Monthly Archives: March 2016

Homily for the Second Sunday of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church
Hebrews 1:10-2:3 | Mark 2:1-12

Think for a moment how you would feel if you went to the doctor with a serious health problem and were simply told medical facts about your condition and that you were an interesting case. You would probably not be happy at all because you go to a physician to be healed, not simply to learn truths that in and of themselves do not restore you to health.

On this second Sunday of Great Lent, we remember a great saint who knew that our salvation is not in mere ideas about God, but in true participation in His life by grace. St. Gregory Palamas lived in the 14th century in the Byzantine Empire. A monastic, a bishop, and a scholar, he defended the experience of hesychast monks who in the stillness of deep prayer beheld the divine light of the uncreated energies of God. In ways that go beyond rational understanding, they saw the divine glory as they participated in the life of God by grace. Continue reading →

Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40 | St. John 1: 44-52

At the end of Liturgy today, we will parade around the church carrying our icons in celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, which commemorates the restoration of icons to the church after the period of iconoclasm many centuries ago. We do so because Icons are not mere works of decorative art to us; they are windows to heaven which remind us that the Son of God really has become one of us, with a visible human body, and that we are called to become like the saints whose images are portrayed in them. For we are all icons of God, created in His image and likeness. Jesus Christ is the new Adam Who has restored and healed every dimension of our fallen humanity, and brought us into the very life of the Holy Trinity. It may help us to think of Lent as a time to make ourselves better icons of the Lord. Continue reading →

Forgiveness – The Hardest Love of All by Fr. Stephen Freeman

I cannot think that any of my readers is a stranger to forgiveness, either the need to be forgiven or the need to forgive. The need to forgive, according to the commandment of Christ, extends well beyond those who ask for our forgiveness: we are commanded to forgive our enemies – whom I presume would rarely want to ask for our forgiveness. Continue reading →

SERVING CHRIST IN THE POOR by Fr Philip LeMasters
Meat Fare Sunday in the Orthodox Church – St. Matthew 25:31-46

I would like for us all to think for a moment about what actions on our part could separate us from God. We probably think of something really dramatic, like denying our faith, worshiping a false god, or committing murder or another flamboyant sin – probably one that we’re not likely to commit. Continue reading →