not only to those disciples but to all who are in Christ to the end of the age.
The Collect prayer for today's Mass prays that our Lord would help us to avoid the things of this world that run contrary to our most true identity and that He would grace us to take into ourselves only those things that benefit and bring life to the soul. Today we reflect on the truth that what we mingle with the God-created and designed soul will have a profound impact on our experience with God; and also on our experience in this life throughout this ever so brief journey.
Today we continue our reflections on our Lord's ministry after His Resurrection. The particular focus of today's teaching is on the experience of St. Mary Magdalene with her Risen Lord as recorded in the Gospel of St. John chapter 20. She was present when the Angel descended upon the tomb and rolled the stone away. And, she was given quite a revelation as she encountered the two angels, one seated and the head and the other at the foot where the body of Christ was placed. This is where we see how the tomb became a tabernacle and granted her the experience of the Resurrected Jesus Christ.
The Collect prayer for today's Mass prays that our Lord would help us to avoid the things of this world that run contrary to our most true identity and that He would grace us to take into ourselves only those things that benefit and bring life to the soul. Today we reflect on the truth that what we mingle with the God-created and designed soul will have a profound impact on our experience with God; and also on our experience in this life throughout this ever so brief journey.
Just as Christ our God descended into Hades, destroyed that prison, bound Satan, and freed those held there in captivity; so Christ is doing in the very soul of all of His beloved. Today we look at the harrowing of the Hades of our own soul. Looking at the Icon of Christ's Baptism as well as the prayers prayed over the ones to be Baptized into Christ, we see even our Baptism as a harrowing of Hades. We also look today at the disciples who encounter Christ on the Road to Emmaus. There Christ descends into their darkness and captivity to their confusion, fears, and deep sadness. As He makes Himself present to those disciples they, by their encounter with Him, are raised up out of that captivity and granted peace and joy. There are so many ways that our salvation is a continuous descent of Christ into our Hades where He binds our oppressor, releases us, and raises us up to where He is granting us Paradise.
Today we hear the Gospel of St. John 10 where Christ our God reveals Himself as the Good Shepherd. When Jesus reveals Himself to us, it is for us both to truly know Him but also for us to become like Him from the experience of the revelation. Today, we look at three attributes of Christ's nature as our Good Shepherd. First, Jesus says of Himself that He is the Good Shepherd who pursues the sheep outside of His fold. Next Jesus says that His Sheep know Him and He knows them as He is known by the Father. Finally, Jesus tells us that He gathers His sheep into one flock under one Shepherd; a life of unity rather than division.
One of the great themes of the Paschal Vigil is the harrowing of Hades by our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we look at this violent act of love by our Lord Jesus Christ. The harrowing of Hades was violent to Satan, the demonic, and death itself. His love and mercy were granted to all those imprisoned there from Adam and Eve to that present moment. The Icon of the Resurrection is our guide to the ministry of Christ is the demolishing of Hades and the deceiving of the deceiver. We will also utilize Scripture from the Old and New Testaments as well as excerpts from the book "Christ the Conqueror of Hell: the Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective" written by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev to deepen our understanding of Christ's plundering of Hades; His binding of the strong man, Satan, and releasing those souls in captivity within that dark prison until that moment.
Wondrous information about Christ and the reception of the testimonies of Christ to His people alone will not elevate the soul out of the depths of our chaos, anxieties, and fears. Only the experience of the risen Jesus Christ can do so. We see this clearly in the testimony of Christ revealing Himself to Mary Magdelene, Peter and the disciples, and then finally to Thomas. Today we look at the progression that occurs in these testimonies to see that the sharing of the revelation of Christ our God by the one who received it moves us all to a greater desire for the experience of Christ in our lives. Only in the experience of Jesus Christ can true faith grow. Only by that experience can we ascend out of the symptoms of our fallenness. And it is Christ's nature and desire to grant us all such an experience of Him.
As is tradition each year in the Orthodox Church, on this day we hear the blessed Paschal homily once preached by St. John Chrysostom.
Pascha means Passover. The way that the Paschal Vigil unfolds communicates to us the great work of our Deliverer, Jesus Christ, on behalf of us all. Tonight we reflect on what we have seen and heard to understand and experience Christ's ministry deliverance on our behalf.
St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, says that love does not parade itself. It does not self-exalt. Rather, love is the self-emptying of one on behalf of another and for their great benefit. Tonight we gaze upon the Cross to witness the self-emptying love of God in its most full and purest form. And we ask our Lord to grace us by that experience to become His self-emptying love toward one another as we are refashioned in His likeness.
Tonight our Lord washes the feet of His disciples. Our reflection this evening focuses on the interaction between our Lord Jesus Christ and St. Peter. When Jesus goes to wash Peter's feet, he is disturbed by this and says, "No Lord, You shall never wash me." Peter was overwhelmed with his unworthiness that the Lord do this for Him. Yet this is precisely Who Jesus is and what He came to do for mankind. How often are we like Peter as Jesus offers His healing and cleansing to us? How often do we not allow Christ to be Who He is toward us? The sermon explores the broken reasons for this and exhorts us to hear the words of Christ which He spoke to Peter, "Unless I wash you, you have no part in me."
The Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 53 said, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." In the Hebrew language, "griefs" means illness, malady, and sickness. In that same language "sorrows" means the symptoms of the illness, the suffering that comes from the illness. Our Lord carried in Himself the illness of the condition of man after the Fall as well as the sufferings that come from that far lesser condition that we were ever created to be. But then, the greatest news; the Gospel that resounds from the Cross: "By His stripes, we are healed!" Tonight, we look at the healing work of Christ afforded us because of the Holy Cross.
The Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 50 voices the disposition of Christ going to His sufferings saying, "I gave My back to those who struck Me, My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide Myself from the shame and spitting." onight we embrace the reality that no one took the life of Christ. Our Lord was in command the entire time. He willed to take all of this suffering upon Himself; even the suffering of death. Tonight we see the mystery and wonder of the love of a God Who would partake in human suffering and death so that we might be could become partakers of Him.
On Holy Monday, as the Cross continues to be placed before us, we remember that the greatest virtue is love. And it is manifest upon the Cross. St. Paul tells us to leave the milk and grow to maturity. True maturity is becoming love as God is love.
God's people rejoiced and celebrated Christ's entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday crying out for the very reason He entered the city that day; "Hosanna" which means Lord save us! Later that week they would call for this same one whom they called Rabbi to be crucified, a means of capital punishment detestable to all Jews. They denied Him and abandoned Him even crying out, "Let the blood of the man be on our heads and on our children." This week we set our souls not to deny Him, but to follow Him to the Cross that we might experience Him in the Resurrection.
Self-examination is the opening of the door of our hearts to the Holy Spirit in such a way that He might reveal to us anything that works against our experiential union with Christ our God. Today we look at a method of self-examination through which the Holy Spirit can reveal those particular vices and move us toward Christ where He can exchange those devastating vices for the beauty and peace of His virtues.
There are two truths or tensions that must be kept in place for Christ to be revealed to us from the Holy Cross. One truth is the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross. We must always encounter His suffering and the volumes it speaks that He willingly did so out of His abounding love for us. The other truth is the glory of all that Christ won for us through the Cross and what He became for us because of the Cross. Today we focus on Christ our High Priest and Mediator as we see in Hebrews 9. We find the Church's teaching that everything the High Priest of the Old Covenant did on the Day of Atonement was a shadow that would be fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonder regarding how far God has gone through Jesus Christ to stack the deck in our favor for our salvation.
There are so many reasons that should cause the soul to well up with joy and rejoice in the Lord. But have we considered that simply being a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ should be a source of great joy? What is a disciple? It is one who follows another like sheep to a shepherd. Today we look at two testimonies where Christ invited His disciples to be an active part in His ministry to humanity and the joy that came from those experiences. Those who follow Christ desiring that His will be done, they are the ones who will be filled with great joy and rejoicing in their lives.
When we look at the narrative of the Archangel Gabriel's announcement to the Blessed Virgin Mary of God's intention, we see so much about both Christ our God ourselves. At the conception of Christ in the womb of this most blessed woman, we see the re-creation and refashioning of mankind for all time. We also see the prefiguring of our Baptism. And, because of the prefiguring of our Baptism, we see our new identity in Christ bestowed upon us.
The last thing Satan wants is for us to cooperate with God in self-examination. Self-examination opens the soul to God. It is in self-examination that Christ reveals Himself to us which illuminates all that is within the soul that He longs to heal and mend. Without that illumination, we have no hope to be made whole again. Today we discuss how to approach this self-examination and the encouragement regarding all that Christ does for us when we cooperate with Him in this discipline.
Just as Christ's prescription of fasting and increased prayer grows the fruit of the Holy Spirit, self-control, in our lives; prayer and fasting does even more by His grace. When we fast and pray the very virtues of Christ and His nature blossom in our lives. Today we look at the greatest of all virtues, love. As the love of God grows in our lives, our vices diminish and fade away. Today is an exploration of how God grants liberty to the soul of His people as His love grows within us.
When we engage in the Lenten Fast, we fast in body as we deny our cravings for food bringing those cravings into submission to Christ our God and His directions for us. But we must also fast in spirit. When Satan brings temptations our way, in the same way as we do with food, we subject those temptations and our cravings to the will of God. We are called to stand firm and, as St. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4, "possess our vessel in sanctification and honor." Today we look at what it means for the Christian to stand firm in times of temptation that we might experience Christ and His victory over Satan in our own lives.
Everything Jesus did through the Incarnation, He did to clear a path for us to return to Him and to Paradise. Jesus fasting for 40 days in the wilderness, then being tempted by Satan, and His overcoming of his adversary is no exception. In doing so, He gave us the grace-filled path that leads us to overcome the deceiver in our lives and be finally freed from our besetting sins. Today we look at what Christ is doing in us if we will follow Him in the fast of Great Lent.
The last thing Satan wants is for the people of God to experience the fullness of heaven and earth joining together with Christ in our midst. And this is precisely what happens every time we gather to offer ourselves to God and for God to offer Himself to us. Today we examine the ways our enemy sneaks in to keep us from this experience. And we look at the wonder of what the Lord our God is doing for us as He is present with us and we present ourselves to Him.
In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 18, we hear the testimony of the healing of the blind man named Bartimaeus. As our Lord approached Jericho with the multitude, the blind man cried out, "Son of David, have mercy on me." Some tried to quiet him, but he dismissed them and cried out all the more for mercy. Bartimaeus would not stop calling out to Jesus for mercy until Jesus acted on his behalf. Our Lord calls this great faith. Today we examine the faith of this blind man; a faith that Jesus wants to grow within us as He continues His healing work in our lives.
These last four weeks we have taken a close look at the strategies Satan and the demonic use to distract and separate us from the Lord our God. In Peter Kreeft's book, The Snakebite Letters, he points out that Satan fights fiercely to keep us from experiencing Christ in two Sacraments: Eucharist & Confession. Today we look at Satan's strategies to keep us from Christ in the Sacrament of Confession. We also examine why he does not want us to experience our Savior in that blessed Sacrament. And, it has everything to do with Christ's profound ministry for our deliverance, healing, and salvation.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 8, tell the Parable of the Sower; also known as the Parable of the Soils. Any farmer or gardener will tell you that the fullness of the growth of that which is planted is infinitely dependent on the health of the soil in which the seed has been sown. In this parable, Jesus is both the sower and the seed. Today, as we hear our Lord describe to His disciples the various conditions of soil that have a direct impact on the seed that has been planted, our role is to hear Him and let Him discern the condition of the soil of our soul. The cultivation of the soil of our soul with the help of our Lord is essential to the fullness of His life and His Kingdom blossoming forth in and from our lives.
Today is an examination of many false teachings that Satan has managed to get into the fabric of American Christianity. These lies that have crept into our culture of spirituality makes us so very easily exploited by our enemy. Today we examine these so that we see clearly what could be weak links in our spiritual armor.
As an introduction to this series, today we face the reality of spiritual warfare. This is no mere ideology or intellectualized thinking. The demonic, the principalities, the powers, the rulers of this dark age, and hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (as St. Paul says in Ephesians 6); they are all real and they all war against the Christian soul. St. Peter tells us that we must live sober and vigilant lives in our war that overcomes them all. Today the purpose of this series and our approach to learning the strategies of our enemy are revealed so that we may all the more recognize them; so that we may live in Christ's victory over them.
Up to this point in the series, we have been looking at the strategies our enemy commonly uses all too successfully against us all. Today, we turn the tide to focus on truths that will help us join ourselves to Christ and His victory over the enemy who constantly tempts us.
As we begin our three-week preparation for Lent, we are given the Gospel reading from St. Matthew chapter 20 about the laborers in the vineyard. The laborers hired later in the day are paid the same wage as those who had worked all day. They complain to the lord of the vineyard that this seems unjust and are envious of what the later laborers earned in light of their lack of time working. When we look at the extent of envy, we are usually surprised at the various ways it manifests itself in our lives.
How does Satan bait that which is within us? What are his strategies to take the common weaknesses in all of our humanity, and use those weaknesses to separate us from God and from one another? Today we explore the most typical ways our enemy seeks to separate us from the saving experience of God in our lives.
In Colossians 3, St. Paul urges his spiritual children to set their affections only on things eternal. How often our affections are directed to things that are fallen and non-eternal. And when we set our affections on the things of this world, we are so easily ushered into a life of unsettledness, disquietude, angst, and anxieties. Where we choose to direct the eyes of our soul is critical. St. Paul is teaching us that if we will cast our eyes upon Christ and the wonder of His Kingdom, the peace of Christ will reign in our lives.
Today, from the Gospel of St. Matthew 8, we receive the testimony of Christ our God healing the leper. The leper comes to Jesus with incredible faith and the appropriate disposition. He says to our Lord, "If you will, you can make me clean." His faith was that Jesus had both the authority and the ability to cleanse him and free him from both his great suffering and shame. But, like us, there was certainly room for his faith to continue to grow to know more about Him. When we see the healing of the leper, we see the work of salvation daily in the lives of every soul in Christ. Today we ask our Lord to grant us the same disposition of the leper, the faith as well as the acknowledgment our need for Christ's merciful healing of our soul. May we come to Christ saying, "If you will, you can make me whole." To which He will answer, "Of course, I will. Be healed."
Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. By the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the nature of the water was entirely transformed into a completely different nature when it became wine. That which was colorless, fairly odorless, and fairly tasteless became a beautiful color, sweet aroma, and gained a pleasant taste. It was now useful to be a blessing that, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 104, would gladden the heart of men. When we look at our Lord's first miracle, we see the very reason Christ came to us in the first place. He came to transform our fallen nature into His Divine nature. By the Word of God, we become the aroma of Christ to be the blessing of His salvation to this world.
As the wise men came from the East and beheld God in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, a response was provoked. At the experience of the presence of God in their midst they fell down, worshipped Him, and offered them the most precious of gifts. They were invited to come and behold Him, and we see their response. We, just like them, have been invited to come and behold Jesus Christ our Savior. But what is the most precious gift we can offer Him as we behold Him? We offer Him ourselves which is our reasonable act of worship.
There is wonder to be embraced in the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. His Baptism was certainly not for Him. His Baptism was entirely for us. Today we look at the early Church Fathers to see what Christ accomplished for us in His Baptism. And everything we see God accomplish as Christ enters those waters, He accomplishes for everyone of us who have entered therein.
At Christmas, the shepherds were invited and led to come and behold God in the body of the infant; our Lord Jesus Christ. At Epiphany, the wise men were given the same invitation; to come and experience the Word made flesh. When both the shepherds and wise men encountered our Lord Jesus Christ, they would leave forever changed and proclaiming with joy what they had experienced. We are no different that the shepherds and wise men. We are invited and led to come and behold Christ every time we worship Him and receive from Him in the liturgy. Tonight we celebrate the Light Who came into our darkness to reveal Himself to us and place His light within us. The shepherds and wise men came to behold Christ with great anticipation and longing. They were granted what their hearts had grown to desire. Will we come to Him with the same anticipation and longing? If we do, our lives will become a daily Epiphany as we receive light and become it.
The title of this sermon is the summary of the Incarnation and of our salvation. In this revelation, we see the relationship between God and the crown of His creation, mankind. God's movement toward man, literally becoming One of us and dwelling with us to save us. And, man being given the opportunity by grace to ascend to our most true identity of being; that is, like our Creator. This is the true celebration and meaning of Christmas.
At the birth of Christ our God, the angels came and stood before the shepherds proclaiming God's peace and His goodwill toward men. In that instance, the veil opened up and revealed how close the Kingdom of God is to mankind. How? Unto us a child was born. Today we remember the wonder of God's Kingdom brought near to us through the Word of God made flesh.
The Prophet Isaiah prophesied of the ministry of St. John the Forerunner as "The voice crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord." The very ministry of St. John was that all should "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Repentance is the tool we are given to make straight the way of the Lord. But we often fail to see repentance rightly. Today we examine true Christian repentance and how it removes all obstacles and barriers to our authentic experience of Christ our God and His Kingdom now brought very near to us.
We should be very encouraged that the great characters in the Scriptures all struggled at times as we struggle. In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew 18, St. John the Forerunner has been imprisoned. In His suffering, He is in need of the revelation of Christ to strengthen and assist him as his struggle is causing a weak point in his faith. Today we look at how our Lord reveals himself to blessed St. John in the way that St. John most needed to receive it. Our Lord will do the same if we cry out for Him, and He will lift us out of the depths of even the weakest moments of our faith and cause our soul to be strengthened and rejoice again.
God took away the shame of the barren Saints Joachim & Anna by healing them of their inability to have a child in their old age. Not only did God show mercy to them, He blessed them beyond what they could have every asked for or imagined. He granted them not only a child, but a child who would be chosen by God to bring Christ our salvation into the world. The Blessed Virgin was conceived in the same manner that all had been conceived since creation. And, she bore within her the same condition as a result of the Fall that all of us suffer as a result of the Fall. And this reality is critical. For as Christ is miraculously conceived in her womb, the Lord God of Israel would fully take our fallen humanity at that moment and join it to His Divinity and for all eternity. It is only by this act that we can be saved through Him. When we look at the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Christ is revealed to us and, because of this, we see ourselves very clearly.
Understanding the progression of our thoughts and temptations that lead us to sin (to fall short of our truly created person) is important for us to grasp. For if we can grasp the stages of sin, we can begin to reverse the process making it easier for us to overcome by the grace of God in our lives every temptation. Even the most besetting sins in our lives can be overcome in Christ. The four stages of sin are as follows: First motion (the beginning of the thoughts of temptation), Entertainment (we entertain those thoughts giving them strength), Consent (coming into agreement with those thoughts, joining ourselves to them), Action (we make the choice to depart the order of God and act on our temptations). Today Fr. James Rooney walks us through these with various common sins and how they go through each of these steps with the goal to arrest our thoughts and temptations at the First Motion stage. If we will do this, we can experience Christ's victory over sin in our lives.
Jesus taught in St. John 14, "He who has My commandments and keeps them it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Jesus, the Word of God Who is God and is love, defines for us what it is to love God with our whole being. And note the promises offered to the one who loves God by way of loving obedience to Him. Jesus says My Father will love Him, I will love Him, and I will show myself to Him. So many of us in the Church voice our desire for a greater experience of Christ in our lives. So many times we fail to receive the experience we desire. Perhaps it is because of our failure to love Him by following His instructions that are given to us that would lead us and others to the salvation He offers all.
St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, "Owe no man anything but to love one another." How we truly need to learn love from God's perspective. In Advent, we prepare ourselves to receive God who will condescend to lower Himself and become man that we might become like Him. There is no greater way to begin to understand love from God's perspective than to hear the words of Christ our God defining love. This homily explores His words so that we might put into practice love as God is love to us.
An antinomy is a contradiction in our own knowledge system, within reason itself. The Christian Faith is filled with antinomies. For example, Christ is the judge of every soul with perfect justice. Christ at the same time is infinite mercy. We go into error when these two attributes of the Nature of God are not held in tension that could lead us away from the true knowledge of God. In this teaching, Fr. James Rooney explores a number of these antinomies and how keeping them in perfect tension pays great dividends in knowing God and being transformed by Him.
Advent means the coming of someone, one who was expected. What is the nature of God towards us; this One Who heard our cry and came to deliver us? Today we look at the words of God through the Prophet Jeremiah to hear the heart and thoughts of our Deliverer. "For I know the thoughts I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not affliction: you shall call upon me and I will bring you out of captivity." - Jeremiah 29. Advent is a season in which God gives us grace that stirs up within us the cry for His deliverance in our lives. Come, Lord, Advent here and delivered us.
An integral part of seeing clearly the despondency in us that is keeping us from the greatest fellowship with Christ our God in the moments of our lives is coming to an understanding of the human experience in Paradise compared to the human experience after the Fall of Man. Today we explore these human experiences asking Christ to show us the reasons for the restlessness within us and the great hope we have to regain that which has been lost.
Christ our God, by His presence in the waters of the Jordan River at His baptism, redeemed those waters. His presence in those waters made that water that He had created useful for the washing away of sins, putting to death fallen man in His death, and granting us resurrection to new life in His resurrection. What Christ did by His presence in the waters, He has also done at the Incarnation by His presence in time. Today we seek to gain Christ's perspective on time. Because of Christ, time has become the fabric through which our Lord heals and saves our soul by granting us the experience of Him in the brief moments, hours, and days that we are given.
At the Feast of All Saints we were given the gift of the revelation of Paradise to press us toward Christ our God, the healer of our souls. Tonight we are given another gift from our Lord. On the Feast Day of All Souls, the Day of the Lord is set right before us. We remember tonight that in the twinkling of an eye the trumpet will sound and all souls, the living and those who are dead, will ascend to be before Christ our King and the Judge of all souls. And we remember that no none knows the day or hour that this trumpet blast will sound. Our mortality is a gift to us if we will just see it from the mind of Christ our God. It is a gift that helps us with our thoughts imprisoned to our past and our thoughts all too focused on the future. If we lived every day as if it were the Day of the Lord, we would encounter the blessing of living and dwelling in Christ in the only time that we are guaranteed to have; the eternal now, this present moment with Christ our salvation.
Because of so many false teachings in many areas of Christianity, the term spiritual effort sometimes leaves a bad impression in the mind of many. Some may think of having to earn their salvation by spiritual effort. Some may think of other "works" oriented theologies putting the pressure of being saved in the hands of the individual. We must see spiritual effort in terms of relationship. No relationship can exist without the mutual sharing of selves between two people. Today our focus is on our relational spiritual effort towards Christ. Christ our God is always moving toward us with a desire to share all that He is with us that we might be made whole. It is when we press through by grace all of our distractions and many deceptions that we are met with Christ Who has been awaiting us. There, in that blessed fellowship, we find healing through illumination. And where the illumination of Christ is experience, darkness and despondency do not have a chance.
On the Feast Day of Christ the King we hear the resounding words from Revelation 5: Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain. So much about the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ confounds the wise and is foolishness to the world; for Jesus Christ's elevation as King was forged in humility, lowliness, and suffering by His self-offering. Today we explore this paradox to see the wonder that His Kingship is the fruit of His love for mankind.
Today we examine our typical thought life throughout the day. Most of us will find that we are constantly being pulled by thoughts that either direct our attention to the past or thrust our thinking into the future; both of which we have absolutely no control over. These thoughts are always at the expense of the sacred and eternal now. In considering this, we focus on recognizing the deceptive thoughts that move us toward escaping the present moment physically, mentally/emotionally, and spiritually. The important truth for us is this, neither the past nor the future grants us healing to our soul and a clear understanding of our true identity. Only by experiencing God in the present moment can we be made whole and know our most true identity.
