Sermons & Homilies

Today we celebrate the memory of the Venerable Herman of Alaska, the patron saint of North America. There is so much that is praiseworthy in the life of this man of God that one hardly knows where to begin. He was an ascetic who dwelt as an anchorite in the forests from the time of his early childhood. He was a zealous missionary who, like the righteous Abraham, left his home and his fatherland for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, not for himself only but for all of us who have received the precious gift of Orthodoxy on this continent. Though a hermit and a lover of solitude, he nevertheless joyfully took care of his orphans and fearlessly defended the native Aleuts from exploitation by his own people. He was a monk who, out of his deep humility, refused ordination to the priesthood, and so was sent an angel from heaven on the day of the Lord’s Theophany to bless holy water for him. He was a man who lived so wholly in the Kingdom of Heaven even during this earthly life that, when asked whether he ever grew lonely living by himself in his island hermitage, he could not even comprehend how such a thing could be possible, surrounded as he was by such a countless host of angels.
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The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy has everything to do with Great Lent, it has everything to do with repentance, and it by all means must come first out of all the Sundays – because without it all the other Sundays become impossible. This Sunday we celebrate the absolutely necessary foundation of all asceticism, of all repentance, and of all Christianity: humble and trusting obedience to our fathers in Christ.
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We must call upon Christ Who has gone before us, showing us that He descended in humility, from beyond the heights of heaven, down to earth, and further than the earth, into its depths, into hades, seeking out His lost sheep, bringing them gladness and light, taking them by the hand and raising them up out of darkness into Paradise again.
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Let us make this yearly renewal of the vows we took in baptism, for Christ did not shed His Spirit upon us so abundantly to no purpose, but rather that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Tit. 2:14).
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St. Matthew's Gospel not only introduces its readers to Jesus Christ as the prophesied Messiah who came to save sinners, but also illustrates this through the life of the Apostle Matthew.
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