Sunday Homilies

Happy Father's Day

The Sunday of All Saints On the Sunday following Pentecost, we commemorate all the Saints of the Church. The Church established this present feast after the descent of the Holy Spirit in order to show that the Spirit works enormous wonders, not only through the Apostles, but through the lives of thousands of men, women and children. These Saints—many who we know by name and many who remain nameles...

The word Pentecost means “fiftieth” in Greek. This Feast takes place fifty days after our Lord's Resurrection. The Christian Feast of Pentecost commemorates the promised coming of the Holy Spirit with power upon all the disciples of Christ. This “coming” of the Spirit differs from early comings of the Holy Spirit upon certain individuals, such as the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testamen...

For over 300 years, the Christian Church was persecuted by the Roman State. With the conversion of the Emperor Constantine the Great, the persecution ended and Christianity became a tolerated religion of the Empire. About this same time, a priest named Arius, serving in Alexandria, began to teach and preach that Jesus Christ was not equal to God the Father because He was begotten from Him. Arius c...

Today we read about our Lord's encounter with a man who was born without eyes. Due to his blindness, he was forced to beg near the Temple in Jerusalem. Many people knew him and his physical condition, for they would pass by him on a regular basis. When Jesus and His disciples came near to the blind man, the disciples asked Jesus if this man's blindness and birth defect was due to sin. Jesu...

Today is the fourth Sunday after Pascha. This Sunday of the Samaritan Woman marks a transition in focus from the Resurrection toward Pentecost. The living water Jesus promises to the woman at the well invites us to turn our attention to the action of the Holy Spirit inside a disciple of Christ. Even the dialogue between Jesus and this woman indicates the action of the Holy Spirit upon the heart an...

The Healing of the Paralytic On this Third Sunday after Pascha, we witness the dramatic healing of a man paralyzed for thirty-eight years. Apparently, this particular paralytic was all alone, for year after year, he lay by these pools of Bethesda hoping someone would help him into the water after the stirring. Jesus intentionally comes to this paralytic, knowing his exact circumstances. The Holy F...

Faith and Courage When the time had come for Christ to be taken down from the cross, Joseph of Arimathea, a highly respected Jewish leader, approached Pilate to ask for Jesus's body. Although other followers of Christ hid in fear, Joseph did not do likewise. His high position in Jerusalem didn't deter him from seeking out the body of Christ, the one they had crucified. Instead, his faith g...

Holy Pascha—The Feast of All Feasts The foundation of our Christian Faith is the empty tomb of Christ. As St. Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:15, 17). The Christian assurance is that death has been vanquished through Christ's death...

Our Orthodox Church offers us three distinct but interwoven periods to prepare us for our greatest and most significant feast day: Holy Pascha. The first period is the 40-day season of Great Lent. The second period is this transition weekend of the Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday. The final period is Holy Week, which culminates with Great and Holy Pascha. Jesus's entry into Jerusalem revea...

Lazarus Saturday

Celebrated on March 25th

St. Mary lived in the sixth century. She was born in Alexandria, Egypt of Christian parents. She herself was baptized as a child, but left both her home and her Christian faith. For seventeen years, Mary lived a deeply sinful life of harlotry and wickedness. While the Church recognizes this part of her life, she is recognized far more for her deep repentance and for the forgiveness and mercy God b...

Saint John Climacus is honored by our holy Church as a great ascetic and author of the renowned spiritual book called The Ladder of Divine Ascent. He went to Sinai and became a monk before he was twenty. For nineteen years, John progressed under obedience to his spiritual father until his elder's death. He then became a solitary hermit, where he spent forty years laboring in prayer, fasting an...

The Holy Cross We have arrived at the mid-point of Great Lent. We are feeling the fatigue of our spiritual efforts. The Church realizes that by this time in the Fast, we need more grace, inspiration, and encouragement. The image the Church puts before us is the ascent up a steep hill. This hill is so steep that the upward trail is full of switchbacks. During the first half of our climb, we cannot...

A Second Triumph of Orthodoxy Today we commemorate the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas as a second triumph of Orthodoxy. Like the defense of icons this past Sunday, today's remembrance of the teaching of St. Gregory is another celebration of God becoming man and uniting Himself to our humanity. This union of the divine and human natures in the one Person, Jesus Christ, means that we can becom...

The Sunday of Orthodoxy “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (Jn. 1:14) The Sunday of Orthodoxy is celebrated annually on the first Sunday of Great Lent, because icons were restored back into the Church on that day in 843. In that year, the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged on and off sin...

The Sunday of Forgiveness Today is the last day before Great Lent begins. The holy fathers have chosen to emphasize forgiveness as the central theme for this day. The Gospel passage comes from the Sermon on the Mount. In this passage, Jesus says, “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Fathe...

Sunday of the Last Judgment The Gospel Reading for today’s Liturgy tells us about the event of the Last Judgment. This is not a parable, but a description of the events of the last day. Our Lord separates the righteous from the unrighteous. He calls those who have loved Him and believed in Him “sheep,” because sheep hear the voice of their shepherd and follow him. The unrighteous, He calls “goats,...

SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON Today’s Gospel is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This story beautifully describes the entireprocess of sin, repentance and forgiveness. Sin & Its Results The younger son, representing us all, considers his father (God) dead and asks for his inheritance. This is essentially the root cause of all sin—considering ourselves over God for whatever reason. He then leaves...

The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee Today, marks the beginning of a very special liturgical season called the Triodion. The Triodion is a book of worship Services we use beginning today, extending through Great Lent, and ending with Holy Week. Some of the most beautiful and meaningful themes, hymns and readings are in these sublime Services of the Triodion. For example, today and the next...

Sunday January 25, 2026 Today, we read about Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, who abandoned everything in his former life to follow Jesus. As a chief tax collector, he was extremely rich, for Jewish tax collectors under Roman authority not only collected the required Roman taxes, but they charged their fellow countrymen even more than Rome demanded. As a boss of other tax collectors, Zacchaeus...

Sunday January 18, 2026 The Transformative Power of Thanksgiving to GodEvery time people think of God and offer Him thanks, they are praying. They are recognizing in part that God is the Giver of all good things (Js. 1:17). Furthermore, they are acknowledging that God has personally benefitted them. This very act of thanking God brings people into a closer personal relationship with Him. Gratitude...

Sunday January 11, 2026 In the past few days in our Church's liturgical calendar, Orthodox Christians worldwide have celebrated the life and role of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist and the baptism and beginning of Christ's ministry. At the beginning of each of these central figures' ministries, they both began with the exact same message: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at ha...

Sunday January 4, 2026 Theophany means the appearance or manifestation of God. Our Church uses another word, Epiphany, for this same feast. Epiphany simply means appearance or manifestation. This Feast commemorates Jesus's baptism in the Jordan by St. John the Baptist. During this event, the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity reveal themselves to the world. As Jesus is emerging from underneath...