Today the Parable of the Prodigal Son is the center of the reflection. It is one of the greatest scenes presenting the mercy of God given when one comes with the humble authentic need for this great gift of God. All too often we struggle within ourselves to go to God when we are in need of mercy. We also struggle to receive mercy when it is offered. May we all be encouraged to become receivers of the mercy of God for the healing and salvation of our souls.
The Hebrew word that describes the mercy of God is "hesed." In short, it means this: We who deserve nothing and could never earn anything from God, when we approach Him in our fallenness, deficiency, and need; God turns everything around on us and gives us absolutely every good thing. Today we not only seek to see more clearly the mercy of God, but we also look to Christ's words to us calling us to "Be merciful as your Father is merciful." St. Paul, in Ephesians 4, gives us steppingstones on the path to becoming the mercy of God to others.
St. Paul writes in Ephesians 5 that we are to live in such a way as to redeem the time. Spiritual despondency would have us throw time away blind to the very healing and redemptive presence of God in the precious gifts of the moments of our lives that He has given us. Redeeming the time is to make wise and sacred use of time. We often think of and understand the concept of sacred space. But time itself becomes sacred again when our awareness grows of God's presence in the most minute moments of our lives and we present ourselves to Him in those moments. That is when time becomes sacred. That is when the God Who eternally loves each of us manifests that love to us in the fabric time. We are healed and redeemed by a Living God Who is absolutely present in each moment of our existence when we live in that sacredness of time.
In Ephesians chapter 3, the blessed Apostle St. Paul bows his knees in intercession before Christ. He intercedes that all of us might truly come to know the height, depth, width, and length of the love of God toward each one of us. It is interesting that, on the one hand, St. Paul describes the love of God as immeasurable; that which is immeasurable. On the other hand, he uses physical measurements to describe that very love. The early Church Fathers tell us that the measurements St. Paul is using point us to the Cross; the very prism through which the love of God for every soul brilliantly shines forth. To behold the Cross is to behold the love of the One Who hung upon it; a love we will eternally grow to understand and experience.
How does God view time? What is His perspective on it? Today we look further at what He has shared with His Church for 2,000 years as to the gift that time truly is for all of us. Time is the fabric in which the God Who is love grants us the experience of His love for us. Today we focus on the reality that, to the Christian, time should be a beautiful and wondrous gift to us from God. A gift through which God fills with Himself so that we might fellowship and experience Him in this life. In light of the wonder of this gift, today we consider what we are doing with such an offering from God.
In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 6, Jesus tells us, "Do not worry about your life." So many of us struggle to trust God to provide us with the things we need for life and for our salvation. With the words Jesus speaks from this passage of Scripture, He is giving us the antidote to our worries and anxieties over financial needs. That antidote is to behold Him; to consider Him. In doing so He will show us how eternally faithful He is as the God Who provides.
Most of us are unaware of many deceptions that have crept into our souls regarding how we see, understand, and treat the precious little time we are given here on earth. Our enemy conditions us to see time incorrectly. At the root of every one of his deceptions is to diminish our awareness of the presence of God in every moment of our lives. When God is removed from the moments of our lives, time becomes wasteful at best and harmful at its worst. The truth of the Christian view of time is wonderfully stated in the Akathist Prayer Service of Thanksgiving: "Glory to Thee; Who cures affliction and emptiness with the healing flow of time." Today we just begin to examine this truth-filled perspective on time; the way God sees and intends to use time.
In Psalm 84 the Psalmist writes, "How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." Where does our soul make its home? The answer to that question will greatly impact the human experience in the moments of our lives. Today we look at what results for a soul that longs after God.
There is one absolute constant in our lives; that is, our thoughts continuously being painted on the canvas of our minds. Today we look at the importance of taking our thoughts captive in order to discern whether they are truths that leads us to the experience of God in that moment; or, whether they are thoughts intended to deny us the blessed fellowship with God throughout the day. Our enemy is always at work trying to remove us from being truly present in the moments of our lives which denies God the opportunity that He so desires; to manifest His presence for us in those very moments.
Many would say that one should not question God. The truth of that statement depends on the posture of the one questioning. God wants us to question him because in doing so we discover his greater revelation of Himself to us. Are we questioning God because we want Him to conform to our image? Or, are we questioning God to be conformed to His image?
Spiritual despondency, simply stated, is the spiritual slumber of the soul that disconnects us from the beautiful and eternal value of the experience of God in the precious moments of our lives. When we are in a state of spiritual slumber, we can never recognize for ourselves just how asleep we really are or why we are in that spiritual slumber. We need the illumination of Christ to both reveal our spiritual slumber as well as to wake us up again so that we can truly live. It is time to regain the gift of moments with God in the little time we have.
We have the healing of the deaf-mute man in the Gospel of St. Luke 7. In the beginning we were created to hear, to receive the words of God directly from the Word of God. We were also created to proclaim through the voice that is our very life all that we have received. The deaf and mute man could do neither. Christ's compassion healed Him; restoring him to his originally created state. Today we find that the healing of the deaf and mute man is the healing of us all.
In the Gospel of St. Luke 18, we are given two parables and a lesson Christ gives by the example of children. All of these tell us something so very important about the nature of our God. They also tell us how to come to Christ by His consistent invitation. The Parable of the Persistent Widow, the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and Christ teaching us to come to Him as little children all demonstrate the blessed life of repentance that leads to our healing and restoration if we will but come to Him; and never cease coming to Him with our authentic pain and brokenness.
When St. John Chrysostom describes the continuing ministry of Christ through the Apostles as seen in Acts chapter 5, he says that "Earth was becoming like heaven". The same ministries Jesus did while on earth continued through Christ's Holy Church and they continue today. In 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul describes the continuing ministry of Christ through the Church as He discusses the spiritual gifts that are ordered and distributed by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all. Christ's desire has always been to continue, through every living stone in His Church, His ministry of bringing the souls of mankind to Himself so that He can grant them salvation and the experience of every benefit of His Kingdom.
Christians should consider themselves servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. This is who we are; this is our identity. What does it mean to be a servant and steward in our relationship both to God and to man? The life that lends itself to becoming that very identity is a life of relational obedience to our Heavenly Father as modeled in Jesus Christ Himself. Then, the world can see Christ and His Kingdom in us.
Every soul since the Fall of man is crying out with the question, "Who am I? What is my true identity?" Underneath every thought, action, and pattern in our lives is the constant search for an answer to this question. And our lives experience either restlessness, agitation, and anxiety in the search for our most true self; or in this lifelong search, our souls will grow in greater peace and contentment throughout this life. What makes the difference in this experience? The answer is what we choose to make the source of the revelation and definition of our identity. Today we look at the possible sources and the impact they will have on our lives.
At the burning bush in Exodus 3 - 4, God tells Moses that he is to be the one to deliver God's people out of bondage. At the feeding of the multitude in the Gospel of St. Mark 8, Jesus tells His disciples that He has compassion for the people for they had not eaten for 3 days, and He wants to feed them. Both Moses and the disciples were faced with an impossible situation. And when our humanity is faced with the impossible our inadequacies, frailties, and lack comes to the surface. In both of these Scriptures, God asks only one thing of Moses in Exodus and the disciples in the Gospel, "What do you have?" They offered only what they had to God. And, even though what they had was not near enough to overcome the impossible, God filled all that was lacking with Himself and great wonders were accomplished for His glory and the benefit of mankind. God will do the same for and through us if we will just offer Him the little that we have.
On Mt. Tabor, the disciples fell asleep in the darkness of the deep hours of the night. When Christ was transfigured, the uncreated light of the glory of God illuminated everything and the darkness was overcome. That light awakened Peter, James, and John out of their slumber. As Christ's disciples, we are always invited to the mountain to worship Christ in Spirit and Truth; to behold Him in His glory, and to be illuminated as He reveals Himself more and more to us throughout our lives. As we receive His illumination, the darkness within us fades away and we are awakened from our spiritual slumber.
In the Gospel of St. Luke and chapter 5, we hear the account of the calling of the first disciples at the miraculous catch of fish. While we tend to focus on the miracle of the catch of fish being that which gave Peter, James, and John the faith to abandon everything and follow Christ; another look at this passage shows us that there was more of a progression to their experience of Christ that granted them the gift of great faith. First, they heard the words of life spoken by the Word of God which prepared their hearts to yearn for and receive more of Jesus; a yearning Christ is always delighted to fulfill. This is a progression of experience we are all invited into daily by the Savior Who loves our soul.
Jesus teaches us in the Gospel of St. Luke 6 that we are to "be merciful just as your Father is merciful." We are called and graced to ascend and become the very mercy of our Heavenly Father. But, what is His mercy? What does the mercy of God look like? Today we look upon the mercy of God revealed to us. And we acknowledge that the only hope we have of becoming mercy is to receive and experience the Divine mercy of God in our own lives.
July 10, 2022 - Christ dined and fellowshipped with the sinners. He came to seek and save that which was lost. When questioned about this He told the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each of these parables reveals the nature of Christ as the God Who delights in giving mercy and restoring all things lost to mankind back to His beloved mankind.
In the Gospel of St. Luke 14, a man stood up and loudly proclaimed, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God!" Jesus then tells the Parable of the Great Banquet; the Divine and most gracious invitation to come to the table God has prepared; upon which are the benefits of healing for the soul, the forgiveness of sin, and eternal life. Today, hearing the voice of the Early Church Fathers, we see that Christ our God was speaking of the Eucharist in the context of the Divine Liturgy, the Kingdom of God realized and manifest so that we may taste and experience the joy and peace of Paradise in the eternal now.
The greatest of all virtues is set right before us on the first day of the Litrugical Season of Trinitytide; a season in which we consider how it is that we now can live as those filled with the Holy Spirit. Today, by considering both the Parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus as well as the writing of the Apostle John from 1 John 4, we see that it is only possible to become love if we have first truly experienced the outpouring of God's love into our lives daily. Living waters cannot flow out of us unless they are daily being received with in us from the Lord.
Many religions either believe in one god or multiple gods. Only Christianity holds to God being both One and Three persons at once. Today we are reminded that by gazing into this revelation God has given of Himself through prayer and fellowship with Him, can we be transformed by the brightness of the Divine Nature of God as He shares Himself with us. For we have a God Who delights in making Himself known.
Fire, wind, and water on the day of Pentecost. Three elements in God's creation utilized by God to show precisely what was fulfilled on this day for the salvation of mankind. But these elements also tell us something so very important about our new and true identity as Christians. They also tell us of our great responsibility in this world by the will and desire of God.
When Christ encountered the rich man at the Temple, Christ gave us an example of what biblical love truly looks like. More than ever, we need to ensure we are living our lives in love towards others; not with empty sentimentality nor harsh judgements but with loving actions that open up a space for others to draw closer to God.
What a wonder is the Ascension of Christ our God as He returns to the Father in Paradise. The angels who always had beheld God in Paradise are even in wonder at what they see when Christ Ascended. The Ascension is the final movement of the finished work and ministry of the Incarnation. For as Christ Ascended, He kept our humanity within Himself eternally making the impassible way to Paradise now passible through Himself. Now, all mankind has the opportunity to return to Paradise; and only because Christ Ascended.
Jesus says in the Gospel of St. John chapter 16, "Whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you." But what does it mean to ask in the Name of Jesus? The answer to that question is critical to understanding our role of joining with Christ's intercession for the life and salvation of the world as His Kingdom of Priests.
In our study thus far, we have been looking at the role of the Priesthood of All Believers and mainly focusing on the aspect of our Priesthood that faces God representing and interceding for the world before Him. In this last session, we now focus on representing God to this present age. We ascend the mountain to fellowship with God, receive from Him, learn of Him, and be healed and transformed by Him. We descend the mountain to represent God and manifest His Kingdom before all of those around us. In this session, we look at the life of Moses in this very role seeking to see how Moses greatly succeeded in representing God to His people. But we also have a look at how Moses failed in misrepresenting God to the people. We must see this particularly in our age. For the misrepresentation of God to man will move man further away from salvation and have implications in our own lives.
In the Gospel of St. John Chapter 16, Jesus tells His disciples that it would be to their advantage that He leave them and return to the Father. For then the Holy Spirit could come. And as we would be granted the Holy Spirit, we would be granted the mind of Christ. The Holy Spirit is given to us that we may be transformed within our souls to grow to love what God loves and have no taste for what He detests. As our passions and affections become His, we experience His joy even when the world crashes in against us.
There is a relational rhythm to our fellowship with Christ in prayer. A helpful acronym for this rhythm is ACTIP (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Intercession, Petition). This lesson takes us through each of these movements in the rhythm of prayer and the experience of God that can be had by this fellowship.
When Christ was with His disciples between the Resurrection and Ascension, He was preparing them for His return to the Father. He told them that in this life they will weep and lament with sorrow, but that their sorrow would be turned to joy. In this life, we who are His disciples will suffer in a fallen world in many different ways. But the reality of Christ's presence in our lives and our ability to fellowship with our Lord grants us a joy that is unexplainable.
Christ our God is our Great High Priest Who intercedes for us and is our Mediator and Advocate. He stands before the Father interceding for the souls of mankind. As His Priesthood, we are ordained for and invited into a participation in Christ's ministry of this blessed intercession for the life of the world. Today we examine closely this role we have been given to stand with Christ between the Father and the souls of mankind. This is true intercession as the priesthood of all believers.
Jesus says in the Gospel of St. John 10, "I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own as the Father knows Me and I know the Father." Our Lord is revealing to us that we can know God with the same intimacy of knowing as the Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father. What is this incredible revelation Christ is giving to His disciples? Today we look at the very relationship the Good Shepherd desires with His sheep.
All Christians are "priests" and the last thing Satan wants is for Christians to live out their vocation as this Holy Priesthood. When we truly walk in our priesthood our enemy considers us dangerous and we become a target. But we have been given Divine power from Christ our Great High Priest to endure and walk in the most important role He has ordained for us to walk in within His Kingdom.
St. Thomas and all of the disciples were in a crisis of faith existing in fear, anxiety, and great sorrow as they had just witnessed their Lord be taken from them, tortured, crucified, and buried in a tomb. In St. John 20 we have the narrative of how Christ appeared to them and brought them from the darkness of all that they were going through to peace and joy. What was it that delivered them from fears, anxieties, and sorrows? It was Christ's presence with them and the revelation He would give to them of Himself. Then they would be filled with joy and proclaim Him as their risen Lord and God. It is the same for us. The answer to our distress will always be Christ's presence with us and His revelation to us that we may know Him. (Jonathan, I have attached an icon to be uploaded with this sermon)
As is tradition in the Orthodox Church, on Easter Sunday we hear together the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom. "Hell took a body and came upon God. It took what it saw but crumbled before what it had not seen."
Tonight is the night of our deliverance. Christ, our Passover Lamb, is crucified and He is raised from the dead. We are delivered through Him from death to life, from the lesser condition of oppression and slavery to heirs of a Heavenly Father, and from darkness to light. This is the night Christ, having descended into Hades breaking its gates in sunder, He rises from the dead granting the firstfruits of the Resurrection as many come out of the grave and proclaim what He has done. For Christ is Risen!
The writer of Hebrews said that it was for the joy set before Him that Christ endured the Cross. What was His joy? We were His joy. We who have fallen short, we who suffer the disorders and dysfunctions from the fall of man were His joy. It was for the joy of redeeming and healing us that our Lord endured the Cross. What kind of love is this? How far God went to gather us back to Himself.
The last night our Lord Jesus Christ was with His disciples before His Passion, He gave them a command. He took bread and wine, gave thanks blessing them both saying, "This is my Body and this is my Blood. Do this in remembrance of me." This was not a suggestion of something for them to consider doing when they gather. It was a command from the love of Christ our God Who offered His disciples forgiveness of sins, healing of their souls, and eternal life through that which He had blessed for them. Tonight we celebrate both the command and the gift of Christ; Holy Eucharist.
With Christ's Passion before us, tonight we remember the words of the Prophet Isaiah who said "by His stripes we are healed." Right in the middle of Holy Week, our Lord places one of the greatest reasons He went to His Passion right before us. He became broken so that we might be put together and made whole again. As we bless the oils of Holy Unction and that of the Catechumens, we remember the fullness of Christ's healing ministry in our lives. And as we have the oil of Holy Unction placed upon our heads tonight, we remember and believe that Christ lays His hand upon us to restore our body, mind, and soul.
Christ our God took the Roman instrument designed to shame, torture, and bring death and turned it into something magnificent. By Christ's willingness to die such a death, and by His presence on the Cross, He turned the Cross into the very instrument through which we could be released from our shame and given life. How far our Lord willed Himself to go that the paradise of fellowship with Him once again could be open to us. His love enduring the Cross declares how much worth He places on us all.
The transition on Palm Sunday itself is a difficult transition. We start out with Palms celebrating the coming of our King and Messiah and transition in that same Mass to His Passion. But it is Christ our God who willed all of this. And why? His love for us drove Him to the Cross.
Why do we bless Palms, waive them, and process to the Altar with them on Palm Sunday? It is not just to re-enact an event that happened over 2000 years ago. God's people who waived their palms as Jesus entered Jerusalem back then were mistaken as to Jesus' kingship and they limited Who He was as Messiah and what He would do as their Messiah. But beyond the Cross and the Resurrection, we know Who He is and all that He is done. Palm Sunday begins Holy Week. And Holy Week is a participation in all that Christ did to gather us back to Himself in the eternal now.
St. John of Kronstadt offers wisdom for Priests who serve at the Altar during Liturgy. These same principles can be applied to the Priesthood of all Believers as they take their place as living stones in the Mass. Today we discuss these principles that will help us fulfill the ordination God has given us all in the eternal worship of Him.
We speak often of Christianity as an ascension out of the results of the Fall to our Lord Jesus Christ. And, we are right to do so. But in the last two weeks of Holy Week called Passiontide, we focus on descending with Christ as we journey with Him to and through His Passion. His journey to His Passion was one of great humility. The Lord of Lords, the Word of God condescends to place Himself in the hands of humanity so that humanity might be saved. Humility is the path to salvation as we are called to live in the same humility by taking up the Cross and dying that we might live.
One of the greatest roles of the Priesthood of all believers is the role of prayer. Today we look at six aspects of the action and attitude of prayer as taught by St. John Kronstadt.
Here on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we are given a Mass that bears the name "rejoice!" It is a reminder that rejoicing in the Lord is not dependent on our circumstances. In reality, rejoicing in the Lord may be the antidote to our circumstances. Today we look at some of the benefits that, perhaps, we have forgotten that are realized in our lives as we rejoice in the Lord.
St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7 that "godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. But what is this godly sorrow? Today we discover that it is God's own sorrow over our suffering caused to the yet to be healed areas of our soul. If we would let ourselves be joined to God's sorrow over us, we would rush so quickly to seek the healing touch of our loving Savior and find our sorrow turned to joy.
Having taken Eucharist by the provision of God, the Mass now guides and prepares us to take that which we have received and offer it to this world. In this last session of this series we explore each part of the Mass as to how the grace of God is given to us as we descend the mountain; a grace that enables us to be transformed by our encounter with Christ for our salvation, and a grace that empowers us to fulfill the mission of the Church. As we depart the mystery of the Mass where all in heaven and earth have joined together with God, we go from there to bring the Kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven.
Today we reach the pinnacle event in the Mass. It is in this session that we explore the Eucharist and all that it is on our behalf. We see that in the Eucharist He who fulfilled the Law fills us, it is a time of absolute fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, we partake of the eternal covenant meal, we receive the provision for life eternal, and it is indeed the Day of the Lord.
In this session, we come to the Passing of the Peace of God. We explore how, in these very few moments in the Mass, the absolute peace of God flows from His throne through each one of the Living Stones as they minister that very peace one to another. We also explore the prayers of preparation said by the Priest and later said by the people. These prayers assist us by grace is posturing ourselves to receive the life that Christ longs to offer us in the Eucharist.
Having sung the eternal hymn of the Sanctus, we now move into what is known as the Canon of the Mass. Here we find and discuss the meaning of Christ’s words of institution, the meaning of the word “remembrance”, the Lord’s prayer, and a prayer for deliverance from evil.
We have arrived at the point in Mass where the Priest calls us to lift up our hearts and we respond by lifting them up to the Lord. But what are we, in fact, offering up to God? In this teaching we explore the answer to this question. The focus of this session is on the understanding of the Sursum Corda, the praise and thanksgiving offering within the Preface, and the eternal hymn offered to God in heaven and on earth that has been and will be sung throughout eternity…the Sanctus, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.”
In this session we cover the meaning of the prayers we offer each Mass for the whole Church. We also look at the purpose of the General Confession in Mass. Based on the framework of this prayer, we consider the correct approach to offering up this confession and receiving Christ’s washing and forgiveness of our sins as we draw ever closer to communing with Him in the Eucharist.
The Nicene Creed being said, we now turn our attention to the Offertory. This is the part of the Mass where God’s people offer up to Him the stuff of earth: bread, wine, tithes, and alms. Here we have the picture of God’s people raising their offerings to God as God returns in kind with the offering of Himself to us. In this session we also see how all of the Old Covenant offerings and sacrifices are summed up and fulfilled in the New Covenant worship of God through our Lord, Jesus Christ.
After revisiting the Gospel Procession from last week, we move first in this session to discuss the homily which concludes the portion of Mass known as the Liturgy of the Word. After the Liturgy of the Word we say together the Nicene Creed. A look at the history behind the Church’s long-standing statement of faith and an examination of the four parts of the Creed are given to assist us in our experience of God as we voice this Creed together.
Having cried out for mercy from God in the Kyrie and having received the very mercy our Lord longs give, we now move in the Mass to the great praise of God as we sing the Gloria “Glory be to God on High.” In this session we examine four parts of the liturgy: We delve into the three sections of the Gloria seeking to understand that which we sing to God in praise for all the benefits He has done on our behalf. We join together in the collect prayers of the day. After the collect prayers, we discuss how to actively listen to the voice of God through the reading of Holy Scripture. Finally, we conclude with a teaching on the Gospel Procession. Christ has come from His Altar in Heaven to dwell among us. Then, having finished His work among us, He ascends back to Heaven to be our Great High Priest.
As the Priest and those assisting in Mass ascend to the altar to take their place, we hear the Introit sung. In this session we come to understand the purpose of the Introit, the Collect for Purity, the Summary of the Law, and the Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy). We approach each of these portions of the Mass in such a way that we might grow towards a greater experience of God as we seek to offer ourselves to Him, worship Him, and receive from Him.
Having begun the Mass with a hymn of praise and joined ourselves to the procession, we now turn our attention to the Confiteor Prayers (The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar) and the Asperges. In this session, we take an in depth look at the profound meaning of the Confiteor Prayers as prayers of consecration. We also look at both Asperges and Vidi Aquam to gain an understanding of where they come from in Holy Scripture, why we sing these words while experiencing the sprinkling of Holy Water upon us, and the activity of God on our behalf in these precious moments of the Mass.
Now that we are at the beginning of the Mass, this session focuses on the first two events that we encounter: the hymn and the procession. In this teaching, we first look at the prayers of preparation done by the clergy as they prepare to serve God and the people before the altar. Here we are also encouraged regarding how to best approach the singing of the hymn by making the words of the hymn our own offering of praise to God. Finally, we discuss the procession, its history, and how we can encounter God by grace through all that is included in the procession as it passes us by in route to the altar.
