We have much to be thankful for today as we celebrate the feast of the holy prime apostles Peter and Paul. Certain things are obvious, and others not so obvious. The obvious things are the power of intercession of these two saints, who are among the greatest of all saints, for the whole Church. There’s [...]
I think I’ve written before on the famous passage from the Gospel of Matthew (11:27-30) in which Jesus calls us to find rest for our weary and worn-out souls in Him. I couldn’t find it, though, so it wouldn’t hurt to go at it again, perhaps from a different perspective. It happened to be the [...]
It is perhaps appropriate that the feast of the birth of St John the Forerunner occurs during the “fast of the apostles,” the time between All Saints Sunday and the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. While this feast is a joyful occasion, the man we are celebrating is a model for ascetics, a perpetual [...]
A while back I was reflecting on the rather difficult passage of St Mark’s Gospel (chapter 11) in which Jesus says that if we only have faith in God, we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer, if we have no doubts that we will in fact receive it (He made forgiveness a condition [...]
Ever since we celebrated the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Church has been leading us carefully in a certain spiritual progression through the Sunday Gospels. On the Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrated All Saints, and by this the Church told us that the chief goal of the coming of the Holy Spirit [...]
Even though it is now several weeks since Pentecost, I’d like to offer praise the Holy Spirit (in the Byzantine tradition, all the Sundays of ordinary time are numbered as “Sundays after Pentecost,” so that we never forget whence comes the grace for our life and worship). Here I’d like to thank the Holy Spirit [...]
Since I’m in the process of writing a book now, I thought it might be a good idea to learn how to write a book. I took the advice of Jennifer at Conversion Diary and obtained the book entitled Chapter after Chapter, by Heather Sellers. I did find some helpful pointers in there, but I [...]
The Year for Priests comes to a close as the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church. This is no coincidence, since the Year was inaugurated on this feast in 2009. We don’t have this feast on the Byzantine Calendar, but one of the most common titles for [...]
I’d like to offer a brief recommendation of a book I had the pleasure of reading a short time ago. It’s called The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism. It’s a fairly recent release, though perhaps you’ve seen it already. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much and maybe you will, too. [...]
It is fitting, after having celebrated yesterday the 38th anniversary of the founding of our monastery, that the Gospel for today (Mt. 4:18-23) concerns the calling of men to follow Jesus as his servants, apostles, and friends, sharing in his own mission to lead souls to the Kingdom of Heaven. The context of this Gospel [...]
