Give Me A Word

On the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Very Rev. Dr. Alexander Rentel emphasizes the profound significance of Christ’s presence, highlighting that He is not only the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel but also a light to all nations; the meeting of the Lord there in the temple is our meeting here. He urges us to recognize Christ in our midst, particularly through one another, as ea...

Drawing from the Epistle reading from St Paul's Letter to Timothy, and the Gospel story of the Canaanite woman, Hieromonk Vasily (Permiakov) explores the transformative power of humility, faith, and perseverance in seeking Christ's mercy. He emphasizes the importance of acknowledging our brokenness and confessing our need for salvation, echoing the woman’s persistent plea for her daughter’s healin...

This homily by the Very Rev. Dr Alexander Rentel reflects on the Gospel passage from Luke 18, where a blind man recognizes Jesus as the "Son of David" and receives healing through faith. Fr Alexander emphasizes the contrast between the crowd’s superficial recognition of Jesus and the blind man's profound spiritual insight, illustrating the "upside-down" nature of God's kingdom, where the vulnerabl...

In this homily for the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos, Fr Bogdan Bucur emphasizes that the Theotokos, or Mother of God, is not an exceptional figure for us to admire from afar, but an example for us to follow closely in our own lives. Just as she became the living temple that bore Christ, we too are called to become living temples by "becoming pregnant" with the Word of God, allowing it to...

From the perspective of a first-century Jew, the account of the man named Legion in the Gospel of Luke would be surprising in several ways. Dn Harrison Russin highlights how Jesus defies expectations by going into Gentile territory (where herding pigs was an acceptable occupation), to save a demon-possessed man living in the most unclean conditions. Furthermore, Jesus is clearly more concerned wit...

In this homily, the Very Rev. Dr Alexander Rentel reminds us of the profound truth that we are the living temple of God and encourages us to strive to maintain closeness to God. He urges us to shun worldly idols, like wealth and pride, which can distance us from God, and to embrace humility and compassion as exemplified by Lazarus in the Gospel. By examining our choices and seeking God's will, we...

Therefore be compassionate, just as your Father also is compassionate!" (Luke 6:36). Our Lord’s command in the Gospel of Luke offers a more concrete counterpart to the command, in the Gospel of Matthew, to be perfect as our Father in heaven (Mat 5:48). If the Lord is "compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and most merciful," as we read in Scriptures (Exod 34:6; Ps 102/103:8), then "becoming s...

The account in the Gospel of Luke about how the Lord called Peter, James, and John may seem like a straightforward retelling of events. However, like all Scripture, this passage contains deeper meanings, available to the reader only with deeper study and prayer. The Very Rev. Dr Alexander Rentel highlights the significance of the "great haul of fish," linking it to the original state of Creation i...

In this homily given on the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon (OCA) describes the Cross as both a symbol of suffering and of victory. The Cross represents the transformation of suffering into joy and death into life through Christ's sacrifice. It is central to our Christian worship and salvation. When we embrace our own crosses in our lives, our suffering, like...

The tomb was blocked. Roman guards stood watch, armed and vigilant. Yet, in spite of the very real risk of danger and personal suffering that could await them, a group of women disciples went ahead anyway, determined to anoint the body of their Lord and Master. Why? On this Third Sunday of Pascha, The Very Rev. Prot. Vincent Temirov speaks to the motivations of the Holy Myrrhbearing Women—those wo...

Nothing is more natural to the fallen mind than to be delighted with praise and one’s own achievement, and likewise to be frustrated and embarrassed by criticism and failure. But the examples of our Lord and His apostles tell us they were not beholden to anyone or anything in this world. Our struggle to become like them, and to take steps toward true victory over our fallen nature and true freedom...

As we continue to celebrate the most glorious Pascha of our Lord, says the Very Rev. Dr Alexander Rentel, we must remind ourselves how difficult it must have been for His disciples immediately after His crucifixion. There was fear, doubt, and extreme discouragement. This is what made their joy all the more exuberant and full when the Lord appeared to them through locked doors as they prayed in hid...

In this homily on Holy Thursday, the Very Rev. Dr Bogdan Bucur invites us to consider the establishment of the Holy Eucharist as a sacrament and God’s core invitation to us to partake in His life. Fr Bogdan draws on the many Scripture readings of Holy Week to emphasize both the characters who heeded God’s invitation to Himself (e.g. the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet, the prophet Job) and the many...

