Today we’re challenged by Christ to “love our enemies” and to “lend without hoping to receive anything in return.” But before we can begin to understand the “how” of such commands that are so contrary to the way our world works today—the way we’re all trained to think in the world, the way our sinful […]
16th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Being Fisher’s of Men
We see before us today another miracle of our Lord that bears particularly and personally on our faith, and on our church. Christ once again reveals Himself as God incarnate in this calling of His foremost disciples: Peter, James, and John to become “fishers of men.” And it’s noteworthy that Christ doesn’t call these fishermen […]
15th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Elevation of the Cross
The cross of Christ, Christ’s triumphant and life-giving death on the cross whereby He destroys death, is so important for us to understand as Orthodox Christians, that the Church gives special significance and specific Scripture readings for both the weekend before the Feast and the one that follows. So, having celebrated the universal Feast of […]
14th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Faith Without Works
We hear in today’s Gospel for the Sunday before the Elevation of the Cross—the major feast coming this Wednesday– the Good News that God loves us to such a tremendous extent that He sent Himself, His Logos, into the world to enter into human nature to make it new again, fit for life with Him […]
13th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on New Beginnings
Blessed New Year! The new Church year began September 1. We remember with thanksgiving the many ways that God made Himself present to us in the past year even as we look to grow in our Faith in the new ecclesiastical year just begun. With the advent of the new Church year and the first […]
12th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Recognizing Christ
In today’s Gospel, we hear the story of the young man who comes to Christ asking Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Christ responds initially not with an answer to his question, but with a test of the young man’s faith, saying, ““Why do you call Me good? No one […]
11th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Forgiveness
When the Lord responded to the Disciples’ question, asking how they should pray, He responded with the Lord’s Prayer and the indelible words of the petition, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” These key words of the prayer pervade the entirety of the Christian life. True forgiveness is a […]
Homily on the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos
We are gathered here today in the presence of the Lord and His Saints to “keep the Feast” of the „falling asleep,” or, Dormition, of Mary the Theotokos, or, „Birth-Giver” of God. Mary is acclaimed in the Church as „more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim.” And yet, this […]
9th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Great Feast of the Transfiguration
This is a day of great joy but also one of great awe as we celebrate Christ’s transfiguration on Mount Tabor. By „transfiguration” we understand that Christ’s divine glory—that of His holy divine essence—was revealed to His foremost disciples Peter, James, and John. In the words of the Troparion of the Feast, they beheld God’s […]
8th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Secular Society and our Identity in Christ
Secular Society and Division in the Body of Christ? 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 Church, where other sources of our identity, be they political, ethnic, or other, divide us from one […]