“Today Judas watches how he may deliver up the Lord” (Matins, Antiphon Six). These are frightening words, and yet, if we think that we are so different than Judas, we have missed the point of the previous forty days. Every time we sin, we betray Jesus again; every transgression crucifies him again; every iniquity adds to his wounds. To our…
Throughout the Lenten season, we have witnessed, at the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified, the reverent and divine adoration that the priest offers to Christ in the Eucharist: with fear he prostrates himself before the Lamb; with dread he escorts our God from the place of oblation to the throne of the altar; with trembling he touches the Holy One…
Dormition of the Virgin Mary Church
Cumberland, RI
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together, and we all take up thy Cross and say: Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”
This hymn, which we heard over and over again…
There are times during Christ’s ministry when, seeing that the people wished to seize him and make him their king, he fled. But today, he accepts their acclamations and allows himself to be greeted royally. Why? Earlier, it was not yet time for Jesus’ kingdom, but this week, his reign begins. Today, the King of glory enters the holy city to be…
Saint Nicholas Church
Salem, MA
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“O Lord, wishing to see the tomb of Lazarus—for thou wast soon to dwell by thine own choice within a tomb—thou hast asked: ‘Where have ye laid him?’ And, learning that which was already known to thee, thou didst cry to him whom thou didst…
Today, Lazarus is raised. After the Resurrection of the Lord, he will become a bishop on the island of Cyprus. And eventually he will die again. In fact, his relics are with us to this day. Why, then, did Christ raise Lazarus? First, Lazarus, as a living miracle of Christ, became a witness to his power over life and death and hence a witness to…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Every year, on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, we celebrate our venerable mother Mary of Egypt, one of the greatest saints shining in the firmament of our holy Church.
Seen from one perspective, she led a remarkable life: after undergoing an instantaneous conversion that was…
“Standing, O saint, before Christ the Light, send down light upon me, for with love I celebrate thy light-giving and holy memory” (Matins Canon, Ode One). See how remarkable Christ’s love is: he has not only redeemed Mary, but he has made this former prostitute into an intercessor for those who struggle with sin in this world. God’s light…
Saints Peter and Paul
Springfield, MA
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Fifth Week of Lent is a week of remarkable hymnody—the alphabetical stichera of Saint Simeon Metaphrastes on Wednesday night, the Great Canon of Saint Andrew sung in its entirety on Thursday morning. And today, the Fifth Saturday, is…
The so-called Canon of the Akathist, composed by Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, opens with these words: “O pure Virgin, living book of Christ, sealed by the Spirit.” She is the scroll in which God’s Word is written, the heaven containing the Sun of Righteousness, the jar containing the true Manna, the oven in which the heavenly Bread is baked.…
During the first week of Lent, we sang the Great Canon of Saint Andrew over the course of four nights at Great Compline; today this lengthy penitential canon is appointed in full at Matins. Some small details concerning the order of the troparia and the like have changed, too. This serves as a reminder that repentance is not static; our repentance…
The Ladder of Saint John leads the Christian, step by step, rung by rung, along the ascent to heaven. Naturally, the higher steps involve more dangerous temptations and more exalted virtues. For many of us, who remain perpetual beginners, it is good to be reminded of the first steps: we must renounce the world, become detached from worldly cares,…
Saint Vladimir’s Seminary
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Today, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, the holy apostle Paul instructs us that “he who sanctifies”—Christ himself—
and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: “I will declare…
The angel’s greeting—“Hail!”—literally means “rejoice” in Greek, and this coincidence was not lost on the Fathers of the Church, who saw the angelic announcement as a declaration of joy. Nine months from now, a multitude of angels will proclaim joy to the world, but today this proclamation of joy is reserved for the Theotokos, the one…
The Cross stands at the center of the fast as it stands at the center of all our activities, indeed, at the center of our entire life. The world is cruciform, and, as we see in holy icons depicting the days of creation, the Lord formed his creation with the hands that were pierced by Roman nails. Following his lead, in all our activities, let us…
One week after the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we attach an appendix, as it were, to that celebration: the feast of Saint Gregory Palamas. Saint Gregory Palamas’s teachings concerning the divine energies, the light of Tabor, and hesychasm are well-known but, in many cases, only superficially understood. More accessible are the great saint’s homilies,…
What is the triumph of Orthodoxy? Historically, this was the victory of the Iconodule party in the Byzantine Empire, with imperial backing. Yet, since then, year in and year out, in lands throughout the world, that triumph is celebrated—and realized—again and again. Ultimately, Orthodoxy’s triumph is not by force of arms, not by princes or…
In his hymns for today’s feast, Saint John of Euchaita refers to this day as “heralding from afar the coming feast of the Resurrection,” stating that “this present time of relief prefigures the coming feast” of Pascha. These joyful words remind us that, even throughout these forty days of sustained ascetical effort, there are times when we…
After a month of preparation, we begin the forty days of Great Lent. During these days of ascetic struggle, may we all take refuge in the prayers and instructions of the holy ascetics who have gone before us. May we guard ourselves against all temptation by the Cross of the Lord. May the Mother of God be a joyous presence during this time, as we…
In the reading from the prophecy of Isaiah on the first day of the fast, we hear a word of caution. Our annual observance of times and seasons, our gatherings to worship, are not, in and of themselves, pleasing unto God. “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? Who requires of you this trampling…