In the stage we are referring to as our preparation before Mass, we must understand the concept of consecration. In this lesson, we explore God’s calling upon His people in the Old Testament to consecrate themselves before they meet with God at the mountain or to worship Him in the Temple. In the Mass, where the Body of Christ in heaven and earth meet together with God, we must also consecrate ourselves through prayerful preparation readying our body, mind, and soul to encounter the Living God so that we might worship Him in Spirit and truth while also preparing ourselves to receive from the God who longs to share Himself with us.
Before we can delve into the specific teachings regarding the liturgy of the Church, it is essential that we gain an understanding of the pattern or shape of the liturgy. The image of man ascending the mountain to meet with God and God descending upon the mountain to reveal Himself to man is a consistent theme throughout both the Old and New Covenants. In this teaching we discuss how the Mass, the liturgy, is the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah’s words as recording in Isaiah 2: Now it shall come to pass in the latter days…that many people will come and say, “Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.”
Father Michael Keiser sets the stage for this series by teaching us essential truths regarding the central focus of Christian worship. In the liturgy of the Church, heaven and earth are joined together and Christ is in our midst in no different way than when He was with His disciples in the upper room that very night. Fr. Michael also shares with us the historical development of Christian worship as the Church continued to expand throughout the world.
Every time an angel appears to humanity, humanity falls down in fear and wonder at the angelic being. But when the Archangel Gabriel appears to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation, it is he who is in wonder at this precious human vessel chosen by God to bear God within her and deliver Him to the human race for the salvation of the world. Tonight we explore the honor and reverence given by the Archangel to the Mother of God that we, too, might grow to love and honor her as her Son loves and honors her.
The greatest struggle of the Christian is not fighting against the fallenness within the soul or the enemy whose playground is our brokenness. The greatest struggle of the Christian is to remain in Christ and the battlefield on which the Christian must fight is the battlefield of the mind; the battlefield of the thoughts. Today we reflect on how we can bring Christ our God into the moments of temptations and all thoughts that seek to distract us from keeping the eyes of our soul upon Him.
St. John Kronstadt is an Orthodox Saint of the 19th Century. He is the Orthodox Patron Saint for all clergy in the Orthodox Church. He is so because of the way he lived out his own Priesthood while on the earth. St. John has so much wisdom that he communicated regarding fulfilling the calling of the ordained Priesthood. But the wisdom he shares shows us so much about what it means to live out the vocation of the priesthood of all believers. Today we receive an introduction to the life of St. John Kronstadt.
March 13, 2022 - Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to fast for 40 days, then be tempted by Satan afterward, and ultimately casting Satan and his temptations and distractions away sanctified for all the 40 days of Lent where we fast and pray. The end result of our fasting and prayer is great growth in the Fruit of the Holy Spirit self-control. Through fasting touched by grace we put on the armor of our warfare, walk in the power of abstinence, and grow to fight manfully against our flesh and our enemy. In other words, the end result of our prayer and fasting by grace is the victory and authority of Christ over sin realized in our lives.
The Priests in the Old Covenant had a very defined role in their ministry to God and to His people. This session explores how their place under God in creation reveals to us many truths as to our vocation as the Priesthood of all believers.
By virtue of our Baptism, we are all called and ordained to be a Kingdom of Priests by our Lord Jesus Christ. But what is our vocation as this Royal and Holy Priesthood? How do we live out faithfully that which we have been ordained to fulfill in creation? Today we look at the three priesthoods: The Priesthood of Christ our Great High Priest, the Priesthood of the Clergy in the Church, and the Priesthood of the Faithful in Christ's Holy Church.
Ash Wednesday 2022 - Tonight the blessed ashes are placed on our foreheads that the gift of our mortality might remain at the forefront of our minds. We tend to live each day as if we have a promised tomorrow. What if we lived in the reality that this is never promised. Our mortality each day would be the gift that would move us toward Christ and His mercy; as those truly dependent on Him for life and salvation.
March 6, 2022 - How we need to grow in our understanding that the very nature of God is mercy. And how we tend to limit our understanding of mercy to be mainly in the realm of justice and acquittal; the release from the guilt of our sins that Christ offers by His great forgiveness. That is certainly a part of the mercy that God is. But His mercy goes beyond just forgiveness and acquittal. Today we look at Christ's healing of the blind man near Jericho that the Lord may reveal so much more about His nature of profound mercy. If we truly knew God as mercy, there would not be a day that we would not rush to Him in all of our brokenness to receive and experience the Divine mercy of God.
February 27, 2022 -In the Gospel of St. Luke 8, our Lord tells the Parable of the Sower. This parable is as much if not more about the importance of the condition of the soil as it is the seeds that have been scattered. God, through His prophet Hosea, calls His people to break up their fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord. The reason their hearts had become hard is that they had given themselves over to idolatry? Idolatry can be far more than the worship of other gods. For the Christian, idolatry is anything we are consumed by and love more than God. Today we consider the idolatry that may exist in our soul that causes hardness in our hearts. And we see how our Lord so desires to help us break up the fallow ground of the soil of our soul so that the seed of Christ within us can produce a harvest of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
February 20, 2022 - Today begins our three-week preparation to enter into the Season of Great Lent. We are given the words of St. Paul from 1 Corinthians 9 where he exhorts all of us to run the race with great self-control and effort to obtain the prize. But we must understand the reason for our spiritual laboring and efforts. For we do not fast, pray, and give alms to the needy to earn anything from Christ. Rather, we engage these spiritual disciplines to run to the healer of our souls, our Lord Jesus Christ.
February 13, 2022 - If we think negatively about repentance, if we believe that repentance has a negative sense to it, then we have been deceived by precisely the deception of Satan to Adam and Even when God came calling for the in the Garden after they had sinned. Repentance is life-giving and healing. We enter into preparation for Lent in Pre-Lent next week. Today's sermon reminds us of what repentance is and what it brings to us by God's love and mercy.
February 6, 2022 - In the Gospel of St. Matthew and chapter 13, our Lord tells the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. Tares are weeds that, when they are young, resemble very closely the appearance of the wheat. But as they mature, they begin to look different and give off a poison that damages the wheat around them. The Church Fathers speak of the tares in different ways. One way they see the tares are the cares of this world. Our enemy constantly seeks to have us attach ourselves to the cares of this world. When we do, we see our mental, emotional, spiritual energies drained. Today we look honestly at the tares in our life and set our eyes on the greatest defense against our enemy planting these tares in our lives.
February 2, 2022 - Tonight we see Jesus Christ as a babe brought to the Temple and place in the arms of blessed St. Simeon. Even as a babe Christ our God brought illumination to humanity. And it is God's illumination to us as the Light of the World that we consider this evening. The Incarnation was the illumination, that is, the revelation of God to mankind so that man could know God. But with this illumination, it is important to consider the fullness of what this illumination brings to us. Not only is God revealed to us, but that perfect and gloriously light shines into the darkness of our soul to show what is ordered therein; but also to reveal that which is in disarray and disordered within us. The fire of God's illumination is a refining fire. That refining fire is a gift to us so that we may see these things and come to Christ to be made whole.
As we go through our normal everyday life, is the physical and finite realm all that we perceive as the reality around us. If so, we tend to live a one-dimensional existence. In the Christian life, everything physical opens to us a window through which we can the more true reality that Christ has bowed heaven to earth in order to reveal Himself and His Kingdom to us. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." The true part of the human being that perceives the Kingdom of God is not the eyes, but the soul. Today we discuss the cleansing of the windows of the soul that we might grow in the wonder and experience of Christ and His Kingdom.
When God spoke all of creation into existence, He did so that we would share in His Divine life in and through all that He had created. We were to be the icons of God to the whole of creation showing forth His glory and nature as we would ever become more like Him from our fellowship with Him in the Garden of Eden, paradise. This lesson shows us the parallel between that existence and purpose in paradise and the life we are now given in the Kingdom of God eternal which includes the eternal now.
January 30, 2022 - God is a God Who reveals Himself to His people that His people can truly know Him. In the Old Testament, one of the ways God would reveal Himself to His people was to give them a name by which they could know Him and His nature more clearly. Today, in the Gospel reading of St. Matthew 8, we have the testimony of the healing of the leper and the healing of the centurion's servant. One of the names by which God revealed Himself to His people was Jehovah Rophe, which means the Lord your healer. Do we know Jesus Christ as our healer; as the One Who's nature is to heal? Today we look at the leper and the centurion to see Christ our healer clearly and how He invites us to come to Him that He would make us whole again.
God is a God Who longs to reveal Himself to His people so that they may truly know Him. This has always been true in the way that God has given instruction and wisdom as to how His people should worship Him. The design of the tabernacle and temple, the design of post-Pentecost temples, the liturgical seasons that celebrate and remember Him, and even the Scriptures assigned to the worship and remembrance of God have always been an important means by which God reveals Himself to His beloved. Today we examine all of this so that we might now how to look for Him and see Him as He reveals Himself to us as we worship Him.
All theology is the Divine revelation of God to man and not just some intellectual pondering of ideas about God. God reveals Himself to man and man, then, grows to know God through that experience. Today we look at the creation narratives and how the nature of God is revealed even through the creation of all things. We are encouraged to open the eyes of our soul to behold His revelation to us so that we might be transformed by knowing Him.
January 23, 2022 - Today we hear of Jesus' first miracle turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana from the Gospel of St. John chapter 2. The substance of the water, as Christ is present at the wedding, is changed in its nature completely. By the Creator, the water took on color, became fragrant, gained taste, and grew in potency. Its nature changed and its use became a blessing to all. Today we look to see how the water into wine is the manifestation of our own transformation by the presence of Christ within us.
January 16, 2022 - We speak so often of the wonder of the Kingdom of God now manifest in the earth because of Christ. Today we are reminded that the gateway to having the eyes of our soul opened to this great wonder, and our lives experiencing the profound realities of His Kingdom, is to be consistent in doing the most simple things. Start with the disciplines of the most simple spiritual disciplines as an offering and watch what God will do with your offering.
January 9, 2022 - We are all in need of the daily Epiphany of Christ to us; that is, to see the manifestation of Christ in our lives that we may come to truly know Him. When the Magi looked upon God in the face of Jesus Christ, everything changed within them. Today we reflect on how prayer is the table of fellowship offered to us for that very Epiphany. When we sit at table with Christ in prayer we can inquire of Him and seek His wisdom. He shares Himself with us for He is wisdom. Prayer, fellowship with God, grants us this Epiphany.
January 6, 2022 - The Magi came from the East learned in many of the world's religions and believing a religion other than that of the God of the Hebrews. God led them to the place where He manifested Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. When they saw God in Christ, they would be forever transformed in their hearts and would never be the same again. Every Christ needs the constant manifestation of Christ in their lives daily. By that Epiphany, we are changed from the inside out. By knowing God from His revelation, our thoughts and practices will natural evolve and be transformed by the experience.
December 26, 2021 - Today is the Feast of St. Stephen the Protomartyr. By looking at his life as well as his persecution and martyrdom, we can see many very important aspects of how to live faithfully to Christ in times of building persecution. As our culture grows more godless and persecution of Christianity is on the rise, we must understand how to posture ourselves before God in order to live among those persecuting us; being assured that those who stand for Christ our God, Jesus Christ will stand for them.
December 24, 2021 - Our God is transcendent. This means that there will never be a time that we will not grow to know Him more. And yet, at the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ the transcendent God manifests Himself as one of us that we may experience Him with all of our human senses. The wonder of the manifestation of the Incarnation is before us at the Nativity of our Savior.
December 19, 2021 - We hear in the Collect prayer for this Mass, "Come with great might and power and succor us." Our longing for Christ to come with His healing and deliverance grows to a crescendo in the last week of Advent. Today we look at what it means and shows us about Christ when we pray for Him to come and succor us. Come, Lord, and let us experience your Incarnation in the eternal now of our lives.
December 12, 2021 - The name of the Mass for the Third Sunday of Advent is Rejoice! It is a day we are given in the middle of our Advent spiritual disciplines to be sure we see Christ clearly for Who He is and why He has come to us. Today we are encouraged that if we have fallen short in our Advent disciplines, our Lord knows right where we are and we are to have our faith and countenance restored. By looking at Who He is, we receive joy and strength to finish the Advent Season well by the grace He gives us; that we might find great healing in our lives and the increase of faith.
December 5, 2021 - The Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ was to make all things right again; to bring order to our chaos and to restore that which was lost in fall of mankind from Paradise. Our Lord will come again to do the same once and for all. When Christ healed, raised the dead, and forgave sins it was to make right what was damaged by the fall. Today we look at righteousness as just that, to make all things right again. And we remember that Christ does not just help us do righteous acts, Christ our God is our righteousness.
November 28, 2021 - We are tight to think of Advent as an entering into the longing of creation for the Incarnation and as a time of preparation for our Lord's Second Coming. This message focuses on the reality that the Advent of Christ, His coming to us, is something we can experience throughout the days of our lives.
Having examined the realities of the Fall of Man and seeing more clearly the extent of what was lost, we now turn our attention to the redemption and deliverance of God through the Incarnate Jesus Christ.
November 21, 2021 - Today is the Mass of Sunday Next Before Advent. It is the Mass where we begin to prepare to walk with Christ through that blessed and holy season. In Advent, by the grace of God, we enter into the longing that all of creation had to be redeemed; that time from the fall of man to the coming of Christ. We also look ahead preparing our souls for His Second Coming. We are reminded today that when we grow in the longing for our own souls to be restored by the healing ministry of Christ, the result is living a life pressing into Christ our God keeping oil in our lamp as we await the His Second Coming.
November 14, 2021 - St. Paul teaches us in Ephesians 5 that we are to "walk circumspectly redeeming the time, for the days are evil." The truth is we are either redeeming the time by making the moments of our lives sacred, or we are sowing the ill effects of the fall of mankind through the way in which we live. Today we look at what it means to live a life redeeming the time.
Are we, in some ways, Christian Atheists? A Christian atheists believes in ideas and teachings about God, but lives life as though God is nowhere to be found in the moments of our lives. It is believing in the ideology of Christianity, but not knowing the Christ of Christianity. Using Jacob's Ladder, we see an event that shows us how Jacob's eyes were open to the God Who was present with Him and he did not even know it. This is what we all must desire. In this session we also examine a few parables that Jesus told about the pursuit of the Kingdom of God that we might know what it will take for the Kingdom of God to be manifest in our lives.
November 7, 2021 - In Ephesians 4, St. Paul starts by talking about the wonder in the unity of the Body of Christ; how all of us are joined together with equally important roles to be the continuing ministry of Christ reconciling the world to Himself. He then spends the rest of the chapter talking about how to protect that unity by the way we live amongst one another. Today we look at how to withhold our broken humanity from damaging one another. And, we also remember that we are to live to be a blessing to one another in Christ's Body.
November 2, 2021 - Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls; a Feast Day on which we lift up the souls of those we love dearly before the Giver of Divine mercy. As we lift up name after name, we are offering them back to God and, at the same time, we see before us our own end. In the twinkling of an eye, at any moment, we may draw our last breath on earth and our soul ascends to be before Christ the King and Righteous Judge of every soul. Our mortality is clearly before us at this blessed Feast. This night we focus on the blessedness and mercy of our mortality; seeing it as both a gift and heavenly weapon to be acknowledged and diligently used daily in our life in Christ our God.
November 1, 2021 - When we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, we are celebrating the witness of the entirety of the Saints communicates to us. Each Saint grew greatly in certain attributes or virtues of our Lord Jesus Christ, so much so that when people encountered them they truly experience something of Christ. But the true wonder is when you put them all together and see how their collective lives glorify God and witness the likeness of Christ we are all graced to become.
Last week we looked at how man existed in Paradise with the God Who had created him. Today we examine the Fall. What caused the Fall? What was lost? And, what things entered into the world that causes stumbling blocks for the souls of all mankind to be renewed to the Paradise experience by the healing work of God.
October 31, 2021 - When Pontius Pilate questioned Jesus at His trial asking if He indeed was a king, Pilate asked this question having a completely wrong framework regarding the King that Jesus is and the Kingdom He came to bring. Too often we approach our relationship to our Lord with the same problem. We approach Jesus trying to have Him live within our framework when, in reality, we are the ones in need of illumination so that we live in the framework of the Kingdom of God.
Today we look into the life of mankind before the Fall. What was their existence like in relation to God and all that He had created? To see this reality is to begin to comprehend the life we have now been offered once again in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paradise is not simply related to a place. Paradise is an existence in and with God.
October 24, 2021 - In the Gospel of St. Luke 4, our Lord gives a parable telling us that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and the humble will be exalted. St. Paul, in Ephesians 4, gives us the three virtues that will keep the unity of the Body of Christ and the experience of His great peace: humility, meekness, and longsuffering. Today we examine each of these and find that they are our path to our most true self as we are partakers of the Divine Nature of Christ our God.
The Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ is such an incredible indication of how close our God came to us. If we are to gain the experience of how closely God and His Kingdom are to us, we must begin with seeing the wonder of the Incarnation itself. The Blessed Virgin Mary kept the wonders God did in, through, and all around her right in front of her pondering them in her heart. This must be the disposition of us all. Today we discuss what it means that we should ponder God and the wonder of all He has done and is doing in our hearts.
October 17, 2021 - The battlefield of the Christian is the battlefield of the mind; our thought life. And in this battle, someone is going to be taken captive. Too often we get caught off-guard with our temptations and thoughts. Our thoughts then grow within us and eventually we come to agree with them and commit actions of sin. St. Paul tells us to take every thought captive. Today we talk about the discipline of being far more vigilant and watchful over our own thoughts. We also talk about turning to Christ in the earliest moments of our thoughts. When we do, it is Christ Who grants us His victory over our temptations and the demonic that seek only the destruction of our souls.
In order to understand the Kingdom of God made manifest through our Lord Jesus Christ and established on the earth as it is in heaven, we must begin by look at our Lord's Creation and ordering of all things. He did so in order that He might share Himself with us and that we might experience Him both in fellowship and through all that He had created. In this session, we focus on the first words of Scripture, "In the beginning God."
October 10, 2021 - The definition of sin in the Orthodox Faith is falling short of that Nature of God. There are many ways we sin by this falling short and there are distinct stages that pave the way for sin in our lives. Today we have a look at these stages so that we can better recognize them. If we can do this, we can live a life of repentance in the earlier stages that bring about sin. And, if we can grow in this earlier repentance we can begin to experience the victory of Christ over sin in our own lives.
The creation and re-creation of all things by God makes manifest to us Who God is and all that He has done. In the beginning all of creation was permeated and filled with the Divine life of God. God created the material and the immaterial in His marvelous act of creation. This same God is the God Who reveals Himself to all and through all. This revelation of God is the starting point to our experience of true reality; and reality is greater than just the material. Our Christian life is a life of re-creation. Our journey is to see and experience all things as they truly exist. This comes only by the experience of God in our lives, for Paradise is not a place created in the Middle East. Paradise is God and the experience of Him which is now available to all who dwell in Him.
October 3, 2021 - Today we hear of Christ healing the ten lepers from the Gospel of St. Luke 17. After the ten are healed only one, the Samaritan, returns to Christ to offer Him praise and glorify Him for healing his disease and releasing him from shame. Jesus looks at Him and says, "Your faith has saved you." Why did He return? The answer to this shows us the faith that saves us all. That faith is the pattern of our bringing our need for mercy to Christ. When we do so, we receive the experience of the profound mercy of God. And those who experience the ongoing mercy of God in their lives grow to love God in such a way that they offer their very lives to Him; love responding to the love that was given.
If you want to know what the Christian existence is to be like, indeed what the experience of God and His Kingdom in our lives is there to be had, then look no further than Jesus' prayer for us in the Gospel of St. John 17 just before His Passion. He prays, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." We were created for the most intimate fellowship with God. We were created that God may share all He is and has with us and for us to share ourselves with Him. This is the koinonia, the fellowship, we were created to enjoy with God. And this is what has been made available once again by the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
September 26, 2021 - When the Hebrew Lawyer asked Jesus "Who is my neighbor?", Jesus responds by telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In this parable, according to the Church Fathers, the Good Samaritan is none other than Christ our God. The Inn that He brings the broken and wounded man into is His Church. We see in this timeless parable the wonder that Christ our God has indeed shared His ministry with us, His Holy Church. The Incratate ministry of Christ reconciling man back to God will continue to the end of the age through those who are His disciples.
St. Paul says in Romans 12 that we are not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The patterns of this world lead us to experience a two-story reality regarding the Kingdom of God. We live on the first floor while God and His Kingdom exist on the second floor as if God is not everywhere present and filling all things. For us to experience the Kingdom of God, the very reality inaugurated on behalf of mankind by the Incarnation, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This session discusses the posture of the Christian that will pave the way for the renewing of our minds towards the very real experience of Christ and His Kingdom in our lives.
September 19, 2021 - When Christ our God healed the deaf and mute man, He put His fingers in His ears and commanded them to be opened. He also spat and touched the man's tongue and at once he could speak. So you see the physicality of just how near God came to that man? In this sermon, we are reminded that being called the Body of Christ is more than a metaphor; it has become a reality. God continues to come near to mankind to heal and to save. He does so enfleshed in us, His Church.
Today is an introduction to this series. In it we discuss the secularization of our faith; that we have had a tendency to compartmentalize God in our lives rather than God and His Kingdom permeating every aspect of our lives for our salvation. Jesus Christ was incarnate specifically to bring the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven to earth for our experience of Him; again, all for our salvation. This series, we pray, will break down any thoughts where we have been deceived to believe and live as if God and His Kingdom are distant at any moment of our lives; to the end that we might have realized in our daily lives all of the benefits Christ has bestowed upon us by His Kingdom being manifest on earth as it is in Heaven.
September 12, 2021 - In the Gospel of St. Luke 18 our Lord Jesus Christ asks, "When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?" What faith is our Lord seeking to find in the souls of mankind? The answer to this is in the two parables He tells around this question. One parable shows us that an attribute of this faith is one who persistently comes, again and again, to Christ pleading for and experiencing His mercy. The other parable tells us that an attribute of this faith is absolute humility before Him. Today we examine both of these parables in the hope that the faith our Lord seeks grows within us all of our days.
September 8, 2021 - The beginning of the Liturgical Calendar is September 1st each year. Yet the first of the 12 Major Feasts of the Church, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is held on the 8th day of September. Why the 8th day? The theology of the 8th Day runs throughout our Faith. Tonight we remember why the Birth of the Mother of God is celebrated on this particular day. We also reflect on the reality that both her conception and birth shows forth what would be fulfilled through her Son, Christ our God; that is, the casting down of the shame of the fall of mankind.
September 5, 2021 - When Jesus entered Jerusalem at His Triumphal Entry, He looked at the city and wept tears of lament. He wept over the condition of their souls and blindness of their hearts that would reject every inexhaustible benefit He can come to offer, and that rejection would keep them suffering the lesser condition of living that is the result of the Fall of Mankind. Through what lens to we see the souls in the culture outside of the Kingdom of God today? Does it stir up anger, disgust, angst, or even worries. This reflection calls us to walk in such fellowship with Christ that we participate in His Divine Nature towards those outside of the Church; that we mourn and lament over the condition of their souls as Christ weeps over them.
August 29, 2021 - "And God gave them over..." That phrase should put such a holy and righteous fear into God's people; a blessed fear that drives us always toward God and to remain in Him all of our days. Today we look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son coupled with the words of St. Paul from both 1 Corinthians 10 and Romans 1 regarding the warning this blessed Apostle gives to us. God's people passed through the waters of the Red Sea and became His people; a people released from bondage and freed to follow and worship Him. But they were adulterous over and over again towards God and He gave them over to their will, their passions, their desires.
