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In the holy elders of Optina, God gave the peoples of the Russian Empire a sign of his ongoing care and direction. Even as the society of the empire became increasingly worldly, with many falling away from the Church, the Lord still spoke his word of comfort and guidance to those who had ears to hear, and the Optina elders were messengers of that…
Joyous feast! It is my pleasure to greet all of you on my name day, the feast of Saint Tikhon of Moscow, my heavenly patron and intercessor. Saint Tikhon is my patron, but most Orthodox Christians have their own patron saint, usually a saint whose name we share and who takes on a special role in interceding for our well-being and salvation before…
At the Second Council of Nicaea, the holy fathers not only affirmed the production and veneration of the holy icons, but confirmed their own agreement with all the saving doctrines of the councils that went before them. God is Truth, and if we cling to falsehood, we cannot have a relationship with Truth. Orthodox doctrine is not a subject for…
In general, saints are associated with a single place and belong to a single “rank”: they are either righteous priests, or holy confessors, or venerable monastics, or one of several other types of saints. Though we call him Saint Innocent of Alaska and venerate him as a holy hierarch, Saint Innocent’s long life saw him show forth holiness in…
Today, as we celebrate the protection of the most holy Mother of God, we also celebrate Saint Romanus, who adorned the patrimony of the Church with so many songs in honor of her and her divine Son, Jesus Christ the God-man. But there is no song without singers, and accordingly, in the Orthodox Church in America, the Holy Synod of Bishops and I have…
The so-called Apostle of Love, John the Theologian, is celebrated twice each year: once, in May, in the days and weeks after the Pascha of the Lord, and now in September, shortly after the feast of the Exaltation. This reminds us that true love is crucified: it does not seek its own, but only the truest good of the other. We know God’s love…
For many years, the venerable Sergius has lent his patronage to the chapel of the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America, located in Oyster Bay Cove, New York. Though our Church’s administration has moved to the Archdiocese of Washington, may we never be deprived of the paternal intercessions of Saint Sergius, the glory of the Russian Church…
Just before the end of the liturgical year, we celebrated the Beheading of the Forerunner; now, towards the beginning of the ecclesiastical New Year, we celebrate his conception. The Forerunner goes before in all things, accompanying us with his prayers and feasts, leading us to the Bridegroom and Lamb, the one to whom the Forerunner always points,…
Saint George Albanian Orthodox Cathedral
Boston, Massachusetts
September 16, 2023
We have gathered today in the Name of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ to participate in this glorious liturgy which incorporated the sacred office for the ordination to the holy episcopacy of Bishop Nikodhim of Boston and the Albanian Archdiocese.
I am…
Saint George Albanian Orthodox Cathedral
Boston, Massachusetts
September 16, 2023
Në emër të atit e të birit dhe të shpirtit të shenjtë.
Krishti është midis nesh!
Today, on this Saturday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Lord declares: ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of…
Saint Nicholas Cathedral
September 14, 2023
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Joyous feast! Съ праздникомъ!
Among the twelve so-called Great Feasts, eleven are celebrations of events, whether from the life of the Lord or the life of the Theotokos. We can put those feasts in chronological order:…
We exalt the precious and life-giving Cross, and we honor in song the instruments of our salvation: the nails, the spear, the reed, the sponge, the plaited thorns, the scourge, the pillar, and the crimson robe. By innocently enduring the full violence of fallen human passions, the Lord defeated that violence, and with it all the power of the world,…
Nativity of the Mother of God
Saint Vladimir Seminary
September 8, 2023
As the liturgy comes to an end, I would like to take a moment to address and exhort the seminarians in particular.
One of the Russian folk names for today’s feast is Malaya Prechistaya—the ‘little Most Pure.’ The name makes sense: today, we behold the Most Holy…
Saint Vladimir Seminary
September 8, 2023
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today’s feast is a harvest festival, a festival of holy fruit sprung from barren ground, the withered and parched ground of our common nature. Since Adam sinned by eating the fruit of knowledge out of season and was banished to bring…
During this autumn season, when we in the Northern Hemisphere gather in the fruits of the earth, we celebrate the birth of the most holy Theotokos, the holy and immaculate fruit which divine grace caused to spring forth from the barren womb of Saint Anna, from the barren earth of fallen humanity. According to Saint Gregory Palamas, this tiny baby…
Happy New Year! May the Lord who rules over times and seasons crown this coming year with the bounty of his mercy; may he water the furrows of our hearts with silence and peace; may he visit the earth, our daily lives with their struggles and joys, and enrich them with the river-flood of his living Water, the torrential grace of the Holy Spirit. May…
Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
August 31, 2023
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst!
On behalf of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America and the Board of Trustees of the Orthodox Theological Seminary of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, I welcome all of you, the new…
As the liturgical year draws to a close, the life of the Forerunner comes to its earthly end. As he goes before Christ—before us—in all things, so it is with the end of the year. May the holy Forerunner’s prayers forerun us in all our doings, and may his intercessions especially go before us when the years of our life come to an end; may his…
In a narrow sense, today’s celebration focuses on the holy Mandylion, the cloth that miraculously bore the image of Christ, which the Lord sent to Abgar of Edessa and which was later translated to Constantinople. In a broader sense, however, this feast reminds us that Jesus Christ, the true Image of the Father, was not made by human hands or born…
“In falling asleep, thou didst not forsake the world, O Theotokos.” Today the most pure Mother goes to join her Son in the heavens, but she does not abandon her children on earth. On the Cross, Christ said to us, his disciples, “Behold your mother.” And today, we know that our Mother, even though she has passed beyond the stars, remains with…