“Thoughts in Christ”

I’ve been contemplating the awesome partings of the Bible, such as Moses bidding farewell to the children of Israel on Mt. Nebo, as they would soon enter the Promised Land; except in my case I’m the one leaving and the...

The Orthodox Church in America continues our mother Russian Orthodox Church’s tradition; at least, it was like that a half century ago when I was ordained into the sacred priesthood of our holy Church. The silver cross...

Ponder with me the enigma of our American Orthodox Christian differences from our ethnic ancestors in our relationship with the Theotokos. How is it that the renowned Tikhvin Mother of God icon was received by upwards of a...

We recite it so simply and quickly, as though it is so obvious that it needs no discussion; however, we live in a world that challenges that fundamental truth and imposes the implications of its significance throughout...

Funeral homes – as they are called nowadays – are not literally “homes,” but more like way stations; or put in a more contemporary phrase, “terminals.” They are a stopping place on the way from life to life...

Leonardo Da Vinci wrote: “A great love is the child of a great knowledge.” I wonder why he phrased it that way. He was himself an illegitimate child. He knew firsthand abuse and rejection. Among the greatest geniuses of...

Note the passive voice [is given to N] deacon, laity, and to himself, because all comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, as in some of the back walls of churches where it is Christ Himself communing the apostles. This format is...

The Divine Liturgy from the opening through the sermon is called “Liturgy of the Word.” We mean by Word the living Word who is the Son of God having come into the world as Jesus Christ in order to save sinners, the first...

What gift can we offer to You which is truly ours to give? Even the awareness of our poverty is a gift that comes from Your Holy Spirit. Like the Little Drummer Boy of the Christmas carol, we have no gifts to bring, unless...

On the Sunday before Christmas the Church recalls the ancestry of the Messiah Jesus. Indeed, the whole holy history of salvation, the Old Testament, is completed by the bridge, this recall of humanity’s salvation. Here is...