“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, not angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, not anything else will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:38-39)
I cannot find the exact citation at the moment, but I recall that St. John Chrysostom…
The phrase “social distancing,” and the practice of doing it have now entered into our everyday discourse and actions, probably never to be forgotten even long after we are free from the coronavirus. All indications are pointing to its success in “flattening the curve” in our battle with this invidious virus. Clearly, it is the right thing to do. At…
“He who dwells in peace collects spiritual gifts as it were with a scoop, and he sheds the light of knowledge on others.” - St. Seraphim of Sarov
The students in my Christian Mysticism class at XU recently took their mid-term exam. One young woman in the class chose as one of her “identifications” to describe the life and contributions to Orthodox…
Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
I regretted passing over the Lord’s parable appointed to be read at the Divine Liturgy yesterday. Yet at the same time, I wanted to bring the discussion of our new Parish Bylaws into a liturgical context to make the point of how all things that we do in the Church are interconnected, and ultimately directly…
The current Feast of the Elevation/Exaltation of the Cross allows us to go a long way in dispelling a stereotype that has developed concerning the Orthodox Church. This stereotype claims that the Orthodox Church is the Church of the Resurrection and/or Transfiguration of Christ at the expense of the Cross. Upon a closer and more balanced…
I was pleasantly surprised - if not startled - on my first day back to XU for the Fall semester this past Monday. As I approached my classroom, a student actually approached me with the greeting, “Hello, Fr. Kostoff.” He then went on to introduce himself and tell me that he is in my class for the upcoming semester and so forth. The pleasant surprise…
“I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, and to my God, and Your God” (John 20:17).
Today is the fortieth day after the glorious Resurrection of Christ—Ascension Thursday. The Risen Lord is also the Ascended Lord and, therefore, in the words of Father Georges Florovsky, “in the Ascension resides the meaning and the fullness of Christ’s…
Knowing the commandments of the Lord, let this be our way of life:
Let us feed the hungry, let us give the thirsty drink.
Let us clothe the naked, let us welcome strangers.
Let us visit those in prison and the sick.
Then the Judge of all the earth will say even to us:
“Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you” [Vespers for…
“God requires of us to go on repenting until our last breath” [Saint Isaias the Solitary].
“Repentance…. It means not self-pity or remorse, but conversion, the re-centering of our whole life upon the Trinity ... It is to see, not what we have failed to be, but what by divine grace we can now become; and it is to act upon what we see” [Metropolitan…
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” [Luke 19:10].
At this Sunday’s eucharistic Liturgy, we will hear the story of the towering figure of Zacchaeus the publican [Luke 19:1-10]. This is one of the many wonderful paradoxes of the spiritual life that characterize the Holy Scriptures. The paradox is found in the fact that the…
This Sunday—January 20, 2019—is “Sanctity of Life Sunday” within the Orthodox Church in America. We remind ourselves and reaffirm our commitment to life as a sacred gift from God on an annual basis on this designated day, and we do this in the context of “protesting” the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 that legalized abortion in our country.
Abortion…
According to the patristic scholar, Father Andrew Louth: “Saint Romanos (6th. c) is perhaps the most famous liturgical poet of the Orthodox Church, but his genius is such as to command a place among the highest ranks of poets, religious or secular, so that he has been called by Professor Trepanis ‘the greatest poet of the Greek middle ages.’” I…
As we celebrate the feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, the Wonderworker, we find that there is a certain unresolved tension that accompanies his person and memory. On the one hand, there are few “hard facts” about his life (to the point where many doubt his actual historical existence), while on the other hand, he is clearly one of the most…
There is something almost “metaphysically unsettling” about “Black Friday.” The very name of this day has an ominous ring to it. It may just be the sheer “nakedness” of the open, unapologetic, unflinching—and idolatrous?—materialism that pervades the day. (Last year, a staggering five billion dollars had been spent in less than 24 hours!) Or, is it…
Recently at the Divine Liturgy, we heard the Parable of the Sower, as related in Luke 8:5-15. The reception of this parable and how it has been analyzed by biblical scholars makes this parable a complex story in and of itself. However, we will remain on “good ground” if we simply “hear” the parable as interpreted by Christ for His disciples, as it…
We recently heard the powerful account of Jesus raising from the dead the widow’s son at Nain [Luke 7:11-16]. This particular event is unique to Saint Luke’s Gospel. In his Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Luke, the biblical scholar Carroll Stuhlmueller summarized the over-all impression left by this extraordinary event in the following…
Anyone remotely familiar with the Divine Liturgy will immediately recognize this wonderful blessing during the Anaphora: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
The basis for this blessing is not the result of later “theological development” that became very…
“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” [Matthew 16:16].
We are now into the Church new year, which began on September 1. A new year, of course, means a “new beginning” or the renewal of our lives in Christ and the opportunity to examine both our deepest convictions and commitments. In fact, I believe that there is a profound…
During a somewhat casual conversation that strayed from subject-to-subject within my family circle a few days ago, we collectively arrived at a very rare consensus of opinion: There is just too much “noise” at practically any venue one chooses to attend or visit.
It started with the realization that now even at a sports stadium, there is pop/rock…
On August 1, we commemorated the Holy Seven Maccabee Children, Solomone their mother, and Eleazar their Teacher. They were all put to death in the year 168 BC. They were thus protomartyrs before the time of Christ and the martyrs of the Christian era. They died because they refused to reject the precepts of the Law when ordered to do so by the…