It has been a busy few days since returning from Kodiak late on Tuesday morning. I got off the plane after the red-eye from Alaska and went straight into the meeting of the Lesser Synod of Bishops (officers normally participate in most of the sessions, although there are a number of…
Christ is risen! Hristusaq unguixtuq!
I’m still in Alaska and return to New York tomorrow afternoon as the meeting of the Lesser Synod is underway. But it was a full weekend in Kodiak and I wanted to share a few photos.
The Saint Herman’s Seminary Board met on Saturday, with special guest…
Archimandrite Juvenaly (Repass) met me at the Kodiak airport last night and brought me to Saint Herman’s Seminary (it was a long trip from NYC, about 19 hours in all, via Dallas and Anchorage.)
After an early-morning walk around the waterfront I…
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)
One of the striking features of the post-resurrection disciples is their boldness. Before, as Jesus was arrested and…
Metropolitan Tikhon was the guest of His Eminence, Metropolitan Philip at the offices of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America yesterday in Englewood, NJ. Father Leonid Kishkovsky and I accompanied him and joined in the conversations with His…
… they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. (Acts 4:2)
Cemeteries in many parts of the Orthodox world will be filled today with priests and people visiting graves, singing “Christ is Risen” and eating festal meals among the tombstones.
Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” (Acts 3:6)
Every day we are faced with practical problems and people in need, calling for attention, help and solutions. Mother Teresa was once asked…
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)
Another early morning, but now at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra, CA where Archbishop…
This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. (Acts 2:32)
It’s 6:00 a.m. and I’m sitting in New York’s JFK airport waiting to board a plane for Los Angeles. The Pastoral Practice Committee of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of…
“We waited, and at last our expectations were fulfilled,” writes the Serbian Bishop Nikolai of Ochrid, describing the Easter service at Jerusalem. “When the Patriarch sang, “Christ is risen,” a heavy burden fell from our souls. We felt as if we also had been…
It shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see My glory. (Isaiah 66:18)
So we’ve come to the end of Great Lent and the transition to Holy Week, with the raising of Lazarus tomorrow and our Lord’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem on Sunday. He…
Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.”
(Genesis 46:2)
…[When] I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before My eyes, and chose that in…
And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
“But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to…
Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”
So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock,
and said to them, “I see your father’s countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but…
The sacrifice or binding of Isaac (Akedah) is today’s Genesis reading. Most of the focus of interpreters has been on Abraham’s faith and his willingness to follow God’s guidance. As Hebrews says, for example,
Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord… (Genesis 18:27)
I love today’s episode from Genesis. It portrays Abraham as a bold intercessor before the Lord, who is fiercely angry and ready to…
For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand,
saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’
“Fear not, you worm Jacob, You men of Israel! I will help you,”
says the Lord and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 41:13-14)
He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and…
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. (Proverbs 15:3)
Metropolitan Tikhon and I are in Birmingham, Alabama today for an interchurch conference on race relations and social justice, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther…
So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him…And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (Genesis 12:4)
Where there is no risk, how much faith can there be? And if there isn’t a little fear in your heart about what’s going to happen, how risky is it? I…