Sermons & Homilies
Today is the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, the “summer Pascha,” one of the greatest of all the Great Feasts, and a day of surpassing spiritual consolation and joy. It is called the “summer Pascha” not only because the height of its glory and the radiant splendor of its joy, but also precisely because on this day, all the divine promises of Pascha have now been fulfilled — not only in the theanthropic person of Christ, but also in the quintessentially human person of Mary, the Mother of God. Today the Queen of Heaven proves to us — beyond any shadow of doubt — that death has truly been put to death, that heaven has truly been opened to the whole human race, and that Christ our God has truly come to make even us lowly sinners into nothing less than “partakers of the divine nature” (2. Pet. 1:4), destined to come — just as she has — “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Today, all the gifts and promises of Christ shine forth in the person of His Mother, as a pledge and a foretaste of the day on which they shall shine forth in us all.
Continue reading
Around the year 271, there was a young man who lived in Lower Egypt, born to wealthy landowner parents, both of whom only then recently died, leaving the young man to care for his little sister and the upkeep of the family home.
Continue reading
It was given to the Son of Thunder to make the most memorable proclamations in the whole of Scripture—In the beginning was the Word; the Word was made flesh; God is love. Volumes of theology have been written about each one of those statements, and still their force and meaning has not been exhausted, their depths have not fully been plumbed.
Continue reading
In the Gospel reading today, dedicated to the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross, we hear Christ speaking to the Pharisee, Nicodemus, who came to Him at night and in secrecy, asking Him questions about who He is and about His teaching.
Continue reading
If we ourselves are to be good Samaritans, then, it means that we must not only engage in acts of charity, but that we must do so towards those who hate us, those who are outside of the Church, who even oppose and blaspheme it.
Continue reading