Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Clothe Yourself in Christ
In January, we celebrate the Lord’s Baptism which reminds us of our calling to become Christ-like and to become clothed in the garment of salvation and live a life worthy of the Gospel. Just as the military code of conduct demands that soldiers do everything in their power to follow and honor the established protocol and principals, we are also invited by our Lord to be instruments of love, peace and compassion!
Jan 19, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Theophany – reflections on the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ
Through the baptism of the Lord the waters received God’s blessing, being transformed in waters of sanctification. The Jordan is no more a water in which the demons lurk, as we see sometimes in the icons of Theophany, but it is now water of salvation; water that liberates man from the ties of sin, giving Him birth again from water and Spirit. Man is remodeled by God, as a pot maker models his vessels, using water and fire: water from the River Jordan and fire from the Holy Spirit.


Jan 19, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Partners in the New Covenant
We are called, rather, to love: To love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This is consistent with how the prophets of old understood the act of circumcision. The cutting of the flesh of the body was not only the sign of acceptance of the covenant; it was a direction to a deeper transformation that was required. “Circumcise your hearts,” the people of God were told. They were called to holiness, as an act of love toward God; and to acts of charity to those around them, as a way of loving our neighbors.

Jan 14, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Christmas Message of His Holiness Patriarch KIRILL of Moscow and All Russia
To celebrate Christ’s Nativity is to bring us closer to the Saviour, to help us seen more clearly his countenance, to be immersed in his good news. The Lord is born ever anew mysteriously for us in the depths of our souls so that we may ‘have life more abundantly’ (Jn 10: 10). The event of that night in Bethlehem enters our life today, helps us to see it from another perspective, at time unusual and unexpected. That which seemed important and great suddenly becomes trivial and transient, making way for the majesty and beauty of eternal Divine truth.


Jan 7, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Nativity of Christ
God gives us the freedom, and we ask very often, «Why?!» - why have we not been made in such a way that, compelled by a blessed necessity, we would be unable to go wrong, that we should be made in such a way that we always and in all things would respond to the best. But is it not simply because where there is no freedom of love and rejection of love, there is no love?
Jan 6, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Greatest Event Ever Happened
Finally, she got them into the crowded elevator with all of her packages. Then the doors closed and she could not take it any more. She lost it! She said for everyone in that elevator to hear, “Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot.” From the back of the car, everyone heard a quiet voice respond, “Don’t worry. We already crucified Him.”
Jan 5, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Christmas Hymns in the Orthodox Church
In her Christmas hymns, as in her other hymnody, the Orthodox Church does not limit her vision to earthly happenings alone. In these hymns she contemplates the events of Christ's life on earth from a dual perspective.


Jan 4, 2010, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Living Today
As we ring in the New Year, it is time to both look back at the past to reflect on where we’ve been and to look towards the future with faith, courage, and hope. But more importantly, it is about looking at where we are TODAY.


Dec 31, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Christmas is All about Doing the Unusual
Our friends and peers (others our age) can have a huge influence on our decisions. So often, many of our choices are based on what our friends or peers will think about us because we want to be accepted by them. We avoid doing things that might make us seem unusual or weird to them. Are we wearing the right clothes, listening to the right music, hanging out with the right people?
Dec 30, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers
A Foretaste of Christmas
On the second Sunday before Nativity, the Gospel reading leaves off its progression based on Pentecost and aligns itself with the approaching Nativity. This is a sign for us; a message of urgency regarding what is about to happen. Worries, distractions, and cares must now be set aside for the sake of not missing out on the greatest of the Father’s gifts to us, which is His Son in human flesh. Every other mystical and sacred gift is secondary to the Incarnation.


Dec 26, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Culture Shock and the Orthodox Church
When I was first introduced to the church, and began going regularly, it was just like visiting a foreign country – everything was new and beautiful and exciting, and the sights, sounds and smells were enticing. I was constantly devouring the new experiences with gusto, and drinking in as much information as I could. I was so caught up in my new-found faith that I did not want to think about what it might mean later.