August 22, 2021 - What is it that governs your life? What is the wind in the sail of your soul and where is that wind currently taking you? The fruit born in our lives helps us answer that question. Either we will be living by the flesh, the sin nature put to death in Christ. If we do, chaos will overcome peace. Fears, anxieties, and despair will be the fruit born from living from our flesh. Or, we will live with the Holy Spirit being our wind and rudder. The fruit born of a life in and by the Holy Spirit is the fullness of the experience of the Kingdom of God in our lives. A life where the peace of Christ and true joy are realized in our lives. And nothing this life could ever throw at us can shake us and disturb our life in Christ.
August 15, 2021 - Fr. Thomas Hopko wrote, “In the Orthodox Church the Virgin Mary is the image of those who are being saved. If Jesus Christ is the Savior, Mary is the image of the saved.” When we look upon the Blessed Virgin, we see ourselves; we see the Church. This is true regarding the event of the Blessed Virgin's falling asleep and her translation into Paradise by her Son. As we look at this today, we have placed before us the great and very real hope of every Christian; that is, those who remain in Christ will be resurrected on the last day to dwell with Him and one another for eternity.
August 8, 2021 - Sometimes we can err in overthinking the concept of fellowship with God. The reality is God became man to bring God and His Kingdom to us in our lives. We need to remember the very simple yet profound ways we can find and experience the reality of God in the most daily and mundane routines of our life.
August 8, 2021 - Our Lord Jesus Christ led Saints Peter, James, and John up the mountain to pray. As Jesus was praying, He was transfigured right before their eyes. As they ascended the mountain his appearance was that of a mere human. As He prayed, the glory of His Divinity shone upon and from His body. The Early Church Fathers teach us so many things regarding the Transfiguration of our Lord. Tonight we focus on their teaching that the Transfiguration shows us the path to be healed of our humanity and be transformed to shine from the nature and virtues of Christ our God. That path is to ascend the mountain of prayer. For it is fellowship with God that heals and transfigures the human soul.
July 25, 2021 - On the Feast Day of St. James the Greater, we remember the calling of the first disciples. At the experience of Christ our God, they forsook all and followed Him. Today we examine what it means for us to forsake all and follow Christ as His disciples. We also hear the very important truth regarding what it takes for any human to do so. Without the experience of Christ and His mercy, who would forsake all and offer their entire lives to Christ.
August 1, 2021 - After fishing all night and catching nothing, St. Peter encounters Jesus Christ. When Jesus commands him to push out once again into the deep waters and let down his net, and having only a mustard seed of faith, St. Peter says the very five words that are the true mark of a disciple. St. Peter says, "At Thy word, I will..." Today we examine the importance of these five words, and we look at what the Lord will do with our mustard seed of faith if we will just offer ourselves to him saying, "At Thy word, I will."
July 18, 2021 - In the Gospel of St. Luke 15, our Lord gives a number of parables that show forth the inexhaustible mercy of God and His desire to redeem and restore even the gravest of sinners. Today we look deeper into the full extent of the mercy of God. We also consider the reality that the only way we can truly experience the Divine Mercy of God is to become undone.
July 11, 2021 - Today we hear the parable of the Great Banquet. In this parable we see that the Nature of God is that of relentless invitation Who so desires to bring the souls of mankind to Himself. We also see that by coming to this banquet and dining with and from our Lord, we experience His healing in our lives. And, we become conformed more and more to His image and conformed less and less to the patterns and thinking of this world. Today we come to realize that the best means being a fountain of Living Water to those outside of the banquet is to sit at table with the Lord allowing Him to tranform our lives. His healing tesifies to His love and reality. It is Christ's healing in our lives that makes us the continuing living invitation to the banquet.
July 4, 2021 - Say the word love, and this world will offer many different thoughts and definitions. Most of them will center around acceptance and various aspects of sentimentality. Christian love is entirely about the love that God happens to be. It reaches far beyond feelings and sentiment. We come together before God every time we meet together to experience God and His Nature. From this experience, we are retooled in our thinking and we become as the God we have beheld.
June 20, 2021 - Pentecost, the day God the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon mankind. St. Paul tells us that we are the continuation of the ministry of God reconciling man back to Himself. Today, we talk about two of the natural results of mankind receiving the Holy Spirit. We have become the aroma of Christ to one another and to the world. And, we have been ordained a Kingdom of Priests.
June 13, 2021 - In the liturgical calendar, we are now just like His disciples in the brief time between our Lord's wondrous Ascension and the outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit. And what did the 120 disciples including Christ's Mother do during this brief time as they awaited such a promise? We are told that they dedicated themselves together in constant prayer. Today we are reminded that we, in remembrance, are also to dedicate ourselves to constant prayer in preparation for the outpouring of God the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. We are to pray anticipatory prayers and prayers that prepare the soul to blossom from the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
June 10, 2021 - The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ascension of every Christian in Him. Jesus took our humanity wrapped within Himself into Paradise, and in doing so enabled us all to have a way to be in Paradise with Him forever. Tonight we remember the significance of our Lord's Ascension to our salvation in Him.
June 6, 2021 - Mankind has struggled with an identity crisis since the Fall of Man resulting in our separation from God. Because of this, there is a restlessness and unsettledness in our every soul until it finds its most true self. The only way we can know our true self is to know God Who created us in His image, and from actual fellowship with Him where He reveals Himself to us, we finally see and settle into who we truly were created to be. When this happens, God exchanges the restlessness of our identity crisis for the calm and stillness that comes from the deep knowing of Him and thus knowing ourselves.
May 30, 2021 - In the Gospel of St. John chapter 16, Jesus begins to prepare His disciples for His departure from them at His glorious Ascension telling them that it is to their advantage that He leaves; for if He departs He will then send God the Holy Spirit to dwell within them. There are many blessings to us in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Today we focus on His role of sharing the mind of Jesus Christ with each one of us so that we can clearly see that within our soul in need of healing and restoration. We also look into the reality that the Holy Spirit is present to assist us in our thought life; to help us filter out the cares, patterns, and influences that Satan and this fallen world would use to distract us to the end that our faith, peace, and joy would diminish.
May 23, 2021 - In the Gospel of St. John 16, our Lord Jesus Christ gives great encouragement to His disciples regarding the joy promised to those who remain in Christ. He offers them this encouragement because He knew that His disciples would endure hardship, suffering, and mourning in this present world. What our Lord spoke to them then, He speaks to us today. We live in a culture that is moving further and further away from the order and virtues of God and His Kingdom. The strength, stability, peace, and joy of the Christian can be experienced when we set the gaze of our soul away from the chaos of this present fallen culture and on to Christ and His Kingdom alone.
May 16, 2021 - Jesus describes Himself as our Good Shepherd in the Gospel of St. John 10. The words He uses are words that describe that there is a profound experience of relationship that He offers us as our Shepherd. He tells us that His sheep know Him as He knows the Father. He mentions that His sheep hear His voice. These are words of experience and very real relationship. Today we discuss the experience we are granted with our Lord towards great faith and the healing of our soul.
May 9, 2021 - On the first Sunday after Easter, we hear the account of the disciples' first experience with the Resurrected Jesus Christ. We first see the disciples, without Thomas and in the midst of a crisis of faith, experience their Risen Lord as they were hiding in a locked room. Then blessed Thomas, who also was in the midst of doubt and a crisis of faith, encounters the Lord. What we see in both situations is a group of men struggling in their faith encounter Christ. Their experience grants them His gift of great faith. The results of this gift of faith is that they would follow Him all of their days and the world would never be the same. You see, true faith only comes by the experience of Jesus Christ.
May 1, 2021 - On this Paschal Vigil, the first Mass of our Lord's Resurrection, we reflect on all that has been revealed to us in Holy Week. Having seen all that Christ did on our behalf, how can we walk any further in the deception that anything at all could possibly separate us from the Love that God has for us; not our fallen nature, our sins, Hades, nor death can separate us from the love of God. What we see in Holy Week is the greatest invitation by our Lord to come to Him with all of our fallenness and sinfulness that He might exchange it for His mercy, light, and life.
April 30, 2021 - St. Paul writes in Galatians that his glory, his boast is in the Cross of Christ. Why should the Christian glory and boast always and only in the Cross of Christ? On this Good Friday, we reflect on three reasons we should do so. When we really consider our Lord upon the Holy and Life-Giving Cross, the question become, "How can we not glory in His Cross?
April 29, 2021 - Just before our Lord Jesus Christ's arrest, He did two ministries that made manifest the profound love of God to His disciples. The Word of God, once arrayed in glory, now would condescend to put on the garments of a common servant and wash the feet of His disciples. That same evening, our Lord would institute the Lord's Supper; Holy Eucharist, the table of fellowship, grace, mercy, and eternal life.
April 28, 2021 - Tonight, on Holy Wednesday, we have the Mass of Holy Unction and the Blessing of the Oils. God has always used oil for the benefit of mankind. With oil prophets, priests, and kings were ordained to their vocation and given the Holy Spirit. With oil God healed. And with oil the Holy Spirit is conveyed to mankind. Tonight we all of this fulfilled in Christ who is the healer and mender of our souls.
April 26, 2021 - In the Collect prayer from the Mass of Holy Monday we pray, "Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first He suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified; Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace." The self-emptying love of God in Christ is fully on display in the Incarnation and certainly at His Passion. Everything we see in Christ is so completely opposite of what Satan and this world preaches as truth regarding how we should live to be truly human. This homily compares and contrasts the philosophies of this world and the Nature of God in Christ. Our only way to life and peace is what we see in Christ at His Passion and walk the way of the Cross.
April 25, 2021 - Palm Sunday marks our entrance into the most sacred week of Holy Week. Today we set ourselves to journey with Christ to and through His Passion that we might experience the power of His Resurrection. Fr. James exhorts us to press in and finish Lent well. No matter what our failures or successes during Lent have been, today marks an opportunity to set ourselves to begin Lent anew and finish well that we might experience Christ's Divine healing in our lives. We are encouraged today to see the Cross clearly. For it has become the life-giving tree, indeed the Tree of Life, because Christ our God hung upon it.
April 18, 2021 - Today is Passion Sunday. It is the day that both sets the tone and gives a framework of true meaning that helps us prepare to journey with our Lord to and through His Passion and to His Resurrection throughout Holy Week. Today we look at two truths. The first is that no one but Christ Himself had the power and authority to lay down His life so that we could be with Him eternally. The second truth we see before us this day is the result of the finished work of Jesus Christ. He, as our Great High Priest, now stands in the tabernacle eternal offering the blood He chose to shed that our sins may be covered, our consciences freed, and our lives restored and made whole again. Our journey with Christ to His Passion is truly a journey of joyful sorrow.
April 11, 2021 - Every year on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we are given a Mass reminding us that we are a people that have much to rejoice about in Christ. In this Mass, we hear the Gospel of St. John 6; the narrative of Jesus taking bread, giving thanks, and feeding the 5000. Today we are reminded that what we really see is the Liturgy unfold before us in this very story. Today is a reminder that Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life! And every time we gather with Him, our Lord takes bread, gives thanks, blesses it; and through that bread He gives us His strength to follow Him in this wilderness, His Divine mercy, and bestows upon us the life of His Resurrection.
In the Gospel of St. Luke 11, Jesus says that "a house divided against itself shall not stand." Within our soul, is our house divided? Do we live differently at work, at home, socially, and at Church? If so, these divisions come from the brokenness that causes such tension and division within our very soul. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to bring a holy unity within us; a means by which these tensions can settle into an abslute peace.
March 25, 2021 - The Archangel Gabriel is sent by God to the Blessed Virgin stating His intentions that the Salvation Himself be born through her. In the Old Testament man fell facedown at the sight and splendor of this Archangel. When the Archangel Gabriel comes to Mary, it is he who is astounded. Tonight, on the Feast of the Ascension, we look at this profound truth. We also look at the humility of the Blessed Virgin who, when God speaks His desire, responds with the posture of self-offering that His will alone might be done.
March 21, 2021 - Why do we fast for 40 days during Lent? Why is it that our Lord has had His people fast for periods of time both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? In this sermon we look at our Lord modeling this 40-day fast. More importantly we see the results of His fast; the results every Christian can experience now in their own lives. Through fasting and prayer we are strengthened by the grace of God to walk in Christ's victory over every temptation Satan can bring our way. We also hear the words of God through the great Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 58 regarding the true fast that God desires of us all and the blessings that come from that very fast.
Have you ever felt like God was distant from you in times of suffering; you pray and ask for help, but nothing happens? Where is God in those times and why does He not seem to hear you and come to you and relieve you of your suffering? Today from St. Matthew 15, we look at our Lord's encounter with the Canaanite woman. The way our Lord brings her soul to the place where she can finally receive Him and the healing for both her and her daughter helps us understand that God is infinitely with us even in His profound silence.
March 17, 2021 - Every Ash Wednesday we hear the calling of God to His people through the Prophet Joel, resounding as an alarm, to "return to the Lord your God." The alarm sounded to God's people every Ash Wednesday is the blessedness of our mortality. Many question, "How is our mortality blessed?" Tonight we look at two of the teachings of the Church for over 2000 years regarding the great gift our mortality is to those in Christ. For if we make use of this great gift daily, it will drive us into the arms of our merciful healer daily. And from that experience, we will know the joy, peace, and contentment of our salvation.
March 14, 2021 - On the last day of our three-week preparation for Lent, our Lord in His wisdom desires to reveal the love that He is to us. Why? Because at the revelation of Who God is to us, we clearly see Him. And, in seeing Him, we see the ways we are not yet like Him. Our Lord brings these things to the surface not to bring us to shame and despair, but to move us toward Him so that we can experience His merciful healing and be made whole. Today we look at the love of God; a love that we have been given grace to offer back to Him and become for one another.
March 7, 2021 - Today is our second day of preparation for Great & Holy Lent. We are given the "Parable of the Sower" from the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 8. Our Lord is encouraging us to tend to the soil of our soul that the seed of life He has planted blossoms. Jesus is also showing us the need to be sober and vigilant against anything that would stand to choke out the life-bearing seed of grace He has given us. Today we look at an issue we all deal with from time to time; the issue of unforgiveness. When we struggle to forgive, it is like the thorns that choke out the life that God has given us. Today we look at why this is the truth. We also look at Christ and His Nature seeking to find the path of forgiveness so that our souls may mend and be set free.
February 28, 2021 - St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9, describes the Christian life in Christ as a runner who is temperate in all things in order to gain the desired prize. An athlete, in order to compete for the prize, has to walk in great self-control as they train for the competition. They must abstain from many things and will themselves to do many things. Why would they subject themselves to this? Because their heart is fixed on the prize and they value the prize far more than they value their personal freedom. The prize for the Christian is both now and not yet. When we live a spiritual life with the dedication of an athlete, the experience of the greatness of the Kingdom of God grows in our lives. And in the end if we could only have a glimpse of what Christ has prepared for us for all eternity, surely we would abandon everything and follow Him all or our days.
February 8, 2021 - In our world today, we are very focused on the pandemic of the COVID virus. Today we turn our attention to a pandemic that has been creating great suffering in all of humanity since the fall of man to present day. It is the pandemic of the soul; an illness that has been in the core of mankind that creates a lesser existence, just as a virus creates a lack in the experience of the fullness of health. The focus of today's message is on bringing the pandemic of our soul to the Great Physician that He may heal and mend.
January 31, 2021 - In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 8, we are given the testimonies of Christ our God healing the leper and the servant of the centurion. We are told that the leper came and worshipped Christ, which means he fell in prostration before the Lord. We look at the centurion and see a great faith adorned in humility. As we look at the worship of the leper and the humility of the centurion, we see very clearly the path of salvation and healing for every soul who comes before Christ.
January 24, 2021 - Jesus' first miracles was turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. The nature of the water was transformed by the presence of the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Colorless, tasteless, odorless water contained in earthen vessels became filled with color, taste, and fragrance. This miracle prefigured Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We are the earthen vessels containing the treasure, Christ our God. By His presence in us our nature is changed and we have become the fragrance of Christ to the world.
January 10, 2021 -St. Paul writes to us what is the core of understanding Christian worship in Romans 12 as he states, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship." What does it mean to offer our whole self to God? And what does it mean that this act is the true worship of the Christian? Today we attempt to look at the truths revealed to the Church regarding the answers to these questions.
December 27, 2020 -St. John the Apostle, at the end of his Gospel, describes the physicality of the Incarnation; God comes to dwell with us in the flesh. Today we remember that when we celebrate the wonder of the Incarnation, we do not celebrate something that happened between Christ's conception and Ascension. Rather, we celebrate the Incarnation that continues in and through His Holy Church until the end of the age both for our salvation and the salvation of those that walk in darkness. He continues to give us so many ways to experience Him with all of our senses.
December 24, 2020 - What a blessed and holy night is the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight we remember that by the Incarnation Christ bowed heaven to earth in Himself that He might come to us with healing in His wings. Tonight we look in wonder at the glorious manifestations that were given to direct the hearts of all to come to this child, Christ our God; for He has come to exchange our brokenness for wholeness, our mourning for joy and gladness, and exchange our spirit of heaviness with a garment of praise.
December 20, 2020 - In the Gospel of St. Luke 2, Christ our God is called the consolation of Israel. In the Collect prayer for the Mass of the Fourth Sunday of Advent we pray, "Lord, raise up Thy power and come among us and succor us." In this sermon we explore Christ's ministry of succoring His people and how this leads to the consolation of the soul; something every soul craves. Those who experience the consolation of Christ are far less shaken by the realities in which we live in this fallen world.
December 13, 2020 - On the Third Sunday of Advent we are given a Mass entitled "Rejoice!" In the middle of the blessed Season of Advent, God reminds His people that their very lives, as well as their prayers, are to be seasoned with praise and thanksgiving. In this sermon, we look at the wellspring within us from which we can encounter Christ and draw great praise to Him for all that He has done, is doing, and will do on our behalf.
December 6, 2020 - Holy Scripture plays such a profound role in the salvation journey of every Christian. It is a means of fellowship with God. It is a means by which we learn to hear His voice. And it is one of the many means in the Church by which Christ illumines us with Who He is and shines light on both who we are and who we are to become. In the blessed and Divine readings of Holy Scripture, we have a means to become our true self; that is, the image and likeness of Christ for all to experience.
November 29, 2020 - The Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ grants us all the experience of the Living God in our lives which brings us salvation. In Advent, we engage more time in prayer and fasting. We also take time to prayerfully study how God has revealed Himself to His people through Christ since His birth. God desires that we know Him more and more over time by the experience of Him. By the grace of God in this blessed Season of Advent, we are recentered in our lives granting us the ability to truly fellowship with our Lord and be drawn further into Him.
November 22, 2020 - Today is the Sunday Next Before Lent. It is the week given by the Church to prepare for the blessed Season of Advent. In this liturgy we pray, "Stir up the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded." In that prayer, we have the language of a harvest. And, no harvest just appears automatically. There is some work to be done in order for a harvest to be plentiful. In Advent, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we are given the tools that when used produce the harvest of the good works in Christ; the very fruit of the Holy Spirit. This sermon examines the tools of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These three, by the grace of God, transform the soul which results in this harvest of these good works.
November 15, 2020 -St. Peter comes to Jesus and asks, "How many times must I forgive those who sin against me?" Jesus' answer to St. Peter is that he must forgive in the same way he has been forgiven; in the limitless inexhaustible mercy and forgiveness of God. He then tells the parable of the Unforgiving Servant to strongly exhort us to become such mercy to others and show the very real destruction to our own soul when we fail to become like Christ in His forgiveness and mercy. In this sermon, we examine both the need by grace to become mercy and forgiveness as well as the grace-filled path that will pave the way for us to be transformed and become the mercy of God to others. In doings so, our souls are truly set free.
November 8, 2020 - Throughout the election season this year and even now we see how divided, anxious, fearful, worried, and opinionated we are as a people in this nation. Today we attempt to recenter ourselves based upon the most comforting and stabling truth. Jesus Christ is enthroned over the Kingdom of God; the Kingdom of our true and most important citizenship. St. Paul writes to us in Ephesians 6 that our fight is not against flesh and blood (against Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Independents). Our fight is against the principalities and powers of darkness and our battle is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ as our armor. And having put Him on, we intercede asking Him to extend His hand of perfect justice, mercy, judgment, and love. Our role is not political. Our role is intercession that hearts would be changed so that the politics of our entire nation are founded in the virtues of Christ.
Nov. 2, 2020 - Today is the Feast of All Souls. In this Liturgy we are given the grace of God to take up our mantle as the royal and holy priesthood of all believers lifting up to Christ the souls we loved here on earth who have fallen asleep in Christ. We are also given the grace to let our mortality be the gift God intends it to be in our lives. That we recenter ourselves to live as though this is the only day we have to grwo in love for God and love for one another.
Nov. 1, 2020 - Today is the blessed Feast of All Saints. In this Liturgy we hear the reading from the Revelation given to St. John and chapter 7 where St. John is granted a view of what lies behind the veil of this temporary life. Using that passage and the Icon of All Saints, we let the Lord show us Paradise today. There we see the perfected eternal fellowship of God's people with one another and with Christ their God. In that eternal reality are unspeakable joys for Christ has wiped away every tear from their eyes and suffering is no more.
October 25, 2020 - Today is the Feast of Christ the King. On this day we look to the great paradox of our faith that confounded those at the time of Jesus' earthly ministry and continues to confound the wise and learned today. We have a King who condescended to become the lowest of us in order that we might ascend and become all that we were created to be. It is for this love and humility that He has been exalted as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
October 18, 2020- Today is the Feast Day of St. Luke the Evangelist. It seemed right to best honor St. Luke by remembering how the Gospel spread throughout the known world during his lifetime which is the same way it must spread today. The love and power of Christ was revealed through those who followed Him daily in their lives as true disciples. And, Christ our God revealed Himself through those disciples for the salvation of the souls around them. Nothing has changed, my friends. We are the Body of Christ continuing the ministry of Christ our God for God fully dwells within each one of us for our salvation and the salvation of the souls around us.
October 11, 2020 - Today is the Feast of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today our focus is on something vastly misunderstood in may Christian circles; that is, the idea of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Queen Mother. The Church's understanding of her as Queen Mother reaches back to antiquity beginning with Holy Scripture and truly comes clear when we understand that our Lord Jesus Christ, as prophesied, sits on the throne of David. Today we focus on two thoughts concerning this. The Queen Mother is a place of honor and has always been such. Secondly, it is a position of great intercession. As we look at the Blessed Virgin, as always, we see something of ourselves. We are a Priesthood called to great intercession offering this world to God for its life and salvation.
Oct. 4, 2020 - In the Gospel of St. Luke and Chapter 7 we have the testimony of Christ our God raising the widow's only son from the dead at the gate of Nain. We find a multitude following Christ heading into the gate of Nain. At the same time we have the funeral procession for the widow's son heading out of the gate of the town. The Church Fathers tell us that in that moment death encountered the One Who is the Life and the Resurrection and death had no chance of victory. In this sermon we reflect on the two processions encountering one another at the gate of Nain. One, the procession of those who followed and experienced Christ the life of the world. The other, a procession under the oppression of death. Today we speak about this reality in this present day and how it shows us who we are as the Body of Christ and our Lord's great purpose for us; that through us He may offer life to those who are under death.
September 27, 2020 - In the Gospel of St. Matthew Chapter 6, Christ our God tells us not to worry about our life because of how greatly God cares for us and knows what we need. Rather, seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. The antidote to worry and anxiousness over our lives is to truly know God as our provider. Using the beginning of Psalm 23 and this blessed Gospel passage, we seek to grow in understanding by the revelation of God to us regarding Who God is and His nature toward us as our great provider.
