What appears to happen in the Passion of Christ and what actually happens are not at all the same. What appears to happen is not that extraordinary. The Romans crucified a Jewish man in order to keep public order. During their long rule over Judea, the Romans had killed many...
The life of Fr. Matthew Baker is a triumph of Orthodoxy. It is easy to doubt God’s Providence in taking away a young priest, newly installed in his first parish, a husband, and a father of seven (his youngest, Alexis, so recently taken from his mother and father in stillbirth)...
Let’s be honest: how do we parents feel when we suddenly realize, while attending Liturgy, that the Gospel reading for the Sunday is the Prodigal Son, reminding us that Lent is around the corner? If you’re like me, you start doing a mental checklist of all the meat that needs...
Be always with Christ and trust God in everything. Pray as you can, not as you think you must. Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline. Say the Lord’s Prayer several times each day. Repeat a short prayer when your mind is not occupied. Make some prostrations when...
Baptism is Christian initiation. The goal of this process and its culminating rite is not some individualized, purely personal experience. The goal of baptism is initiation into a community of faith, a church. It is entrance into a way of life together, not a rite to do something to or...
Sermon, Fifth Sunday of Lent 2015 (St Mary of Egypt) Mark 10:32-45 This morning, James and John desire to be seated with Christ in His Glory. And our Lord, to test them, asks whether they are able to drink the cup that He drinks, and to be baptized with the...
A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Pascha, 2015. There has been a lot of fighting this week. Last night there was a big boxing match with two superstars duking it out. The winner of that fight went home many millions of dollars richer, with the adulation of an international...
A homily for Pentecost. Today, on this fiftieth day after Pascha, the feast of Pentecost, we stand at a decisive turning point: we counted all the weeks that lead us through Great Lent to Pascha, and then the weeks after Pascha. But from now own, until we begin again next...
This is part one in a three part series on The Lord’s Prayer by Dr. George Parsenios, Sessional Professor of New Testament at St. Vladimir’s Seminary and Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. This article is republished with the permission of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America...