Dec 25, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Empty Seat at the Banquet Table
Have you noticed lately that we can hardly even mention in public the name Jesus Christ, or even the name of the festival we are celebrating? When we go to buy food nowadays, during these holy days of preparation for our Lord’s Holy Nativity, we hear from the person helping us say, “Thank you for shopping with us, and may you have a happy holiday,” or some similar words. Seldom do we hear today “Merry Christmas!” Rather we hear: “Happy Holidays!”
Dec 24, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Silence of Christmas
If we want to penetrate and revel in these mysteries—of our Savior’s birth, childhood, and saving death—then we need to begin to enter into this “deep silence of God.” And lest we get caught up in mere externals and begin to bemoan the noise and chaos around us and despair of finding peace and quiet, we should recall that the silence we seek isn’t really dependent on our environment—it is within us. In fact, during the Nativity season, it’s even in the chaos and noise around us, if we only cultivate the ears to hear and the eyes to see.

Dec 11, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Becoming a Living Temple of God
By submitting to the will of God, Mary became a dwelling place for God. Our assurance is that the same miracle awaits us as well. Mary, as the bearer of God, is the image and proto type of what each of us can become — bearers of God. That is why when we enter an Orthodox Church, on the wall behind and above the altar, we see the icon of Mary with Christ within her. This is the icon of what we all can become both as individual bearers of God and together as His Body, the Church.


Dec 4, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Who stole Christmas? – A consumerist Nativity story
I realized in that moment that Christmas was stolen away from Christians, melted in the furnace of the secular society and remolded in a totally new form that has nothing to do with the original. Under the influence of the pluri-cultural, post-modern, post-Christian society of the day, the pure gold of the Christian faith, that made Christmas possible in the first place, has being mixed with a myriad of pagan, esoterical and secular influences that have perverted the core of the incarnation of God celebration.


Dec 2, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Reclaiming Christmas
The day after Thanksgiving is often the busiest shopping day of the year. Stores push for record sales as more and more merchandise fills the shelves. You see, everyone is shopping for that special “something.” Indeed, our shopping craze has become somewhat of a national pastime.



Nov 28, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Feast of St. Archangel Michael
What humanly indescribable bliss awaits Christians who are loyal to God, if they remain true to their Christian calling to the very end. In order for us to be worthy of eternal co-existence and blissful life with the angels in heaven, we must honor them, follow their example of holiness, modesty, love, absolute loyalty to God, and loftiness of thought; and we must live in abstinence, prayer, fasting, charity, compassion for one another, and ardent mutual love.

Nov 21, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Let us follow the example of the Most Holy Theotokos - Homily of Patriarch Pavle
I repeat that feast days have been established among other reasons to serve as a model for us on how to act and how to live. The Most Holy Theotokos in one of her songs sang: God looked upon the calmness of His servant. Hence all generations will call me blessed. Thus the characteristic of the Most Holy Theotokos demonstrated throughout her life was calmness. The opposite of calmness is pride, which transformed an angel into the devil. Calmness is the virtue that elevated the Most Holy Theotokos to the greatest heights of the human race,


Oct 14, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Elevation of the Holy Cross
We take up our cross through the ascetic disciplines of the Church: prayer, fasting, study of Holy Scripture and the doctrines of the Church, self-examination in the regular confession of our sins, and practicing the commandments of Christ. Taking up our cross, then, practicing the ascetic disciplines of the Church, is how we express our love for Christ in deed and not just in word, for as Christ says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If you love me, you will take up your cross and follow me.
Sep 27, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Homily On The Nativity Of The Most Pure Theotokos
The Lord, Who lives in the heavens, wishing to appear on earth and abide with men, first prepared a dwelling place of His glory: His Most Pure Mother. For it is the custom of kings that in whatsoever city they desire to live, a place of residence be prepared for them beforehand. And as the palaces of earthly kings are constructed by the most skilled craftsmen, of the most costly materials, and on the most elevated sights, which are more beautiful and spacious than all the other dwellings of men, in the same manner the palace of the King of Glory must be erected.
Sep 21, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Dormition or Assumption?
In our Orthodox tradition we are usually very careful to distinguish between the "Dormition" of the Mother of God and her "Assumption" into heaven. The former, we feel, is properly Orthodox, while the latter strikes us as a purely Western designation, derived from a Roman Catholic "misunderstanding" of the meaning of this feast, celebrated universally on August 15.


