Thy Nativity, O Christ our Lord has Shone the Light of Knowledge upon the World A Christmas 2009 Meditation

Christmas Without Christ?

The Theophany: Seeing the Light (January 19) The twelve days of Christmas are celebrated in a markedly different manner in the West than in the East.

The Sunday of The Publican and the Pharisee

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee "God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector". It is strange to think that, according to the Lord's parable that we hear in today's Gospel (Luke 18:10-14), these proud words are part of a prayer!

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son. "While he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him". This is what the father does in Jesus' Parable of the Lost Son. He does not wait for his son to get to him to tell him what he wants, so that he would then have the advantage over him to tell him to come on in, or to leave. He ran to him. There was no doubt about he would tell his son to do. He welcomed his lost son with open arms.

Discover the True Code of the Universe Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Meatfare Sunday - About the Last Judgement. Let us hear Christ's words to the disciples on the evening before His crucifixion. He said: "You will all fall away because of Me this night" (Matthew 26:31). There is a valuable lesson to be learned here, one which will stand us in good stead as we strive to prepare for the Judgement we remember on Meat-fare Sunday. What is the Lord telling us?

Meatfare Sunday – About the Last Judgement II

Meat-fare Sunday English français

Cheesefare Sunday - About Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

Cheesefare Sunday English français

Cheesefare Sunday – The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

First Sunday of the Great Fast- The Triumph of Orthodoxy Today the Orthodox throughout the world celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy over the last of the great heresies.

Second Sunday of the Great Fast Today's Gospel reading (Mark 2:1-12) invites us to find inspiration and direction for our lives in the example of the four friends of the paralysed man who were exceedingly determined to help their friend.

TARAS SHEVCHENKO’S CROSS On the Third Sunday of Great Lent we celebrate the Holy Cross as a reminder to us in our endeavour of fasting that it is by the Cross that our Lord achieved the final and decisive victory over death and brought us over into the life of the Resurrection. Such is the meaning of His triumphant cry upon the Cross: “It is finished” (John 19:30).

Third Sunday of the Great Fast - Veneration of the Cross

Third Sunday of the Great Fast: Adoration of the Cross English | français

Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast - Commemoration of St. John Climacus

Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast: Commemoration of St. John of the Ladder English | français

Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast – Commemoration of St. Mary of Egypt

St. Mary of Egypt On the Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast the Orthodox Church commemorates a woman who after 17 years of licentious living in Alexandria in Egypt, found the grace of repentance in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Resurrection and spent nearly 50 years in the desert beyond the Jordan in spiritual labour and rejoicing.

Pascha

The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Today we join in with the joyful throng greeting our Lord as He rides into Jerusalem! What joy! What exhilaration! The hope of the ages is fulfilled. God has kept His promise. He has sent His Messenger, His Anointed One to restore that which we lost – and continually lose –by our apostasy and betrayal.

Palm Sunday English | français

The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem Once again the cycle of the Liturgical Year has brought us to Palm Sunday, the Entry of our Lord in glory into Jerusalem. And we are blessing willows rather than guns or swords – with gratitude to the Lord Who has again given us these gifts of nature, notwithstanding the early date this year. We shall take them to our homes and also decorate the graves of our loved ones with them as a reminder of the Lord’s love and victory over the last enemy, death.

The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem II

The Lord’s Pascha. The Radiant Resurrection of Christ. What is it about this day that makes it so very special to millions of people around the globe? Why do people keep saying: “Christ is risen!” and responding “He is risen indeed!” with such conviction and joy almost two thousand years after this event?

The Radiant Resurrection of Christ. Once again the great wheel of the Church calendar has brought us to the celebration of the Lord’s resurrection. What is it that we are celebrating today? A historical event? Yes. Christians throughout the ages have lived and died with the conviction that Jesus of Nazareth truly lived, truly died and truly rose from the dead and ascended to the Right Hand of the Father.

Antipascha. St. Thomas Sunday.

On the Seventh Sunday after Pascha the Holy Church commemorates the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.  This Council was convened in 325 A.D. in the city of Nicea (today Iznik in Turkey, a source of popular brilliant blue ceramics) by St. Constantine, Equal-to-the-Apostles, the Emperor of Rome who stopped all persecution of the Faith of Christ and made it the faith of his Empire.

At last it has come once more – Pentecost, the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The Temple is resplendent with greenery from the luxuriant growth God has brought about after the ice and cold of winter.

Changing them by your Spirit: How to celebrate Pentecost every day

Today's Feast - the Day of Pentecost, the Descent of the Holy Spirit brings us a Gospel reading (John 7:37-52,8:12) with images which speak of a happiness that lasts and that makes other people happy, too. Jesus says: "If any one thirsts, let him come to Me and drink". It is not only water for which people thirst. Jesus offers that which responds to a spiritual thirst, a thirst for lasting happiness, a thirst for answers to our hard questions - a thirst for meaning.

