Reflections in Christ

The Leavetaking of Pascha is often understood, on some level, to be a sorrowful occasion; we take our leave fondly, looking forward to next year. More truly, the leavetaking…

Today, as we draw near to the end of the Paschal feast, whose Leavetaking will take place two days from now, our liturgical readings strike a seemingly ominous chord. ...

“It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest in him.” We know that all sickness, pain, and death came into the world on account…

When we hear that the Samaritan woman had five husbands, and that the one she has now is not her husband, we may be shocked at her apparently-tumultuous personal life. Without…

Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Pascha, and also the name of the period of fifty days between and encompassing these feasts. Hence, this mid-point of the festal period is Mid-Pentecost, the middle of the fifty…

In the early days of the Church, those who were seeking to be joined to Christ – the catechumens – often learned the faith solely through the study of the Old Testament. With the…

The myrrh-bearing women are a constant presence in the hymns of the Resurrection, both during this bright Paschal season and on Sundays throughout the year. These ...

The Lord’s Pascha, as the feast of feasts, cannot be celebrated just one day a year or in just one way. We regard all of Bright Week as one unending day of the Resurrection, and even as we close…

The Lord rises before the dawn, and he leaves behind his graveclothes and an empty tomb. There are no physical witnesses to his Rising (though there is much evidence and many who testify that he is risen). In some mysterious way…

The forty-day celebration of the Nativity concluded with the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple; the forty-day Great Fast concludes with his Entrance into Jerusalem. In both cases, the Lord comes…