Aug 28, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Tender Love and the Dormition
I was thinking about this because of the feast of the Dormition, thinking about Mary as an elderly woman, and what the end of her life was like. She must have been quite old by then. We never picture her that way, of course; we picture her like in icons, she’s always young. She’s always holding a baby. But her days of holding Jesus as a baby were at least thirty-three years before the crucifixion, so a lot of time has gone by. She must have been, I’m guessing, at least fifty when she gathered with the rest of the apostles on the day of Pentecost.
Aug 27, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
On the Transfiguration
Now it is interesting that pilgrims who have been blessed to go to Mt Tabor and their photographs show us that Mt Tabor is not a mountain at all. It is rather a long, sloping hill with many obstacles, rocks and boulders, in the path of those who ascend it. And our transfiguration or salvation is like Mt Tabor. However hard we try, we will not be guaranteed salvation through a swift if arduous climb today. Salvation takes a lifetime, it is a long climb up a long slope, which is why the Lord gives most of us so long to live. Salvation is a long struggle which requires determination and perseverance, patient longsuffering.


Aug 19, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Feast of the Holy Apostles, Ss. Peter and Paul
It is not always so often that we, in our comfortable North American way of living, reflect upon the kind of life that the Apostles lived. We really don’t have the consciousness of what life was like for the Apostles. It is true that both the Apostles Peter and Paul sometimes lived in decent quarters, especially in their earlier years. But when it came to the time of the preaching of the Gospel, their witnessing for Christ, they were always living in other peoples’ houses as they travelled from place to place. That was especially the case with the Apostle Paul.
Jul 12, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Feast of All Saints of Russia
Sanctity in the holy Church of Christ did not end in some long-ago century, but has always persevered, and is set as a standard for our own lives here and now. Sanctity did not stop with the Apostles, or the Fathers, or even the New Martyrs of Russia, but reveals itself in the lives of the saints here in North America, some of whom many present here can remember personally. And those who remember, for example, the life of Saint John of San Francisco, know that sanctity is not in spectacular fireworks or drumbeat from the sky, but in taking one’s cross and following Christ
Jun 21, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Sunday of All Saints
The key, as we Orthodox have always known, is that faith is found not in our words, but in our actions. We live our confession of Christ, we do not simply speak it. A saint is someone who lives according to what he believes. His life is a constant labor to follow the commandments of Christ. His silence speaks volumes. His meekness brings peace to all those around him. His sanctity is a living witness for God. So a saint is a person who has struggled to surrender his passions; who surrendered his or her will to Christ, who for the love of God has abandoned self.


Jun 14, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Babylon and the Trees of Pentecost
The first time I saw trees in an Orthodox Church was at St. Tikhon’s Monastery in Pennsylvania, just after Pentecost Sunday. I was completely caught off guard. Though I had been in a number of different Churches over the years, I had never been in a parish of Russian background for the feast of Pentecost. Thus I had missed the Slavic practice of bringing trees into Church for the feast of Pentecost. It was wonderful – like going into Church only to find a forest.


Jun 7, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
On the Sunday of Pentecost
Why is it that people who meet us never notice that we are limbs of the risen Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit? Why? Each of us has got to give his own reply to this question. Let us, each of us, examine ourselves and be ready to answer before our own conscience and do what is necessary to change our lives in such a way that people meeting us may look at us and say,’Such people we have never seen. There is something about them that we have never seen in anyone.
Jun 6, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Ascension of our Lord
The Gospel’s retelling of the Ascension is quite laconic. Christ said to the apostles His last words of comfort and hope (Luke 24:49); then, having walked to the top of the Mount of Olives, He blessed them and went away as if ascending into heaven. Why do I say “as if ascending”? Because the Savior did not fly away to the Moon, but entered into the glory of His Father; He did not leave the world, abandoning us, but is here, among us (Matthew 18:20) always to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
May 28, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Blind Man
There is no need to blame or judge the situations we find in life. When we are met with tragedy in the lives of others, we do not need to try and figure out the why’s and wherefore’s. Whatever we decide will be nothing more than a self-serving fantasy. This is beside the point as Jesus demonstrates. What does matter is that we meet everything and everyone that comes to us with the same love and compassion we see in our Lord’s healing of the blind man.