September 20, 2020 - In Galatians 5 St. Paul exhorts the Church to "Walk in the Spirit." But what does it mean to walk in the Holy Spirit? What does St. Paul mean by this? Today as we reflect on the words of St. Paul, we discover that to walk in the Holy Spirit is so essential to our Christian existence and our salvation. As we surrender our lives to the governance of the Holy Spirit, we find the profound growth of joy and true contentment in our lives. When we deny the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we end up falling into works of the flesh that bring tension and disquitude to the soul.
September 17, 2020 - Today we look at the Parable of the Good Samaritan as well as the events that led up to our Lord's telling of this great parable. In this parable we see the nature of Christ our God, the One full of compassion and mercy desiring the healing and restoration of all the souls He so lovingly created. But we also see in this parable one of the great purposes of Christ's Holy Church. We are those in the Ark of Salvation in need of great healing, mercy, and salvation. But we are being healed, in part, with the great purpose of God that we become vessels through which Christ reconciles the world to Himself. We are healed to become vessels of the healing work of Jesus Christ.
September 6, 2020 - As our Lord Jesus Christ notoriety grew in his earthly ministry, masses would bring the sick to the marketplaces with all sorts of illnesses, dysfunctions, and spiritual oppression. We are told that those who came to Him were healed. The ill new they were sick and they were very mindful of their suffering. And they had the mustard seed of faith that if they came to Jesus, they just might leave healed. In this homily, we take a look at ourselves. Do we live that authentically before Christ? Do we daily acknowlege our need for mercy, grace, and the healing of Christ in our lives? Those who do come in that humility to the Lord walk away having experienced the power of His grace. And those healed become living testimonies to the healing work of the Living Lord Jesus Christ.
Aug. 30, 2020 - Today we hear both the Parable of the Persistent Widow and the Parable of the Pharisee & the Publican. These two parables are told back to back by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of St. Luke Chapter 18. One parable teaches the heart of God towards mankind that desires for us to bring our brokenness, sinfulness, and dysfunctions to Him; and to do so persistently. In the Parable of the Pharisee & the Publican, our Lord teaches us how to come to Him with our brokenness. Those who come with a humble disposition persistently to Christ encounter the wonder and mercy of the Divine Healer of our soul.
August 23, 2020 - In our the Holy Gospel of St. Luke 19, Christ our God approaches Jerusalem to make His Triumphal Entrance. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem we are told that He wept over the city. This revelation of Christ mourning over His people is given to us as a revelation of God's heart and disposition to all mankind. God mourned because they denied the unspeakable benefits He had come to bestow upon them. And, He wept because of the suffering that He knew would be the result of their will choosing away from Him. The tears of God flowed from His immeasurable love for mankind for which He had come to gather to Himself and shower all of the benefits of His Kingdom upon them all.
Aug. 2, 2020 - We are not roughly five months into the COVID pandemic. The longer we suffer we tend to get rather thin and the worst of our humanity can begin to surface. But there is an antidote, a prescription for this that stabilizes joy and contentment in the life of the Christian. That antidote is to remember God throughout each day for Who He truly is and all that He has done, is doing, and will do on behalf of those who remain in Him. As we praise Him we see Him clearly. As we see Him clearly, He truly becomes our daily joy.
July 26, 2020 - On the Feast Day of St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we remember the narrative of one that God releases from shame. Shame is such a common struggle for most Christians. We have a very real adversary and accusor that constantly wants to write on our soul such a lack of worth that we dare not approach God with our brokenness. Today we look at Sts. Joachim & Anne to see their very real life-long struggle with the shame of barrenness. We look to how they called upon God, remembering His mercy toward His people, and cried out for mercy and the release from their shame. He answered their prayers. He will answer ours and release us from our shame.
July 19, 2020 - Do you doubt that the Word of God, Jesus Christ, can transform a culture through His Church; that is, all of us who are earthen vessels? Are you struggling with a sense of hopelessness as we watch our culture in this great country spin further down into darkness and chaos? My friends, this ought not be. Today we have the Gospel reading from St. Luke Chapter 5 where we hear the miraculous catch of fish and the calling of the first disciples. These men were men of no esteem and little status. They were common fishermen. By the experience of Christ in their lives, being filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ through them would transform cultures and nations. It is astounding what God can and will do through a people who truly experience Him and remain in fellowship with Him. May we all be awakened out of our slumber at this time. May we follow Christ so closely that we hear His direction on where, when, and how to cast the net. If we will, there will be a great catch of the souls of men that he has prepared to receive Him. Then we will see our nation and the culture around us transformed through common people who offered themselves to Christ.
July 12, 2020 - Today our God sets His limitless mercy right before us all. We come before God constantly in need of His mercy and forgiveness over all of our shortcomings and failures. We ask for a gift we could never earn nor deserve. And, rather than giving us what we do deserve He grants us just the opposite. He takes us to Himself, forgives us, heals us, and gives us power to be transformed. This is mercy. In our Gospel reading from St. Luke Chapter 6, our Lord Jesus Christ then commands us to give mercy in the same way as we have received it to all of those around us. This message is an exhortation for us all to walk in mercy toward one another in a time when Satan seeks to divide the children of the Living God.
July 5, 2020 - The enemy of the Body of Christ is constantly seeking to divide all of the beloved in the Body of Christ from one another and their God. For this reason, from our Matins Scripture reading, St. Paul writes in Philippians 1 that the Church should let their conduct be worthy of the Gospel by being one mind and one spirit in all things. And, from our Epistle reading, St. Peter in 1 Peter 5 we are told to submit to our spiritual Fathers and to one another in humility before our brothers and sisters in Christ; and we would keep watch vigilantly at all times for our enemy who is always seeking to hinder and destroy us. The Hebrew people in the Book of the Prophet Nehemiah faced this very situation as they were rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Today our Lord calls us to take our place on the wall for the protection of ourselves and one another.
June 29, 2020 - In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 14 Jesus tells the parable of the Invitation to the Great Supper. The Great Supper that all are invited into is life in the Kingdom of God where He feeds us His mercy, His healing, and His power unto the salvation of our souls. We also come to understand that we, Christ's Body in the earth, bear within us the imprint of this invitation to all who dwell in chaos and darkness. If there was ever a time that we needed to show ourselves to be the Ark of Salvation with all of the chaos, violence, fears, and worries all around us; is it not right now. This message is a call for the Body of Christ to not be conformed by the patterns of this world, but to live and dwell as citizens of the Kingdom of God alone. If we will be the Ark of Salvation now, souls living in chaos and confusion will see what life is like for citizens of the Great Supper and they will come and dine with us.
June 21, 2020 - Today is the first Sunday in the longest liturgical season of the year, Trinitytide. Having remembered by grace the conception, birth, life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ; and, having celebrated the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all of those in Christ at Pentecost we turn our attention throughout this blessed season to learn how shall we now live because of all of this. On the first Sunday after Trinity, our Lord so faithfully sets the stage by calling us to become love as God is love. This homily encourages us to offer ourselves to Christ in such a way that we become the experience of the love that God is for all around us.
June 7, 2020 - We celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, a day that would absolutely change everything. On this day our Lord fulfilled His promise to endue His disciples with power from on high as He would send them the promised Holy Spirit giving them this power, this grace, for their salvation. And, they were given power to become the continuing ministry of Jesus Christ upon the earth. The result on that day is that 3,000 experience the living Lord Jesus Christ and received the same promised Holy Spirit through the waters of Baptism. On this day we remember the mighty work of God through the Sacrament of Baptism. And we remember that by virtue of our becoming recipients of the same power and grace by the Holy Spirit, we have become the continuation of the ministry of Christ in the earth for the offering of His salvation to all.
June 1, 2020 - Today is the only Sunday in the Season of Ascensiontide, that Season between the Ascension and Pentecost. On this day we are reminded that as Christ Ascended keeping fully our humanity joined to His Divinity, He did so that we might become participators in His Divine nature all of our days. He ascended so that we could ascend from every result of the Fall of man and into the experience of the fullness of His Kingdom. Today we remember with wonder what God has offered to us all.
May 28, 2020 - We are told in Scripture as well as through the teachings of the Church Fathers that when Jesus Ascended the angelic hosts were amazed. They were amazed as they saw Christ ascend through the heavens leading a train of souls into Paradise. And they were amazed how far the Word of God, Jesus Christ, had gone to save His most precious creation out of His immeasurable love for mankind. This sermon focuses on the love of God on display as Christ Ascends to the Father placing humanity before the Father for all eternity.
May 17, 2020 - What are you experiencing in this life right now? Because of the COVID-19 virus are you experiencing fear, anxiety, anxiousness, restlessness? Or, are you experiencing contentment, peace, and even joy? Perhaps like most you are ebbing and flowing between all of these. In today's Liturgy we are reminded that the Christian should always sing a new song of praise to God for the salvation that He is and that He has wrought for us. It is in this homily that we realize that our experience in life at any given moment is completely dependent on what we are having the eyes of our soul focus upon.
May 3, 2020 - Today we celebrate the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross. Again we are set to remember why St. Paul says in Galatians that we should glory, that is boast and rejoice, in the Cross of Jesus Christ our Lord. As we look upon the Cross we remember two stories in the Old Testament that prefigure the Cross and the ministry of Christ upon the Holy Cross. As we look to them, we see clearly the fierceness of the love of God that wars for us to set us free from our oppressor and forge the path back to Paradise. We also have shown to us His infinite tender mercy being poured out for the healing of our souls.
April 26, 2020 - After our Lord's Crucifixion the disciples found themselves in rooms hiding within locked doors. They hid because of fear. They hid because of anxiety. The hid within their confusion and bewilderment based on the circumstances life just seemed to throw at them. But the One Who is the Resurrection did not burst down the doors, but He did enter directly into the place of their brokenness giving them hope and grace to live a new life. The Resurrection is a life to be lived by the Christian, not just an event.
Paschal Vigil 2020 - As Christ willingly gave up His spirit and died, He descended immediately into Hades. There He broke the gates of Hades asunder. There our oppressor became oppressed. And there, He revealed Himself to all of the souls kept there from the Fall of Mankind until that very moment. If our Lord can illuminate the darkness of Hades with His uncreated light, He can go to the depths of our soul where oppression and darkness still remain; and He can dispel that darkness coming to us with healing and release in His wings.
April 17, 2020- Tonight on Good Friday we have the Cross and our Lord's Crucifixion as the Paschal/Passover Lamb placed before us. In this reflection, we consider how the Cross is the journey of the Christian and a necessary one that we might experience fully the Resurrection in our own lives.
April 16, 2020 - Today marks the beginning of the Sacred Triduum, that is, the last three days of our Lord's life just prior to His glorious Resurrection. These three day begin with Maundy Thursday, the night our Lord was betrayed. On this night our Lord Jesus Christ would institute the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist and on that night He would wash the feet of His disciples. In one act He would give us one of the most profound loving gifts He could give us. And in the other act He would demonstrate for us the nature of the Agape love of God so that we may become that love for one another.
April 15, 2020 - Our Lord Jesus Christ wrestled greatly in His humanity in the Garden of Gethsemane when faced with His Crucifixion. But in His Divinity He overcame what Adam & Eve could not. He denied Himself and said, "Thy will be done." He then went to make Himself the offering that would bring us life and salvation. In this message, we examine the great and beneficial impact on our lives when we ,by grace, turn to God and say, "Thy will be done."
April 14, 2020 - The Mass of Holy Tuesday begins with these words, "It behoveth us to glory in the Cross of Jesus Christ." It is appropriate and beneficial that we boast and rejoice in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Immediately following Christ giving up His spirit unto death, the first thing in the Gospel of St. Mark we are told is that the Temple Veil was torn in two. In this reflection, we consider the benefits our Lord Jesus Christ afforded for us in the tearing of the Temple Veil.
Holy Monday 2020 - As part of the Gospel reading tonight from the Gospel of St. Mark Chapter 14, we have the story of the woman who poured out her alabaster jar of ointment upon our Lord Jesus Christ as an act of love and worship. That ointment would have been worth a year's wages and to many it seemed impractical and unreasonable to waste it all on just one person and all in one moment. This homily reflects on the reality that love is never limited by reason and practicality, in fact these things can often limit love. Tonight we see this love on display toward Christ and are compelled to develop a love like this woman had in her heart for our Lord.
April 12, 2020 - The King of Kings and Lord of Lords rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Many might think to ask, "Why would a King ride in on a beast of burden?" Throughout history, the way in which a King or ruler would present himself to a people communicated precisely why he had come to them and what he intends to do. Today we look at the way in which Christ our God came to His people in Jerusalem that day. And we look to see how they not only responded that day, but also how they responded throughout that week to His offering of peace. Today we are challenged to examine how we respond to all that Christ offers us on a daily basis.
April 5, 2020 - Today is Passion Sunday, the day we remember that our Lord hid Himself for a time from the public until He would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey and, from there, lay down His life that we all may live. Today Fr. Robert Weber reminds us that all that we are being called to do this Lent in the midst of our world pandemic is being graced by God to make us more like Him. As we sacrifice our freedoms, such as our ability to gather for worship, we are doing so for the life, safety, and health of others. And this is love, that we lay down our lives for a friend.
March 29, 2020 - The Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Lent is named Laetare, the Latin word for rejoice or be exceedingly joyful. We are reminded to rejoice right in the middle of Lent, a season of the blessed gift of repentance. Today we set ourselves to rediscover the joy in the experience of the healing work of Christ for us as we turn our lives to Him with all of our weaknesses, frailties, and the deepest illnesses within our souls. We look at three Gospel stories to remind us truly how our Lord truly sees us. If we only knew what He longed to do on our behalf when we turn to Him, we would run to Him in blessed repentance.
March 25, 2020 - As we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation, one of the 12 Major Feasts of the Church, we look at the Blessed Virgin Mary and her posture before God. When the Archangel Gabriel announces the will of God to the Virgin full of grace she says the most profound words that show clearly her heart before God, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me according to Thy word." In other words, look upon me Lord. I offer myself so completely to you that Your will alone would be done in and through my life. See the Blessed Virgin's selflessness, note her beautiful humility, and comprehend her strong and bold faith that believes the truth that every word that comes from God comes from His love always desiring to reconcile mankind back to Himself from every result of the Fall. My friends, when you see the Blessed Virgin Mary you are to see what God has graced us all to become.
March 22, 2020 - St. Paul instructs the Church in his letter to the Ephesians and Chapter 5 "Be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love." We are the dearly beloved children of God. We are the ones who have experience the immeasurable and inexhaustible love of God in our lives. St. Paul is telling us to mimic the nature of the God Who is love and offer that which we have received to others. In this time of pandemic as we now must spend so much time in our homes, we are reminded that we must cultivate a relationship of love with our Heavenly Father through prayer that we might be transformed and become love. So many in this world right now are suffering physically, struggling emotionally, and oppressed with financial fears. If ever there ever was a time that the love of God must be manifest through His people as an offering to this world, that time is upon us.
Many people are apprehensive, fearful, or uneasy about the Sacrament of Confession/Absolution. Some question why even engage such a practice. I find that all of this is true mostly because of an honest lack of understanding regarding the profound ministry Christ Himself does for us actively in and through this blessed Sacrament. This teaching focuses on the very tangible ministry of Christ on our behalf in the Sacrament of Confession. If we only knew what Jesus desires to do and indeed does out of His immeasurable love for us through this Sacrament, that He ordained for the benefit of His beloved people, we truly would find ourselves rushing to Him.
March 8, 2020 - The 40 days of Lent is modeled after the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting. In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 4 we are told that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to fast for those 40 days and then be tempted by Satan. The fact that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to do all of this should be an indication to us that this was by the Divine will of God would forge something that would be beneficial to our lives and for our salvation. Today we look at this and discover that we are led by the same Holy Spirit into these 40 days of Lent that we might return to Christ Who is our victory over Satan and every temptation he throws our way.
March 4, 2020 - St. Paul teaches that each one of us has become the Temple of the Holy Spirit. But, my friends, throughout the days of our life each year the Temple becomes cluttered and filled with things worthless to our life in Christ and our Salvation; or worse, damaging to our souls. On this Ash Wednesday we are reminded that Lent is a time to simplify our lives and turn our attention so much more to the God of our salvation. It is a time to deliberately, by grace, rid ourselves of the clutter in our minds and hearts. It is a time to make room for God once again. Those who do so, to them He will come in and make His home.
March 1, 2020 - On this last Sunday before we enter into Lent, our Lord puts front and center before us the remembrance that He is our deliverer. But is the deliverance ministry of Christ our God? In our Gospel reading from St. Luke and chapter 18 we see Christ deliver the blind man on the road near Jericho from his infirmity as the blind man cried out desperately for mercy. When we reflect Christ's deliverance of this man as well as other examples, we find that His ministry of deliverance is one that takes His beloved people from a lesser state of existence (one of frailty, weakness, and oppression) to the other extreme; into an abundant life of joy, contentment, and all of the blessings of His Kingdom.
Today, as we are preparing to enter into the healing season of Great Lent, we put our focus on understanding why we fast with prayer and the benefits God offers us as we do so. The people of God have always had prayer and fasting as part of their living experience of God. Jesus taught "when you pray" and "when you fast" not "if you pray and fast." Today we remind ourselves that fasting accompanied by prayer is not something we do as some legalistic rule. It is a prescription that the Healer of our souls offers us, and has always offered His people, that grants us the greater experience of the God Who is our Life and our Salvation.
Feb. 23, 2020 - Today we are given the Parable of the Sower from the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 8. Jesus describes the different soils onto which the seed falls. One type of soil is the hard ground of the path and represents seed falling on hard hearts. Another type is the seed that falls on rocky ground and the seed cannot go deep in the soul. The third type of ground is filled with thorns and when the seed falls and begins to grow it is choked do death by the worries and distractions of life. The final soil is the good soil onto which the seed falls and bears a tremendous crop. Which of these is the soil of our soul. Perhaps it is a bit of each type of soil. Today we talk about the need to take the seed which is the grace of God unto salvation and cultivate by that grace the soil of our soul in order that all of the benefits of the Kingdom of God and His Salvation may blossom in our lives and for the life of all those around us.
Feb. 9, 2020 - In Colossians 3, St. Paul calls us to put on the virtues of Christ and ultimately to put on love which is the greatest of all virtues. But how do we become love? St. Basil the Great answers that question by teaching that we can only become love as we experience God and receive His love. This reflection shares the thoughts of St. Basil as to how we can live a life availing ourselves to the constant experience of the love of God.
The first Fall breeze after a hot Summer has always been so very refreshing to me. This instrumental expresses the feeling that I have when the first autumn breeze gently blows in. I pray this brings you to that moment and may this piece bless you and bring you peace.
First Autumn Breeze by Father Mark McNary (c) 2020
Feb. 2, 2020 - The Gospel of St. Luke Chapter 2 gives us the story of St. Simeon receiving Jesus into his arms in the Holy Temple. God told St. Simeon that he would not die until he had seen His Savior. When He received Christ our God into his arms his soul was overwhelmed and he lifted up what we know as the Song of St. Simeon (Nunc Dimittis), a great song of praise to God that salvation had come to him and a prophecy that this child would bring light to the Gentiles. Today we look at St. Simeon's posture and find that, if it becomes our own, we will also lift up great praise from the experience of Christ our Salvation in our own lives.
Jan. 26, 2020 -St. Paul teaches us in Romans 12 that we should "be of the same mind toward one another." Consider what he is saying. St. Paul knows that we are each individual members of the body of Christ with different personalities, different ways of thinking about things in life, different experiences, and different opinions. And yet, he calls us to be of the same mind. What does this look like in the Church? How do we get there? This reflection speaks to these questions.
As a second part to last week's teaching on the Battlefield of our Thoughts, today we look at the true posture of the Christian when it comes to Spiritual Warfare. So many times we set our face upon our constant temptations and disordered thoughts in order to overcome them. Because of this we walk away many times defeated and exhausted. The real battle of the Christian is not, in and of ourselves and with our energies, to wage war against our thoughts and besetting sins. The real fight of the Christian must be, with all of our energies and by His grace, to remain in Christ who is our deliverer, our refuge, our stronghold, and our victory.
Jan. 19, 2020 - In Romans 12, St. Paul teaches the Church that, just as in a human body, the Body of Christ consists of many members with different functions of equal importance. Today we consider this understanding of what it is to be the Body of Christ in the earth. We find that the Church is the continuing incarnate ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of every soul within and for the salvation of the world.
The Church Fathers teach us in such beautiful harmony and consistency that there is an ongoing and very real battle waged for the soul of every Christian. We have a very real enemy who seeks the destruction of our soul. The Fathers also teach us that the true battlefield of our spiritual warfare is our thoughts. In this teaching we examine this battlefield. Today we remind ourselves of several encouraging truths: 1. He is truly our deliverer and victor. 2. In every battle we face we have been given the very authority of Christ our God for victory. 3. He has given us weapons that are not carnal but mighty for the pulling down of strongholds, for the casting down of arguments that set themselves up against the knowledge and truth of the revelation of God, and are mighty for taking of our thoughts captive in obedience to Christ.
Jan. 12, 2020 - In the Collect Prayer for the Mass of the Feast of the Holy Family we pray these words, "O Lord Jesus Christ, who, by being subject to Mary & Joseph, hast consecrated home life with ineffable virtues: grant that, with the help of both, we may be instructed by the example of thy Holy Family, and attain to its eternal fellowship." Because Christ subjected Himself to be a part of a family in the fallen human condition, our family life can be redeemed and made whole again. What Christ, the Divine, joins Himself to He redeems and makes new. Today we explore this wondrous truth and look at the virtues found in a family that is being made whole again.
January 6, 2020 - Today we celebrate the Feast of Epiphany. The word Epiphany means "the manifestation of the Divine to mankind." As we look at the story of the Wise Men who traveled to find Christ we find three different people/people groups. There is King Herod the Great, The Chief Priests & Scribes, and the Wise Men. Each of them had different responses to the coming of the King as a child in Bethlehem. In this sermon we learn about each of their responses and we look into our hearts to see where each response is present in us. Two of the responses need to decrease while one needs to grow. Take a few moments to listen and see if you can see these responses in your life.
Jan. 5, 2020 - Today is the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. On this day we remember that the Name of Jesus is everything to us and for us. His Name was given to Him because His Name reveals Who He is and why He came to us. His Name means both the one who delivers and the one who saves. In this homily we explore both of these meanings and what His Name means for the very moments of our lives.
The story of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is filled with wonder. We should be in awe of the full extent to which God went to redeem His beloved creation. Tonight we use the Icon of the Nativity as a guide to behold the fullness of the love of God manifest on this wondrous night. He wrapped our fallen flesh around Himself that He might act on our behalf and make us whole again. Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Today we conclude our series on repentance and the restoration and healing work of Christ in our lives based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Scrooge now is taken to the future; a future just beyond his own demise. And what is the key that unlocks the totality of true repentance coming out of his soul? It is his mortality. Our culture seeks to diminish what is, quite frankly, one of the greatest gifts of love and mercy our Lord has given us; to keep the truth of our mortality always before us. Our mortality, by grace, drives us into the loving arms of a Savior who so desires to heal us through repentance of our past and our present. On this day we discuss something almost all of us have a skewed understanding regarding. We discuss what it is to have a healthy, holy, and righteous fear of God; a truth that runs rampant all the way through the Scriptures. So we look at these Scriptures and all of the promises given to those who fear the Lord. Finally, we watch the transformation of Ebeneezer Scrooge that occurs because of true repentance. And we remember that this transformation can happen to us daily.
