41st Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Forgiveness

https://www.orthodoxannapolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/homily-03-17-2013.mp3 Today is Forgiveness Sunday. We’ve arrived at the doorstep of Great Lent. “Our salvation is nearer at hand than when we first believed,” St. Paul reminds us today (Rom.13;11). If we’re to cross over the threshold into a holy Lent and begin the Fast clean, Christ teaches us that we must love as He […]

40th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Last Judgement

https://www.orthodoxannapolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/homily-03-10-2013.mp3 Today is the Sunday of the Last Judgment for us as Orthodox. We take note that many religious groups outside Orthodoxy refrain from discussing sin and judgment. The thought is that God, being a “God of love,” would never condemn any of His creatures to eternal judgment and punishment. He would never give them […]

39th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Prodigal Son

https://www.orthodoxannapolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/homily-03-3-2013.mp3 The holy prophet Amos prophesied, “’Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11).  We live in an age when this prophecy could apply to […]

37th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Zacchaeus

https://www.orthodoxannapolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/homily-2-17-2013.mp3 Zaccheaus was a tax collector, a sinner.  In our Lord ’s day, the tax collectors weren’t only responsible for collecting the taxes due to Caesar but were also notorious extortionists, demanding from those who could not afford it more than was due in order to pocket some for themselves.  Zaccheaus was such a man—notorious, […]

36th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Pride and Humility

https://www.orthodoxannapolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/homily-2-10-2013.mp3 We all know the saying, “pride goeth before a fall.”  We also know that our first parents, Adam and Eve, suffered a fall that plunged all of us and the world into an environment of sin and its terrible consequences. Think for a moment of the many ways that pride attacks us: it manifests […]

32nd Sunday After Pentecost – Homily on St. John Chrysostom and St. Nino

https://www.orthodoxannapolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/homily-1-27-2013.mp3 Most Americans still say that they believe in God, but church attendance is at an all time low. Many people believe in the ‘power of positive thinking,’ luck, and the idea that things are always progressing, getting better. In fact, in America, ‘new’ is almost always synonymous with ‘better.’ And so, we see that […]

32nd Sunday After Pentecost – Homily on St. Euthymius the Great

https://www.orthodoxannapolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/homily-1-20-2013.mp3 We’re taught in our culture, that some of the greatest ‘values’ are our independence, autonomy and self-will.  These ideas are so ingrained today, that we may not even think about their affect on us.  But when we compare these ‘values’ to those which Christ admonishes on us in the Holy Scriptures: obedience, humility, submission, […]

31st Sunday After Pentecost – Homily on the Theophany of Christ

https://www.orthodoxannapolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/homily-1-6-2013.mp3 At first glance, this Feast of the Holy Theophany may appear to be merely the remembrance of Christ’s baptism.  The blessing of the waters, may likewise appear to be a quaint tradition from the Church’s past—from the outside it may look like just another flare for the theatrical.  Some traditions teach that we celebrate […]

29th Sunday after Pentecost – Homily on the Forefeast of the Nativity

Today on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of Christ we remember those righteous ancestors of Christ who prefigure Christ Himself.  Matthew’s Gospel, which is assigned for today, traces Jesus Christ’s lineage through Abraham and recounts Christ’s lineage not through Mary but through Joseph, who adopts Jesus and in doing so, gives us one of […]

28th Sunday after Pentecost – Homily on the Forefathers of Christ

Today the herald of the Feast of the Nativity bids us be attentive: Today is the Sunday of the Forefathers of Christ—the 11th hour of Advent: the Lord is coming! This Sunday the Lord invites us to recall his earthly forefathers, both those before the Law and those after the Law of Moses. On this […]