May 24, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
“Give me this water!”
We continue to crawl, forgetting that the Saviour gave us wings. We measure a person by his or her achievements at work, by diplomas, by hobbies, or, like Tolstoy, how many apple trees he or she planted, forgetting that we must raise only one seed, the one that was planted by God. We strive to fill our bellies rather than our hearts. Even from Christ we expect health, money, luck, and often complain that He has neither a bucket nor a ladle.
May 17, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearers
How often in our lives we lose our faith when we must go through illness, inconvenience, suffering, and sorrow. At times it seems to us that our God is dead, that He does not hear us, that some armed people do not let us through, or that there is a large stone in our path and “who will roll away the stone for us…?”. So we sit shut up in our pain and sorrow, hiding in fear.


May 3, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Metropolitan Anthony on Thomas Sunday
Cases of full denial are not many. Normally a remnant of faith remains, and this half-acknowledgment and half-faith is perhaps even worse, and such half-believers are in the majority. If they were to be excluded from so-called believing society we would see that there are but few true worshippers. Church and cross, unity in Christ, unity in the name of the feat [podvig] of love – there is the outline of our relationship towards the Lord. But half-believers do not strive to understand either one or the other – unity or Christ’s love – in the way that Christians understand it.

Apr 26, 2009, 10:01

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Of Fear, Death, and Victory
The bird knows his vulnerability; we humans try our best to imagine we are immortal. When humans list their “problems,” they usually don’t mention the most obvious one that will make all the others irrelevant: soon we won’t be alive. The shadow of death darkens the whole earth. Everything about us is wearing out and fading away, whether it be our cars, our houses, our knees, or our memories. Yes, there will be other birds and other people, as long as God wills, but they won’t be us.
Apr 25, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Why is Pascha usually celebrated on a different date from the Western Christians?
As seen above, the formula for the computation of the date of Pascha was set forth originally at the First Ecumenical Council, held at Nicea in 325 A.D. From the formula, we can look at a number of components for the computation of the date of Pascha and see why it usually falls on a date different from the Western Churches.


Apr 24, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
It IS Pascha not Easter!
Orthodox believers living in the West have always been under pressure in all directions to conform to western ways, ideas and practices. There is nothing new in this. The Crusades were the worst and most blatant attempt by the West to bring the East to heel. But the pressures continue, albeit in more subtle ways. And one example of this is our constant temptation to drop the word "Pascha" and for clarity (and sometimes charity) use the western word "Easter".
Apr 23, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Truth of Pascha
A friend gave me a striking comparison the other day. Do you know how the police and investigators learn how to spot counterfeit bills? They meticulously study every aspect of genuine currency. They take the measure of every real bill – they immerse themselves in the truth, so that it becomes second nature. This means that when they’re confronted with a fake, they can immediately spot all the ways in which it is faulty. This is why it is so important to immerse yourself in the Truth. Otherwise, you’re easy prey for deception.


