Reflections in Christ

In reading the account in Saint Luke’s Gospel, in which Christ healed ten lepers, we learn how only one leper - and a Samaritan at that - returned to Him to offer thanks:  “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed,  turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.  Now he was a…

In an article titled “A Moveable Fast,”  the scholar Elyssa East summarized the history of our American Thanksgiving, and the intentions and practices of the early New England colonists toward this national feast.  Initially, she writes, Thanksgiving was built around the Christian rhythm of fasting and feasting.  Bearing that in mind, she also…

November 21 marks the commemoration of the Great Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple.  The festal cycle of the Church sanctifies time. By this we mean that the tedious flow of time is imbued with sacred content as we celebrate the events of the past now made present through liturgical worship.  Notice how often we hear the word…

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is the only parable that has a named character; and the only parable in which Jesus describes the “afterlife.”  In these two instances it remains unique among the Lord’s parables.  It is a parable extremely rich in content, with a rather complex structure based upon a “reversal of fortune” and filled with…

We recently heard the powerful account of Jesus raising from the dead the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11-16).  This particular event is unique to Saint Luke’s Gospel.  In his Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Luke, the biblical scholar Carroll Stuhlmueller summarized the over-all impression left by this extraordinary event in the following…

“Let us examine not the outer garments, but the conscience of each person.”—Saint John Chrysostom

It is true that Jesus told His disciples that “you always have the poor with you.”  But He went on to say that “whenever you will, you can do good to them” [Mark 14:7.  Though Jesus allowed and defended the “costly” pre-burial anointing He received…

The Liturgy—culminating in the Eucharist—always remains at the very heart of parish life, for everything in parish life begins, develops and is sustained by our communal eucharistic experience.  As Father Alexander Schmemann would say, the Eucharist “constitutes” the Church as the Body of Christ and foretaste of the Kingdom of God.  As we “depart in…

Contemporary scholars debate the meaning of the word “sign” in the words of Christ in this passage, which describes in highly symbolic terms His parousia, or return in glory.  This sign, whatever it may be, will be impossible to miss or misinterpret.  It will overwhelm those who are present to observe it and stand in its shadow, so to speak. …

Coming as it does right after the beginning of the Church New Year, the Great Feast of the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos on September 8 allows us a good start that we further hope we can sustain as the liturgical year unfolds before us.  As a straightforward and joyous feast of commemorating the birth of the Virgin Mary, we receive a…

The beginning of the Church New Year occurs on September 1.  This is also referred to as the Indiction, and there are both religious and political reasons behind this date, as the Church was accommodating itself to the realities of a Christianized Roman Empire by the fourth century.

This year September 1 coincides with the Tenth Sunday after…

The first of Our Lord’s great “signs” was the transformation of water into wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee.  Jesus had been invited to the marriage there together with His mother and disciples.  When the wine ran out, and when this presumably was going to spoil the festive atmosphere of the wedding – or perhaps embarrass the bridegroom…

Today – August 1 – is the beginning of the relatively short Dormition Fast that culminates with the celebration of the Great Feast of the Dormition on August 15.  Every fast presents us with a challenge and a choice.  In this instance, I would say that our choice is between “convenience” and “commitment.”  We can choose convenience…

Unless we find ourselves on an exciting vacation somewhere far from home, it seems that nothing can conceivably be more uneventful than a Monday morning in mid-July.  The only “variety” offered seems to be found in the weather.  Will it rain or will the sun shine?  Will the blistering heat continue, or will we feel some relief?  At this point…

In Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians 4:8-9 we find this marvelous passage:  “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The Apostle exhorts us to…

Recently, I was speaking with one of our parish’s Church School teachers about the nature of angels and how we convey this to our children.  One of our first tasks, I believe, is to overcome the caricature that has developed over the centuries over the appearance and role of angels.  (Do adults also need to be liberated from this same caricature?)

As we approach another weekend of the Paschal season – including the Fourth Sunday of Pascha – it is good to remind ourselves of the place of the Resurrection of Christ in our lives, as that truly “cosmic” event can disappear into the routine of daily life with its endless round of cares and concerns.  When this happens, then even the Sunday…

A question that recently formed in is whether there is Lent after Lent?  Before proceeding any further, I need to offer two brief points of clarification:  1) I apologize if I have just happened to unsettle anyone with the frightening prospect of another immediate lenten period; and 2)  I am not a “lent freak!”  My purpose in the question “Is…

The souls bound in the chains of hades, O Christ, seeing Thy compassion without measure, pressed onward to the light with joyful steps, praising the eternal Pascha.

(Matins, Paschal Canon of Saint John of Damascus)

The awesome mystery of the Lord’s bodily resurrection from the dead was providentially kept hidden from human eyes.  Although there…

The Vespers on the Sunday evenings of Great Lent provide our attentive ears with something like a running commentary on the course of the Fast that is both encouraging and challenging.  Yesterday evening, the following hymn from the Triodion was prescribed to be chanted: “Having passed beyond the middle point in this holy season of the Fast, with…

“Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify.”

This hymn – together with the accompanying rite of venerating the Cross – replaces the usual Trisagion hymn during the Divine Liturgy on the Third Sunday of Great Lent.  According to The Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion and Pentecostarion, the…