Is There Real Happiness? Trinity Sunday - Pentecost - The Descent of the Holy Spirit

The Harvest Road First Sunday after Pentecost - All Saints

Second Sunday after Pentecost - All Saints of Rus'-Ukraine

On the Second Sunday after Pentecost it is the tradition of the Orthodox to remember the Saints who have been glorified in their own land or locality. The First Sunday after Pentecost is the Sunday of All Saints – those known and those unknown by the earthly Church. The sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was to populate the universe with Holy Men and Women. On the Monday after All Saints’ Sunday, we begin the Apostles’ Fast to remind us of our vocation to join the ranks of these Holy Ones. And on the Second Sunday we celebrate the memory of those so proclaimed, as well as others who have not been – and indeed may never on earth be – so proclaimed who have shone forth among us locally.

In today’s (July 2) Epistle we read Saint Paul’s good news: "While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). Third Sunday after Pentecost

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost In today's Epistle (Romans 6:18-23) we find the interesting statement: "You have been set free from sin". But what does that really mean? English | français

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost English | français

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ

An answer to a visitor's question regarding customs on Transfiguration Feast Day

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost In today's Gospel reading (Matthew 18:23-35) we receive a most valuable message about forgiveness.  Jesus recounts how a steward who was forgiven ten thousand talents (an enormous sum - much more than a labourer of the day could earn in his whole lifetime) passionately refused to forgive a fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii (something that the labourer could have earned in about a hundred days' work).

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Today we shall reflect on Jesus' words in the Sunday Gospel (Matthew 19:23-26): "There is only One Who is Good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life". 

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost In today`s Epistle (I Corinthians 16:13-24) our teacher, the Apostle Paul, tells us to do everything in love. Good advice, no? But we might want to ask whether Paul himself is acting in love when we read him saying in this same section: "Whoever does not love the Lord - a curse on him!" Did not Jesus say that we should bless those who curse us? How is this acting in love?

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost "What is the greatest commandment in the law?" Such was the question Jesus was asked in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 22:35-46). Jesus answered immediately that it was to love - to love God and to love one’s neighbour. This included loving one’s most immediate or closest neighbour. Who would that be? Of course! It is YOURSELF! For if one can not love oneself then one can not love ANYONE ELSE.

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost In today`s Epistle (Galatians 2:16-20) our teacher in the faith of Christ`s Church, the Apostle Paul, speakd of things that are hard to understand: how do we obey law (i. e. follow the call of duty) and yet remain in the freedom that Christ has brought us.

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost In today`s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11) we hear how Jesus helped the fishermen get a huge catch of fish, after they had laboured all night in vain. They were amazed by this! It was a sign to them that they were in the presence of Divinity. Who else but God could give them such a huge catch when they had not been able to get anything at all, experienced fishermen though they were.

Ninteenth Sunday after Pentecost In today`s Gospel (Luke 6:31-36) we are encouraged to enter into a part of our soul which is dark and uninviting. It is the place whence come the feelings of hatred, of the thirst for vengeance, for violence. Our Lord issues this invitation to us by telling us to love our enemies and to do good to them. It is a very hard thing He is asking us to do. It is hard enough to act in this way to those who have done us some personal wrongs. But it gets even harder.

Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost Today`s Gospel (Luke 16:19-31) talks about a whole range of subjects. It can be seen that they all deal with power.

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost Today's Gospel (Luke 8:26-39) tells the terrible story of the pigs who were drowned because of the action of evil spirits which possessed them after they were commanded by Jesus to leave a man who had been their victim. It is also the wonderful story of the man who was restored to society by Jesus' act.

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost In today’s Epistle (Ephesians 2:14-22) we hear Paul tell his readers, the Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians of Ephesus, the joyous news that God had included them in His eternal family, which He loves and for which He has made the greatest of sacrifices. Meditating upon this mysterious inclusion can lead us into wonder, hope, faith, peace and joy!

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost If we listen carefully to today’s Gospel (Luke 10:25-37) we may be able to hear Jesus telling us that good religion requires imagination.

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-eighth Sunday after Pentecost As winter strengthens its hold upon our land, while nature rests under its mantle of snow, it is good to think about life that will never die - the life that has been given to us, as well as to all who thirsts for it, by Jesus the Messiah.

Twenty-ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Zacchaeus' Sunday

The Feast of the Dormition: Comparing an Assumption Both Orthodox and Roman Catholics celebrate the mystery of Christ's taking His Mother, body and soul, into Heaven.  Yet both have quite different ways of approaching this Feast that reflects their differing perspectives on the Mother of Christ our God.  Their liturgical focus is different one from another as are the very terms by which they name this Feast.  Let's take a closer look . . .

This Feast, which falls on August 28 (corresponds to August 15 on the Julian Calendar) is of such great significance that it is preceded by a Fast which lasts for thirteen days. It is called the Dormition Fast. In Ukrainian it is commonly called “Spasivka” since the Feast of the Lord’s Transfiguration (“Spasa”) falls during this time.

