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There are a number of Russian folk sayings extoling the specialness of the number three: “God loves a trinity.” “Three fingers make a cross.” It is really no surprise, therefore, that the holy and great hierarchs, the foremost bishops and greatest luminaries of Orthodox Christian teaching, are three in number: Basil, Gregory, and John the…
The spirit of the times often tempts us to think that, in response to every injustice, each of us must “do something,” and this “something” is often a public proclamation—we are against that, we are for this. The martyrs and confessors of the Soviet Yoke present us with a different way. Very few of them were slain for public opposition to…
Saint Mark of Ephesus is rightly known foremost as a confessor and defender of Orthodoxy, for his rejection of the Florentine Council and his treatise against the Latin doctrine of purgatory. But he was also a prolific hymnographer and author of prayers. Indeed, his life serves a double reminder: first, Orthodox doctrine is indispensable for our…
Joyous feast! Christ is baptized! Two thousand years ago, the innocent Lamb, harmless, sinless, and spotless, was plunged into the waters of the Jordan. A dove flew down, and a voice was heard, and the worship of the Trinity, as we sing, was made manifest. At that time, John bore witness, but now the whole world is witness to these things. Once, the…
Today is the beginning of a period which the Typicon calls the “forefeast of lights,” and appropriately we begin this brief season with the celebration of Saint Seraphim of Sarov, one of the truly luminous saints. Once, in a snowy woodland, Motovilov witnessed the saint full of the uncreated light of God, but Saint Seraphim’s luminosity, his…
In the services for today’s feast, Christ’s Circumcision is seen, first and foremost, as a sign of his divine humility, prefiguring the humiliation of his Passion. Though he is “all-beneficent God,” “beginningless with his Father,” he is neither ashamed of Circumcision nor does he abhor it. We also sing of Christ’s swaddling bands,…
During these last hours of the year, many people settle on their resolutions for the new year. Though we may benefit from Dry January, losing weight, a new morning or evening routine, we should take our primary resolution for the coming year from this late medieval carol: “The old year now away is fled, / The new year it is entered; / Then let us…
Today, the second day of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, we keep festival in honor of the Theotokos, the gate through whom the Divine and Eternal entered the world. The only way to encounter Jesus Christ is through her; the only Jesus Christ whom we know is the Son of Mary. Therefore, if we desire to approach the newborn God-infant, laid in a…
Christ is born! Glorify him!
May he who descended from heaven in order to ascend the Cross, who was laid in a manger to be our Food, who was borne in the arms of his Mother to Jerusalem as a holy Victim of sacrifice, who fled as a babe from Herod so that he could give himself up to Pilate in the prime of his life, Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten…
In some Orthodox traditions, a special fasting dinner, composed of 12 dishes, is served tonight, eaten by candlelight when the first star appears in the sky. That meal is followed by the All-night Vigil. In some places, the Vigil is kept late at night, starting a short while before midnight, and is immediately followed by the Divine Liturgy, as on…
Two of the most beautiful hymns of praise in the Church’s service books are the brief song at the end of the seventh canticle of Matins (“Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our fathers . . .”) and the eighth canticle in its entirety (“Bless the Lord, all works of the Lord . . .”). The songs, sung by three children in a tyrant’s furnace,…
Monastery of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
December 13, 2023
Today we gather to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the exodus of one of the luminaries of the Orthodox Church in America, the departed servant of God the Very Reverend Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann.
People may debate this or that aspect of Fr. Alexander’s legacy and teaching, but…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On a day-to-day basis, we go through our earthly lives with a sense of control and purpose. We feel in charge of our fate, that our decisions matter, that we can…
On this winter feast day, let us pray to our most venerable father Herman:
O venerable father Herman of Alaska, wonderworker of America, heavenly patron and intercessor: we are sinful and unworthy of thy legacy, yet we are, nevertheless, thy children. Because of our sins and errors, we are beset by division in the Churches and division in our…
There is no more beloved saint, among Orthodox Christians or throughout the world, than Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. He was not a bishop in an important see; he left behind no writings, no theological legacy; he did not compose an anaphora; he did not travel as a missionary, found a new local church, build a great cathedral, or start an…
The holy apostle Andrew the First-called, according to tradition, founded the Church at Byzantium and planted a cross at the future site of Kyiv. Most likely, all of the bishops of the Orthodox Church trace their apostolic succession back to Saint Andrew, at least in part. Saint Andrew is known as the “the First-called” because he, together with…
Today, the holy Maiden enters into the temple of the Old Law, and all the shadowy symbols of the ancient covenant—the jar, the staff, the golden censer, the ark with the cherubim—are fulfilled. “Today is the prelude of the good will of God, of the preaching of the salvation of mankind. The Virgin appears in the temple of God, in anticipation…
Two days ago, at entrance into the fast, we heard the Lord command St. Philip, “Follow me.” Today, we hear him give that same command to Saint Matthew, and Matthew, like Philip, obeys. He leaves his tax booth and walks in the footsteps of the Lord. We know that tax collectors were notorious, public sinners in those days, but his sins did not…
Today the Nativity Fast begins, a fast barely noted in the divine services. This fast is quiet, in some sense “dark,” reminding us of the darkness in which the world lay before Christ’s birth, and of the dark, still night on which God was born as a man. Entering this season with a humble stillness of spirit, we, too, await the coming of God.
The day before the Nativity Fast begins, we celebrate the feast of St. Philip. In fact, in Russian, the coming fast is commonly called Saint Philip’s Fast. In today’s Gospel reading, we hear that Jesus went forth to find Philip, telling him, “Follow me” (Jn. 1:43). This same Gospel is read on the first Sunday of Lent. In other words,…