Dec. 22, 2019 - On the 4th and final Sunday of Advent, we are given the prayer to pray, "Raise up Thy power, and come among us, and with great might succor us." The word succor is a word we hardly ever use in conversational language. But it is such profound word when it comes to describing the reason for which our Lord Jesus Christ came to us with great power. To succor means "to come the help of" or "to come to the aid of" someone in need. In this sermon, we look through Scripture to see many ways that Christ has come to succor us. And His coming to succor us is our sure and only hope.
Dec. 15, 2019 - On the Third Sunday of Advent the liturgical colors change. The candle on the Advent wreath is rose instead of blue or violet and the vestments are to be the same if possible. The color voices the loving command of God that He gives us in the Mass of this blessed day, "Rejoice ye in the Lord, and again I say rejoice!" It is the loving wisdom of God in the giving of this command that we explore in this homily. For, especially in times of suffering, our joy is kept and strengthened by the God who makes His home within our praise.
The message of the Ghost of Christmas Past is that part of true repentance is letting the Holy Spirit reveal to us our past unhealed pains and sufferings as well as our damaged conscience from our past choices that keep us from the love of God and from becoming like Christ. The equally important message of the Ghost of Christmas Present is that we must allow Christ to open our blind eyes to see those who suffer around us spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically. The result of our spiritual blindness to those deeply in need are sins of omission - the ways we miss the mark. And Who is the mark? It is Jesus Christ! We are healed to become like Him and participate in His Divine Nature not only for our sake, but for His ministry to be extended to others.
Today Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past. Last week we examined who Ebeneezer Scrooge had become; a miser, greedy, utterly alone, no charity in his heart. But one of the most important questions to ask, a question that Charles Dickens answers through the Ghost of Christmas Past, is "Why did Scrooge become what he became?" As we look at the reasons for Scrooge's development, we wake up to the reality that every one of us has been formed by our experiences and our choices up to this very moment; the good and the bad. Part of repentance according to our Lord through His Church is allowing God to illuminate for us our past. What pains and sufferings done to us by others of just from life itself have not yet been healed and restored by Christ? What choices that we have made that has brought damage to our conscience have remained far too long in our lives. Our unhealed pain, suffering, and poor decisions impact both who we are and our ability to freely live in healthy relationships with God and with others. Today is an examination of these things in hopes, I pray, that we would all find the healing work of Christ done in our lives.
Dec. 8, 2019 - The focus of the liturgy of the Second Sunday of Advent is an exhortation to fellowship with God by means of the Holy Scriptures. It is through the reading of, the hearing, and teaching on Holy Scripture that we learn to hear our Good Shepherd's voice during the moments of our lives. And the most appropriate context for the reading of Holy Scripture is in the context of prayer.
Dec. 1, 2019 - Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Deacon Ken reminds us today that the word Advent means "the coming of someone." Our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated for us that no matter what they did to Him as He came to save us, no one could stop His Advent from continuing. The same would be true for His disciples and every generation that follows. He is the Advent that cannot be stopped. And we are the continuation of that Advent today. We are also encouraged that, for those who remain in Him, His Advent within us that transforms our lives and saves our souls will never fail to continue out of His great love for us.
In part 7 of our series we being a "series within a series" that will run during the Advent Season. Advent is a season in which our Lord leads us into deeper repentance so that we might experience His profound healing in our lives. One of the great works of classical literature, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, paints a picture of the life of Ebeneezer Scrooge; a man who needs repentance, is lead into repentance, and is so completely transformed through the process that he is an entirely different human being. In this series we will let Dickens' work lead be a guide to us that we may be freed by our Lord Jesus Christ of all that has us bound both from our past and in our present. Today we begin by making sure we understand the Church's understanding of repentance. And, we look at the reasons Ebeneezer Scrooge needs healing that comes through repentance and we have a look at the call to repentance by Jacob Marley.
Nov. 24, 2019 - In the beginning of the Mass today we hear the words of God "If you call upon me I will come to you and I will bring you out of your captivity." This week is the week we are given to prepare for our journey together with Christ through the Season of Advent. How shall we live that we may call upon the Lord and experience His deliverance out of His great love for us. Our Lord asks us during Advent to offer Him three things that are interwoven. We are asked to increase our fasting, our prayer, and our almsgiving. Today we examine these three spiritual disciplines and how God floods us with His grace as we offer them to Him.
Nov. 17, 2019 - St. Paul, as a general readying an army for battle, calls us to put on the whole armor of God. The Early Church Fathers in beautiful harmony teach us that the armor of God is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. In this homily we look at each piece of the armor and how it truly is our Lord. We also look at how we go about putting on Christ. We put Him on through prayer.
A life of prayer is a living experience of the union we have been granted with God through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. It is such a foundation and pillar to our life in God and our salvation. In this session we look at the morning hour of prayer and how to pray it as a means of fellowship with our Lord. We need to see the liturgical prayers of the hours as a necessary trellis that provides the framework so that we see God clearly and in truth. But the liturgical prayers are just the beginning of prayer, not the end. The trellis provides the structure upon which the living vine of fellowship with God can grow and become beautiful.
Nov. 10, 2019 - In Ephesians 5 St. Paul calls us to live a life redeeming the time. How do we live a life where the result is the redemption of time? What does it even mean to redeem the time? This sermon explores these questions. Jesus says in the Gospels that out of His people would flow living water. Everywhere that living water goes, life springs up from death. May it be that we all come to better understand our new identity in Christ and the fullness of what He can do in and through us if we will remain in Him.
Nov. 3, 2019 - God gives His people Spiritual Disciplines in order to heal their lives. A Spiritual Discipline is an action we do that is met with the Divine grace and power of God for our salvation. One of the Spiritual Disciplines our Lord has always given as a gift to His people is the tithe. This sermon discusses all that God does for us by His grace as we offer to Him the first fruits of what really belongs to Him. Today we remember that those who tithe to God are giving Him the opportunity He desires to show just how faithful in provision as our Heavenly Father He truly is over every area of our lives.
Nov. 2, 2019 - On the Feast of All Souls God gives us such a grace-filled weapon to exhort us to place our lives entirely in Him all of our days so that we might enjoy every incredible benefit of the Kingdom of God forever. That gift is our mortality. We do not know the hour that will be our last nor the day that Christ will return triumphantly when the dead will rise victoriously in Him. To those who remain in active fellowship with Him all of their days, their mortality becomes a joy and anticipation. To those who do not fan the flame of the gift of fellowship with Him, the thought of their mortality becomes a great dread and fear.
Nov. 1, 2019 - On the Feast of All Saints we are given a vision of all the Saints in heaven worshiping God and He wiping away all suffering from them. We are also given our Lord Jesus Christ's teaching of the Beatitudes, the virtues of Christ that were written in the lives of all those who remain in our Lord. Both the vision of the eternity that He desires for all whom He has created and the reminder of the His virtues are given to us to follow the holy example of the Saints; those who decreased that Christ may increase in their lives so that we may be granted such an eternity with Him.
I have mentioned many times in this series that every aspect of how the Christian lives in fellowship with God daily is found in the Liturgy itself. Today, we explore each area of the Christian life that we see and live together when we gather to join with our Lord in the Divine Liturgy and how it graces and shapes us to live in such a way every day of our lives.
Oct. 27, 2019 - Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you a king?" Part of our Lord's answer was the very profound statement, "My Kingdom is not of this world." The Kingdom of God is the perfect order established by God in which the salvation of the soul through fellowship with God can take place. Disorder, then, must be thought of as anything outside of the order of God that brings illness and destruction to the soul. Today we look at the culture of disorder around us and ask ourselves this question, "How must we in the Kingdom of God posture ourselves for the sake of the healing of those struggling from the results of disorder?" We pray in the Liturgy even today that the God who set all things to be restored in His beloved Son would mercifully set free from disorder all who are outside of His Kingdom and bring them under His most gracious dominion.
In the last session we talked about the need to prayerfully prepare to take our place as the Kingdom of Priests in order to make our offering unto God. We were reminded of the words of an Early Church Father who said that when we gather, Christ is there awaiting us. The first questions we discuss is, "What is Christ present to do on our behalf?" All that He does as He is present with us leaves us with only two words that are most appropriate. Those are, "Thank you!" We gather to give God the glory, worship, and thanksgiving due His Name. But what about the closing of the Liturgy? In the end we are sent to be about our mission taking all that we received and offering it to the world.
Oct. 20, 2019 - St. Paul teaches us in Ephesians 4 that we are to walk worthy of the vocation to which we have been called; in lowliness, gentleness, with longsuffering bearing with one another in love. How ofted that which is in our heart that comes out of the gateway of our mouth gets in the way of such a calling. In this reflection we consider the power of the tongue. To aid us in our walking with the gift of the Holy Spirit self-control in this area, we discuss the teaching of St. Porphyrios who taught "Only prayer, silence, and love are effective...It is better to turn the heart of other people through secret prayer than to their ears."
St. Peter in 1 Peter 2 teaches us the following: "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We are a royal and holy priesthood. This is the vocation of every Christian. The question at hand today is this...If we are a holy priesthood that is to offer sacrifices acceptable to God, how are we preparing to fulfill our role every time we gather to become the Temple of God? In this session we discuss the importance of prayerful preparation as a kingdom of priests to take our place and offer to God these spiritual sacrifices and how we might start to put this into practice in our lives.
Great Commission Dialogues on October 6th, 2019 - Remembering that, as Metropolitan John of Albania taught, "The Church of God does not have a mission, the God of mission has a Church," today we reflect on that which drove God to become man to save man. It was God's immeasurable love for all whom He created that moves Him always toward humanity in order to rescue, redeem, and save us all. As Fr. Michael Keiser states in his book "Spread the Word," Genuine evangelism must be rooted in love for those to whom you bring the Gospel.
October 6, 2019 - In the Gospel of St. Matthew Chapter 6, our Lord speaks into something we all have to deal with from time to time; the worries of this life. The question we deal with today is, "What is our treasure? In other words, what is our focus and our pursuit in our daily lives? " The answer to this question shows us where our treasure truly lies. In Christ's teaching to us from this Gospel reading, He clearly reminds us that the antidote to our anxieties and our restlessness is setting the face of our soul toward Him.
Today's sessions covers the Early Church's understanding of the gathering of God's people to worship God and receive Holy Eucharist. They believed that when and every time they gathered together, there the Kingdom of God was most fully realized on earth for heaven and earth had joined together with Christ our God. How might it change the way we approach going to Church to worship if we really believed this; if we truly believed that when we gathered and entered, Christ was awaiting us therein?
September 30, 2019 - Today is the Feast Day of St. Michael the Archangel & All Angels. In this sermon we are reminded of the purpose and function that, by God's will, He has ordained regarding the ranks of angels and their holy purpose for the benefit of mankind. In the Nicene Creed we say every Sunday, "I believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible." Today we are reawakened to the invisible, the role of the bodiless powers of heaven God has set forth to aid us in our salvation.
As part of the distinguished speaker program initiated by St. Peter's Classical School in conjunction with St. Peter Orthodox Church, all were blessed to hear His Grace Bishop Neofitos of Kenya speak to us about the reemergence of the Orthodox Church in Kenya and the challenges facing the Church regarding the spreading of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
September 22, 2019 - Mr. Seraphim Danckaert, Headmaster of St. Peter's Classical School, joined us during our Sunday School this Sunday. He spoke to us about how the value of the Classical Education philosophy joined to our great Faith is so capable of transforming and shaping the human person. In this talk we also hear of the mission and vision of this blessed school. As St. Theophan the Recluse taught, "Of all holy works, the education of children is the most holy."
September 22, 2019 - Today in the Gospel of St. Luke Chapter 10 we hear the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The Church Fathers teach us that the man who came down from Jerusalem to Jericho is the image of the fall of mankind and the Good Samaritan is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ who shows compassion and mercy bandaging up the wounds of mankind caused by the fall. The Fathers also teach is that the inn into which Christ brings the suffering is His Church and the "innkeeper" is every living stone therein. Today we reflect on the incredible purpose for which Christ has given His Church now filled with Him by the Holy Spirit. We are both patients being healed by the Great Physician and, at the same time, we are vessels through whom Christ desires to manifest His healing and reconciling ministry to all.
Today marks the beginning of our series entitled "Living in Remembrance." At the institution of the Lord's Supper, Christ our God took bread and wine and blessed them both. He then said that we should "do this in remembrance of Me." But what does it mean to remember according to our Lord? The word for remembrance here is anamnesis and it means a great deal more than just a mental exercise of bringing back memories of the past to our minds. This lesson examines what it really means to remember; for to remember is to experience Jesus Christ in the present as He offers Himself to us as we offer ourselves to Him.
September 15, 2019 - Today is the Feast Day of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day we remember the suffering endured of our Lord's Mother just as St. Simeon prophesied in the Gospel of St. Luke Chapter 2. When we look at her seven sorrows, we find a common strand to them all. She suffered because of the suffering of another. In this sermon we are exhorted to come along side the suffering and "bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ."
September 8, 2019 - Today we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church teaches us that when we consider the Mother of our Lord we are both directed to her Son and reminded of our true identity as Christians. When we behold the Mother of God we are shown Christ's Holy Church. In this reflection we see the Blessed Virgin Mary as the fulfillment of Jacob's ladder from Genesis 28 and the fulfillment of the Temple from the Old Covenant. As we consider these truths, we explore what they reveal to us about who we really are as Christ's Body here on earth and how it might transform our lives if we were to grow in faith to actually believe what Christ has made us.
August 27, 2019 - Satan's strategy against humanity today is no different than it was in the Garden of Eden. He seeks to create discontent in us when we have everything we need in God and then present to us a vice that leads to the constant and frustrating pursuit of that which can never satisfy. In God alone are we complete. He alone is the antidote to our discontent.
August 18, 2019 -As a follow up to last week's homily "The Faith that God Can Use You," this homily focuses on how to cultivate a life in which our faith can truly grow. The increase of our faith only comes through the living experience of Christ in our daily lives. How do we live a life placing ourselves before God daily in such a way that we truly encounter Him? This is the question we hope to begin answering today.
August 15, 2019 - In the icon of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary we see the Mother of our Lord appearing as a child borne by her Son and carried into Paradise. She bore Christ in her very being and through her salvation Himself came into the world. Now, she being saved through her Son is now borne into Heaven as His blessed child. Tonight we let the icon teach us and encourage us that the Blessed Virgin falling asleep in her Son and being brought in His arms to Paradise is a picture of the Resurrection promised to all in whom Christ dwells and through whom His salvation comes into the world.
August 11, 2019 - In the Gospel of St. Mark Chapter 8, the disciples are faced with an impossible situation. Over 4,000 were in need of food and the disciples only had 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. Jesus asks them, "What do you have?" They offer Him only what they had and the Kingdom of God miraculously was manifest in the miracle of the feeding of the 4,000. Do we lack the faith that Christ can manifest His Kingdom through our lives? In this homily we remember that Christ only asks us for what we have. He overcomes what we lack and all of our deficiencies in order to reveal Himself through us to a world that so desperately needs Him.
July 7, 2019 - In the Parable of the Banquet found in the Gospel of St. Luke 14, a man sets a banquet and invites many to attend. He has his servant go out and announce that the banquet is now ready. In this homily we learn that the nature of God is to offer all that He has to all whom He has created. His desire is that none be left out of the banquet. We also learn that each of us in the Church has become the living invitations through which God invites and compels all to come in that they may have eternal life.
June 30, 2019 - Here on the first day of the Liturgical Season of Trinitytide, we are given two Scriptures that offer us the true foundation of our Christian life. Today we receive the call to become love as God is love. We hear this call clearly in 1 John Chapter 4 and then we see love fleshed out for us in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus from the Gospel of St. Luke Chapter 16. Love is the offering of our life for the sake and blessing of another just as we have received from God. At the core of this sermon is the Orthodox prayer, "Lord set us free from the service of ourselves that we may do Thy will."
June 23, 2019 - It is the revelation of the Holy Trinity given to the Church that shapes our faith. By the lens of that faith our entire worldview must be shaped. This homily explores this idea and also exhorts us to keep our eyes focused on the Holy Trinity, three Persons yet unified as One, so that the Body of Christ testifies to that oneness by our loving unity.
June 16, 2019 - On the Feast of Pentecost the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon mankind. That day, having been filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ's disciples were gifted with the languages of all who converged into Jerusalem to celebrate this great feast. So many in Jerusalem would experience Christ through His disciples by the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in the Gospel of St. John Chapter 15 that one of the roles of the Holy Spirit would be to testify of Him through His disciples. God's desire and means by which salvation would be brought to the ends of the earth has never changed. He ministers salvation in and through His people who have now been filled with the Holy Spirit.
June 9, 2019 - As our Lord Jesus Christ Ascended, He comforted His disciples by telling them that it was better for them that He Ascend, for then He would send the promised Comforter; the Holy Spirit. As we are between the Ascension and Pentecost on this Sunday, today we set ourselves to remember the role of the Holy Spirit as our Comforter. We also look to see how we might prayerfully prepare for Pentecost that we might be reawakened to the reality of the great gift we have been given as the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon mankind.
June 6, 2019 - When our Lord Jesus Christ Ascended into Heaven, He comforted His disciples with the promise that He would send the Holy Spirit. We, just as the disciples, are a people of that same promise. In this reflection on the Ascension we remember that just as we are promised the Holy Spirit and given the Holy Spirit at our Baptism, we also in response to such love promise ourselves by offering ourselves to God. As God offers Himself to us and we offer ourselves back to God, there we experience the fullness of the gift we have been given and there is the experience of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
June 2, 2019 - The power of the tongue is immense. With it the greatest good is accomplished. And, with the tongue the most damaging evil is done. The focus of the Epistle of St. James chapter 1 is this very issue. In that chapter we are taught to be slow to speak and slow to wrath and to bridle our tongues. In doing so we protect the peace of Christ on behalf of one another and our own souls. When we tame the tongue we keep the serpent out of the garden of peace.
May 26, 2019 - St. James in the first chapter of his Epistle teaches us to be "swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath." This homily explores the wisdom of this teaching and how it protects relationships, preserves peace in the Body of Christ, and preserves the witness of the living Jesus Christ through us to those who most need to see Him.
May 19th, 2019 - St. Peter writes in 1 Peter 2 that we are to live as sojourners and pilgrims by abstaining from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. He also exhorts us to live out the new life we have been given in Christ before all of those around us. What does it mean to live as foreigners in this world? The homily explores this question and reminds us that as we detach from that which causes damage and death to the soul, and as we grow in the likeness of God, our salvation becomes Christ's offering of salvation through us to those who so still dwell in darkness.
May 12, 2019 - In the Gospel of John Chapter 10, Jesus calls Himself The Good Shepherd and then uses some of the most profound language of relationship to describe His relationship with His sheep and they with Him. He tells us that we can truly know Him. And as we grow to know Christ our God, our Good Shepherd, we can hear His voice and follow Him. This homily reflects on these three aspects of relationship that we are to have with our Lord Jesus Christ: We can know Him, hear Him, and follow Him to the healing of our soul and our salvation.
May 5, 2019 - Holy Scripture is a testimony of Christ. Through the Divine reading of Holy Scripture we learn to hear the voice of Christ and through Holy Scripture Christ is revealed to us. The Church has always seen the prayerful readings and attention to Scripture as a means by which we can come to know Christ our God.
April 21, 2019 - On this Palm Sunday we take a look at yet another of the Old Testament Festal Celebrations that prophesied the coming of the Messiah and why He would come. In Leviticus, the Scriptures describe for us what was to be done while celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. It was during this 7 day Feast that the priests would process with a large golden container of water from the Pool of Siloam to the Altar of Sacrifice in the Temple. As they would process, they would move through a crowd of people who were told to have palm branches and to rejoice. The priests would lead the chanting of Psalms 113 - 118 which were songs of deliverance. And in Psalm 118 we find these words "Hosanna (which means save us now, O Lord). Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord." These are the very words cried out as Christ would enter Jerusalem to the waving of the palms. Today we rejoice and we wave our palms because our deliverer has come to deliver us. And we cry out with these same words, "Save us now, O Lord. Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord."
In this class we focus on how to live faithfully to Christ within the teachings of the Orthodox Faith as we live in an American culture very unfamiliar with Orthodoxy. We are reminded that our faithfulness is to allow Christ to heal our soul and from that many will come to know Him.
There is so much to learn when first trying to understand the liturgy of the Church. We participate in so many ways in our worship of God. It is, therefore, both important and helpful to know what to do and when. It is also equally important to understand why we do all that we do as we worship God. This class focuses on these very important issues.
Today we look at the Gospel of St. John and Chapter 11 which gives us the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Jesus, the Word of God, calls forth Lazarus from the grave and his soul rejoins to his body which is completely renewed. Jesus also with the same voice commands Lazarus to be loosed from that which bound him. As we look at the incredible testimony of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, we pay great attention to see how we have both been raised from the dead and loosed from our bondage by the same Word of God Who did so for Lazarus.
April 14, 2019 - On this Passion Sunday we are given the scripture from Hebrews 9 describing Jesus Christ as our eternal Great High Priest. But to understand what St. Paul is teaching, we must go back to one of the major Feast Days of the Old Covenant; the Day of Atonement. By looking at the High Priests actions on the Day of Atonement and the sacrifice commanded by God, we see that even in the Old Covenant God was showing Himself to be a God of limitless mercy. How much more do we see the mercy of God eternally being granted through our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ?
In the Parable of the Ten Virgins we are all called to live a prepared spiritual life all of our days. This is how we have oil in our lamp and will not miss the Bridegroom when He comes for us. But our living a prepared life is done knowing the value and worth of God and all that He does on our behalf. In the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price we see this image. Are we living in such a way to give all that might receive the King of All and all of the benefits of His Kingdom?
Christ teaches that He is the Good Shepherd in the Gospel of St. John Chapter 10. In this session we look at what Christ reveals about Himself regarding His being our Good Shepherd. We also looked at how important this image and truth was to the earliest Christians and their worship. Even in the Catacombs of Rome, where Christians worshiped while under Roman persecution, the most prevalent image on the walls was Christ shown as the Shepherd of His sheep.
April 7, 2019 - Over halfway into Lent, Christ through His Church gives us a liturgy in which we are reminded to rejoice in the Lord. In order for us to truly rejoice it is important that we be reminded of the very source of true rejoicing. Through both examples from Holy Scripture and modern day, this homily explores the encounter humanity has with the Savior that leads the soul to rejoice.
March 31, 2019 - Today we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Innocent of Alaska. When we look at his life we see a man willing to obediently follow God to great distances and willing to make great sacrifices for the sake of Christ and for the salvation and care of many souls. This homily encourages us to offer ourselves for the sake of the souls around us. Not all are called on missionary journeys. But we are all called to walk in and from our Lord Jesus Christ; that as our lives are transformed by Him, others may experience Him and find salvation. What are we willing to offer to Christ that He may do His good works in and through us on behalf of others.
In the Parable of the Dragnet our Lord Jesus Christ says that the Kingdom of God is like a dragnet cast in the sea catching fish and bringing them into the boat. When the boat, full of fish, comes to the shore the fish get separated; the good from the bad and the bad are thrown away. He does this to teach us of the end times and the final judgment. This session explores the parable and one of the most important questions: Lord, how do You, the righteous judge of every soul, discern the good from the bad who have been caught and brought into the Ark of Salvation?
Here we have the second session of our Lenten "The Kingdom of God is Like" series. In this parable, our Lord speaks of the command that we must forgive as we have been forgiven. This session explores that call and the grace we have been given to do so. It also speaks to the impact a lack of forgiveness has on us all.
