Reflections in Christ

According to her vita, written by Saint Sophronius, from her youth Saint Mary devoted her life to the pursuit of pleasures. Reading her life, as we did in church this past Thursday, we might be tempted to think of Mary as an outlier, an extreme. But, in fact, if we examine our conscience honestly and take a sincere look at the shape of our lives, we…

In the sacred tradition of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Church, the importance of the Akathist hymn to the Mother of God can scarcely be overstated. As the lives of many saints and ascetics amply demonstrate, this hymn is a boundless well from which we draw joy in sorrows, resolution in trials, and comfort in afflictions. The words of the Akathist have…

The end of Great Lent is in sight—the final day of the holy Forty Days is a week from tomorrow. Already we turn our eyes toward the Passion starting from next Monday, when we will begin to sing of Lazarus’s departure and the Lord’s Entrance. Before then, however, we take the final days of the fifth week of Lent to renew our focus upon our…

As we reach the fourth Sunday of the Fast, we may find ourselves already flagging, tiring of the Lenten effort. By sins of omission and commission, by failure in the outward fast (the fast from foods) and the inward fast (the fast from sins), we may have already failed in our Lenten goals, perhaps many times over. But St. John, calling down to us…

In the middle of Great Lent we celebrate the Sunday of the Cross, and this reminds us that the entire Lenten effort, our whole Lenten struggle, is cruciform. The Great Fast is our via crucis, modeled on Christ’s way of the Cross. Therefore, let us today be reminded that, in our every effort—during the holy Forty Days and beyond—we should…

On this second Sunday of Great Lent, we celebrate the feast of St. Gregory Palamas and renew the triumph of Orthodoxy. How unbearable the pressure must have been, in the gloomy latter days of the Byzantine Empire, to compromise the faith in the name of expedience or personal comfort. Yet St. Gregory shows us, with his profound teachings on the…

Today we celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy—the veneration of the holy icons. And truly, the image is the triumph of the Prototype. Christ died not so that he could remain alone, but so that he could bear much fruit. In the midst of the material reality of this world, he desired to restore his image and perfect his likeness. The fruit of his…

Liturgically, today is known as the Expulsion of Adam; popularly, it is known as Forgiveness Sunday. This reminds us that, as soon as we sin, the Lord forgives us—provided that we truly repent. Part of repentance is giving up our grudges against others, since we are the greatest sinners of all. Part of repentance is an acknowledgement of the…

Saint Vladimir Seminary
April 21, 2024

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, is the final Sunday of the fast. We will soon put the forty days behind us; this coming Friday, the last day of Lent proper, we will sing, “Having completed the forty days that bring profit to our…

Saint Tikhon’s Monastery
April 20, 2024

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today Saint Paul offers us a sobering reminder: “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

If we have engaged in the Lenten struggle with even a modicum of authentic effort, then we know, to some small…

Saint Gregory Palamas is famed for articulating the distinction between God’s essence and his energies and for his discussion of the uncreated Light. His doctrines are an indispensable part of Orthodox Christian dogma. However, it must be remembered that he was not articulating these doctrines in response to abstract problems: he was defending the…

Today, an angel stands in fear and awe in the presence of woman, she who is “more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim.” This is not Byzantine hyperbole: the Mother of God contained within herself the one before whom the angels merely tremble, immeasurably surpassing every other creature by her total…

Today, as we celebrate the triumph of Orthodoxy, we remember the countless confessors who suffered on account of their veneration for the holy icons. Now these confessors are themselves depicted on icons. This is the victory and triumph of Christianity: suffering transformed into beauty, death and mortality swallowed up by the light of eternal life.…

The rite of forgiveness takes place once a year in most parishes, but in some monasteries, it is a daily practice. Forgiveness, after all, should not be limited to one day in the year. This Forgiveness Sunday, as we enter into Great Lent and renew our commitment to lead the life in Christ, we might consider making the asking and granting of…

On this Sunday, we remember the end of the world. “Pondering upon that fearful day,” as the hymns exhort us to do, we realize that we have no righteousness, no worthy deeds, nothing by which we might justify ourselves before that dread tribunal that knows no respect of persons. All we can do is ask for mercy. Glimpsing the end of the world,…

This week, we begin our Lenten efforts by making no efforts to fast whatsoever. This is an important reminder: God does not need our fast, but we always stand in need of his grace. No matter what efforts we make or fail to make during the coming weeks, our fast is not our project, much less our accomplishment: it is merely a small attempt to…

During the first week of Lent, we sang the Great Canon of Saint Andrew over the course of four nights at Great Compline; today this lengthy penitential canon is appointed in full at Matins. Some small details concerning the order of the troparia and the like have changed, too. This serves as a reminder that repentance is not static; our repentance…

The Ladder of Saint John leads the Christian, step by step, rung by rung, along the ascent to heaven. Naturally, the higher steps involve more dangerous temptations and more exalted virtues. For many of us, who remain perpetual beginners, it is good to be reminded of the first steps: we must renounce the world, become detached from worldly cares,…

The Cross stands at the center of the fast as it stands at the center of all our activities, indeed, at the center of our entire life. The world is cruciform, and, as we see in holy icons depicting the days of creation, the Lord formed his creation with the hands that were pierced by Roman nails. Following his lead, in all our activities, let us…

One week after the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we attach an appendix, as it were, to that celebration: the feast of Saint Gregory Palamas. Saint Gregory Palamas’s teachings concerning the divine energies, the light of Tabor, and hesychasm are well-known but, in many cases, only superficially understood. More accessible are the great saint’s homilies,…