What Does the Cross Mean for us Today?

The cross of Christ, the Lord’s triumphant and life-giving death whereby He destroys death, is so important for us to understand and internalize as Orthodox Christians, that the Church gives special significance and specific Scriptural readings for both the weekend before the Feast and the one that follows. This Sunday after the Exaltation, the Church […]

4th Sunday of Lent – Orthodox Homily on Answer to Prayer

We hear in the Holy Gospel of St. Mark today, “Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, […]

Homily on Annunciation – March 25, 2020

This is a day of great rejoicing!  Today, the Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she will miraculously conceive the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us.  And so, today we celebrate the beginning of God’s redemption of man by virtue of the conception of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.  God announces to […]

3rd Sunday of Lent – Orthodox Homily on Life Giving Cross

Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us these convicting words today, “Whosoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”  The death of Jesus of Nazareth is a historical fact, but many live today as if this death and the empty tomb are irrelevant, preferring instead to […]

2nd Sunday of Lent – Orthodox Homily on Urgent Spiritual Growth

We’ve all heard the expression, “carpe diem (seize the day).”   We feel good about ourselves when we get that project accomplished, get those tasks and errands done that we’ve been putting off—they’re sometimes drudgery to do them, but we feel good for having gotten them done.  If you think about it, though, these ‘accomplishments’ […]

3rd Sunday of Triodion – Orthodox Homily on the Last Judgement

Today is the Sunday of the Last Judgment.  Many in today’s world avoid discussing topics like Judgment, sin, hell.  The erroneous thought is that God, being a “God of love,” would never condemn anyone to eternal damnation even ifthey have rejected and blasphemed Him, lived a life apart from Him, and persecuted the Church and Christ’s followers. Many consider the […]

2nd Sunday of Triodion – Orthodox Homily on the Prodigal Sons Return

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 equally apply to us as a people.  We live in a […]

33rd Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Great Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple (Lk. 2:22-40)

The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple is a day of fulfilment, an affirmation of the prophesies of the Righteous Simeon and Prophetess Anna regarding Christ’s divinity and God’s Incarnation as the long-awaited Messiah.  This is the central theme of the Feast, but it points us to a still deeper meaning. We know […]

32nd Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Matthew 15:21-28

We all know the saying, “pride goeth before a fall.”  Our first parents, Adam and Eve, suffered a fall that was at its heart a consequence of pride, of disregarding God’s way for what seemed good to them at the time even as they knew it was not God’s will.  Their willful sin plunged all of us […]

30th Sunday after Pentecost – Orthodox Homily for Sunday after Theophany

The Theophany of God the Holy Trinity, this revelation and manifestation of God as the unity in essence He is—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is revealed to the world He created and proclaimed by His Word as “very good”.  That world fell into sin and despair through man’s sin, but by Christ’s Incarnation, our human nature and […]