Tomorrowwe begin Great and Holy Lent.  We put our earthly cares and distractions aside to journey with Christ into the desert with Christ.  We fast and pray as He did before facing and defeating the Devil.  We make the most of this spiritual ‘hospital’ so that we can take several steps forward in faith, growing in the […]

One week and counting: that’s how long we have until Holy Lent begins—the Great Fast!  We begin now preparing ourselves, body and soul, as well as our households, to make the most of this holy season of fasting and increased prayer and worship that is before us.  We do so in order to heal, to […]

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son affords us the opportunity to consider how much we value our ‘inheritance,’ our identity, in Christ.  The prodigal demands his inheritance from his father (even before his father dies) and squanders it on riotous living.  Having become a slave to his passions, there’s no sating them.  Having starved his soul […]

Triodion begins!  The three weeks before Great Lent (the Triodion) has begun with the Parable of the Publican and Pharisee Saturday at Great Vespers.  Christ thrusts before us a stark contrast between the prideful, judgmental, self-righteous Pharisee and the humble, self-effacing, repentant Publican.  Like the Pharisee, we too can easily find ourselves following all the ‘rules’ of […]

On Luke 2:25-26:  For the righteous Simeon, his one desire is to see and hold the babe Christ, the long-awaited Messiah made flesh, before he dies.  God, by His mercy, grants his heart’s desire.  Here too, we see that singular desire to see Christ, to be with Christ, to encounter Christ, to be in His near […]

Pridedoesn’t just manifest itself in arrogance, but often—maybe even more often—in over-sensitivity and feelings of inferiority.  The common denominator is self-focus rather than Christ-focus.  Where ego and reliance on self is concerned, whether in regard to appearance, identity, or abilities, or one’s purpose in life, pride won’t be far behind.  It will haunt us, belittle […]

Faith is one of those things that the modern rational mind has such a hard time contemplating. In a society where humanists believe that the scientific method is the end all and be all of what we can ‘know’, of what is ‘true’, faith seems almost quaint, if not irrelevant to many who prefer the calculations […]

Today we reflect on Christ’s miraculous healing of the blind man, who repeatedly and undauntedly calls after Christ God for His mercy, using the messianic title, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Undeterred by those who would silence him, the man catches Christ’s attention who rewards him for his faith in the living […]

“Today the waters of the Jordan are transformed into healing by the coming of the Lord.  Today the transgressions of men are washed away by the waters of the Jordan…  Today we have been delivered from darkness and illuminated with the light of the knowledge of God.  Today the blinding mist of the world is […]

“Today the waters of the Jordan are transformed into healing by the coming of the Lord.  Today the transgressions of men are washed away by the waters of the Jordan…  Today we have been delivered from darkness and illuminated with the light of the knowledge of God.  Today the blinding mist of the world is […]