Daily Meditations

Sixth Tuesday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

Through Your Glorious Ascension (Part II) By the Reverend John Breck By His incarnation, Christ deified the flesh, the body with its human nature, and thus He restored it to the perfection and glory for which God originally intended it. As the First Adam, the archetype of all human existence, and as the Last Adam, the Author of Life who gives life to those who dwell in Him, Christ ascends in his “divine flesh,” exalting

Sixth Monday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

Through Your Glorious Ascension (Part I) By the Reverend John Breck Psalm 67/68 is considered by most biblical scholars to be the most difficult of all psalms to interpret.[1] The current consensus holds that the psalm was an ancient cultic hymn, originally recited in an autumn festival by the covenant-community of Israel. Its theme celebrates the coming of God to His people, from Sinai to Zion, in order to actualize in their midst His past

Fifth Friday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

What is Orthodoxy? (Part II) By Rev. Dr. Theodore Pulcini TO BE AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN… Is to assume responsibility for the Christian Tradition… The Orthodox Church is the Church of Tradition. Notice the capital “T”. This Tradition is absolutely not to be equated with the transient cultural and other merely human aspects of the Church. Tradition, in the Orthodox view, is not a specific thing or set of things. It is, rather a critical faculty,

Fifth Thursday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

What is Orthodoxy? (Part I) By Rev. Dr. Theodore Pulcini TO BE AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN… Is to experience the Apostolic Faith… They knew that something was different about him, this carpenter from Nazareth. He spoke with authority. He cleansed lepers. He raised the dead. And through he suffered crucifixion and death, he rose from the dead and appeared to his followers … And now nothing seemed the same! Death had been trampled down by death;

Fifth Wednesday after Pascha: Equal of the Apostles and Emperor Constantine with his Mother Helen

The Church calls St Constantine (306-337) “the Equal of the Apostles,” and historians call him “the Great.” He was the son of the Caesar Constantius Chlorus (305-306), who governed the lands of Gaul and Britain. His mother was St Helen, a Christian of humble birth. At this time the immense Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern halves, governed by two independent emperors and their corulers called “Caesars.” Constantius Chlorus was Caesar in the

Fifth Tuesday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

The Joy of the Kingdom By Father Alexander Schmemann We cannot answer the world’s problems by adopting towards them an attitude either of surrender or of escape. We can answer the world’s problems only by changing those problems, by understanding them in a different perspective. What is required is a return on our part to that source of energy, in the deepest sense of the word, which the Church possessed when it was conquering the

Fifth Monday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

The Empty Tomb and the Overflowing Heart 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

Fourth Friday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

“Ambassadors of the Faith: PROCLAIM HIS RESURRECTION” By Father Luke Melackrinos I want you to think about bottled water for a moment. Just a few short years ago we were all content to drink water from a sink. If back then we asked the question, “Would anyone pay for water?” I doubt anyone would have expected that in the year 2004 alone, U.S. Consumers spent an estimated 8 billion dollars on bottled water. Let me

Fourth Thursday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

“Let us be Radiant” By Father James Kordaris  (Paschal Hymn) In the 8th Century, Saint John of Damascus wrote this Hymn to theResurrection: The Day of Resurrection! O People, let us be radiant. It is Pascha, the Lord’s Passover; for Christ God has carried us over from death to life, from earth to heaven, as we sing a victory hymn. In the coming period from the Resurrection to Pentecost, the Sunday Epistle readings tell us

Fourth Wednesday after Pascha: The Feast of Mid-Pentecost and the Pentecostarion, Christ is Risen!

The fifty days following Pascha until the Feast of Pentecost are known as the period of the Pentecostarion in the Orthodox Church. At the mid-point between these great feasts of Pascha and Pentecost, on the twenty-fifth day which is always a Wednesday, is one of the most beloved feasts for the most devout Orthodox Christians known quit simply as Mid-Pentecost. Mid-Pentecost is to the Pentecostarion what the Third Sunday of Great Lent which honors the