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Today, we celebrate the death of the Mother of God, not because death is worth celebrating in and of itself, but because her Son has made death a passage-way to everlasting life. In particular, the Theotokos, according to St. Gregory Palamas, had done nothing worthy of the sentence of death, but she passed through death out of obedience and love for…
In the Russian tradition, the Transfiguration is regarded as the second of three major feasts of the Savior during the month of August. Each of these feasts is associated with the blessing of a late-summer agricultural product: the Cross, on August 1, with honey; today, August 6, with apples; and August 16, the feast of the Holy Mandylion, with…
According to tradition, this feast was established in Constantinople in the Middle Ages. Late summer was a time of sickness, and the Cross was carried through the city, accompanied by prayers for health and deliverance from plague. In modern living conditions, at least for many of us, late summer is no longer associated with dangerous miasma and…
Today, as we celebrate the feast of the holy chief apostles Peter and Paul, we recall the many ways in which their respective ministries, and their holy writings, have laid the foundation of the holy Church. In the third chapter of his second catholic epistle, the holy apostle Peter writes concerning his fellow chief apostle: “In [the epistles of…
In the iconographic type known as the deësis (supplication), Christ sits enthroned in the center, flanked by saints who approach him in prayer on behalf of the world. Chief among these saints, at Christ’s right hand and left, are the Mother of God and Saint John the Forerunner, whose nativity we celebrate today. The Theotokos has an incomparable…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
My beloved children in the Lord,
In today’s Gospel, we heard how the Lord called four of the greatest apostles, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, four simple men…
Last Sunday, we were called to the heavenly contemplation of all the saints from every age standing roundabout the throne of God in eternal glory. Today, we consider instead the ways in which the saints who shared in our concrete, earthly circumstances—saints who lived and struggled in the lands of North America—have achieved their place in the…
If we wish to master a subject, we must study; if we wish to become saints, we must learn about sanctity from the example of those who have achieved it. Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints, but the tapestry of sanctity unfurls throughout the year with the daily commemorations of many individual saints and groups of saints. As such, all…
Saint Nicholas Cathedral
June 8, 2025
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Finally, we have reached “the last day, that great day of the feast,” the Fiftieth Day which we have awaited, the holy Pentecost. In the Gospel, we hear of words that Our Lord once spoke in Jerusalem, when he “was not yet…
“Blessed art thou, O Christ our God, who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit.” The rude fishermen from Galilee were revealed by the God and Lord of all things to be the wisest men of their day, not with the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom of Christ crucified, the wisdom of the Cross. But God’s…
In the troparion for today’s feast, we sing that God has “established the holy fathers as lights on the earth” and that “through them” he has “guided us to the true faith.” These troparia remind us of the Lord’s constant providential activity in creation: he truly guides us and cares for us in accord with his inscrutable saving…
On Holy Saturday, Christ completed his descent, going all the way down to the depths of hell; today, he completes his ascent, passing into the heavens with his body and bodily taking his seat at the Father’s right hand. Christ is “our life,” as St. Paul says in his epistle to the Colossians; “his life is mine,” as St. Sophrony of Essex…
Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!
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 of Pascha is anything but sorrowful. We leave behind the celebration of Pascha so that we can embrace the celebration of Ascension, and…
Monastery Church of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
May 26, 2025
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is risen!
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.
The Gospel tells of the involuntary…
Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!
“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 of human sin; God did not make illness or death or any other evil thing. However, the words of our Lord offer us two important…
Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!
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 denying the literal sense of the text, however, there is more to our Lord’s words of accusation. The five husbands represent the five…
Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!
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 middle of the feast,” we are reminded that Christ, the Wisdom of God, is constantly…
Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!
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 feast of Pascha, after some period of instruction (often yearslong), they were received through holy Baptism. Then, during the…
Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!
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 holy women appear to us as those who receive the message of the Resurrection, both from angels (as in the hypakoe of Pascha) and from Christ himself…
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 royal doors after liturgy on Bright Saturday, we do not take our leave of Pascha until the very eve of Ascension. We continue to dedicate Sundays…