Reflections in Christ

During their earthly lives, all the saints are an incentive to virtue for those who hear and see them with understanding, for they are human icons of excellence, animated pillars of goodness, and living books, which teach us the way to better things [Homily on Saints Peter and Paul by Saint Gregory Palamas].

On Friday, June 29, we celebrated and…

Today is the Leavetaking of the Great Feast of the Ascension of the Lord.  Looking back to last Sunday, in addition to our ongoing celebration of the Ascension, we also commemorated the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea.  This is an annual commemoration on the Seventh Sunday of Pascha.  This First Ecumenical Council convened in…

During the week following last Sunday’s commemoration of the Myrrhbearing Women, the Vespers and Matins hymns focused on these extraordinary women and their role as apostolic witnesses, implying their role as “apostles to the apostles.”  Their eyewitness testimony of both the empty tomb and the Risen Lord continues to amaze me, and I can only…

During the week following last Sunday’s commemoration of the Myrrhbearing Women, the Vespers and Matins hymns focused on these extraordinary women and their role as apostolic witnesses, implying their role as “apostles to the apostles.”  Their eyewitness testimony of both the empty tomb and the Risen Lord continues to amaze me, and I can only…

As we draw closer to the beginning of Great Lent – which begins on Monday, February 19—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—the Sunday…

Yesterday, the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, we entered the season of the Triodion, that vast compilation of lenten hymnography gathered together in one book over the centuries that will guide us through the pre-lenten period, and then on through Great Lent and Holy Week, taking us to the very brink of the Paschal celebration of the Death…

Recently, I noticed and then read two fine short homilies posted on our parish website concerning the story of the publican Zacchaeus and his conversion to following Christ. One was written by Father Thomas Hopko, and the other by Father Ambrose Young (in which he extensively quotes Metropolitan Anthony Bloom). These two homilies offer a great deal…

According to the civil calendar, we begin the year of our Lord 2018 on January 1.  The year of 2018 is based upon the calculations of a medieval monk who, in attempting to ascertain the exact date of the birth of Christ, missed the year 0 by only a few years.  According to contemporary scholars, Jesus was actually born between what we consider to be…

“He, the Mighty One, the Artificer of all, Himself prepared this body in the virgin as a temple for Himself, and took it for His very own, as the instrument through which He was known and in which He dwelt” [Saint Athanasius the Great].

Within the Church we have a biblical/theological vocabulary that is very expressive of what we believe as…

The over-all theme of the Parable of the Great Supper [Luke 14:16-24] has to do with how being “busy” can easily lead to excuse-making of a dubious kind because we then justify postponing our relationship with God based upon those very excuses.  But as Christ said in the parable, the Master of the Supper was not impressed.

This somehow connects in…

“God is wonderful in His saints, the God of Israel!”

As we well know, Saint Nicholas was a bishop who served in Asia Minor in the opening decades of the fourth century.  As a hierarch of the Church, he was a man who had authority, meaning that he was someone to be respected and obeyed.  This has been a characteristic of the Church’s hierarchy…

We recently celebrated one of the Twelve Great Feast Days of the Church’s liturgical year—the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple.  The festal cycle of the Church sanctifies time.  By this we mean that the tedious flow of time is imbued with sacred content as we celebrate the events of the past now made present through liturgical worship. …

One of the most challenging narratives in the Gospels is the healing of the Gadarene demoniac [Mark 5:1-20; Matthew 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39]. This dramatic event, which reveals the power of Christ over the demons, will appear to the 21st century mind as either archaic or even primitive. We may listen with respect and sing “Glory to Thee, O Lord, glory…

“And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” [Luke 8:14].

There is an interior connection between the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man [Luke 16:19-31], for the “rich man”…

On one of my neighborhood walks, I came across some more “sidewalk graffiti” in front of the Williams Street Elementary school here in Norwood.  Of the many new slogans scrawled in chalk beneath one’s feet as one walks along reading the words on the pavement, I encountered “See Good in People.”  (It hasn’t rained for a while, so by now I have…

We are in the midst of the post-festal celebration of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross — to give the feast its full title.  On this feast, we liturgically commemorate and venerate the Cross that is placed in the middle of the church.  The feast then continues through a full “octave” of celebration, thus making it…

Last Sunday—August 6—we celebrated the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, which we will continue to celebrate through Sunday 13, the Leavetaking of the Feast.  The mysterious presence of Beauty is revealed on Mount Tabor in an overwhelming manner as Christ is transfigured, resplendent in divine glory.  This is the beauty of the…

Embedded at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ teaches us that “no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon” [Matthew 6:24].

In these words, Jesus confronts us with an “either/or” choice.  The “either/or” dilemma…

Yesterday—June 4, 2017—we celebrated the Great Feast of Pentecost.  And it seems fitting for me to share a fine passage from Father John Breck, who wrote a summary paragraph of the role and work of the Holy Spirit in the divine economy, and in the life of Christian believers.  This passage gives us a sense of the extraordinarily rich and varied…

According to the mind of the Church, the Risen Lord is also the Ascended Lord.  In the words of Father Georges Florovsky, “In the Ascension resides the meaning and the fullness of Christ’s Resurrection.”  Though the visible presence of the Risen Lord ended 40 days after His Resurrection, that did not mean that His actual presence was…