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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…
Today’s feast may seem quaint, confusing, or even off-putting, but in the Middle Ages, the commemoration of the finding of the Forerunner’s head was a major celebration. There is a lesson for us here. The Forerunner’s head was so precious and holy that it merited, not one, but two feast days (the Third Finding of the Head is celebrated on May…
Zacchaeus Sunday marks the end of the season “after Pentecost” and points us toward the beginning of the pre-Lenten season a week from now. Climbing the sycamore with Zacchaeus, we catch sight of our Lord Jesus Christ; he is already on his way to Jerusalem, on his way to the Cross. Let us hasten to follow him on the road of sorrow that leads to…
One of the great wonderworkers among the saints is the holy hierarch Alexis of Moscow, whose icon is fairly ubiquitous in our older churches in the northeastern part of the United States. While participating in ecclesiastical and political life at the highest level, this spiritual friend of Saint Sergius of Radonezh still managed also to achieve the…
Throughout the Nativity cycle, we have celebrated the appearing of the Lord in the flesh—in Bethlehem as an infant, in the Jordan as a full-grown man, and now in the temple as a sacrifice. This was the pattern of the Lord’s life: he came as a child, actively ministered for three years after his baptism, and then was offered up to death on the…
Saint Vladimir Seminary
January 30, 2024
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today, we celebrate the feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs. This feast is a feast of harmony, of unity, of peace in the Body of Christ.
Many of you may know the story: in the eleventh century, a controversy arose over the question: Who…
There are a number of Russian folk sayings extoling the specialness of the number three: “God loves a trinity.” “Three fingers make a cross.” It is really no surprise, therefore, that the holy and great hierarchs, the foremost bishops and greatest luminaries of Orthodox Christian teaching, are three in number: Basil, Gregory, and John the…
The spirit of the times often tempts us to think that, in response to every injustice, each of us must “do something,” and this “something” is often a public proclamation—we are against that, we are for this. The martyrs and confessors of the Soviet Yoke present us with a different way. Very few of them were slain for public opposition to…
Saint Mark of Ephesus is rightly known foremost as a confessor and defender of Orthodoxy, for his rejection of the Florentine Council and his treatise against the Latin doctrine of purgatory. But he was also a prolific hymnographer and author of prayers. Indeed, his life serves a double reminder: first, Orthodox doctrine is indispensable for our…
Joyous feast! Christ is baptized! Two thousand years ago, the innocent Lamb, harmless, sinless, and spotless, was plunged into the waters of the Jordan. A dove flew down, and a voice was heard, and the worship of the Trinity, as we sing, was made manifest. At that time, John bore witness, but now the whole world is witness to these things. Once, the…
Today is the beginning of a period which the Typicon calls the “forefeast of lights,” and appropriately we begin this brief season with the celebration of Saint Seraphim of Sarov, one of the truly luminous saints. Once, in a snowy woodland, Motovilov witnessed the saint full of the uncreated light of God, but Saint Seraphim’s luminosity, his…
In the services for today’s feast, Christ’s Circumcision is seen, first and foremost, as a sign of his divine humility, prefiguring the humiliation of his Passion. Though he is “all-beneficent God,” “beginningless with his Father,” he is neither ashamed of Circumcision nor does he abhor it. We also sing of Christ’s swaddling bands,…
During these last hours of the year, many people settle on their resolutions for the new year. Though we may benefit from Dry January, losing weight, a new morning or evening routine, we should take our primary resolution for the coming year from this late medieval carol: “The old year now away is fled, / The new year it is entered; / Then let us…
Today, the second day of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, we keep festival in honor of the Theotokos, the gate through whom the Divine and Eternal entered the world. The only way to encounter Jesus Christ is through her; the only Jesus Christ whom we know is the Son of Mary. Therefore, if we desire to approach the newborn God-infant, laid in a…
Christ is born! Glorify him!
May he who descended from heaven in order to ascend the Cross, who was laid in a manger to be our Food, who was borne in the arms of his Mother to Jerusalem as a holy Victim of sacrifice, who fled as a babe from Herod so that he could give himself up to Pilate in the prime of his life, Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten…
In some Orthodox traditions, a special fasting dinner, composed of 12 dishes, is served tonight, eaten by candlelight when the first star appears in the sky. That meal is followed by the All-night Vigil. In some places, the Vigil is kept late at night, starting a short while before midnight, and is immediately followed by the Divine Liturgy, as on…
Two of the most beautiful hymns of praise in the Church’s service books are the brief song at the end of the seventh canticle of Matins (“Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our fathers . . .”) and the eighth canticle in its entirety (“Bless the Lord, all works of the Lord . . .”). The songs, sung by three children in a tyrant’s furnace,…
Monastery of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
December 13, 2023
Today we gather to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the exodus of one of the luminaries of the Orthodox Church in America, the departed servant of God the Very Reverend Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann.
People may debate this or that aspect of Fr. Alexander’s legacy and teaching, but…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On a day-to-day basis, we go through our earthly lives with a sense of control and purpose. We feel in charge of our fate, that our decisions matter, that we can…
On this winter feast day, let us pray to our most venerable father Herman:
O venerable father Herman of Alaska, wonderworker of America, heavenly patron and intercessor: we are sinful and unworthy of thy legacy, yet we are, nevertheless, thy children. Because of our sins and errors, we are beset by division in the Churches and division in our…