On October 18, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Evangelist Luke. He was one of the Seventy who were early emissaries of Christ sent out to do missionary work. After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray the
Georgios Patronos, Emeritus Professor of Theology, University of Athens The Gospel reading for 2nd Luke comes from the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. In Saint Matthew’s Gospel, in which almost all Jesus’ teaching during his public ministry is gathered together, emphasis is placed on the overall context of the Christian life. Here, in the Gospel according to Saint Luke, in which events are set out in their historical time-line, that is in the order in
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Coptic Church or the Church of Alexandria is called “Sees of St. Mark”; one of the earliest four sees: Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. St. Mark, The Founder The Copts are proud of the apostolicity of their Church, whose founder is St. Mark; one of the seventy Apostles (Mk 10:10), and one of the four Evangelists. He is regarded by the Coptic hierarchy as the first of their unbroken
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 6, 2020 In the year 313 AD an imperial edict proclaimed Christianity to be the preeminent religion of the empire. Something was lost in that moment. I am not the first to say it, nor will I be the last. What was largely lost was the prophetic voice of the Church. The Church was from the beginning a counter-cultural movement. It became an arm of the
By Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 21, 2014 We read …the genealogy of Jesus from St. Matthew’s Gospel. It is different from St. Luke’s genealogy and there are reasons for this which we do not time to talk about this morning. I would rather spend time on the point of this Gospel and that is, God became man to save everyone and everything. It is as Thomas Merton speaks of this using the metaphor
Saint Luke came from the city of Antioch, probably of a pagan family. From his youth he applied himself to seek after wisdom and to study the arts and sciences. He traveled all over the world to quench his thirst for knowledge, and had particular skill as a physician and in painting. The Gospel he wrote shows his excellent command of Greek; he also knew Hebrew and Aramaic. There is a tradition that Luke was
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 13, 2014 The reading is from Matthew 5:14-19 (Holy Fathers) This Gospel is used to point to the importance we place on sharing the message of Christ to the world. The Holy Fathers of the Fourth and all the other six councils met in order to ensure that the Gospel was understood correctly. The intimation is that the bushel with which we try to hide the
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, January 29, 2017 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (15:21-28) Brothers and Sisters, The Lord did not come to show us how to get to heaven. He revealed that heaven is within us. It always has been. There is no place to “get to.” Why then did he come? For a variety of reasons. He came to die for us. Yes, of course,
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, October 17, 2017 There is a proverb from the Soviet period: “History is hard to predict.” The re-writing of history was a common political action – enough to provoke the proverb. Students of history are doubtless well-aware that re-writing is the constant task of the modern academic world. The account of American and World History which I learned (beginning school in the 1950’s) differs greatly from the histories my children have
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 20, 2020 Here we are only a few days until Christmas. While we will be giving and receiving gifts, let’s take a moment to reflect on the greatest gift we have been given – the gift of union with God. I love the reading of the Genealogy. It reminds me of the poignant scene in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus laments over Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who
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