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ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Fourth Friday of Pascha: Getting Your Mind Right

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 19, 2016  In the classic movie, Cool Hand Luke (1967), the lead character struggles in a Deep South prison chain-gang setting. Very cool towards authority, he is finally, at the Warden’s direction, beaten by the guards. There is a memorable bit of dialog: Luke (lying in a grave he’s been forced to dig): Oh God! Oh God! I pray to God you don’t hit me anymore. I’ll do anything you say, but

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

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

Faith is Love, Faith is Trust

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 2, 2017 at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (8:5-13) Today’s Gospel gives us the opportunity to talk about what faith is, what faith means. I will be drawing from the book AGAINST RELIGION by the renowned philosopher/theologian Christos Yannaras who makes the argument that faith is not what we think it is. Fr. Alexander

The Eighth Day of Christmas: Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. The Circumcision of Christ. St. Telemachus, Peacemaker

On January 1 the Greek Orthodox church commemorates Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Saint Basil was born in the year 330 in Caesarea, to a family renowned for their learning and holiness. His mother, Emilia (commemorated on July 19) and his grandmother Macrina (commemorated on June 14) are Saints of the Church, together with his brothers and sisters: Macrina, his elder sister (July 19), Gregory of Nyssa (January 10), Peter of Sebastia (January 9), and

A Place Both Strange and Wonderful

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 26, 2017 The lawyer had eyes and he could not see. He stood before God incarnate and did not know him. “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear,” Jesus often says. The same is true, of course, of eyes. The lawyer had healthy eyes and could not see and healthy ears and could not hear. He did hear something with his ears and saw

The Sacrifice of Worship

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 30, 2017  When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac (Genesis 22), there was no questioning on Abraham’s part about what was intended. He understood precisely what was involved in such a thing. There was wood to be gathered, an altar of stones to be constructed, the victim to be bound, and then the slitting of its throat with the gushing forth of blood, all consummated in the burning

The Despised God

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, October 26, 2019  In his On the Orthodox Faith, St. John of Damascus declares: “The Son is the image of the Father, and the Spirit the image of the Son.” Such statements are easily read and passed over as among the more obvious Trinitarian statements. I add to this statement another from St. Irenaeus: “That which is invisible of the Son is the Father, and that which is visible of the Father

Mary and the Temple

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, September 12, 2017  “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” (Exo 25:8) The center of Jewish life at the time of Christ was the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was presented there at forty days of age. His family traveled to the Temple when he was twelve. He taught there during His ministry and drove the money-changers out. There is a tendency in much modern thought

The Invitation

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 11, 2016 Salvation is about relationship. We cannot be saved alone. 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 is revealed from the opening verses of Genesis, to the Oak of Mamre, to the Incarnation, the Baptism,

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Fifth Tuesday of Pascha: Not Religion, But Life

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 3, 2016 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (4:18-23) In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! In order to grow more and more into the likeness of God, we must constantly be changing. Growth implies change.  In this Gospel we see the birth of Christian discipleship beginning