“Thoughts in Christ”

Why do we say that she, Mary the Lord’s mother, is more honorable than Cherubim and more glorious than Seraphim? How can she be considered higher than the angels? We are all asked this question in some form or another. The response is not simple. Is this mere hyperbole, poetic exaggeration, or are we serious?

It is indeed a lofty claim—that a…

St. John is warning us to flee from the world and love nothing in the sinful world, or else we shall lose the inner presence of the heavenly Father. This is asceticism. St. Paul is referring to himself when he describes having been raised above the world to the third heaven. That is mysticism. Which are you—either, neither, or both? Most likely, a…

Three sacred services of the Orthodox Church begin with the proclamation: “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.” These are the Divine Liturgy par excellence, the marriage, and the baptism, the latter two demonstrating that they had once been part of the Divine Liturgy. Besides all…

The holy church sets the Gadarene demoniac [Matthew has two demoniacs] on two Sundays through the year. The message is vital for our salvation. It has to do with passions and the imperative to conquer them before we leave this lifetime.

A basic problem is that for our society passions are considered to be expressions of sincerity. A good thing.…

St. Paul was writing to Rome, a church he had never visited, yet he was certain that they had been praying for him. Prayer is what makes the Church one in Christ. Without prayer we are no more than any secular organization. Prayer is what unites us with the Holy Trinity and with one another. It is the language we all speak, though we do so in a…

It’s what the priest does at the beginning of the baptism sacrament—he breathes on the person presented in order to become a Christian. What do we think of but the very creation of the human being when “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). This time it’s not to an…

After the many blessings of the wedding couple, the Church adds the ecstasy of joy which Queen Helen experienced in Jerusalem when her scholars discovered the very cross on which our Lord, God and Savior had been crucified. What material object could be more precious to a Christian? We venerate it, display it and even kiss it as a sign of reverence.…

Those of us who encourage others to read the Bible, especially the New Testament and Psalms for guidance and comfort, understand that the advice will not always be heeded. People in a state of depression often like to think that nothing and nobody can help, not even the Lord revealed in the sacred scriptures. What a pity. They would find in Jesus…

Oh, what a powerful statement, and from the lips of the same loving Lord who said that we were not to judge, but rather to forgive all sinners. However, it’s not really a condemnation, but rather a prophecy of the ultimate fate of anybody who would twist an innocent child’s mind and cause him or her to sin. This includes the obviously notorious who…

Who can dispute these glorious words and the message of mutual love, which is the hallmark of Christianity? How many poems and songs have this precious entreaty at its base? Can it be possible that any rational person might confuse or misunderstand its sacred meaning? And yet the great theologian, St. Maximus the Confessor, in writing about love,…

We bid farewell for another year to the glorious and joyful forty days of the Paschal celebration, lifting up the hearts of our fellow believers by sharing the news that “Christ is risen!” As we do, my thoughts go to that enigmatic woman who had been blessed by God to be first to face the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Reading slowly the passage above, we…

Here’s a quotation a mother might embroider and frame to present as a daughter’s wedding gift. Here is a text to ponder for us all. If only every Orthodox Christian home had this as an inspiration to live by, for parents to practice and to make as the standard for their children. To “carefully observe the path of the perfect” is to find role models…

Not only did she not know what was needed to take away the anguish in her soul: Like so many women and men in our time, she assumed that life was nothing other than a constant search for a fulfillment that never comes and a satisfaction unattainable for all persons. Jesus has such a well of empathy for her: “If you knew the gift of God,” He says to…

I remember where I was and how I felt upon reading the above passage for the first time. The wonder-filled truth of the message glowed in my soul. I was sixteen years old. Being irascible by nature, that admonition has come to mind many times ever since to quell the pique of the moment and subdue my temper. It stands with works like Dante’s Divine…

Between the exchange of rings and the formal wedding, the priest leads the couple on their first formal walk together from the back to the front of the nave. As they proceed, the choir sings the poignant Psalm 128:

“Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways!
You shall eat of the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be…

This alone if nothing else one realizes and takes away from the Divine Liturgy—the peace of Christ. This makes it worth every effort to be present among Christ’s loved ones. Who is more fright-filled than those Galileans in Jerusalem on the day when Jesus Christ had been crucified, and they were certain that they were next. Trembling with fear,…

Here is the first monastic family. They’re called communities, because they want all who care to become members to feel they are entering a new society; but they really are new families similar to the bonding of the Mother of God and the disciple whom Jesus loved. And of course Jesus Himself always heads them, as we might imagine from the above…

I know just how he felt. Something similar happened to me in my first years of the priesthood. I was the youngest priest at our cathedral in New York City at the time. The order of services for Holy Thursday provides for the ritual of feet washing in cathedrals. It’s done in Russia, and our cathedral continued the practice. In reading the gospel of…

The real God of Israel was revealed the moment Jesus expired on the cross. While those who had their way, accomplishing their task to punish our Lord Jesus for the audacity of defying their rejection of His messiahship, hurling at Him the false accusation that He had claimed to destroy and rebuild the temple in three days, the temple veil was torn…

Oh, what a promise! To enjoy the bliss of fellowship that one feels at a banquet—not any banquet, but that which awaits us after this lifetime is over, and to sit with the saints, “those who continued with Me in My trials,” and most of all with Him, our loving Lord. This is the glorious promise of the Kingdom of heaven. But we have not endured…