For Orthodox Christians, life is the experience of entering ever more deeply into the many and eternal banquets of Christ. The banquet of His love that we feast upon when we discover and convert to Him in our hearts. The banquet of repentance, where the Father makes merry when we return to Him, we prodigal sons and daughters. The banquet of His Holy Body and Blood that is offered to us every Sunday, the Lord’s day – His banquet that we are called to weekly. The banquet of the fasts and feasts of the Church. And the greatest banquet of all! The feast spread out at the table of Christ’s Second Coming when we will enter into the eternal feast of Paradise and when the righteous anger of the Householder will call to account those who rejected His invitation. Continue reading
Category Archives: Sunday Homilies
The Great Banquet of Christ’s Birth
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The Rich Ruler
Luke 18: 18-27
The rich ruler in this Bible reading did think of God and did think of eternal life and asked the most important question for himself and for all of us – how to obtain eternal life.
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The limits of being rich – On the parable in Luke 12: 16-21
Many believers wish that God would at some point in their lives speak to them – if for no other reason than to know for sure that He existed.
In Luke 12:16-21, we are presented the story of a man to whom God spoke directly. Unfortunately, God’s words to the man were “You fool!” It certainly would be a rude awakening for any of us believers if when God finally spoke to us, first words were to call us a fool! We might then wish that God had never spoken to us, for such a judgment by God would not be a welcomed word by us.
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Learning to see and Serve Christ in Poor Lazarus
5th Sunday of Luke, Luke 16: 19-31
It is tempting to think that those who seem to have it all in this world are God’s favourites whose success is a reward for holiness and virtue. It is appealing to think that God’s kingdom is simply an eternal manifestation of the arrangements of this world, of life as we know it, where the powerful usually lord it over the weak and the rich almost always seem to get their way.
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The Gadarinene Demoniac – 6th Sunday of St Luke
Luke 8:26-39
As our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ visited the villages of Judaea, he met a man from the village of Gergeseen. Now, this particularly man few years ago became possessed by many demons, who made him suffer in many ways. The possessed man was in a wild condition, the result of the demons’ influence. He was ripping off his clothes and was living in the tombs of the dead. Although his relatives were tying him up with chains, in order that he will be unable to harm any other human being, he was breaking his chains and was led by the demons into the wilderness. Continue reading
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St Luke the Evangelist
Commemorated October 18
The awesome figure of St Luke looms larger and larger out of both the New Testament and the pages of documented human history so that 2000 years after his death his image has no less been diminished by time than that of the Nazarene, Jesus Christ, whom he so nobly served. His fellow apostle St Paul called him the ‘glorious physician’, but that was only one of the many talents which this magnificent man applied in a service to God. Continue reading
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The Parable of the Sower
Sunday of the 7th Ecumenical Council, Luke 8: 5-15
There is a beautiful story I read this week about a German scholar who once toured many monasteries throughout Asia Minor before eventually coming to the Monastery of the Holy Virgin of Soumela. As he was walking through the monastery, he noticed the beautiful and vibrant gardens of flowers that were spread out in front of the monastic cells. Anyone who has been to a monastery knows that this is a rather common sight – monasteries are truly “escapes into paradise” for us. They offer us the ability to run away from this darkened world and back into a “Garden of Eden.” Continue reading
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“The Golden Rule” – What does this Rule say?
Second Sunday of Luke, Luke 6: 31-36
Our Lord Jesus Christ has revealed many wonderful truths, which until then were unknown. Many of these concern our relations with other people, either inside our homes or outside in society. Perhaps there is difficulty in remembering everything one has to observe in dealing with other people. For this reason, Jesus, as a wise Teacher, has today given us a Life Rule, named for its great value, “The Golden Rule.” What does this Rule say?
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