The Beheading of the Holy, Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist St. John

This Tuesday, September 11, we shall be celebrating a Feast that requires a fast. We shall be commemorating the Beheading of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptizer John. That is the glorious title that the Church has given him in recognition of the special place he has in the assembly of Saints. English | français | Ukrainian (PDF)

The Placing of the Belt of the Most Holy Theotokos (September 13)

Just as the calendar year of fixed (immobile) Feasts, determined by the annual passage of the Earth around the Sun, drew to an end shortly after the Great Feast of the Dormition (repose) of the Most Holy Theotokos (August 15/28) so a new one begins with the Great Feast of her Nativity (September 8/21).

The first of the great Twelve Feasts of the Church, the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos celebrates the birth of Her from Whom God took flesh and became Incarnate - Our Lord Jesus Christ. September 21

A new liturgical cycle of immobile Feastdays begins with the arrival of the Indiction on September 14 (which is September 1 on the Julian Calendar). Foremost among the Saints we celebrate this day is Simeon the Stylite (stylos is the Greek word for pillar). He bears this title because he lived for almost forty years upon pillars of ever increasing height – the first was some 2 meters in height, and the last was 15 meters.

As the liturgical cycle of immobile Feastdays is drawing to an end with the arrival of the Indiction on September 14 (which is September 1 on the Julian Calendar), the Church remembers another of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, St. Bartholomew (known also by the name Nathaniel which means “gift of God”). On September 7 (August 25 on the Julian Calendar) we celebrate the Feast of the Translation of his holy Relics.

On September 22 (corresponds to September 9 on the Julian Calendar), the day after the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, we celebrate the memory of her parents, the grandparents of Jesus, whom we joyously and gratefully proclaim as True Man and True God. This perfect union of earth and Heaven, of humanity and Divinity, which heals the alienation between God and His human children, finds a beginning in the union of these two righteous Saints of the Old Testament, Joachim and Anna. We read about them primarily in the ancient Protoevangelion of James.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 27) The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross underlines the role of the Most Holy Theotokos as agent of our Salvation through Christ, and we, who yesterday shared in the joy of her parents, Joachim and Anna, at the birth of their Daughter, today remember how She stood beneath the very same Cross we celebrate.

On September 28 (corresponds to September 15 on the Julian Calendar), the day after the Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Cross, we celebrate an ancient Icon of the Mother of God upon which the Christ Child holds a Cross while blessing the believers. This Icon bears the name of a Gothic Saint through whom the Icon came into the world. It is Saint Nicetas, the Great-Martyr.

The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-GivingCross

On October 5 (which is September 23 according to the Julian Calendar) we celebrate the memory of the Holy Prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai, who lived in the Galilean village of Gath-hepher (today el-Meshhed) in the ninth century B.C. He was of the tribe of Zabulon.

On October 10, which is September 28 on the Julian Calendar, we celebrate a Saint who is particularly renowned because of the popular Christmas carol “Good King Wencesalus”. It describes a miracle which came about as he and his elderly servant, Podevoj, were bringing gifts to a poor man to brighten his life on the third day of Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen. It was a bitterly cold day but the ground was warm wherever the saintly young King Wenceslaus (also known as Vyacheslav or Vaclav) walked ahead of his servant, who is also honoured as a Saint by the Czechs.

Today's Feast (October 14), the Pokrova or Protection of our Lady the Theotokos, is a national one of the Ukrainian people. It celebrates the constant intercession and protection given to Christians by the Mother of Christ in Heaven. We are members of the Body of Christ and so Mary is our spiritual Mother who is there, along with all the Saints, to help nurture us in the life in Christ.

On October 26 (which is October 13 according to the Julian Calendar) we remember a young woman renowned for her beauty and strength of character. Her name in Bulgarian is Zlata (meaning “the golden girl”), although she is usually known by the Greek equivalent of this name, Chrysa. (Note the similarity to the title of the great Saint John Chrysostom – meaning “golden-mouthed” – whose Liturgy we celebrate on most of the Sundays of the year).

On November 2 (which is October 20 on the Julian Calendar) we celebrate the memory of a child whose earthly life ended on June 23 (July 6 on the Gregorian Calendar), 1545, when he was only twelve years of age. We celebrate his memory today as well as the day of his repose because today is also the Feast day of His heavenly Patron, the Holy Great Martyr Artemius of Antioch, martyred in 361 by the order of the Roman Emperor Juian the Apostate.

On November 9 (which is October 27 on the Julian Calendar), on the day after the commemoration of the Great-martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, the Myrrh-streaming, we celebrate the memory of a young man, St. Nestor, who obtained the blessing of the Great-martyr to overpower the seemingly invincible gladiator, Lyaeus. That powerful man had boasted that he possessed the strength of the pagan god of war, Ares (the Romans called him Mars).

On November 16 (corresponds to November 3 on the Julian Calendar) on the Julian Calendar the Orthodox celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Church of St. George in Lydda during the reign of St. Constantine the Great (306 to 337).

On November 30 (corresponds to November 17 on the Julian calendar) we celebrate the memory of a Saint of the West of the undivided Church, St. Hilda, the Abbess of Whitby.

On the fourth Saturday of November Ukrainians throughout the world remember the millions of people who died in what has been called the greatest crime the world has ever known, the Holodomor of 1932-33 in the breadbasket of Europe, Ukraine.

St. Nicholas is On His Way (December 19)