Apr 22, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
We Await the Paschal Service All Year…
The Paschal service is special; there is no doubt about that. It is always distressing that this service can pass by in a single moment, as quick as lightning. The Paschal service appears on our life’s horizons quickly, illuminating our mind and feelings, and then disappears from sight. Then once again we await Pascha. We await it all year round, and all Great Lent.
Apr 21, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Fire of the Resurrection
Created as a unique person, yet like everyone "called to be a saint," what will I do in response to His love? I will urge my heart to love God. I will focus on the reasons for this love, and I will beg Him to love through me as I cannot, for I can never understand His call to love, much less be capable of answering it.
Apr 20, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Paschal Sermon
In these times in which we are living, filled with many sorrows, the only comfort for all of us is our holy Faith, with its lofty promises, radiant hope, its expectations which bring peace to the soul. For truly, never before has evil, now victorious almost everywhere in the world and infiltrating deep into the life of man and even into the fold of our Church, reached such strength, such a level of tension.
Apr 19, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Palm Sunday
Here’s a story about my favorite Sufi, Mullah Nasruddin. He was once asked why he never got married. He said, “I went to Damascus and found a wonderful woman: smart, beautiful, almost perfect, except she couldn’t cook! So I went to Alexandria and found another wonderful woman: smart, beautiful, a great cook, but she was poor. Then I went to Baghdad and found the perfect woman…only, we never married.” “Why not?” the inquirer replied. “Because I was not perfect enough for her!”


Apr 12, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Lazarus Saturday
It is interesting, too, to look at, and remember the words of those sisters of Lazarus today. Usually when we are thinking about Mary, and Martha, we think only about the passages that are read at the time of a feast of the Mother of God, where Martha is working in the kitchen, and Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus. There’s a tendency, especially with our popular saying comparing a woman (or a man, too, sometimes) with Martha, to say that she is just a doer, and Mary is a listener.
Apr 11, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Palms in Hand, Pressing on to the Resurrection!
For beginning on Tuesday, the hymns and verses of this week’s services recall that Lazarus, “the friend of Christ,” died and is going to be raised. On Friday evening, the eve of the celebration of the resurrection of Lazarus, the forty days of Great Lent officially end. Lent is over! Only Holy Week and Glorious Pascha remain. We’re almost there! And this weekend’s foreshadowing of the Resurrection and glorious reign of Christ the King prepares us for Holy Week by giving us a taste of the Resurrection before calling us to enter into the week of His passion and crucifixion.

Apr 10, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Annunciation
The primary message is that though our God is powerful and wise enough to do all things necessary for our salvation, He will not force Himself upon us for He is meek and lowly of heart. God has created us in His image and likeness as free beings, each able to determine his or her own destiny, each able to accept or reject His invitation to the heavenly kingdom, and each able to chose whether or not he or she wants to participate in his or her own redemption and salvation.
Apr 7, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
What is Orthodoxy?
To be in the Church, we must live the life of the Church—with its fasts and feasts, its services and sacraments—all has been established for our benefit. Every time we disobey the Church, every time we choose not to attend a service, every time we give up the fast to please the demands of our bellies—we continue to cut the very fabric that connects us to the Church. To be God’s children, we must become part of God’s family.

Mar 8, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Triumph of Orthodoxy Vespers Sermon
We all agree on some things: on the importance of icons, for example, rooted as they are in the doctrine of the incarnation. I believe we also agree that Orthodoxy is meant to permeate the whole of life, the whole of culture, if it is to bring about the cosmic transformation that lies at the heart of our doctrine of salvation. But often our words and actions betray these professed beliefs. On the one hand, all too often our life at home, our conduct in the workplace, our involvement in the public square simply mirrors that of the society in which we live – so well-integrated are we into the American way of life and value system.
Mar 7, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Homily on the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord and Sunday of the Prodigal Son
Today the Church commemorated the Afterfeast of the Meeting of Our Lord. We offer you one more homily on the Feast which was preached yesterday by Fr.Sergei Sveschnikov in Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russian Church in Mulino, Oregon.
Feb 16, 2009, 22:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
On the Presentation of Christ in the Temple
Since it is exactly forty days since Christmas, it is time for us to think about the last forty days and ask ourselves some questions: What today can we present to the Temple of Christ, the Church? In what condition do we present our souls to Christ? What sacrifices have we made in the last forty days?

Feb 15, 2009, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Our "Inside Weather Conditions"
All of these positive spiritual factors are elements that clothe our souls with the Image of Christ. When each of us was baptized, we took upon ourselves the Image of Christ and it is through Christ that we can maintain constant "inside weather conditions" that make for Paradise on earth – a foretaste of the Kingdom of God.
Jan 19, 2009, 10:00