We begin our Lenten series this year with a teaching on true repentance. How has the Church always taught this very important aspect of our life in Christ? It is far more than just sorrow over our sins and it is the foundation on which Christ constructs the work of salvation in the lives of all out of His great love for us.
Today we look at the story of the woman caught in adultery brought by the Scribes and Pharisees before Christ. It is in the Gospel of St. John that we have those familiar words given by Christ, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." In this narrative we explore the ministry of Christ overthrowing the accusers and we see clearly the God of mercy in action toward one who could never deserve it.
In the Gospel of St. John Chapter 7, Jesus is in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. During this feast Christ stands up in the midst of the crowd and proclaims that He is One Who offers living water and that those who drink from it will never thirst again. To understand more fully what Christ says of Himself, we must come to an understanding of the Feast of Tabernacles. Just as in every Old Covenant Feast that God gave them to celebrate in honor of Him, Jesus is prefigured in each one of these major celebrations. When we look at what God would have the Priest and His people do in this Great Feast we see very clearly why Christ would reveal Himself in this way to the crowd during this holy celebration.
March 24, 2019 - In the Gospel of St. Matthew and Chapter 15 we have the story of the Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus pleading for the release of her daughter from demon possession. Jesus deals with this woman in a way we would never anticipate Him speaking to someone. He does so because He intends to draw her to the place in her soul where she can truly experience Him and be granted a Great Faith. Today we look at what Christ does for her and result that it has in her life so that we, too, may be drawn to the gift of Great Faith by the experience of our Savior.
March 17, 2019 - Why does Christ through His Church call us to the 40 days of fasting and prayer in Great Lent? Because He Himself fasted for 40 days and overthrew the temptations of the devil for us. Jesus was led into temptation by the Spirit so that we could experience His authority and deliverance in our own lives over our enemy. In Lent, we bind ourselves to Christ by the grace-filled spiritual disciplines that we may experience Christ's victory over Satan both now and forevermore.
March 13, 2019 - We begin Lent with the Mass of Ash Wednesday. In the Mass we hear the words of God through the Prophet Joel sound the alarm to God's people that the Day of the Lord is at hand. Then, once awakened by the alarm, the people hear God's plea to return to Him. Therefore we begin Lent by heeding the alarm of our mortality as ash is place upon our foreheads in the sign of the Cross. We remember that Lent is a Season through which God, having reawakened us, calls us to come back to Him. And we hear through the Prophet Joel that the God to Whom we return is a God of mercy and full of loving-kindness for all who repent and turn back to Him.
March 10, 2019 - On the last Sunday before Lent we are given the words of St. Paul from 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, his greatest teaching on our call to become love to one another. In this homily we are reminded that this love we are to become is the love of God. And the love of God is always expressed by what He does on our behalf and for our salvation. For love is not a feeling, it is a doing.
In the Gospel of St. John Chapter 6, our Lord Jesus Christ declares Himself to be the Bread of Life. And He makes incredibly direct statements to those who have ears to hear such as, "Those who eat of my flesh and drink of my blood have eternal life and I will raise them up at the last day." Today we look at what Jesus truly was teaching about Himself and what He would offer us all through bread and wine that He would bless to become His Body and Blood. We look at the ancient liturgy of the Church as well as the teachings of the Early Church Fathers for the first five centuries to see clearly all that Christ does on behalf of those who remain in Him through the Eucharist.
March 3, 2019 - In today's Gospel reading from St. Luke Chapter 8, we hear Jesus tell the "Parable of the Sower." The truth any farmer will tell you regarding planting seed to grow a crop is that the most important factor is the health of the soil. As we look at this parable today we discuss the importance of cultivating the soil of our soul to the end that the seed of God within us may take deep root, bear the fruit of the Kingdom of God, and produce a crop one hundredfold.
The word canon means measuring stick. Canon Law, therefore, consists of pastoral regulations that truly exist to govern the souls of mankind toward their salvation withing the order of the Church both for clergy and laity alike. In this session, we discuss Orthodox Canon Law from the perspective of our Faith.
February 24, 2019 - Today is the first day of the three week preparation for the season of Great Lent. On this day we hear the words of St. Paul from 1 Corinthians 9 as he uses the example of top athletes who run a race in order to obtain a prize. How does his example of the athlete training for competition relate to our spirituality; our living relationship with Christ? In this homily we reflect upon this example in the hope of growing toward a greater temperance and grace-filled self-control.
February 19, 2019 - When Jesus begins the Parable of the Talents, He begins with this statement, "The Kingdom of God is like..." It seems that when the King of the Kingdom says "The Kingdom of God is like," we would do well to pay attention. This homily reflects on the the Parable of the Talents and what it tells us about the true life of the Christian in God's Kingdom.
We begin this session with the end of the Gospel of St. John and Chapter 3 reflecting on the words of St. John the Forerunner glorifying God as He says, "He must increase. I must decrease." From there we look at Chapter 4 and hear the story of the encounter of the Samaritan woman at the well with our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we gain a clear picture of how our Lord reveals Himself to us in order to draw the poison of the Fall of Man out of our soul and make us whole again.
In the Gospel of St. John Chapter 3 we have the narrative of the Pharisee Nicodemus being sent to Jesus by the Pharisees to learn more about Him. Jesus, perceiving that Nicodemus has a heart to truly know more about Him, immediately begins teaching Nicodemus the very framework of the salvation He had come to offer the world. We receive from the Apostle St. John the very understanding of the Sacrament of Baptism and the activity of God within this blessed Sacrament bestowing new and recreated life upon mankind.
February 10, 2019 - There is so much richness to be learned within the Christian Faith of the Orthodox Church. For more than two thousand years we have the Holy Spirit inspired wisdom of the Church handed down from generation to generation leading us on in our salvation through relationship with God. But there is one thing that we must not ever forget. The foundation of it all is love. As St. Paul says, without love all of our spiritual knowledge and efforts are like a clanging cymbal. Love is the foundation of our faith for God is love.
February 3, 2019 - In the Gospel of St. Matthew 8, our Lord calls the faith of the Roman Centurion the greatest faith He had seen in all of Israel. What was so great about his faith? What was it that so blessed Christ regarding the faith of this man so much so that the very words of the Centurion to Christ would be etched in the earliest of liturgies in the Church and are still in the liturgies today? In this homily we seek to learn from the faith of this man that we may, by the gift and grace of God, grow in such faith.
In this session we conclude Chapter 1 of the Gospel of St. John and focus our attention on Christ's first miracle at the Wedding in Cana. Attending to the teaching of many of the Early Church Fathers, we find such a clear revelation of Jesus Christ. And, as always, the more we know our Lord Jesus Christ who came to be the revelation of God to us and for us, the more we come to better understand our true identity having been created in His image and graced to grow in His likeness.
January 20, 2019 - Not to us, oh Lord, be the glory but unto Thy Name be all glory. This is the spiritual disposition of the follower of Christ Who, though He was God, made Himself of no reputation and became a servant even unto His death on the cross. St. Paul in Romans 12 calls us to offer ourselves, all that we are, to God that we might be set apart for His holy use alone. But before St. Paul describes the various ways God ministers through His people, He exhorts the people of God toward the virtue of humility. This blessed virtue is the very core of today's reflection.
Today we begin a new series on the Gospel of St. John. This Gospel is written using the most theological language of any of the Gospels primarily because it was written some 30 - 40 years after the other three Gospels were written. We see this even in the very first chapter of this Gospel. Today, we look at one of the most important theological revelations to man about God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; a statement that would cause false teachings to rise and, therefore, the Church to proclaim the truth of this incredible reality. In this session we look at this truth, how the Church teaches the Incarnation, and how it reveals to us the new creation of the Christian through Jesus Christ, the Second Adam.
January 13, 2019 - Today is the Octave Day of Epiphany and on this day the focus is on the revelation of God to man through the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this reflection we use the Icon of the Baptism of our Lord to hear the Early Church teachings of what God did for us through Jesus Christ as He would be baptized in the Jordan River.
January 6, 2019 - Today is the Feast Day of the Epiphany of our Lord and the Church gives us the narrative of the Magi being lead directly to Christ as a child. There they would have God revealed to them in Christ and the result would be that they would fall down and worship Him offering Him the best of what they had. We are also given the words of St. Paul from Ephesians 3 telling us that grace has been given that now the manifold wisdom of God would be revealed through His Church. Epiphany means the manifestation or the revelation of God to man. In this reflection we look at how God manifested Himself to the Gentiles for the salvation of all. But we also look at how God has purposed to continue that revelation of Himself to all through all of us.
January 1, 2019 - Today we celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord. Many ask the question as to why is this celebrated as a Feast Day in the Church. Today we look at the Circumcision of our Lord and we hear how this directly applies to our journey as disciples of Jesus Christ.
December 24, 2018 - On this night God has heard the longing of all creation and answered the cry of us all. He has come to be our help. He has come to deliver us, to step into the deepest of our suffering, and to give us grace and power to overcome the evil one. Tonight we look to the Icon of the Nativity to see just a few of the glorious truths of this blessed night. Our Lord and Savior has come and the Kingdom of God is at hand.
December 23, 2018 - On the last Sunday of Advent we pray this prayer: "O Lord, raise up, we pray Thee, Thy power, and come among us, and with great might succor us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, Thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us." As Advent closes and we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ at His birth, we lift up the lamenting cry of how desperately we need Him to come to us and deliver us. In this prayer we find the spiritual disposition and posture of all those in Christ. This prayer reveals the truth of how we are to live out the moments of our lives in and through our Savior.
Having brought an overview to the narrative of Job to a close, today we reflect on our journey thus far; for we have sought to learn the necessary language of lament that keeps us hanging on to God for dear life in times of suffering in order that He might reveal Himself to us and redeem the suffering and heal our wounds. In this session we summarize what we have learned from Job and his lament. We discover aspects of this language of lament applicable to all of our lives as Christians who are filled with the Divine by the Holy Spirit.
December 16, 2018 - The third Sunday of Advent always has a theme. That theme is telling us to rejoice! This world promotes happiness. Buy this and it will make you happy. Do this and it will bring happiness to you. But happiness ebbs and flows. What Christ offers us at all times whether we are in the peaks of blessing or the valleys of suffering is true joy. We rejoice because God became Incarnate in order to bring us to Himself. We rejoice because God will come again and all who are in Christ will have joy and all tears will be wiped away.
December 11, 2018 - For 35 chapters in the Book of Job, Job's friends attempt to correct Job's lament before God. They are so right in everything they say to Job. There is no lack of truth in their words. However, there is one problem. They are applying right formulas to a wrong problem. Yet God even uses Job's friends to keep Job hanging on to him for dear life through the suffering. Now we come to see how God shows up on the scene and reveals Himself to Job. There is much we can learn for us from how God shows up and how He revealed Himself to Job, Job's response to this revelation, and the restoration and redemption of not only Job but his friends as well. He is a God who calls us out of shame and wretchedness back to the dignity in which He created us all.
December 9, 2018 - The question gets asked to Priests in the Orthodox Church every season of Advent and Lent, "Why do we fast? What is it supposed to do? It seems like it just makes me hungry, tired, and irritable." These are great questions! I always return these questions with this question, "What are you doing to accompany your fasting?" I ask this because our Great Physician does not call us just to fast. Our Great Physician has also prescribed an increase of prayer which is fellowship with God along with the reading of Holy Scriptures. We are also to increase our giving of alms to those less fortunate. This homily speaks of how all of these spiritual disciplines work together both for the healing of our souls as well as our greater experience with the Living Lord Jesus Christ.
December 2, 2018 - We are given the grace-filled Season of Advent to prepare our souls to receive the King of All. God, through the prophet Hosea, tells us to "Break up the fallow ground, for now is the time to seek the Lord until He comes and rains righteousness upon you." This is the focus of Advent. It is no surprise nor wonder that the season of the culture in which we live, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, presents such distraction and opposition to what God has called us to do and what He desires to work in us. This reflection presents the reality of a season of opposites. What culture will we live in during Advent? Will we follow the distractions of the culture outside of the Church. Or, will we follow the culture of the Kingdom of God and experience the reality of the King of All Who comes to us and for us?
November 25, 2018 - On this Sunday Next Before Advent, it is appropriate for us to be reminded of the meaning of this blessed season. It is a season of preparation for the Advent of our Lord. Advent is a word that simply means "coming." All Living Stones in the Church are called to prepare the soil of their souls that we may receive the King of All Who we not only remember comes to us at Christmas, but comes to us daily in our lives.
In today's session we continue looking at Job's continuing lament through his extreme suffering. We look to learn from some key points of his lament that truly must become part of ours in times of duress and pain. Job struggles so faithfully to hang on to God and pursue him with a necessary desperation in hopes that God will come and deliver him. I pray we all grow to be like Job that we might be granted the revelation of God that heals us, corrects us, and redeems us.
November 18, 2018 - God speaks through His Prophet Jeremiah words that should draw our hearts to rejoice in great thanksgiving to God when He says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of affliction..." We look at this as well as the rest of this passage to see not only who God is but also how He is postured towards us. We then take a look at our Gospel reading from St. Matthew 9 to see in the testimonies regarding the woman with the issue of blood and the ruler who's daughter had just died to find. For in these stories we see the heart of God in Christ toward mankind making Himself present and able to be found by us. At the encounter of the Christ, Who is for us, we are released from our captivity and healed of our infirmities.
November 11, 2018 - We have all hear Jesus' words from Matthew 22 when He says to the Pharisees, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." What does it really mean to render to God the things that are God's? This homily answers that question and talks about the spiritual discipline of the tithe as a gift of God to us all; a grace-filled discipline that transforms our lives so that we are enabled to live our lives as a joyous offering to God of all that we are and all that we have.
As Job undergoes an incredible level of torment and suffering, he keeps his lament directed toward God. But it is certain that not everything that comes out of his mouth makes us comfortable. For example, he cries out to God for death saying death would be so much better than life; a suicidal sentiment. Is Job right in all of the words he lifts to God? Absolutely not. But the key is that he never turns away from God even when he is in such error of thought. He always goes to God authentically right where he is in life. God can handle and correct our error when we are suffering. One of the most important things we learn from Job's lament...never let go of God. For God, when we are truly ready to receive Him will reveal Himself to us to redeem us and save us.
November 4, 2018 - Peter asks Jesus how many times must he forgive the offenses of his brother. Jesus answer is that he must forgive endlessly, without limit. Then Jesus gives us what we know as the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. He begins with the words, "The Kingdom of God is like..." This homily explores the realities of the Kingdom regarding Christ's call to us to forgive in the same way we have been forgiven. Though Jesus gives difficult words, His words are true and always for the healing of our soul. We must forgive so that we may be set free.
November 2, 2018 - The Church has been praying for the departed since its inception. St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple and one mentored by the Apostle John, wrote one of the most beautiful Christian prayers; the theme of which has continued to be prayed in the prayer services and liturgies of the Church for over 2000 years. Why do we pray for the departed to be welcomed into a place of rest and peace? The All Souls Mass answers this by placing in the forefront Jesus Christ, the Resurrection and the Life, through the Scriptures and prayers of the Feast of All Souls Liturgy.
November 1, 2018 - This day we celebrate the Feast of All Saints and what a glorious feast to celebrate before Christ our God. It is this day we celebrate the saints in heaven and on earth; for there is one Body of Christ that death cannot separate because through Christ all in Him have been granted His victory over death and hell. We focus tonight truly upon All Saints for the veil is much thinner than we perceive between those who have gone before us and those of us who now remain. Thanks be to God!
Today we begin our overview of the narrative of Job. Job is a man who, because of his faith and the blessings of God because of his great faith, lives in somewhat of a paradise. As Satan is allowed to destroy Job's property, kill his servants, take the lives of Job's ten children, and finally inflict great physical suffering upon Job, we take a look at how Job responds to God in all of this. It is his first lament of many and we seek to learn how to desperately hang on to God and not let go in the midst of our own sufferings.
October 28, 2018 -The word consecration means to set apart something or someone for a holy purpose. In the Old Covenant items to be used only for the worship of God in the Tabernacle or Temple were consecrated to God by being anointed with oil. The Israelite Kings were consecrated to God for that purpose by being anointed with oil, separated to God for His holy use. Jesus Christ, Christ meaning anointed One, was set apart to God and would become Prophet, Priest, and King for the salvation of the world. But do we consider the truth that we have all been consecrated through Baptism and the anointing of oil to God. Every living stone in the Church has been separated to God for His holy use; to bring salvation to this world and glory to God.
We find no greater example of great suffering, prayers of lament, and the revelation of God to man that delivers man and makes him whole than in the narrative of Job. Today we look at the story arc of this incredible testimony noting the major themes in this writing. God has given us the gift of this book to teach us the language of lament so that we might cling to Him in times of suffering and experience His deliverance, His presence, and His revelation to us of Himself. All of this given that we might see the light of His countenance and be made whole.
October 21, 2018 - In Ephesians 5 St. Paul teaches us to "walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil." When St. Paul says that we are to redeem the time, he is saying that we should make holy and sacred use of every moment of our lives. When we do, our lives reflect the light of God in Jesus Christ who stepped into time to redeem all things and reconcile the world back to God.
October 14, 2018 - It is easy to get distracted and overwhelmed in the extreme busyness, responsibilities, and distractions of this life. Sometimes we truly experience the sense of drowning in these intense waters. Today's homily brings into question our true priorities and how these priorities can either raise us up by the grace of God above what life constantly throws at us or they can keep us bound and drowning under the weight of this present existence.
October 7, 2018 - Ephesians 4: After St. Paul calls those in the Church to walk worthy of the vocation to which they have been called, he goes on to paint an incredible picture of what Christ truly intends His Church to be in this world for the life and salvation of all. He tells us all that the Body of Christ functions just like the human body. Christ is the head of the body and all members that make up that body, with their different gifts given by the grace of Jesus Christ, are knit together to be Christ in this world and continue the ministry of Christ; the ministry of reconciling the world back to God.
September 30, 2018 - So many times we hear vocational calling and we think of someone being called to the priesthood, diaconate, or monastic ministries. But today we hear St. Paul from Ephesians 4 tell us all that every Christian has a vocational calling no less important than those mentioned above. St. Paul also instructs us on how to walk worthy of the vocation to which we have all been called. In this homily, we seek to remember the vocational calling we have all been given and to heed the words of St. Paul as to how we are to walk worthy of that very important calling.
September 27, 2018 - As we have said in a previous session, the majority of the Psalms in the Psalter are Psalms of lament. And many times within these Psalms we have the Psalmist voicing a lament and then coming to a place were we read the words..."but these things I remember." The Psalmist then remembers either the mighty works of God done on behalf of His people or he remembers the very nature of God. In this session we discuss the importance remembrance has within our lament to God in times of suffering and how it awakens us to God's absolute presence with us always.
September 23, 2018 - Our Gospel reading today is the narrative of Christ raising from the dead the only son of a widow in the city of Nain. The Lord of life and the crowd that follows Him collides with the procession of death at the gates of the city and we see that death can never have victory over He Who is the Resurrection and the Life. But here we also see the nature of God fully revealed as our Lord has compassion on this widow and moves to act on her behalf. St. Ephrem the Syrian teaches that "Christ became the sponge for her tears." Our God is fully acquainted with our suffering and grief. As we lament He joins Himself to our suffering and acts on our behalf as He either delivers us through or from the season of our suffering. He does so because He longs to reveal Himself to us so that we move from knowing about Him to truly knowing Him.
As we discussed a week ago, our journey in Christ from Baptism to the day we pass through the veil is a wilderness journey. We have left the captivity of our enemy but are not yet in the fullness of the Promised Land. In this wilderness there will be suffering. Today, we look at the wilderness journey of the Hebrews to discover a pattern common to us all. In the wilderness there will be suffering, God's people lament to God of their suffering, God hears them and is fully acquainted with their struggles, God acts on their behalf and delivers them, and God reveals Himself to His people by doing so. God uses the sufferings of this life in a fallen world to reveal Himself to His people so that they may be always moved toward union with Him; an intimacy that He has desired ever since the creation of all things.
September 17, 2018 - Reflecting on the last two week's Gospel readings of both the Good Samaritan and the 10 Lepers, Deacon Ken points out Jesus' comparison of those who were supposed to be righteous and the outcasts. In the Good Samaritan, it is not the Priest of the Levite that loves, but the Samaritan who was considered an outcast by the Jews. In the 10 lepers who were healed, it was the Samaritan leper that returned with love to praise Christ for His healing. Those who love are the one's who are righteous, because they have become like our God.
September 13, 2018 - We are taught in Holy Scripture, both in the Gospels and the Epistles, that our Lord Jesus Christ overthrew Satan and the demonic as He would be lifted up upon the Holy Cross. St. Paul tells us that on the Cross Jesus "disarmed the principalities and powers making a public spectacle of them." Today we look at these Scriptures, the teachings of the Early Church Fathers, and the prayers in the Mass for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We do so in order to be reminded that the power of Christ on the Cross and all that He accomplished can be experienced in and through the daily life of every Christian.
Today we begin a teaching series entitled "God in the Midst of our Suffering." It is in this introduction to the series that we acknowledge our need to rediscover the Christian language of lament to God. In this life in a post-fallen world, we all will endure times of great suffering. But how do we reach out to God in times of suffering and how does God walk with us through these times? If left to ourselves, our humanity, the sufferings in this world produce nothing but further brokenness and dysfunction. But because of God, who He is, and what He does on our behalf, even the most significant suffering turns to redemption and the opportunity to grow from knowing about Him to truly knowing Him.
September 9, 2017 - One of the prayers found in an Orthodox Prayer Book is "O God, set our hearts at liberty from the service of ourselves, that we may do Thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Today we look at these words carefully along with the teaching of St. Paul from Galatians 5. If Christ has called us to the ministry of the Good Samaritan, as we spoke of last week, then we need to acknowledge that a consistent focus on ourselves and our desires stands in the way of our becoming love to others. The solution is, as St. Paul teaches, to regulate our entire lives in and by the Holy Spirit that we may experience freedom from the bondage of ourselves.
September 2, 2018 - In today's Gospel reading from St. Luke and chapter 10 we hear the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It is in this parable that the compassionate heart of God comes through very clearly and demonstrates the mission for which God became man. He came to bind up the broken and bring healing to those half-dead from the Fall of Man. As we see Christ very clearly in this parable we are reminded that Christ has filled us with Himself not only for our healing and salvation, but also for the continuing fulfillment of His mission in and through us, His Church.
August 26, 2018 -Last week as we reflected on the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, we were exhorted toward the humility of the Tax Collector who had Godly sorrow for his sin, presented himself to God, and cried out for mercy. In today's message we shift our focus to the God of mercy to Whom the tax collector came. We can never exhaust the mercy of God Who always desires to give us far beyond what we could ask or deserve.
August 19, 2018 - In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector Jesus offers us the way of justification. To be justified is to have the burden of a guilty conscience stripped away and, at the same time, to be made righteous by the God who transforms the soul. The way to this blessed gift is wrapped up in the virtue of humility. In this reflection, we examine this great virtue so that we may in humility cry out for mercy to the God who longs to bestow that great and limitless blessing upon us.
August 12, 2018 - In 1 Corinthians 12 St. Paul teaches on the subject of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are the manifestation of the Spirit, as he states, that are given for the common good of all. In this reflection, we look at the gifts of the Holy Spirit, their role in the Body of Christ as well as in the revelation of God to the world outside of the Church, and how we might realize these Spiritual Gifts in the life of the Church.
Aug. 5, 2018 - Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this reflection we look at both the realities of the Transfiguration shown in Christ and also we look at the impact this must have had on the disciples that witnessed this incredible event. How can we, Christ's disciples, also be transformed by this great testimony?
