All Saints Homilies

On the 5th Sunday of Lent, Fr. Pat preaches on the request by James and John from Mark 10: "Grant us to sit, one at Thy right hand and one at Thy left, in Thy glory.”

In this homily preached the fourth Sunday of Great Lent 2014, Fr. Pat looks at the story from Mark 9 of Jesus driving a demon out of a young boy, and makes three observations of what this story teaches about faith.

A meditation on Christ’s humanity for the Third Sunday of Lent; the Scripture readings are Mark 8:34-9:1 and Hebrews 4:14-5:10. Fr. Pat preached this sermon in 2011.

Fr. Pat preaches from 1 Kings 18:42-19:18, about Elijah, who, after his fearless encounter with the priests of Baal, is now isolated and filled with self-pity.

In this homily from Pentecost Sunday, Fr. Pat reflects with us on three points about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in our lives.

Fr. Pat preaches from Isaiah 2:1-9, in which Isaiah delivers two oracles: the first about the ideal Jerusalem which is to come and the second about the actual Jerusalem which exists in Isaiah’s time.

Fr. Pat offers pre-Lenten reflections on Hanna, the mother of Samuel and Anna the Prophetess.

In this meditation on Isiah 1:16-31, Fr. Pat reflects upon the Bible’s prophetic voice on behalf of the poor.

Fr. Pat preaches from Isaiah 1:1-15. This homily was given at Vespers on November 13, 2010.

The Cross is the key to unlocking God’s will for us in every stage of our lives. But at every stage, we may find ourselves resistant to the word of the Cross. And just when we imagine we have grasped what it means to be a Christian, we discover, perhaps with shock, that we’ve hardly begun.

What is there about the human being that must be said if we are to take the Last Judgment seriously? Fr. Pat explores this question.

Fr. Pat contrasts the Prodigal Son and Esau, and offers thoughts on the mystery of repentance.

In this meditation from a vespers service in January of 2010, Fr. Pat looks at Numbers 20, in which the people of Israel complain to Moses about their situation.

Israel recognized no possibility of conflict between God’s will fixed in the Torah and the more fluid guidance He provided in the cloud and the pillar. Fr. Pat offers reflections from Numbers Chapter 9.

We bear within our very flesh the hope of which the Apostle Paul speaks; therefore there is going to be something very fleshly about our transformation. Fr. Pat preaches from Colossians 3.

Strictly speaking, the Orthodox Church does not celebrate doctrines, it celebrates events. On this homily given on the Sunday before Theophany, Fr Pat considers the event of Jesus's Incarnation.

The Christian faith is based on an event that took place in a specific place at a specific time in history; God instructs us through history, and we are to be learners. Fr. Pat gave this homily on Christmas Eve several years ago.

Isaiah's prophetic vision of a Child, a son of David who was to come and Who would be God with us, Immanuel.

The bishops at the Seventh Ecumenical Council reasoned that the legitimacy, indeed, the necessity of icons in the church was an organic inference from the thesis that God became visible in the Man Jesus of Nazareth. Fr. Pat gave this homily on The Sunday of Orthodoxy, 2020.

A look at the journey of the human race as such, the meaning of the incarnation, and the fulfillment of the great promise of Israel’s prophets.

We all have schedules and agendas, and we’re mindful of our own and of those with whom we interact. Using stories from the Gospels and Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Fr. Pat considers with us God's schedules and hidden agenda.

Matthew 25:31-46, the Gospel passage for the Sunday of the Last Judgment, is about the judgment of history, meaning the judgment to which history itself will be subjected. Fr. Pat delivered this homily on February 23, 2020.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God comes into the soul and transforms it. Fr. Pat gives three major examples of the Holy Spirit’s transformation of our instinctual human capacities.

Throughout the book of Ephesians (and elsewhere) the Apostle Paul uses the phrase “in Christ.” Based on Ephesians 5:8-19, Fr. Pat looks at some practical ways to live a life in Christ.

Mark’s account of the Lord’s questions about baptism and the cup (Mark 10:32-45) are especially poignant for the Christians at Rome, who are thereby instructed about an important dimension of their own participation in the sacraments.