Blessed Nativity in Continuation, Many Years!  “The angels offer Thee a hymn; the heavens, a star; the Magi, gifts; the shepherds, their wonder; the earth, its cave; the wilderness, a manger; and we offer Thee a Virgin Mother.” (Stichera, Vespers of Nativity).  The Lord grant all of you great joy as we continue to celebrate our […]

The righteous ancestors of Christ, the genealogy of which we hear read in today’s Gospel, pre-figure and point us to Him, the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior of the world; they ready us for His coming just a few days from now. Throughout the Old Testament, their stories of faith are also stories of redemption, of […]

Today’s Gospel is another reminder of the importance of giving thanks to God for His work in our lives: healing us, growing us, saving us.  Of the ten lepers healed, only ONE came back to prostrate himself before God and offer his humble thanks.  We too can take God’s work in our lives for granted.  All […]

Thoughts on Today’s Gospel:  Christ God shatters the myth that being ‘good’ is ‘good enough’.  Inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven is not just about following God’s commandments, as important as they are, but doing so because of love for God, a desire to be made compatible to be in His near presence: what it means to have […]

The Great Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos in the Temple, which we commemorated this past Thursday, is one of those holy days that ties together both Old Covenant and New: We see here the beginning of the unfolding of mankind’s salvation, the inauguration of the fulfillment of all the prototypes that God in His […]

Thoughts on Today’s Gospel “…God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”  How do we become ‘rich’ toward God?  Christ God is meant to […]

The Parable of the Good Samaritan calls us to come outside ourselves and our self-focus to live as Christ in the midst of a world torn apart and ravaged by the ‘thieves’ of our souls that rob mankind of its greatest treasure: our life in and with God the Holy Trinity, our identity as a child […]

TIME, TALENT, TREASURE: First Fruits Pledge 2020.   As Christians we know that everything is ultimately a gift from God.  Throughout time, the people of God have given back to God a tenth, that is, a Tithe, of all that they had.  In the early Church, some even felt called to give away all that they had to […]

TIME, TALENT, TREASURE: First Fruits Pledge 2020.   As Christians we know that everything is ultimately a gift from God.  Throughout time, the people of God have given back to God a tenth, that is, a Tithe, of all that they had.  In the early Church, some even felt called to give away all that they had to […]

In the Orthodox Faith, when someone departs this life in the hope of the resurrection, we pray “Memory Eternal” for that person, i.e., that God would remember them and bring them into His Eternal Kingdom.  To be remembered, or known, by God who is Life means that they too shall live.  The Fathers of the Church […]