Reflections in Christ

“Today Judas watches how he may deliver up the Lord” (Matins, Antiphon Six). These are frightening words, and yet, if we think that we are so different than Judas, we have missed the point…

Throughout the Lenten season, we have witnessed, at the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified, the reverent and divine adoration that the priest offers to Christ in the Eucharist: with…

“Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together, and we all take up thy Cross and say: Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. ...”

There are times during Christ’s ministry when, seeing that the people wished to seize Him and make Him their king, He fled. But today, He accepts their acclamations and allows…

“O Lord, wishing to see the tomb of Lazarus—for thou wast soon to dwell by thine own choice within a tomb—thou hast asked: ‘Where have ye laid him?’ And, learning that which was already…”

Today, Lazarus is raised. After the Resurrection of the Lord, he will become a bishop on the island of Cyprus. And eventually he will die again. In fact, his relics are with us to this…

Every year, on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, we celebrate our venerable mother Mary of Egypt, one of the greatest saints shining in the firmament…

“Standing, O saint, before Christ the Light, send down light upon me, for with love I celebrate thy light-giving and holy memory” (Matins Canon, Ode One). See…

The Fifth Week of Lent is a week of remarkable hymnody—the alphabetical stichera of Saint Simeon Metaphrastes on Wednesday night, the Great Canon…

The so-called Canon of the Akathist, composed by Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, opens with these words: “O pure Virgin, living book of Christ, sealed by the Spirit.” She…