Sermons & Homilies
Some say that there are three paths to salvation for a Christian: marriage, monasticism, and martyrdom. But perhaps it is not too bold for me to say that really, there is only one path. Every Christian must become a martyr. There is no other path to Heaven than the path of the Cross.
The whole world is undergoing a great trial, and COVID has turned the world upside down, and somehow having a vaccine, in many ways, has eased this trial very little. However, this is the cross that has come – to the world, to the Church, to Her Metropolitans, Bishops, and Priests, to the parishes and to the monasteries, and in short, this is the cross that has come to us.
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Continuing the theme of the Saints who have been persecuted and martyred through the rise of the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution, today’s homily will focus on the Confessor Elder Sebastian of Optina.
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I remember the first time I saw a portrait of Tsar Nicholas II in a church. As a recent American convert to Orthodoxy, it seemed strange to me, and something within me bristled. Not surprisingly, most Americans are uneasy with the concept of monarchy. Our nation was born in casting off the rule of a monarch and the founding a democratic republic.
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It is regrettable if we are unfamiliar with the saints who are significant to various peoples and places, but even doubly so if we are unfamiliar with that whole genre of writing dedicated to heralding the life and teaching of the saints of the Church, called hagiography.
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