~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 6, 2025 In the Transfiguration, Christ is seen speaking with Moses and Elijah on the top of a mountain, shimmering with a light of unbearable brightness. It is an event unlike anything else in the gospels, deserving the Great Feast that is associated with it. That Christ is seen speaking with Moses and Elijah is itself an affirmation that in Him, the whole of the Law and the Prophets find
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025 Jesus had done many miracles before raising Lazarus from the dead, but that last one made him a rock star in Jerusalem. The crowds gathered for many other reasons, but the raising of Lazarus excited the crowds to a fever pitch. The prophecies about the coming Messiah in the prophets added fuel to the fire. Still Jesus was not looking for adulation. He
Sermon preached by Dn. James Wilcox on Sunday, January 28, 2024 Luke 18:35-42; 1 Tim. 1:15-17 Alan Watts in his illuminating book, “Behold the Spirit,” writes the following: In this very moment we are looking straight at God, and he is so clear that for us complex human beings he is peculiarly hard to see. To know him we have to simplify ourselves, and the mind is so dominated by the complexity of pride that
Sermon preached by Subdeacon JD Swartz on Sunday, August 4, 2024 at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA “And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” “And when Jesus saw their faith..,” not the faith of the one brought for healing, or at least not his faith alone, but their faith. Our interdependency is
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Archimandrite Elisaios, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petras Let us, then, have a look at this mystery and understand it from a single appearance of Christ after His resurrection: to two of His disciples who were on the road to Emmaus, a small town some 10 miles from Jerusalem. This appearance is related only by Luke and is one of the most beautiful and vivid scenes in his
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou This Gospel reading is exceptional, loaded with great and sublime truths which the Lord condescended to impart to a dissolute woman, a heretic who had led a reckless life and hailed from Samaria, an abomination for the Jews. The reconciliatory way that Christ relates with this woman gives an example for converse with our fellow men. In this passage, on the one hand, we behold the majesty
Saturday of the Holy and Righteous Friend of Christ, Lazarus Introduction On the Saturday before Holy Week, the Orthodox Church commemorates a major feast of the year, the miracle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he raised Lazarus from the dead after he had lain in the grave four days. Here, at the end of Great Lent and the forty days of fasting and penitence, the Church combines this celebration with that of
Saint Luke the Physician, Archbishop of the Crimea ‘When we examine modern science, as this has been created by scientists such as Lamarque and Darwin, we see the contrast and, I would say, the absolute dissonance which exists between science and religion in matters pertaining to the most basic problems of existence and knowledge. This is why a rational and enlightened mind cannot accept both simultaneously and must choose between religion and science’. These words
Sophia Kafkopoulou On 6 January, our Church celebrates Theophany, one of the great feasts of the Lord. Jesus’ baptism is the event which formally confirmed the advent of the Messiah. Although the Lord Himself had no need of the remission of sins, He nevertheless came to John ‘to be baptized by him and to fulfil all righteousness’ (Matth. 3, 13-15). As regards Jesus, the Gospel stresses that, as soon as He entered the waters of
14,000 Holy Infants were killed by King Herod in Bethlehem. When the time came for the Incarnation of the Son of God and His Birth of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Magi in the East beheld a new star in the heavens, foretelling the Nativity of the King of the Jews. They journeyed immediately to Jerusalem to worship the Child, and the star showed them the way. Having worshipped the divine Infant, they did not
© 2020 Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral
