This Saturday we remembered St. Innocent, Enlightener of North America and Metropolitan of Moscow who together with St. Herman, St. Tikhon, and others embody the evangelistic zeal of our spiritual forbearers in this Land.   St. Innocent risked life and limb to bring the light of Christ to the darkness of Alaska; he turned the people […]

Today’s Gospel reminds us that we are called as Christians not just to love those who are good to us, but even our adversaries.  Likewise, we are to give and lend without expecting anything in return. We love and give as Christ loves and gives through our communion with the Author of that love and grace, […]

The idea of denying oneself anything in our “me first” culture seems almost ‘abnormal,’ but the message of the cross stands in such stark contrast: Christ says to us today, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mk. 8:34). The Lord knows that if […]

This Friday we celebrate the Great Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.  We recall that by Christ’s death on the cross, we’re endowed with life.  Christ God emerges from His encounter with this ancient instrument of death as the Victor; He defeats the enemy—death is slain!  By following Christ into this new, redeemed life through […]

This Saturday we celebrate the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Most-Holy Theotokos. We call to mind her miraculous conception by barren parents past child-bearing age. The Church acclaims the birth of the Theotokos in beautifully poetic terms so that we may more fully and reverently delve into the Great Mystery of God’s dispensation, […]

The Orthodox Church has struggled in this land for many years to change from a “chaplain” mentality of holding on to what we already have, ministering exclusively to those already Orthodoxy, keeping to our particular ethnic identities, but often neglecting Christ’s commandment to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of […]

The young man in today’s Gospel wants to have it both ways: He classifies Jesus as “a good teacher,” but asks of Him that which only God can know and reveal. No man who is simply a “good teacher” could ever answer the ultimate question: not, “what must a man do to inherit eternal life,” […]

We’re reminded today in our Epistle that the Apostles and their successors, and indeed all faithful Orthodox Christians, will suffer as they live out their faith in the world. The life of a faithful Christian, by necessity, involves our self-denial and our coming outside ourselves to love and to serve. This is part of our […]

The disciples faced many fears—fear of rejection by their own for following the Messiah, fear of arrest, persecution, of losing all their temporal attachments, forsaking their families, suffering prison, torture, martyrdom, and even wondering where their next meal would come from. To all of these fears, Jesus reminds them that He and HE ALONE is […]

In today’s Gospel, the blind men get themselves to Christ, beseeching Him to have mercy on them and acclaiming Him as the long-awaited Messiah by their words, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” It is both their acknowledgement of their need for healing and their coming to Christ, which so loudly demonstrates their faith. […]