12th Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Nativity of the Theotokos

Today we joyfully keep the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos. Joachim and Ana, the parents of Mary the Birthgiver of God, were of the royal house of David, lived holy and God-fearing lives. The hymnody for the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos invites us to consider the manner in which God […]

11th Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Forgiveness in the New Church Year

Blessed New Year! The new Church year begins today, September 1.  We remember with thanksgiving the multiple ways God has made Himself present to us in the past year and we look forward to growth in our Faith in the new year before us. With the advent of the new Church year and the first Feast of the […]

10th Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on What to Render to the Lord

In Psalm 116, King David asks, “What shall I render to the Lord, for all His bounty to me?”  His response is:  “I will lift up the cup of salvation, and call on the Name of the Lord.”  As we Consider all the gifts that God has given us even before we were formed: the world that […]

8th Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Division in the Body of Christ

St. Paul laments in today’s Epistle, “For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.”  Increasingly we see that our society is polarized, that there are many things that divide us today on moral and political grounds.  Sadly, this is true even in the […]

7th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Accepting God’s Healing

We witness in the Gospel today the healing of two blind men, as well as that of a man demon-possessed and mute.  Through these life-changing encounters Christ’s power as God is fully revealed.  Responding to the blindmen’s plea for mercy, the God of mercy, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, receives them into His holy presence and heals them.  But […]

6th Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Healing

A beautiful miracle has taken place in today’s Gospel: we see a paralyzed man who cannot walk on his own, healed of his paralysis.  Christ God, the Logos (Word) of God, through whom all things were made, whose very image and likeness is imprinted on the souls of every human being, knew thisman and loved thisman with a […]

5th Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Understanding Demons

Today we’re confronted with St. Matthew’s account of the Gergesene demoniacs.  I say, “confronted,” because it’s very rare that we even hear anymore that there is such a thing as demonic possession.  This is ironic because there are so many examples in our world today of diabolic violence and murder, of the defaming of the image of […]

4th Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Understanding and Facing Sin

St. Paul proclaims in today’s Epistle, “The wages of sin is death,”.  Sin is one of the most misunderstood concepts in Christianity today.  In some non-Orthodox circles, sin is identified with legal transgression, salvation with justification and atonement, or ‘appeasement,’ of God.  Others, of a Calvinistic persuasion, assert one cannot lose his salvation no matter what IFone is among […]

3rd Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Battling Complacency

One of the biggest challenges we face as Christians today is becoming complacent or comfortable with our passions and sins, justifying or explaining them away as ‘necessary,’ logical, or ‘no big deal.’  What is behind such complacency varies: a form of pride, a fear of changing or conforming oneself to Christ and the Church, lack of […]

2nd Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Saints of North America

In today’s Gospel for the Sunday of the Saints of North America and the Holy Apostles, Christ calls His first disciples: the two sons of Zebedee, Andrew and then, his brother Peter.  Immediately, they leave their nets and follow Christ.  You can almost see their willing heart to sacrifice everything to follow Christ and become the “fishers […]