Reflections in Christ

Several years ago, Newsweek magazine carried an article written by Julia Baird under the rubric of psychology, titled “The Devil Loves Cell Phones”—a rather unexpected and somewhat jarring title considering the secular orientation of such a mass media journal as Newsweek.  The article was a one-page commentary based upon a review of a new book by…

Today—November 15—we begin the forty day Nativity Fast, one of four seasons of the year during which we are called upon to intensify our spiritual lives through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  I would like to expand on this by emphasizing the necessary virtue of patience that accompanies any period of preparation in the life of the Church.  We are…

“Remember, never to fear the power of evil more than your trust in the power and love of God” [Apostle Hermas of the Seventy].

In perhaps his most complex, yet theologically rich Epistle—that to the Romans—the Apostle Paul provides a passage now justifiably famous for articulating his “theology of the Cross.”  This passage in many ways stands at…

“Take heed then to how you hear” [Luke 18:18].

“Make sure that you never refuse to listen when He speaks” [Hebrews 12:25].

We are blessed with hearing the Scriptures at every Divine Liturgy, be it on the Lord’s Day or on any other day on which the Liturgy is celebrated.  Therefore, we will hear at least one reading from an Epistle and one from a…

Fall officially begin at 10:21 a.m. EDT on Thursday, September 22.  From my personal—and, admittedly, “subjective”—perspective, there is nothing quite like the fall among the four seasons.  For me, one of this season’s greatest attractions is found in the flaming red, orange, yellow and golden leaves that transform familiar trees into a…

Ironic indeed, that the Olympic Games—which displayed an array of highly disciplined specimens of physical prowess and stamina, male and female—should have created a vast multitude of “coach potatoes!” who remained more-or-less immobile before their TV sets cheering on their respective heroes.  As I always find the Olympic Games quite entertaining,…

“Strictly speaking, a system of ethics which does not make death its central problem has no value and is lacking in depth and earnestness”—Nikolai Berdyaev.

“Our one and only war… is the sacred battle with the common enemy of all people, of all mankind—against death”—Archimandrite Sophrony.

Recently I met with some folks—both Orthodox and…

We recently celebrated the Great Feast of Pentecost on June 19.  All of the subsequent Sundays of the liturgical year, until the pre-lenten Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee sometime next year, will be so numbered, challenging us to keep our spiritual sight on the overwhelming significance of Pentecost in the divine economy.  The New…

At the Vespers of Pentecost that will be celebrated in all of our parishes on Pentecost Sunday—which falls on June 19 this year—we will implore the Risen Lord, Who sat down at the “right hand” of God the Father, to send the Holy Spirit upon us, as He did upon the apostles who “were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1).  It is quite significant that…

In the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed we profess, “Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man…. And the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.”

What a wonderful expression of…

“So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city….” [John 4:28].

A Samaritan woman came to Jacob’s Well in Sychar, a Samaritan city, at the same time that Jesus sat down by the well, being wearied by His journey.  The evangelist John provides us with a time reference: “It was about the sixth hour” [John 4:6]—i.e. noon.  The Samaritan…

Orthodox Christians believe that the New Testament Church and the Christian faith itself appeared at a particular point in history because the crucified Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead.  The cause behind the emergence of the Church and the Christian Faith was not a crucified, dead and buried Jesus.  Rather, that very crucified, dead and…

I began this morning with a question on my mind:  Is there life after Pascha?  This, in turn, led to a series of further related questions:  Is there meaningful ecclesial/Church life following the Paschal celebration of only little more than a few days ago?  Is it possible to retain any of the vibrancy and joy of commemorating, participating, and…

As we enter Holy Week, the festal atmosphere of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday yields to the solemnity, sobriety and sadness of Holy Week as the Lord moves toward His voluntary and life-giving Passion.  The Son of God came into the world “to bear witness to the truth” [John 18:37] and “to give His life as a ransom for many” [Mark 10:45.]  It is…

During Great Lent, we commemorate the great monastic saint and writer, John Climacus (of the Ladder).  Saint John, who fell asleep in the Lord in the mid-seventh century, was the abbot of one of the most ancient monasteries in the Christian world, at the foot of Jebul Musa—Moses’ Mount—on the Sinai Peninsula.  An austere ascetic, he wrote what may…

Shine, Cross of the Lord, shine with the light of thy grace upon the hearts of those that honor thee!
Hail! Life-giving Cross, the fair Paradise of the Church, Tree of incorruption that brings us the enjoyment of eternal glory!
Hail! Life-giving Cross, unconquerable trophy of the true faith, door to Paradise, helper of the faithful, rampart set…

Every year during Great Lent, we celebrate the Great Feast of the Annunciation to the Most-Holy Theotokos on March 25.  This beautiful “festal interlude” allows us to again marvel before the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God.  At His conception “without seed” the “Word became flesh.” He will be born in nine months time, but the…

The gateway to divine repentance has been opened.  Let us enter eagerly, purified in our bodies and observing abstinence from food and passions, as obedient servants of Christ, Who has called the world into the heavenly Kingdom.  Let us offer to the King of all a tenth part of the whole year, that we may look with love upon His…

Here is a fine, albeit short, summary from Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s introduction to the Lenten Triodion of the meaning and placement of the Sunday of the Last Judgment—celebrated on March 6, 2016.

“The two past Sundays spoke to us of God’s patience and limitless compassion, of His readiness to accept every sinner who returns to Him. On this…

“And He said, ‘There was a man who had two sons….’”

This is how Christ begins what is perhaps the greatest of his parables, the one we know as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but which could easily be titled the “Parable of the Two Sons” or the “Parable of the Compassionate Father.”  With this parable, which we will hear at the Divine Liturgy on…