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The Eighteenth Day of Christmas Advent. The Third Birth of Christ (Part I)

Stergios Sakkos Rebirth The third birth of Christ is in the life of people who believe in Him and accept Him as their own, personal God. Because even though Christ became incarnate in order to save everyone, not everyone will be saved. Of course, the Lord “wants all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth”, (I Tim. 2, 4), and is certainly all-powerful. Nevertheless, He respects people’s freedom as well

The Path of the Good, the True, the Real

~By Father Stephen Freeman, July 25, 2023 Imagine a character in a story who is wraith-like, barely existing. His every move threatens to draw him deeper into non-existence. As it stands, others around him are only able to see him moments at a time. He often disappears for whole days at a time as he lapses into such ghostly non-being that he cannot be seen at all. Each step he takes either diminishes his existence

Saint Kyriakos the Anachorite

† Dionysios, Metropolitan of Servia and Kozani Today the Church honours and celebrates the sacred memory of Blessed Kyriakos the Anchorite, who was born in Corinth in 408. His father was called Ioannis and was a priest, while his mother was Evdoxia. The then bishop of Corinth, Petros, who was Kyriakos’ uncle on his father’s side, ordained him reader. But Kyriakos did not find inner peace in Corinth and so, at the age of eighteen,

For God So Loved the World

~Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 11, 2005 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! When we want to express love to a special person we often tack on the little word “so”. I love you soooo much and, of course, the more you want to express it the longer you stretch the word. St. John uses

Hidden Wounds

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 6, 2022 The woman with the issue of blood suffered with her ailment for 12 years. Jairus’ daughter died at the age of 12. That’s an interesting detail. Was it a deliberate move by the author or authors? Or a coincidence? Who knows? Whether one or the other the number twelve appears often in Holy Scripture signifying wholeness and the power and authority of God. Jesus,

The Fifth Tuesday of Pascha. The Temple of the Heart

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, May 17, 2020 One of my teachers in seminary once told us that all preaching should be about the kingdom of God. I suppose it was because that was what Jesus talked about most during his three-year public ministry. In Matthew’s Gospel the Lord mentions “the kingdom of heaven” 32 times. In Luke and Mark, the phrase kingdom of God is preferred. The Gospel of the Samaritan

The Fifth Wednesday of Great Lent. The Beauty and Sanctity of All He Has Made

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 23, 2020 Forgiveness, offered, isn’t always accepted or passed on. The unforgiving servant is the New Testament version of the narcissist. Receiving extravagant mercy from his master and caring only for himself, he refuses it to his fellow servant. “Why ask forgiveness when I’ve done nothing wrong,” the narcissist asks? For such a person there are rarely second thoughts and no effective arguments. It is vain

The Second Monday of Great Lent. The Sunday of Orthodoxy

~ By Metropolitan Athanasios of Lemessos On the first Sunday of Lent [yesterday, Sunday], we celebrate[d] the Sunday of Orthodoxy, that is to say the feast of the restitution of the holy icons, as the Church once again, by the grace of God, vanquished the heresy of the iconoclasts and preserved with exactitude the faith and the tradition of the Holy Fathers of the Church, as it has been preserved throughout the ages. This faith

From Darkness to Light

~By Archimandrite Varnavas Lambropoulos On the eve of our entry into Great Lent, everything in church speaks to us of repentance. The wonderful hymns ‘robe’ the message of repentance in a poetic manner; the Gospel reading gives us the keys to open the gates of repentance; and the Epistle reminds us of one of Saint Paul’s most pressing admonitions: to call us to repentance. In essence the leading apostle repeats, in his own, graphic manner,

Meatfare Sunday: Present Sheep

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, March 7, 2021 When our Lord and Savior instructs us to love everyone without preference, we must never allow anyone to convince us otherwise. In the kingdom of God there can be neither apathy nor prejudice. Quoting Pope Francis speaking in the ancient city of Ur, “the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters.” Blasphemers, it goes without saying, cannot inherit