Reflections in Christ

Having come to the middle point of the path of the Fast that leads to Thy precious Cross, grant that we may see Thy day that Abraham saw and rejoiced, when on the mountain he received Isaac back alive as from the tomb. Delivered from the enemy by faith, may we share Thy mystical supper, calling upon Thee in peace: Our light and our Savior, glory to…

On March 25, we celebrate the Great Feast of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos.  This great feast always falls during Great Lent, and when it falls on a weekday, it is the only instance during that season for which the full Eucharistic Liturgy is served for its commemoration—clearly a sign of the feast’s significance.  Thus, the…

As we draw closer to the beginning of Great Lent on Monday, March 18, we are able to set our lenten efforts against the background of the Last Judgment, thus giving us the “big picture” within which we live our lives and determine our personal destinies.

The Gospel read at the Eucharistic Liturgy this past Sunday was that of the Parable of the…

“Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living” [Luke 15:13].

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son—alternative titles could be “The Compassionate Father” or “The Unforgiving Brother”—we find the classic expression of a young person…

The reading from The Epistle to the Colossians that read on February 3 of this year—the 35th Sunday After Pentecost—is quite remarkable for what it reveals about our Christian Faith.  In the unique light of his Christocentric faith and piety, the Apostle Paul was reminding the Colossians—and us through them—of what the newly baptized Christian has…

On January 6, we celebrated the Great Feast of Theophany, on which we commemorated the Baptism of the Lord and the revelation of the Holy Trinity at the Jordan River.  It is this open manifestation of God that accords this feast the name “Theophany” and not the Nativity of Christ.  For, as Saint John Chrysostom says, “Why, then, is this day called…

I would like to begin by wishing everyone a blessed New Year.  While I am a few days late, the new year 2013 is just beginning, and we still have a long way to go.  So a greeting at this point is not altogether untimely.  I am avoiding the usual cliché of wishing everyone a “happy” New Year, simply because that terms evokes something so…

Within the Church we have a biblical/theological vocabulary that is very expressive of what we believe as Christians.  These words are drawn primarily from the Bible, the Ecumenical Councils, and the theological writings of the great Church Fathers, such as Saint Athanasius the Great, quoted above.  As responsible, believing and practicing…

In Saint Basil the Great’s First Prayer in Preparation for Holy Communion, he acknowledges – and we acknowledge with him when we offer this prayer up to God – that we are so often “thankless and graceless.”  Saint Basil makes this claim after enumerating what “Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ our God” has done for us when He took on…

On November 15, we observed the first day of the 40-day Nativity/Advent Fast, meant to prepare us for the advent of the Son of God in the flesh.  For some/many of us, this might very well catch us unaware and unprepared.  However, as the saying goes, “it is what it is,” and so the Church calendar directs us to enter into this sacred season on…

I am browsing through the newest edition of Salvo, a journal with a very contemporary look and feel, though as an offshoot of Touchstone, it is something of a young adult’s version of that journal’s traditional Christianity. The articles are geared toward offering Christian responses to contemporary social and moral issues. The new issue contains a…

Yesterday, we served The Order for the Burial of an Infant over and on behalf of a two-day old boy, who died at Children’s Hospital on Saturday.

Humanly speaking, there is nothing more heartbreaking than this: a tiny infant dressed in white baptismal clothes, lying in the middle of the church in a coffin that looks more like a small box, surrounded…