Tag Archives: Orthodoxy in America

Christ the True Light

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Sunday, January 13/26, 2020; Sunday After the Baptism of the Lord

1 Timothy 1:15-17
Luke 18:35-43
Ephesians 4:7-13
Matthew 4:12-17

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ is baptized! An old Gospel hymn says, What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me pure within? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, on this Sunday after Theophany, the great Feast of our Lord’s baptism in our human flesh, what darkness covers our minds? What sickness is asking for the blood of Jesus to cure? The blind man in this morning’s Gospel dwelt in a literal darkness, yet his enlightened soul knew who to ask for help and mercy. We live in a supposedly enlightened age but are blind to God, so that while we see with our physical eyes, our spiritual sight is quite limited.

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Smaller is Better

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old-friar-famWanted to publish this rather excellent apologetic for smaller parishes made by one of our favorite pastors, Fr. Marc Vranes, on the 100th anniversary of his parish’s existence today. It is the parish church where my wife and I were engaged in the spring of 2003. We join in the chorus to wish Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Willimantic, Connecticut many, many, many more blessed years of ministry.

9 October 2016
Feast of St Tikhon, Apostle to America

Your Eminence, Reverend Fathers, My Beloved Community at Holy Trinity, Students from the UConn OCF, Both Current & All Alumni, Honored Guests, & Friends of HTOC in Willimantic, Connecticut-

As we hear in the Orthodox Church throughout the year, “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works, in wisdom hast Thou made them all” (Psalm 103).

Several years ago as I was about to embark on a long discourse with a friend about a subject that required detailed explanation – it was no doubt an opportunity for me to set the record straight on some baseball related matter – I rhetorically asked my friend the time-honored question, “I don’t know where to start?” He responded by suggesting, “How about at the very beginning? It always works for me.” Continue reading →

Coming to an Orthodox Church Near You…

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Duccio di Buoninsegna – The Raising of Lazarus

April 4, 2015
Lazarus Saturday

For those of you in my faithful readership who have yet to experience an Orthodox Christian Holy Week, now is your chance. At an Orthodox parish near you, begins a week of services unlike any you have experienced anywhere else on the planet. If you are local to Boston, you are cordially invited to attend all of the services our parish offers. If you can only do one, come to either Saturday morning Liturgy or late Saturday night, early Sunday morning for the Feast of Feasts, GREAT AND HOLY PASCHA on Sunday, April 12. Continue reading →

Welcome Home, Syedna Philip

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He only said two words to me in his entire apostolic life, but they were the two most meaningful words I have ever heard a bishop utter. They were the same words he used to greet every wayward American pilgrim that had somehow found themselves at the doorstep of the ancient, apostolic Church. And they are the same words that we who love him the most now use to usher him in benediction on to his true and heavenly abode: WELCOME HOME. Continue reading →

A Family Friendly Monastery

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IMG_2587Just returned from one of our favorite Greek Orthodox monasteries in Quebec, Canada, Panagia Parigoritissa. My wife and I will celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary this coming winter and it has been almost ten years since we self-published our first little travel guide entitled Friar’s Guide to Family Friendly Monasteries in North America. While much of the information in the original booklet is dated, the introduction is timeless, and I offer it here as an especial tribute to one of our most favorite of family vacation spots. Continue reading →

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

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Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name,
And they’re always glad you came…

This theme song from the great American sit-com Cheers is more than an opening for a TV show. It is an expression for a nation overworked and undernourished by the food of community life. We all long for a place to rest where the familiar faces and time-honored routine settles around us like a warm, inviting bear hug. We long for such an experience and expect to find it in places like the church, but all too often our local church suffers from the same coldness and isolation as the world. Continue reading →

Celebrating an Orthodox Advent

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I’ve been sitting on this post idea for a while, waiting for time that I could hole away, make my usual draft on paper, and then come to the computer for the final version. But this time of the year conspires to rob every available moment for preparations both real and imagined.

I have blogged before about redeeming the time and finding the reason for any season. Now that we are upon what Christians consider one of the holiest seasons of all, the preparation for the birth of the Savior of the world into our frail human flesh, it is a good time to take at least a few moments to reflect, lest the rush of our many to-do lists keep us from the one thing needful. Continue reading →

A Deeper Kind of Thanksgiving

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We celebrated Thanksgiving today in our usual way of traveling to Nativity of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church (OCA) in Chelsea, MA for their annual inter-Orthodox Thanksgiving Liturgy. What a tremendous occasion for inter-Orthodox activity, especially the celebration of the Eucharist which in Greek actually means “Thank You” or “Thanksgiving”. The Orthodox Church in America has written a wonderful service designed especially to honor this great American holiday. Continue reading →