Many readers will recognize Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) as the author of the buoyant, inspiring, and irresistible book “Everyday Saints and Other Stories,” which sold record numbers of copies in Russia and has been translated into 17 languages, including English. In this brief, but powerfully insightful passage excerpted from a 2012 interview, Metropolitan … [Read more...] about On Pascha We Receive An Invitation To Eternal Life
Major Feasts [Select Sermons]
St. Ephrem the Syrian: Hymn of the Nativity
St. Ephrem’s “Hymns on the Nativity” are like a dazzling display of Christmas lights—or better yet, like the brightly shining stars shimmering over the fields of Bethlehem. St Ephrem believes that God reveals Himself through “raze” (symbols, mysteries, hidden meanings) found not only throughout Holy Scripture, but everywhere in nature as … [Read more...] about St. Ephrem the Syrian: Hymn of the Nativity
Fr Georges Massouh on the Myrrh-Bearing Women
The true disciple of Jesus, whether a man or a woman, is not the one who carries a Christian identity on account of having been baptized, but the one who imitates the courageousness of Joseph of Aramathea, the Myrrh-Bearing Women, and the martyrs who offered themselves up in order to hold fast to their faith... only the courageous deserve to be beloved of Jesus. By Fr … [Read more...] about Fr Georges Massouh on the Myrrh-Bearing Women
St. Porphyrios Elucidates the Meaning of Pascha
Unlike the English term Easter, which evokes the Teutonic spring-goddess Ostara or Eastra, the Greek word Pascha is a direct transliteration of the Aramaic pascha, which in turn renders the Hebrew pesach, meaning Passover. St Porphyrios explains here in simple, but compelling language how Christ Himself has become our true Passover from darkness into light, from sin and death … [Read more...] about St. Porphyrios Elucidates the Meaning of Pascha
First Discourse on the Annunciation by St. Gregory the Wonderworker (Part I)
Truth first enters the world through a word and the more sublime a truth, the more sublime is the language that expresses it. In the essay below written in the third century, St. Gregory the Wonder Worker writes of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, where the angel Gabriel converses with the Virgin Mary in preparation of the coming of the Son of God as man. The Incarnation … [Read more...] about First Discourse on the Annunciation by St. Gregory the Wonderworker (Part I)