During the sacred season of Great Lent, the Church calls us to sobriety and renewed stewardship. Through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, we learn again that every aspect of our life—spiritual and material alike—is entrusted to us by God…
One of the unique liturgical features of this first Sunday of Lent, the celebration of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, is the proclamation of the anathemas. This rite is generally…
Today we commemorate the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise. On the one hand, this is a sorrowful occasion; it is not without reason that we recall Adam’s lament before…
In his epistle to the Romans, St. Paul speaks of “that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” The Last Judgment, which we remember today, is part…
When the father runs out to meet his prodigal younger son, the former has nothing to gain, no profit motive, no angle: he is simply overflowing with love for his child for…
Today’s feast is a feast of liminality. For one, it stands on the threshold between Christmastide and Lent. Christ still appears to us as a newborn Child, just as…
The Lenten Triodion begins today, and it begins with a weeklong period of feasting. This fact, coupled with today’s Gospel reading, warns us against pride and hypocrisy: the Lord desires, not…
Today we celebrate three of the great fathers and teachers of the Church: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostom. The works of these…
Though the Sunday of Zacchaeus is sometimes understood to be the first pre-Lenten Sunday, it is in fact the final Sunday of the season after Pentecost. Nevertheless, it is certainly…
Christ is born! Glorify him! As we celebrate the midwinter feast of the Lord’s saving Nativity in the flesh, in some parts of North America, snow lies thick across the ground, blanketing the whole landscape in white. Many of…