St Peters Orthodox Church

April 29, 2021 - Just before our Lord Jesus Christ's arrest, He did two ministries that made manifest the profound love of God to His disciples. The Word of God, once arrayed in glory, now would condescend to put on the garments of a common servant and wash the feet of His disciples. That same evening, our Lord would institute the Lord's Supper; Holy Eucharist, the table of fellowship, grace, merc...

April 28, 2021 - Tonight, on Holy Wednesday, we have the Mass of Holy Unction and the Blessing of the Oils. God has always used oil for the benefit of mankind. With oil prophets, priests, and kings were ordained to their vocation and given the Holy Spirit. With oil God healed. And with oil the Holy Spirit is conveyed to mankind. Tonight we all of this fulfilled in Christ who is the healer and mend...

April 26, 2021 - In the Collect prayer from the Mass of Holy Monday we pray, "Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first He suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified; Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace." The self-emptying love of God in Christ is fully on display in the Incarna...

April 25, 2021 - Palm Sunday marks our entrance into the most sacred week of Holy Week. Today we set ourselves to journey with Christ to and through His Passion that we might experience the power of His Resurrection. Fr. James exhorts us to press in and finish Lent well. No matter what our failures or successes during Lent have been, today marks an opportunity to set ourselves to begin Lent anew a...

April 18, 2021 - Today is Passion Sunday. It is the day that both sets the tone and gives a framework of true meaning that helps us prepare to journey with our Lord to and through His Passion and to His Resurrection throughout Holy Week. Today we look at two truths. The first is that no one but Christ Himself had the power and authority to lay down His life so that we could be with Him eternally....

April 11, 2021 - Every year on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we are given a Mass reminding us that we are a people that have much to rejoice about in Christ. In this Mass, we hear the Gospel of St. John 6; the narrative of Jesus taking bread, giving thanks, and feeding the 5000. Today we are reminded that what we really see is the Liturgy unfold before us in this very story. Today is a reminder that...

In the Gospel of St. Luke 11, Jesus says that "a house divided against itself shall not stand." Within our soul, is our house divided? Do we live differently at work, at home, socially, and at Church? If so, these divisions come from the brokenness that causes such tension and division within our very soul. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to bring a holy unity within us; a means by which these tensions...

March 25, 2021 - The Archangel Gabriel is sent by God to the Blessed Virgin stating His intentions that the Salvation Himself be born through her. In the Old Testament man fell facedown at the sight and splendor of this Archangel. When the Archangel Gabriel comes to Mary, it is he who is astounded. Tonight, on the Feast of the Ascension, we look at this profound truth. We also look at the humility...

March 21, 2021 - Why do we fast for 40 days during Lent? Why is it that our Lord has had His people fast for periods of time both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? In this sermon we look at our Lord modeling this 40-day fast. More importantly we see the results of His fast; the results every Christian can experience now in their own lives. Through fasting and prayer we are strengthened by the...

Have you ever felt like God was distant from you in times of suffering; you pray and ask for help, but nothing happens? Where is God in those times and why does He not seem to hear you and come to you and relieve you of your suffering? Today from St. Matthew 15, we look at our Lord's encounter with the Canaanite woman. The way our Lord brings her soul to the place where she can finally receive Him...

March 17, 2021 - Every Ash Wednesday we hear the calling of God to His people through the Prophet Joel, resounding as an alarm, to "return to the Lord your God." The alarm sounded to God's people every Ash Wednesday is the blessedness of our mortality. Many question, "How is our mortality blessed?" Tonight we look at two of the teachings of the Church for over 2000 years regarding the great gift o...

March 14, 2021 - On the last day of our three-week preparation for Lent, our Lord in His wisdom desires to reveal the love that He is to us. Why? Because at the revelation of Who God is to us, we clearly see Him. And, in seeing Him, we see the ways we are not yet like Him. Our Lord brings these things to the surface not to bring us to shame and despair, but to move us toward Him so that we can exp...

