Reflections in Christ

Joyous feast of Saint Herman to one and all! Nearly two hundred years after his repose and over fifty years since his glorification, Saint Herman, the patron saint of North America and of the Orthodox Church in America, remains the “joyful North Star” of those who profess Christ in an Orthodox manner in this land. Though today we celebrate his…

Monastery of the Transfiguration
Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
August 6, 2023

I greet all of you who have gathered as pilgrims to celebrate the great feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord here in this sacred place. I am grateful to Mother Christophora and the sisterhood of the Holy Transfiguration monastery for welcoming me and all of the pilgrims…

Christ is transfigured, in his light we see light: the divine light that radiates forth from him and transfigures his saints. Some saints, such as Abba Joseph and the Venerable Seraphim, were visibly transfigured during their lifetimes. Some saints were transfigured at the time of their death – at the hour of their repose, a pillar of light was…

Monastery of the Transfiguration
Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
August 6, 2023

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

Today, Christ is transfigured. The one who kindled the sun at the beginning of time, who allotted radiance to the moon, who made the stars to blaze forth in the darkness of the void, who fashioned the colors…

Today is the first of the three feasts of the Savior celebrated in August, and this feast has traditionally been a day for the blessing of freshly collected honey. There is a practical reason for this: August is the beginning of the harvest season, and the fruits of the harvest are blessed on various days throughout the month. But there is also a…

St. Panteleimon is a saint for all seasons: a martyr, a healer, a patron of Orthodox soldiers and sailors, an ally in spiritual warfare. And this befits his name, which means “all-merciful”: St. Panteleimon makes the mercy of God manifest to us in the many facets of our lives. He should be our regular intercessor in pain, passing sickness,…

St. Yakov, the son of a Russian father and an Aleut mother, devoted himself to what was best in both his cultures: holy Orthodoxy and the time-hallowed native traditions that were consonant with it. However, his horizons were not defined by his descent. True, he received his seminary training in Russia and then served a parish based on his…

The mystery of Christ’s Incarnation is fathomless; we can never exhaust our contemplation of the mystery whereby the Only-begotten of the Father became man in time. And as we celebrate the feast of St. Anna, the mother of the all-holy Theotokos, we are reminded of one of the many small miracles of the Incarnation: Christ, when he was conceived of…

St. Mary Magdalene was full of tender love toward her Lord: it was that love that led her to the garden on Easter morning, where she hoped to anoint his Body with myrrh. And yet even that love, admirable as it is, had to be transformed. “Do not touch me, do not cling to me,” the Risen Lord told her. She was called to a higher love and a higher…

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

In today’s brief Gospel, if we read it superficially, we come away with a quaint and softly comforting picture familiar from dated religious art of mediocre quality: a non-threatening Jesus sits amid the multitudes, doling out healings freely to grateful supplicants.

The contrast…

In the Byzantine period, it was customary to build chapels to St. Elijah in mountainous places, presumably so he could aid those who fared in those places by his prayers. In old Rus, his help was sought both in droughts and in dangerous storms. In the present day, it is not uncommon for priests to bless vehicles on St. Elijah’s feast, since he is…

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

Your Eminence Archbishop Irénée,
Your Grace Bishop Alexei, 
My beloved brothers and concelebrants in the Lord’s Mysteries;

And also reverend clergy, honored delegates, all attendees of this Archdiocesan Assembly of the Archdiocese of Canada, my beloved children in the Lord:…

“Christ is risen, my joy!” St. Seraphim’s characteristic greeting is well known. Also well known is his love for animals and his friendship even with bears. However, we should not allow St. Seraphim to become for us a sort of Santa Claus figure, friendly and soft. St. Seraphim’s ascesis—kneeling on a rock for a thousand days, the chains he…

Prior to his conversion, St. Vladimir was an infamous polygamist, fornicator, and worshipper of idols. And indeed, we know from the story of Solomon that these behaviors—sexual incontinence and the worship of idols—are often connected. The Scriptures often connect the cults of pagan gods with unrestrained amorous behavior; more than this, they…

St. Sergius of Radonezh is considered among the greatest of the Russian saints and, as the patron of the chapel at the old chancery in Syosset, he also has a special relationship to the Orthodox Church in America. He is himself a great saint, but he was also a son, disciple, friend, and teacher of saints. His parents, Cyril and Maria, are canonized;…

The twelve apostles shine as precious stones in the breastplate of the Great High Priest Jesus Christ; their ministry and martyrdom are the foundations of the Church forever, as the Theologian bears witness in the record of his revelation. There is a striking icon known by two names, “The Preaching of the Apostles” or “The Church of Christ.”…

Saint Nicholas Cathedral
June 29, 2023

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

In the persons and lives of the holy chief apostles whom we celebrate today, we can discern any number of similarities, any number of parallels. Both took new names that signified their apostolic calling—Simon became Peter, and Saul…

The two chief apostles of the Church are, to paraphrase one of the hymns of the day, the two wings upon which the Gospel of Christ is carried throughout the world. The complementarity of the chief apostles’ ministry is apparent in the very structure of the Book of Acts. The earliest part of the book is centered on St. Peter and the disciples who…

We are accustomed to speaking of twelve “great feasts” of the Church; at least one earlier traditional list contains only ten feasts and includes certain celebrations that we now consider minor. However, if we look at the service books of the Church, we find that there are around twenty feasts of the highest liturgical rank, and this number…

Today marks the feast of all saints of North America, and our churches joyfully ring out with hymns in honor of this land’s saints: Herman, Innocent, Tikhon, Alexis, Nikolai, Alexander, John, Yakov, Sebastian, Mardarius, Barnabas, Seraphim. May today’s feast inspire us to celebrate also these saints’ individual feast days, so that the whole…