St Peters Orthodox Church

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines paradox as a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement that when investigated proves to be well-founded and true. The truths of Christ our God are often revealed through paradox. Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. Today we see the Divine Nature of Christ the King revealed to us through paradox. As we reflect on how Christ came to be eleva...

Many outside of the Orthodox Faith test various theologies using Scripture alone believing that Scripture is the highest authority for Christianity. While the Orthodox Faith holds Scripture in the highest esteem and it is infinitely important to our growth in knowing God and drawing near to Him, Scripture alone is not the absolute measurement. We do not ask, "Is it Biblical?" Rather, we ask the qu...

One of the ways God revealed Himself to His people in the Old Covenant was by giving them a Name by which to know and understand Him. In this Mass, He reveals to us that He is Jehovah Rophe. That Name in Hebrews means I AM healing, I am both Physician and Cure for my people. The context of His healing work in our lives is always relationship. Today we examine the relationship between the Great Phy...

The question is not, "What is our faith?" The question is, "Who is our faith?" If Christ our God is our faith, then it is most certainly our faith that defines us. We do not define the faith. And Christ our faith shares Himself with us. Christ our faith reveals to us who we truly are as a people who have been made one with Him. And this God shares with us that we are His children of the light; tho...

Tradition in the Church is the deposit of faith. It is the revelation of Christ our God and His Kingdom to man for the salvation of souls. Tradition is the pure and perfect lens through which we understand the Nature of God and God's perspective on all things. Holy Scripture, for example, is an integral part of the Tradition of the Church but can only be understood correctly and clearly through th...

Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the beginnings of the Church, poured out gifts and ministry so that each living stone in the Church could minister His salvation one to another and to this world. Satan used the humanity in the Church to twist those gifts into tools of division. St. Paul writes about this in Ephesians, 1 Corinthians, and Romans. In each of those writings, St. Paul corrects and exhorts t...

Many outside of Orthodoxy wonder why the Orthodox Bible has more books than Bibles used by protestant Christians. Today, Fr. James Rooney takes us on a historical journey of the development of Holy Scripture beginning with the development of the Old Testament and ending with the New Testament. From that journey, we grow in understanding why the Church has always had the particular Canon of Holy Sc...

In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 7, Jesus raises the son of the widow at the gate of the city of Nain. Two different processions of many people collide at the gate of Nain. One is a procession of life and consolation led by our Lord. The other is a funeral procession of death, great mourning, and suffering. As they meet, Christ our God is filled with compassion for the widow. He raises the son...

Living in America, particularly in middle America, the Orthodox Church seems to be a small portion of all who call themselves Christian. In reality, it is the second-largest body of Christians in the world. It is pre-denominational. What does that mean and what is the basis of this claim? Today Fr. James Rooney shares with us historical realities and understandings of our Faith that will help us a...

How often we are anxious and worried about our finances; sinking in the storm of concern that we will not have what we need when we need it. When we find ourselves burdened with such fears, it shows us that we have great room to grow in knowing God Whose very Nature is to provide. The antidote to all these fears is to make a path in our lives for the Lord our God to reveal Himself for Who He reall...

Just because we are in the Apostolic Church does not mean that we have the mind of Christ on the great theology, the revelation Christ has given of Himself and His salvation, that is kept therein. Today is an overview of the series "Giving Answers to Our Faith." As we look in this series at many topics in our Faith for which we are asked questions, the goal is that we grow deeper in an understandi...

In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 17, 10 lepers are healed by Christ. Only one turned back to give thanks to the Lord Who healed him. Giving thanks to God, a response that wells up from our souls and comes out of our mouths is a great and important part of the spirituality of the Christian. We were created in the beginning to be an expression of the Divine giving glory to God for all that He is an...

How do we perceive Jesus Christ our Savior? How do we know Him? And what to we understand His Nature and Disposition is toward us? How we see Him is directly proportional to how we see ourselves and how we respond to Him when we fail and fall short. Today, Jesus shows us His true nature in the telling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We must see Jesus correctly as He has revealed Himself to m...

Even as we remember the birth of our Lord's Mother, as with any remembrances of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we see something so wondrous and joyful about Christ's salvation of our souls. Saints Joachim & Anna lived in the shame of barrenness, even to an old age. After pleading a lifetime with God for mercy and for their shame to be taken away by the conception of a child, our Lord goes beyond their r...

As if the miracle of Christ healing the deaf-mute was not enough to consider, Christ through His Church has revealed that this very miracle shows us the healing and salvation of us all. Today we consider how we were deaf and mute spiritually from the fall of mankind. Our Lord has touched our ears so that we could receive God from God. And from what we now receive into ourselves from Him, the tongu...

8/28/2023 - Today we look at the virtue of humility which is a virtue of God Himself. Humility is such a fascinating virtue. On the one hand, we need the grace of God to grow in His humility. On the other hand, the virtue of humility attracts God and we are told He gives grace to the humble. Both our Epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 15 and our Gospel reading from St. Luke 18 (the Parable of the...

St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 says, "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." What an incredible truth that the glory of God has shone in our very soul to give light to all around us. St. Paul goes on to say, "We have this treasure (the glory of God Himself) in eart...

This blessed Feast Day, one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Church, is the celebration and remembrance of the falling asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the translation of her soul into the bosom of her Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and her being granted her resurrected body. Our Lord gave us such a gift by what He has done for His Mother. As always, when we grow to understand truths about her we a...

Today we are reminded by our Lord how to be true disciples of Him with material goods in this life. In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 16, our Lord tells the parable of the unjust steward. The purpose of the teaching is to remind us that we have ownership over absolutely nothing. Everything we have belongs to God and He has made us stewards of what we have on loan. In the parable, the unjust stewar...

Today is the Feast Day of the Transfiguration. What Christ accomplished on the Cross made it possible for every soul to experience a true transfiguration, a metamorphosis of personhood. The Transfiguration marked both the revelation of Christ as the Word of God to man in all of His glory as well as showing forth mankind's truly created identity. When we see the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Ch...

Though sin is an issue that goes deeper than our habits and patterns, there is no denying that these habits and patterns are very much a part of the sins we commit. Today we talk about the putting off of habits that keep us bound in sin and replacing them with virtuous habits that, by the grace of God, transform our lives into the very likeness of God. The Church Fathers often teach that we become...

At the core if Christianity is a life and faith of oneness. Oneness between us and God as well as oneness among us with our God. We were created for community and Satan, from the creation of humanity has been seeking to divide mankind from God and mankind from one another. In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 5, our Lord Jesus Christ reveals two of the strategies Satan uses to divide relationships...

Our Gospel reading today is from St. Luke chapter 5. It is the testimony of the miraculous catch of fish and the calling of the first disciples. What we really see here is the progression of an experience Simon Peter has with the Lord Jesus Christ that would forever change his life. In this progression we not only see important truths about our life with Christ, but we also see important truths ab...

The Gospel of St. Luke chapter 1 gives the testimony of the Blessed Virgin Mary, then pregnant with the Word of God Jesus Christ, visiting Elizabeth who was pregnant with St. John the Forerunner. In this narrative we see an unborn child leaping with joy in his mother's womb at the presence of His Savior Who is in the womb of His most blessed mother. We also see great humility in the Blessed Virgin...

In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 14, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches the Parable of the Great Banquet. The Church has forever taught that the great banquet in this parable is indeed the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This table was prepared by the suffering of Christ upon the Cross so that He might deliver to us everything we need for true life and salvation. Every time we gather together by His lovi...