March 7, 2021 - Today is our second day of preparation for Great & Holy Lent. We are given the "Parable of the Sower" from the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 8. Our Lord is encouraging us to tend to the soil of our soul that the seed of life He has planted blossoms. Jesus is also showing us the need to be sober and vigilant against anything that would stand to choke out the life-bearing seed of grace...

February 28, 2021 - St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9, describes the Christian life in Christ as a runner who is temperate in all things in order to gain the desired prize. An athlete, in order to compete for the prize, has to walk in great self-control as they train for the competition. They must abstain from many things and will themselves to do many things. Why would they subject themselves to this?...

February 8, 2021 - In our world today, we are very focused on the pandemic of the COVID virus. Today we turn our attention to a pandemic that has been creating great suffering in all of humanity since the fall of man to present day. It is the pandemic of the soul; an illness that has been in the core of mankind that creates a lesser existence, just as a virus creates a lack in the experience of th...

January 31, 2021 - In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 8, we are given the testimonies of Christ our God healing the leper and the servant of the centurion. We are told that the leper came and worshipped Christ, which means he fell in prostration before the Lord. We look at the centurion and see a great faith adorned in humility. As we look at the worship of the leper and the humility of the cent...

January 24, 2021 - Jesus' first miracles was turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. The nature of the water was transformed by the presence of the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Colorless, tasteless, odorless water contained in earthen vessels became filled with color, taste, and fragrance. This miracle prefigured Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We are the earthen vesse...

January 10, 2021 -St. Paul writes to us what is the core of understanding Christian worship in Romans 12 as he states, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship." What does it mean to offer our whole self to God? And what does it mean that this act is the true worship of the...

December 27, 2020 -St. John the Apostle, at the end of his Gospel, describes the physicality of the Incarnation; God comes to dwell with us in the flesh. Today we remember that when we celebrate the wonder of the Incarnation, we do not celebrate something that happened between Christ's conception and Ascension. Rather, we celebrate the Incarnation that continues in and through His Holy Church unti...

December 24, 2020 - What a blessed and holy night is the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight we remember that by the Incarnation Christ bowed heaven to earth in Himself that He might come to us with healing in His wings. Tonight we look in wonder at the glorious manifestations that were given to direct the hearts of all to come to this child, Christ our God; for He has come to exchange our...

December 20, 2020 - In the Gospel of St. Luke 2, Christ our God is called the consolation of Israel. In the Collect prayer for the Mass of the Fourth Sunday of Advent we pray, "Lord, raise up Thy power and come among us and succor us." In this sermon we explore Christ's ministry of succoring His people and how this leads to the consolation of the soul; something every soul craves. Those who experi...

December 13, 2020 - On the Third Sunday of Advent we are given a Mass entitled "Rejoice!" In the middle of the blessed Season of Advent, God reminds His people that their very lives, as well as their prayers, are to be seasoned with praise and thanksgiving. In this sermon, we look at the wellspring within us from which we can encounter Christ and draw great praise to Him for all that He has done,...

December 6, 2020 - Holy Scripture plays such a profound role in the salvation journey of every Christian. It is a means of fellowship with God. It is a means by which we learn to hear His voice. And it is one of the many means in the Church by which Christ illumines us with Who He is and shines light on both who we are and who we are to become. In the blessed and Divine readings of Holy Scripture,...

November 29, 2020 - The Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ grants us all the experience of the Living God in our lives which brings us salvation. In Advent, we engage more time in prayer and fasting. We also take time to prayerfully study how God has revealed Himself to His people through Christ since His birth. God desires that we know Him more and more over time by the experience o...

November 22, 2020 - Today is the Sunday Next Before Lent. It is the week given by the Church to prepare for the blessed Season of Advent. In this liturgy we pray, "Stir up the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded." In that prayer, we have the language of a harvest. And, no harvest just appears automatically...