St Peters Orthodox Church

The Church teaches us that Jesus did not need the waters of Baptism, the waters needed the Word of God. At Jesus' Baptism, may types are revealed to be fulfilled in Him. As Joshua led God's people into the Promised Land through the Jordan Rivers, so Yeshua (the name given to Jesus which is Aramaic for Joshua) enters the waters of the Jordan that we may follow and be granted the Promised Land, Para...

St. Paul writes to us in Philippians 2 that we are to have the same mind of Christ; that is, His nature to lower Himself to raise the souls of all upward. This is Christ's virtue of self-emptying humility. We see this in our Gospel reading today from St. Luke 2 as a 12-year-old Jesus is in the Temple. Today we consider Christ our Passover obediently keeping the Feast of Passover. We see the humili...

Today is the Feast of Epiphany, a word meaning the manifestation or revelation of God to man of Himself. Today Magi, priests and philosophers from the East, are led by a star to worship Christ our God as a child. God knew precisely how to capture their attention that they might come and experience Jesus, to the end that they might be saved. As we celebrate God offering salvation to the Gentiles, w...

Jesus had no need to be circumcised any more than He needed to be baptized. So why is the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Church? At His Circumcision He receives His Name, brings a close to the Old Covenant, and now lives on to inaugurate the New Covenant, the final Covenant that will bring mankind salvation.

When Christ our God was born, "He bowed the heavens and came down." As our Lord took on flesh, He bent heaven to earth so that fallen man may experience Him and His Kingdom and be elevated toward heaven. Therefore, He would be called Emmanuel which means "God with us." But do we live our lives as Christians in the reality that God is with us every moment of every day? Today we are challenged to po...

The home is the continuation of the Church. In the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, God takes two living stones and unites them together with Himself; each living stone a gift and vessel used by Christ to heal and transform the other. As these living stones journey through this life with Christ in their midst, our Lord is reshaping and refashioning them in the likeness of Himself; they are becoming lo...

Throughout Advent, we have entered by grace into the longing of all creation to be redeemed. And, throughout Advent, we have cried to God for mercy and deliverance. Tonight, our cry and the cry of all creation has been heard. Our Lord comes to earth so that we might be raised up to heaven. This night is a night of peace, joy, and great hope.

The Mass for the Vigil of the Nativity signals a pivot, a change of focus and direction away from Advent where we prepare for the manifestation of God coming to man in Jesus Christ. We now move in this Mass to set our souls to the experience of His manifestation on earth; a manifestation not only at His birth but through His ministry upon the earth for our salvation. Today we set ourselves to expe...

On the third Sunday of Advent, we are given a command by our Lord to "Rejoice!" It is a command rooted in the love of Christ for His people. It is a prescription by our Great Physician Who knows the result this medication will have on the human person. We were designed to glorify God in thanksgiving and praise. Today we seek to understand the benefits to body, mind, and soul that rejoicing in God...

In this session, Fr. James Rooney teaches the history and development of the Sacrament of Confession & Absolution, a practice that has always existed in the Church. This Sacrament that is a gift from Christ to His people is for the easing of their conscience and the healing of their souls. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this Sacrament and this teaching is offered in hopes of helpi...

What comes from our soul and out of our mouth will have an impact not only on our own soul, but the souls of others around us. St. Paul in Ephesians 4 tells us "let no corrupt word come out of our mouth, but rather what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." In the Didache we find these words, "Where the Lord's nature is discussed, there the Lord is. Every day...

Have you ever been in a season of suffering or great need, prayed for mercy and relief, and felt that God was not hearing your prayer or was very distant from you? At some point in our lives, we will all face times like these. How shall we live when God seems to be silent? Tonight we look at Saints Joachim & Anna, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for answers to that question. They lived the...

Why is the worship of the Orthodox Church liturgical, fixed, and repetitive? This is a common question asked about our faith. Today we examine the historical worship of God's people reaching back to Judaism. It is God Who instructs His people as to how He is to be worshipped, for He is worshipped eternally. The worship of the Church manifests the eternal worship of God here on the earth. And the w...

Every human being knows when they are ill. Many say that pain is an unwanted gift, but it is a gift. Our physical pain tells us something is wrong with us. And when we are suffering we go to our trusted physician so that he might, in his wisdom, give us a path to healing. And when our bodies are healing from those prescriptions, our sufferings are diminishing. Christ is our Great Physician and He...

Today's Mass is called the Sunday Next Before Advent. it is a week given to prepare for this blessed liturgical season. We turn a corner from the long season of Trinitytide where we have reflected on how we should live from the finished work of Jesus Christ. Advent is the Season where we begin again preparing both for His coming and His Second Coming. St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that "If...

An easy answer to this question would be that Sunday is the Sunday of the Resurrection. But there is a great deal more in the answer to this question. Today Fr. James Rooney teaches us the reasons behind Sunday worship and the rhythm and pattern of this worship. As much as it has to do with the Resurrection, the answer to this question also has to do with Creation & Recreation, the redemption of a...

There is not one soul that goes through this life without being damaged or harmed by someone. The humanity of others damages us and wounds us just as our humanity does to others. Forgiveness can be such a challenge and even feel impossible, particularly in very abusive wounds that are done to us. Left to our humanity, we will not be able to release our offenders in forgiveness which means that we...

Today the Blessed Virgin Mary is presented to the High Priest Zacharias by her parents Sts. Joachim & Anna at the Temple in Jerusalem as a young girl. There she would live a life of prayer and service to God. Even at an early age, she lived a life offering herself to the Lord. Her whole life is a picture of what we all have been rescued and redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ to become; a people who...

We are beginning to turn the corner from the Liturgical Season of Trinitytide to the Season of Advent. In the Season of Advent, we enter into a longing for the deliverer to come and deliver us. We also enter into a preparation of our soul for the Second Coming of our Savior. Every one of us needs healing and deliverance from our fallen condition and the suffering that condition causes us. Thanks b...

When God gave the Law to Moses, He said "You shall have no graven images." So, why does the Orthodox Faith make use of Iconography in both worship and the experience of the faithful in their homes? In this session, Fr. James helps us understand what "graven images" were and we will clearly see that Iconography is not a disobedience to the Law. We also delve into the spirituality of Iconography and...

In our Gospel reading from St. John chapter 4, we have the testimony of the healing of the nobleman's son by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of a number of examples showing how our Lord knows how to bring someone with a weaker and less mature faith to a stronger and more mature faith. He takes the nobleman on a journey knowing precisely how to relate to him so that the nobleman would truly come...

In the Mass of All Saints, we are told that the angels are in wonder of Christ's restoration of the dignity of His Saints. The extent to which Jesus took the fallen condition of mankind and raised it back up to its truly created design has the angels and the innumerable Saints in heaven in constant awe and praise. Tonight we look at this revelation given to us of Paraidise. And we consider the pat...

Sermon from Mass of the Angels by St. Peter Orthodox Church

Every year at the Feast of All Souls, our Lord graciously places the gift of our mortality before us. We live as though we have an eternity left in this life. Christians are to live as though this life is a vapor that could end at any moment, and if we allow Christ to be our healer in the moments of each day, we will receive the promised unspeakable joys of eternity. Today, we look to see how the...

Today we examine the revelations given to the Church about our Lord's Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Everything we understand about her points to and glorifies her Son, Christ our God. And, all that we see in her reveals to us our most true identity as those who are being re-created by her Son our Lord. In this session, we see how Holy Scripture reveals these truths that have been handed down to...