July 29, 2018 - A very important aspect of Orthodox Christian spirituality is discernment; that is, testing the spirits and knowing what is and what is not from God by the help of the Holy Spirit. Today Fr. James Rooney teaches us both the need for discernment in critical aspects of our lives and how we hear from God as to what is and what is not truth.
July 22, 2018 - In the Gospel of St. Mark Chapter 8, the disciples are faced with an impossible situation. How can they provide enough food for thousands of people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish? In this narrative, Jesus asks them one of the most profound questions that we need to consider. He looks at His disciples and asks them, "What do you have?" They offer only that which they had which was not enough for the need. He took their offering, blessed it, and did a wonder of Heaven on behalf of the multitude. God asks us the same question. He comes to us right where we are and asks us, "What do you have?" It is the invitation to participate in the wondrous works of God on behalf of all mankind. When we offer only that which we have, Jesus takes that offering and blesses it and lives through us to the glory of God and the salvation of mankind.
July 8, 2018 - In Acts Chapter 17, St. Paul teaches that God made us for the time we have on earth to seek Him in hopes that we might grope for Him and find Him. He is speaking of a life that is dedicated to reaching to toward God out of our need for Him. Do we live a life deliberately moving toward God so that we might encounter Him in the moments of our life. We are to move toward a God who is always moving toward us and promises that those who seek Him will surely find Him.
July 1, 2018 - Suffering is something everyone of us will endure at one time or another in this life. At the same time, we are assured that God is a refuge and strength, an ever present help in times of trouble. So where will we be found when calamity strikes our lives? Will we be outside the fortress enduring the brunt of the storm? Or will we be found in the fortress knowing God as our deliverer through and to the other side of the season of suffering?
June 24, 2018 - Today we celebrate the Nativity of St. John the Forerunner. When we look at the life of St. John we see the life of a Saint; a life to which we are all called and graced to become. Sometimes when we look at the lives of the Saints we begin to ask the most important questions about our own lives. Are we like them and what keeps us from living in that manner? These questions, when asked prayerfully to God, are questions our Lord longs to answer so that we can truly follow Him as His blessed disciples. Today we look at the life of St. John the Forerunner and consider some of these important questions.
June 17, 2018 - Today, on Father's Day, we remember the importance of fatherhood. There are many fathers. We have the fathers of children, spiritual fathers, and we also have father figures. Our Heavenly Father presents the most true model for fatherhood and the order that comes from His fatherhood. It is no surprise that there is such an attack in recent generations on fatherhood and order. Today we are reminded of the goodness of fatherhood because of the goodness of our Father in Heaven.
June 10, 2018 - On this first Sunday in the Season of Trinitytide, we are given an incredible teaching on becoming love as God is love by St. John in St. John Chapter 4. In this reflection we consider his words section by section. We remember that we cannot become love without first being recipients of the love of God in our own lives. What keeps us from experiencing God's love toward us? When the answers to that question are thrown down we are able to receive the limitless love of God which draws us to Himself and transforms our lives forever.
June 3, 2018 - This Trinity Sunday we reflect on the fellowship shared by the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are three distinct Persons that are so united in love, in one mind, and in singleness of purpose that the Three are indeed One. The result of their union is the giving of life. Scriptures tell us that we have been Baptized into Christ. Therefore, we being joined to the Fellowship of the Trinity are both recipients of life and, by God's desire, are the vessels through which God bestows life to the world.
May 27, 2018 - Today is the Feast of Pentecost and we hear again at the very beginning of Mass the vision of Ezekiel from Ezekiel 47 describing the water that would flow from the Temple; and everyone that the water would touch would be healed. Jesus said in the Gospel of St. John Chapter 7, "He who believes in me, out of his innermost being will flow living waters." The Holy Spirit would be poured out on the Day of Pentecost filling every believer with Living Water. Now, from us God desires for that same Living Water to flow for the healing of all.
St. Peter begins to conclude his First Epistle beginning with these words, "But the end of all things is at hand..." Based upon this reality, he ends this Epistle by teaching what is most important regarding how we should live in times such as these as believers and as Christ's holy Church. In this session we set our attention on his concluding things of having fervent love for one another, using our spiritual gifts for the benefit of one another, suffering for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and living with spiritual sobriety and vigilance all our days.
May 20, 2018 - On this week before Pentecost, Jesus tells His disciples that it is better for Him to return to the Father, for then the Comforter will come. Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit and one of the meanings of the word comforter means "one who will come along side." This homily explores how the Holy Spirit comes along side every Christian.
May 16, 2018 - Today is one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Christian Faith, the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is one of the Twelve Major Feasts specifically because of what Christ provided on our behalf by His Ascension to the Father. Today is a day of great rejoicing and this homily places before us a number of the incredible benefits made available to us through Christ by His Ascension.
The Church has always been governed by a hierarchy of order and oversight. What is the purpose and wisdom of such a framework and how does it function to oversee the faithful in Christ? This session seeks to help bring an understanding to these important questions.
St. Peter teaches the Church to, "Be of one mind." What an important reality we are being taught. For each living stone in Christ's Church to be of one mind is to exist like the Holy Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three Persons yet One. How are they One? The exist in the bonds of absolute love, unity, and harmony of the will. So the Church is called to be of one mind with one another and with our God. Our God is glorified in the wonder of Christian unity.
May 13, 2018 - St. James teaches us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. He says that those who are hearers only are deceiving themselves. Why? Because being a disciple of Christ, a follower of the Resurrected Jesus Christ, is an actual living experience and not just a mere intellectual or rational one. In this teaching, we examine the power of habits in our lives. Habits can either be life-giving to the Christian or they can be great distractions or even destructive to the beloved in Christ. By the grace of God, when we are doers of the Word, we become that which we do...we become like God.
In the second half of 1 Peter 2 and the first half of 1 Peter 3, St. Peter instructs the Church on how they are to glorify God by the way in which they live; even and especially as they are facing Roman persecution. He begins by reminding Christians that they are sojourners and pilgrims in this world. Therefore, the world needs to see just how foreign the Christian is in this world. From there St. Peter moves to teach very practically how Christians must live in regards to submitting to civil authorities, how Christian servants are to live toward their masters, and how husbands and wives live together in Holy Matrimony in such a way that the relationship of the Trinity is made manifest for all to witness.
Creating sacred space in the home, but also spending time with God in that sacred space, is a vital part of our ongoing experience of the union we have been giving with God. This class discusses prayer, our communion and fellowship with God, in the place in which we dwell.
May 6, 2018 - On this 4th Sunday after Easter we listen as Psalm 98 tells us to "Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things." But what is the new song of the Christian. In this sermon we remember that the new song is Christ Himself. He is the content of the new song and we have all become the expression of that content. We are the voice and instruments to the song of the Resurrected Jesus Christ.
April 29, 2018 - Today we remember the testimony of St. George the Martyr, who when the government persecuted Christians stood up against the government and would not bow down to their actions was martyred for his faith in Christ. St. Peter instructions us in our Epistle reading from 1 Peter that we are to submit to the government. So where does the Christian draw the line. We are to submit to our government for Christ allows all governments to be in place. In this homily reminds us, however, of where our true allegiance belongs. We are a people of the Kingdom of God and we stand for that Kingdom first and foremost both when governments make room for our faith and when they strike against it.
St. Peter ended chapter 1 of his first Epistle by calling the Church to live in the love of God toward one another. He begins chapter 2 encouraging the Church to lay aside all things that hinder us from loving one another. St. Peter then moves to remind us of who we are as individuals in Christ, but equally as important, who we are as the Body of Christ. He teaches us that Christ is the Cornerstone, the Apostles are the foundation, and we are are the Living Stones built upon that foundation to be the Temple of God through which God intends to glorify Himself and offer His life to the world.
Today's Catechism Class focuses on the role of the Spiritual Father in the life of the Christian. In this teaching, we are encouraged to see the Priest as a familial Father who is placed in that position by God to help every Christian soul grow to maturity in Christ by feeding them all they need by his time, listening, teaching, and offering every Sacrament given by God for the health of all God's children. We are also encouraged to see the Priest as a physician; one we go to with the suffering of our soul in hopes that we might hear, through the Priest, our true Great Physician Jesus Christ who offers the remedy to the illness of our soul.
April 22, 2018 - Today we cover 1 Peter Chapter 1. Remembering that St. Peter is writing a pastoral letter to those suffering the beginning of the Roman persecution of the Church under Nero, St. Peter begins by calling the Church to great praise. And, by doing so, he is calling them to fix their eyes back up Christ in order to receive all of the grace He longs to give them to endure this time of trials. St. Peter also begins reminding them just how to live as the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ in the face of persecution.
April 22, 2018 - Today is the Sunday of the Good Shepherd and we here the Gospel of St. John Chapter 10. In this sermon we remember Who it is that says He is our Good Shepherd. We also look at what our Lord Jesus actively does on our behalf in that role. Finally, it is also vitally important to know how to live as a sheep to the Good Shepherd that we might experience every benefit He offers us in this life and throughout eternity.
Today begins a 6 week journey through the First Epistle of St. Peter. I this session we look at the life and ministry of St. Peter in order to better get to know our Patron Saint, the one who comes alongside the Parish and intercedes on our behalf. We also have an introduction to 1 Peter and briefly look at the introduction to the Epistle.
April 15, 2018 - In the Gospel of St. John Chapter 20 the Resurrected Jesus Christ reveals Himself to Thomas granting him the gift of faith. The story of Thomas is the story of us all. One of the greatest prayers of the authentic follower of Christ is, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." We all believe but also have areas in our lives where we are still weaker in our faith. This sermon encourages us as we look to see how Christ meets Thomas in a weak area of his faith and how He delights in doing the same for us.
April 8, 2018 - As is customary in the Orthodox Church, on Easter Sunday we hear the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom; Archbishop of Constantinople in the late 4th century - the early 5th century.
April 7, 2018 - May the light of Christ gloriously rising scatter the darkness of heart and mind. This is the prayer we pray as the Paschal Candle is lit. Darkness cannot exist where light is present. In this reflection on the Resurrection we look at how the light of life overcame death, how the light of God releases us from our bondage, and how Christ has called us the light of the world having made us His dwelling place.
April 6, 2018 - We are told in Hebrews 12 that our Lord Jesus Christ endured the Cross for the joy set before Him. Through the Cross He would become our eternal Great High Priest and our Mediator and Advocate. But even these eternal heavenly roles point to His true joy for which He endured such agony and shame. What is His joy? His joy is you; it is all of humanity for which He endured the Cross to make a way for us to be with Him forever. Our God desires us.
April 5, 2018 - This reflections begins with the asking of a difficult question. How much time in our lives is spent thinking of ourselves? We all have tendencies to live self-consumed lives. The truth is that this manner of living is a bondage where there is limited peace and a lack of contentment. Tonight, as our Lord Jesus Christ garbs Himself as the least of these, a servant, and washes the feet of His disciples...He demonstrates for us the prescription for freedom from this lifestyle of bondage. The antidote is selfless and self-offering love which conquers all sin.
April 4, 2018 - What is a Sacrament? God takes the stuff of earth that He has created, blesses it...consecrating it for His holy use, and through that which He has created He acts on man's behalf. This homily reflects on the Oil of Holy Unction for the sick. We come to understand God's will and purpose for this Sacrament by looking at the prayers He has us pray as He sets it aside for the healing of body, mind, and soul.
April 4, 2018 - Jesus proclaimed that He has the power to lay down His life and the power to take it up again. This reflection focuses on His power to lay down His own life as a pure and perfect example of humility. It is as we take on this humility in our own lives that we experience the healing grace of God unto the transformation of our souls.
April 1, 2018 - The Early Church used iconography to teach the truths of the Christian faith to the people of God. On this Palm Sunday, we look at the icon of this great Feast Day in order to discover what the Church has always taught about our Lord's triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. In the icon we can see what Christ came to offer and we are also taught how we may receive the King and all of the benefits of His Kingdom.
Today's Catechism Class is an open question and answer session based on anything those attending the class have a question about.
In this session we look at Hebrews Chapter 13 which is the conclusion to the Epistle to the Hebrews. We find that the conclusion of this letter is done in similar fashion to most of the Epistles. This conclusion is broken down into three main parts. First, there is the call to the Hebrew Christians to a holy and virtuous life. Secondly, they are reminded of the order God has given the Church which is given for the life and salvation of all. Finally, we have the blessed benediction.
March 25, 2018 - On each Passion Sunday we hear the Gospel reading from St. John in which Jesus, while in the temple, declares to the Jews and Jewish leaders that He is the Great I AM. To best understand what He is declaring to them, we look at Exodus 3 when God first declared His Name to Moses through the burning bush. There God tells Moses that He has heard the cry of His people and has come down to deliver them and bring them up to a good and large land. Today Jesus declares Himself to be the Great I AM who has heard our cry and come to be our final and eternal Deliverer.
At the end of Hebrews Chapter 12 we are given yet another comparison of something from the Old Covenant that is fulfilled in the New Covenant. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we have not come to Mt. Sinai as did God's people under Moses where they turned away in fear from what they saw. Rather, those in Christ come to Mt. Zion in the company of the blessed angels and those made perfect in Christ. This session explores the differences between these two experiences of God's people and how much better is our experience of God upon the mountain because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.
March 3, 2018 - The theme of this Sunday each year in Lent is rejoicing. Lent, while certainly a season of allowing our Lord to bring us to repentance, is a season of joy and new life. Why? Because of the healing work of Jesus Christ in the lives of His disciples who call upon Him with an authentic cry for healing. We rejoice because of what is on the other side of repentance.
The liturgy is what God has given His people to draw near to Him where we can offer ourselves to God and He can offer Himself to us. This catechism teaching discusses the liturgies of the Church and begins to instruct as to the structure of the liturgy common to them all.
Having just concluded the great list of men and women who are credited for their great faith, the writer of Hebrews says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses cheering us on, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us." This session is a lesson on how we are to run the race where the prize is God Himself and the result is our enjoyment of Him forever.
March 11, 2018 - St. Paul teaches us that we should be imitators of God as dearly beloved children. In child-like innocence children have a great tendency to mimic their parents. This is how we are both created and called to live in and from God. In this reflection, we are reminded of the truth that we become that which we do. As we live in fellowship with God and begin to imitate Him in our lives, we we become more like Him by grace throughout all our days.
The formal definition of a Sacrament is "an outward and physical sign of an inward and spiritual grace." In other words, a Sacrament is God taking the stuff of His creation and through it working the wonders of the Kingdom of Heaven. In this teaching we explore the Seven Sacraments of Christ's Holy Church showing how each works by His will to offer us all of the benefits of the Kingdom of God and provide healing to the soul.
In Hebrews Chapter 11 we have both the definition of faith as well as the great Litany of Faith containing so many men and women honored by God as examples of those who had such faith. In this session we look to the Church's teaching regarding this definition of faith and we explore the lives of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses to see this definition lived out in their lives. Faith comes by the granted revelation and experience of God. It begins and ends with Him. Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith.
March 5, 2018 -Doxology is a word that means "a liturgical formula to praise God." We find doxology all throughout Holy Scripture as well as in the Prayer Services and Liturgy of the Church. In this homily we are reminded that our lives are to be a continual great Doxology offered back to God.
Why do Orthodox Christian say "Memory Eternal" regarding those who have fallen asleep in the Lord? The answer to this is deeply rooted in the Church's understanding regarding the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This class focuses on Christ and His Resurrection.
Having revealed Christ as the Great High Priest and communicated how far Jesus has gone to make the way for our salvation, the writer of Hebrews changes his tone for a moment. He speaks a harsh truth in love in order to call the Hebrew Christians who have abandoned their faith back into their Lord Jesus Christ. In the midst of the loving chastisement, we come to a better understanding of why we are not to neglect the Eucharistic Assembly of God's people.
Feb. 26, 2018 - As we offer up prayers for the soul of Samuel Kalil, III we, at the same time, receive the grace of God to walk through this season of grieving. This homily is a reflection on Christ as the Resurrection and the life who steps into our deepest suffering, wraps us up in Himself, and gives us strength to endure.
Feb. 25, 2018 - The Church's discipline of fasting during the 40 days of Lent, indeed the Season of Lent itself, is modeled after the very life of our Lord Jesus Christ. After Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness where He would fast and commune with His Father for 40 days. After those 40 days Satan would helplessly temp the Savior to sin. His 40 days paved the way for His people to fast and commune with the Father so that we might grow in His grace to become what we have been reborn to truly be...overcomers of sin.
Feb. 21, 2018 - On Ash Wednesday, we have ashes that represent our mortality placed upon our foreheads. Why? At the beginning of Lent Christ, through His Church, asks us to have our mortality on the forefront of our minds. Unfortunately, our culture has taught us that we should recoil at the thought of our mortality. But in the culture of the Kingdom of God to focus on and always remember our mortality is a great blessing used of God to bring us always to Himself in order that our soul may find healing and deliverance in time of need. This reflection is a focus on the great blessing of our mortality.
We are invited twice in the Book of Hebrews to come boldly before the "Throne of Grace" in one place and "into the Holy of Holies" in another. But what does this mean? How can we, who are full of sin and so frail, come before God with boldness? And what does boldness even mean? The answer lies in the very nature of God; Who He is and all that He has done for us and for our salvation.
How do we prepare to experience the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in our own lives and in the life of the Body of Christ? We are given the Season of Great Lent for just this reason. In this session we look at the structure of Great Lent. We also look at the posture every Christ is encouraged to take during this Season from the readings from Holy Scripture of Parables of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the Prodigal Son, and the Sheep and the Goats. When we do so, our lives become open to Christ and He floods us with the power of the Resurrection.
Feb. 18, 2018 - The Sacrament of Confession/Absolution has been given by Christ to His Church as a gift toward the healing of the soul. In Confession Christ covers our sins by His forgiveness, graces us to overcome sin, and washes away the shame from our conscience caused by the sins we have committed. So, then, what keeps us from coming to such a gift. This reflection explores some of the common reasons used that keep us away from this Sacrament while offering encouragement to push through those reasons and come, at the invitation of Christ, to experience the Giver of Life and Mercy.
In this session we continue our growth in understanding of why Christ had to be sacrificed and His blood shed. Today we read the end of Hebrews Chapter 9 and the first part of Chapter 10. The focus continues in how Christ blood was shed for the cleansing and transformation of our conscience as well a for consecrating us to God for His holy use alone. But today we also examine how the power of the blood of Jesus Christ is active in the Sacrament of Confession/Absolution. For in that Sacrament, our Lord Jesus Christ ministers the absolute forgiveness of sins, His grace empowering us to overcome sin, and the washing away of guilt and shame so that we are truly free. Why the Sacrament of Confession? Because God created us, understands our frailties, and knows how to rescue us and redeem us bring us back to Himself.
A very common question by those inquiring into the Orthodox Faith is, "What is the reason the Church has relics and what do they mean for us?" This class seeks to answer this important question from the use of Holy Scripture as well as the teachings and actions of the Early Church regarding relics. Ultimately, relics are a testimony that nothing is powerful enough to overcome God's love, not even death.
Feb. 11, 2018 - Shame is a powerful stronghold in the life of most every Christian. The source of our shame typically comes from past sins that we have not allowed the Lord to forgive. But shame can also go deep into our being from wounds that have been done to us by others. It is the tendency of our human nature to hide our shame and sinfulness from God and from His people. Yet this is the exact opposite reaction before God and man that our Lord desires in order that our shame be removed and our souls restored. This homily reflects on the vision of the Prophet Isaiah from Isaiah Chapter 6 to show us a model of how He desires for us to offer Him our shame openly that He may, in turn, glorify Himself through the healing and restoration work that He accomplishes in our lives.
We begin, in this session, to hear the teachings of the writer of Hebrews regarding Jesus who became the Covenant sacrifice to end all sacrifices. But why was it necessary for Christ's blood to be shed? What did it accomplish as a seal of the New and Eternal Covenant and what does His blood accomplish in the life and salvation of every Christian? This teaching begins to explore the answers from the Apostolic Faith to these questions.
Feb. 5, 2018 - St. Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 9 that we are to run the race for our salvation like an athlete who disciplines his body and brings it under subjection in order to win the prize. This reflection focuses on self-control, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. As we prepare to enter into the Season of Great Lent, we remind ourselves that fasting is the loving prescription God has given to us so that we may grown by grace in self-control and subject our will to the will of God only rather than to the temptations of this world which damage the soul.
Jan. 28, 2018 - In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew 8 we find the narrative of Jesus healing the leper who comes to Him, falls before Him, and says, "If it be your will, you can cleanse me." Today we learn from how this leper approaches our Savior, we look closely at the desire and will of God for us all, and how there are areas of our soul very similar spiritually to the physical disease of leprosy. Will we approach Christ just as did this man with leprosy?
Today’s class addresses one of the most important aspects of our Faith. What is salvation? From what are we saved? In this session, we look at the Church’s theology on salvation. In the process we address exactly how salvation was made possible for us all through Christ as well as the Church’s theology on the important concept of Atonement.
The focus of this session is on the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was the Mother of God being the Mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And, she is seen as the Mother of the Church for salvation Himself was born through her. The Church teaches us that when we look at the Blessed Virgin Mary, we can see much of who we are as Christians and as the Church. The Archangel Gabriel proclaimed her blessed among all woman. If this is so, what does the Church teach us regarding our Lord’s Mother and how she is to be revered.
The Apostolic Faith of the Church has always been guided in conciliar fashion. We see at the council in Jerusalem within the Book of Acts that the Apostles met for important decisions and returned saying, “It seems right to us and to the Holy Spirit” that we decide this or that. In this teaching we hear the purpose of a council or synod, we see how the Holy Spirit leads the councils of synods, and we explore the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the heresies they addressed.
Having discussed the Holy Trinity last week, we now turn our attention to the One of the Holy Trinity Who became man to save man. Who is Jesus as revealed to and through Christ’s Holy and Apostolic Faith. What does it mean that He was begotten of the Father? What is meant when we say that Jesus was one person with two natures as stated at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 as various heresies were put down by the revealed truth of Christ through the Church. This is our focus in this week’s catechism class.
The Church has always considered the Holy Trinity to be a mystery. So many heresies have come about through the 2000 years of the Church that erroneously attempted to explain the Trinity. There is, however, a consensus of revealed truth that has been expressed by God through His Church as to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. It is so important to understand these revealed truths because our Faith is defined by who God is in His Nature. This teaching shares what we know about the Trinity so that we may grow in God’s likeness by living in union with Him: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Today’s class focuses on the Orthodox Church’s perspective of the Creation of all things by God and the Fall of mankind by the will of those He created. So many teachings outside of Orthodoxy see the Fall of man and, thus, death entering into the world as the divine punishment of man by God for His disobedience. Orthodoxy sees the Fall of man as the natural result of man’s will choosing away from union with God. Death, then, is a natural result of the choice to remove oneself from the God of life. Listen in and hear the Church’s teaching about Creation & the Fall and the nature of God in it and above it all.
This session focuses on the Church’s teaching regarding Heaven & Hell. There are many teachings outside of the Orthodox Church and many varying understandings on this important subject. Today we look at what the Orthodox Church has always maintained and continues to express as truth today regarding life beyond the veil of flesh.
It is taught in the Church that our salvation comes from our communion with God. God is not some distant object. God is an ever present Trinity of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This God has made a way for all who are in Him to come to truly know Him, not just know about Him. The Orthodox Church has forever taught us that we are saved by an experienced relationship with the God who makes Himself known to us. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the express image of God to us and for us. He came and lived among us that we might see God, know God, and be saved.