July 17, 2021
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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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July 11, 2021
We have reached today the Third Sunday after Pentecost, the third Sunday after the feast on which the Holy Spirit was first poured out upon the apostles of Christ, and the great missionary work of the Church was begun. On the first Sunday after Pentecost we celebrate all the saints who have shown forth throughout the entire world, while the second Sunday is set aside for each local church to keep the festival of its own saints — in our case it is the Sunday of All Saints of the Church of Russia, the church which first brought Holy Orthodoxy to our land, and which still to this day leads and guides us [in the Russian Church Abroad] toward the Kingdom of Heaven as our loving mother. And today, on the third Sunday, we honor the saints who have spiritually labored right here, in our rough American soil, so that the same grace of the Most Holy Spirit which transfigured their own lives would also transfigure the lives of you and I and each and every person around us.
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July 06, 2021
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We live in a modern Babylon. Never mind the towers of glass and steel looming over our cities, which would have been the marvel and envy of Babel’s builders. They are only emblematic of a deeper reality, of the impulse that propels our society and likens us spiritually to the architects of Babel...
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June 20, 2021
It is the monasteries that show forth the continuation of Pentecost. We are called to manifest the miracle of Pentecost, not simply one or two days out of the week, but evening, morning, and noonday, each and every day of the year. We are supposed to be a truly Pentecostal community.
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May 16, 2021
If Nicodemus and Joseph are rightly praised for their deeds, the virtue displayed by the women disciples of the Lord on this occasion is even more commendable. Indeed, there are no depths of devotion so profound as those hid within a godly woman’s heart.
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May 09, 2021
A significant aspect of faith is its opposition to doubt. Where doubt debilitates, faith gives life; where doubt breeds cowardice, faith produces courage; where doubt gives birth to smallness of soul, faith enlarges the heart.
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April 25, 2021
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We celebrate today the Great Feast of the Triumphal Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Today Christ enters openly and boldly into the holy city, no longer in secret, no longer hiding Himself to forestall the fury of the Jews, for He knows that His hour to be glorified is now at hand. And so on this day He makes his entry into Jerusalem with glory — at least, in a certain sense with glory.
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April 07, 2021
If we utter these words to ourselves and to God in prayer at all times, forcing ourselves to endure that which He knows is best for us, for our salvation and deification, then we will gradually lay down our lives for God’s sake.
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April 04, 2021
Today, in the midst of the struggle, in the heat of the battle, the Church unfurls her banner for us, and like good soldiers of Christ, our hearts are renewed.
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