In the wake of an untimely death in the seminary community, the Very Rev. Dr Bogdan Bucur asks all the questions of the grieving person, of Martha and Mary at the tomb of Lazarus, of each of us when we encounter the loss of a loved one. Fr Bogdan leads us to see how God Himself mourns and weeps with us, suffers with us in our grief. But it does not end there. He, the Eternal God, has come to exper...

Drawing on the gospel reading for the liturgy of the 5th Sunday of Great Lent, in which our Lord recounts his upcoming sufferings in detail, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon (OCA) calls upon us to “truly lay aside all earthly cares and crucify our minds with Christ” during this last week of Great Lent, and especially during Holy Week. His Beatitude goes on to point out that “each year Holy Week i...

The prayer of the father of the demon-possessed boy, “I believe, help my unbelief,” (Mk 9.24) is an example for us of how we ought to prayer, says Fr Vincent Temirov. It is the humility and faith in our words, not the “multiplicity” or complexity of our words in prayer, that are most pleasing to God. St John of the Ladder, commemorated on this fourth Sunday of Lent, instructed us not to use “false...

In reading about the healing of paralytic let down through the roof by his friends, the Very Rev. Dr Bogdan Bucur encourages us to also consider the damaged roof. Perhaps we in the Church have to accept some sort of discomfort in order to open ourselves to experience Christ’s healing power. Reading this gospel on the Sunday of St Gregory Palamas, famous for his treasured theological writings on th...

On the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we remember the restoration of the veneration of the holy icons within the Orthodox Church in the 8th century, after decades of bloody iconoclasm. Yet this first Sunday of Lent is not called the “Sunday of Icons,” points out Fr Vincent Temirov. This is because the theology of the icon summarizes everything that the Church teaches about the person of Jesus Christ. The ic...

As Orthodox Christians prepare to enter the Great Fast, the Very Rev. Dr Alexander Rentel reminds us to contemplate anew the reason for our fasting. We fast, not because God requires or needs us to fast, but because, through fasting in faith and humility, we learn to turn away from our sins and towards Christ and His Kingdom.

As we draw closer to the beginning of Great Lent, the Very Rev. Dr Chad Hatfield reviews the preparatory Sundays we have just experienced, starting with Zaccheus Sunday, followed by the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, and this week, the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. Fr Chad emphasizes the great significance of the parable of the Prodigal Son in fully illustrating the core of the Gospel: the...

As we meditate on Zaccheus Sunday, the Very Rev. Dr Chad Hatfield encourages to heed the Church’s initiation of the four preparatory Sundays leading up to Great Lent. We all are subject to the temptation to get lost in the externals of Lent, or to let the season pass by without engaging ourselves in deeper reflection. Fr Chad encourages us to allow the exterior aspects of Lent–the services, the Le...

Reflecting on the conversation between Jesus and the Canaanite woman in the Gospel of Matthew, the Rev. Dn Dr Vitaly Permiakov calls us to follow her example. We can only be healed of our brokenness by approaching the Lord with humility and a real understanding that we are only saved and made whole by Him. Although it may sound as if the Lord is demeaning the Canaanite woman upon an initial read,...

It’s hard to understand, at first, why the man who hid his one talent in the parable of the talents was so harshly punished by his master, says the Rev. Dn Dr Harrison Basil Russin. Drawing on related texts in Deuteronomy, Dn Harrison explains by emphasizing the importance of receiving God’s blessings in gratitude, cultivating them, and offering the first fruits back to Him and one’s neighbors in...

The Feast of Theophany is an occasion to meditate on the cosmic nature of Christ’s entering into the waters of the Jordan, preaches the Very Rev. Dr Chad Hatfield. By entering the water to be baptized, Christ shows us the way we must also follow, and sanctifies all of creation, the cosmos itself. We are then sanctified and born anew in the waters of baptism, and sealed with the sign of the Cross a...

On the feast of St Herman of Alaska, His Grace Bishop Gerasim of Fort Worth, Auxiliary to the Diocese of the South (OCA) calls us to consider how St Herman embodied the fruit of the Spirit described by St Paul: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, and self-control. Raising many examples from St Herman’s life about his enaction of these qualities, Bishop Gerasim exhorts...