Daily Meditations Archives

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Second Friday of Pascha: Why Were the Myrrh-Bearers the First to Hear that Christ Had Risen?

05/17/2024

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on May 15, 2021 Metropolitan Avgoustinos (Kantiotis) of Florina († 2010) And he said to them: ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here…’ (Mark 16,6). When Christ was born, the first to hear of it weren’t the great, the powerful and the rich, but the humble and poor shepherds abiding in the fields with their flocks in Bethlehem. Similarly, when Christ rose,

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Second Thursday of Pascha: The Empty Tomb and the Overflowing Heart

05/16/2024

Sermon preached on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, May 4, 2014 by Fr. Antony Hughes Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. I always ask myself these days, when preparing a sermon, why does anyone need to hear this? How can I bring something out of the text that will help people understand more and live more beautiful lives? What do the Myrrh-bearing Women have

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Second Wednesday of Pascha: Resurrection

05/15/2024

And He rose again from the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures . . . Christ is risen from the dead! This is the main proclamation of the Christian faith. It forms the heart of the Church’s preaching, worship and spiritual life. “. . . if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15.14). In the first sermon ever preached in the history of

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Second Tuesday of Pascha: The Invitation

05/14/2024

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 11, 2016 Today’s Gospel reading reveals a great truth: salvation is about relationship. We cannot be saved alone. The Great Feast in the parable is a metaphor for this. It starts at the very beginning when God says, “Let us make humanity in our own image.” The Hebrew writer gloriously uses the plural: God speaking to God. And gradually the mysterious mutuality of God in Trinity

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Second Monday of Pascha: Bookends and the Resurrection

05/13/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 12, 2018 A series of recent conversations with a parishioner turned up the problem of “bookends,” that is, questions of the beginning and the end. It is only natural in our day and age to attack problems in this manner. “How did it start?” is a way of saying, “What is it?” The end, of course, is not so obvious, other than its connection with our insatiable desire to know how

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Friday: Feast of the Life-Giving Fountain (Zodochos Peghe)

05/10/2024

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and disciples; and there they stayed for a few days. The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, He drove them all, with the sheep and

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Thursday: I Await the Resurrection of the Dead (part 2). Christopher the Martyr of Lycea

05/09/2024

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on May 8, 2021 Holy Monastery of St John the Baptist, Kareas Attikis The resurrection of the dead, then, will certainly take place. The angel’s trumpet will definitely sound (Rev. 11, 15-18). What is important for us, however, is that we should have accomplished something in our life on earth towards the sanctification of our soul and body, so that the resurrection will not be ‘unto judgment’ for us, but ‘unto eternal life’ (Matth.

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Wednesday: I Await the Resurrection of the Dead (part 1)

05/08/2024

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on May 7, 2021 Holy Monastery of St John the Baptist, Kareas Attikis It’s the event that each and every one of us can be absolutely sure of: sooner or later death will come to us. Yet, for most people, the end of life remains greatly undesirable and is to be firmly resisted. This is because, during the course of our life on this earth, we haven’t been nourished on the expectation of ‘the

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Tuesday: The Secret and Humble God, a Holy Week Reflection

05/07/2024

By Fr. Antony Hughes, April, 2003 A Holy Week Reflection Our God comes in secret… Olivier Clement The Christian God reveals himself in secret, in humility. His birth was in the quiet anonymity of a cave for animals. Few came to worship him. Only the humble who had been seeking and who would be able to recognize the Humble One found their way with divine assistance to the manger. He was born far from places of

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Monday: George the Great Martyr and Triumphant. Prefiguration of the Resurrection in the Easter Canon.

05/06/2024

Reading George, this truly great and glorious Martyr of Christ, was born of a father from Cappadocia and a mother from Palestine. Being a military tribune, or chiliarch (that is, a commander of a thousand troops), he was illustrious in battle and highly honoured for his courage. When he learned that the Emperor Diocletian was preparing a persecution of the Christians, Saint George presented himself publicly before the Emperor and denounced him. When threats and