Archive

Love the Lord

~Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 12, 2006 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen Glory to Jesus Christ! It is significant that when the lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to “inherit eternal life” he answers the question by removing the future emphasis. Life is to be lived now. Jesus says that if we want to live, that is,

Walking on Water

~Sermon prepared by Father Antony Hughes for Sunday, September 4, 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 read Holy Scripture the Holy Fathers and Mothers of the Church teach us that there are at least two levels of understanding . There is the literal understanding that sees the events as historical and, well, literal. So when we

The Peaceable Kingdom in a World at War

~By Stephen Freeman, July 7, 2018 The English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, described the world as composed of autonomous, competing self-interests. We are at war with one another, a reality, he said, that can only be controlled through external force. The state serves as the enforcer of a negotiated peace agreement, a social contract, in which we legitimize its use of force in order not to kill one another. Hobbes himself preferred a strong monarchy. Certain

Dostoevsky’s Gospel

Sermon preached on Sunday, October 2, 2022 by Fr. Antony Hughes The Golden Rule is, I think, part of what Aldous Huxley called “The Perennial Philosophy.” By that he meant the common threads that exist in every religion. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you” appears in one form or another in many, if not all religions. That is a wonderful testimony to the all-encompassing love of God. He has enfused all of creation

Third Monday of Pascha. The Feast Day of St. Irene the Great Martyr of Thessalonica

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Feast Day of St. Irene the Great Martyr of Thessalonica The holy Great Martyr Irene was born in the city of Magedon in Persia during the fourth century. She was the daughter of the pagan king Licinius, and her parents named her Penelope. Penelope was very beautiful, and her father kept her isolated in a high tower from the time she was six so that she would not be

The First (Bright) Tuesday of Pascha. Relative to Pascha

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 20, 2009 If you have attended Pascha services, or served them, it is quite possible to suffer some of the “natural consequences,” which for me means that after a somewhat disordered sleep I am sitting, having coffee and writing at 3:30 in the morning, wide-awake. I have no complaints. I generally like to be up by around 5 or so, so I am only off

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Interplay between Darkness and Light.

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 5, 2022 The Odes of Solomon is a first or second century document known to the Holy Father’s and quoted by a few. Olivier Clement used it to great effect in THE ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM. Here is the quote. “Blessed are the men and women who are planted…in your garden, who grow like trees and flowers grow, who transform their darkness into light. Their roots

The Holy Spirit

A Sermon by Fr. Antony Hughes In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! The Reading is from John 7:37-52; 8:12 “He who believes in me, as the scripture says, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’  Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive.” “Do you not know,” writes

Filled with the Holy Spirit

 A Sermon by Fr. Antony Hughes In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! The Reading is from John 7:37-52; 8:12 “He who believes in me, as the scripture says, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’  Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive.” “Do you not know,” writes

The Mystical Life

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, June 12, 2016 Let me begin with a quote from Walt Whitman which could be said by every mystic in every tradition, “I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.” And this by Fr. Thomas Hopko, “You can’t know God but you have to know him to know that.” Now to the reading. John’s Gospel reflects a cosmic and mystical