November 21, 2019
We celebrate today the Synaxis of the Honorable Heavenly Bodiless Hosts. While each of their nine ranks has its own appointed tasks and role in the celestial realm, for us human beings they typically play one role in particular, which is reflected in the name commonly given by us to all of them alike: angels, from the Greek angelos meaning “messenger.”
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November 17, 2019
Today’s Gospel shows us that not all faith is the same faith. Some have little faith, weak faith, easily shaken by outward setbacks and adversities; others have strong faith, great faith, faith that can move mountains, faith that soon obtains all its requests from God. No sooner had the Lord returned over the sea of Galilee to Bethsaida, than the ruler of the local synagogue, Jairus, approached him, and asked him to come and lay hands on his dying daughter, so that she might be healed. He indeed showed faith, but as we know, his faith was not perfect.
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November 06, 2019
Let’s ask ourselves how this can be: how are Moses and the Prophets more apt to impart the wisdom of God and true repentance into the souls of men than one risen from the dead?
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October 21, 2019
Today, it is not just the household of a soldier that witnesses the power of Christ’s word, but many of his disciples … and much people who followed him, along with much people of the city who were taking part in the funeral procession of a widow’s only son. The Lord met this sorry spectacle as he was entering the city; and when he saw the grieving widow, he had compassion on her. The impassible Lord is moved to compassion, in the fulness of his humanity; and indeed, what human heart could fail to be wrenched at the sight of a woman, bereft first of her husband, now deprived of her only son, and leading his pale, stone-still body to burial? Her plight was desperate, and her grief inconsolable.
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October 14, 2019
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What is evident in these events is that not by everyone, and not at all times is the closeness of the saints evident. Many do not perceive their nearness to us, their assistance, their concern for humanity, the purpose of which is to strengthen and assist us through various means, not the least being through prayer and by interceding with God for us. Nor is this always apparent as we read the lives of the saints as much as it is today on this feast. For today, victory was due to the intercessions of the Mother of God, who was supplicated by the faithful, the Emperor, and the Patriarch; witnessed by St. Andrew, and attested to by the civilians of the capital city who saw the invaders fleeing.
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October 06, 2019
Yet today at Gennesaret, Simon Peter as it were encounters the Lord for the first time: not as an abstract idea, not as a public figure only (however great a figure He doubtless appeared to be), but face to face. St. Peter begins to glimpse that this man is far more than a religious teacher or a political liberator, and he begins to realize that his own life will never be the same. This beginning of St. Peter’s life of apostleship can and must serve to inspire and instruct us also, who are all likewise called to the apostolic life to no lesser extent than St. Peter himself.
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September 15, 2019
The founders of The Caves Monastery, as it is commonly called, beginning with Anthony, and its first superior, Theodosius, are commemorated today. The fruit of their labors extends even to our present time when one considers the conflicts which have ensued around the monastery and the land in which it resides.
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September 11, 2019
The memory of the righteous is praised, says King Solomon (Proverbs 10:7 LXX); but the Lord’s testimony suffices the righteous one we remember today. What testimony? Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist(Matthew 11:11). What honor can our praises add to one who boasts such an eminent witness? How can the life that today is crowned with a glorious death be fittingly honored? The life of St. John the Baptist towers so far above the life of ordinary, mortal men as to rival that of the angels. Indeed, the Prophet Malachi calls him such when he speaks of him, saying, Behold, I send my messenger—that is, αγγελος, angel—before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee(Malachi 3:1, Mark 1:2).
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September 01, 2019
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Our Savior begins His parable by telling us the story of ourselves, of every single Christian who has ever repented before Almighty God. He speaks of a servant owing a great and unfathomable debt, one which he does not have even the slightest hope of ever repaying. In the parable of the talents, the Lord described those who were given one, two, or perhaps even five talents; truly the gifts of God are great and precious, and some have calculated a single talent to have been worth the wages of six years of labor. So when we hear today that the servant owed ten thousand talents, we must understand that such a sum was utterly impossible for him to acquire.
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