The story of the woman at the well, St Photini (Svetlana) has an enormous amount of deep and important theology, but the most important part is the personality of the Samaritan woman must be understood an emulated to understand any of it. She was very humble; when the Lord exposed her sin, she stayede with Him to hear more. When she understood Him, she left her waterpot. We esplore these two actions. She was an extremist. We cannot be saved unless we are too.
I will bless the Lord at all times, Psalm 33, sung at the end of Vespers
Psalm 33, as sung by our choir at the end of Vespers in the vigil service. Our choir, as usual, sounds prayerful and melodic. The “recording engineer” regrets messing with the unit suring the recording (it was just after our between services homily at vigil), and we were getting ready for matins), but you will definately get the idea.
Two homilies on the 4th Sunday of Pascha. Faith must deal with despondency and the variable relationship of faith to miracles.
Two homilies on the 4th Sunday of Pascha, the Healing of the Paralytic. One on the Gospel, and one on the epistle.
The Healing of the Paralytic by the sheep’s pool has many deep theological concepts in it, but none of this matters if we do not adopt the character and faith of the paralytic. We examine his patience and also his despondency. All true faith must battle with despondency. The paralytic and other examples during this Paschal period, such at the Apostle Thomas and Peter, and the Myrrh bearing women teach us this critical lesson.
Exegesis of Acts 9:32-42, the reading for the 4th Sunday of Pascha. Two miracles of Peter. The variable relationship of faith to miracles.
Just do the right thing. All the time. God will roll away the stone. Myrhbearing Women. Next text homily.
The stoty of the Myrhhbearing women and Joseph and Nikodemus is fundementally about boldness, and doing the right thing, without regard to how it will get done. Here is a small excerpt: To become bold doesn’t mean you do something without being scared. It means you do something despite the fact that you’re scared, or confused, or whatever. That’s what courage is. Courage is to do things regardless of how you feel, and that’s what the Myrrhbearing Women did, and that’s what Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus did, and that’s what we must do. And there will be moments in our life when we have to be bold, not just one, but many moments.
“Having become bold” – What made Joseph, Nicodemus and the Myrhhbearers bold?
The Scriptures tell us that Joseph “became bold” and asked for the body of Jesus from Pilate. He did a dangerous thing, which would likely cost him his life, as did the Holy Myrhhbearers when they went to the tomb on the day of the resurrection, to anoint a dead man. Why did they become bold? This is very important! They did not quite ” get things right”, since Jesus was not dead, so it is not so important that we get everything right and understand everything, but we must &become bold”, because of love, and God will cause everything to work to the good. Also, at the beginning, an instruction about praying for people during the most sacred part of the Divine Liturgy, which is an obligation for all Orthodox Christians, and not only the clergy.
Exegesis of the 3rd Matins Gospel, Mark 16:9-20, and chronology of the day of the resurrection.
Exegesis of the 3rd Matins Gospel, Mark 16:9-20, and chronology of the day of the resurrection. The most important points are the spiritual ones – the resurrection was not witnessed by anyone. What does that mean? A lot!
Is a liberal seminary student as smart as a little girl! No! Children’s sermon on John 5:24-30 and Christology.
A children’s sermon on John 5:24-30, and important Christology that 7, 5 and 4 years olds know and liberal seminary students do not!
Why are the altar doors open on Pascha? When are they closed and what does it mean?
Why are the altar doors open on Pascha? When are they closed and what does it mean? An explanation in text and audio. “When the doors were shut and the disciples were gathered together, Thou didst suddenly enter in, O our almighty Jesus our God, and standing in their midst and granting them peace Thou didst fill them with the Holy Spirit and didst command them to wait and in no wise to depart from Jerusalem until they were invested with power from on high. Wherefore we cry out to Thee, O our Enlightenment, Resurrection and Peace, glory be to Thee.”
The core teaching on the Sunday of Thomas: always stay close to Christ no matter what the understanding says, because of love.
The story of the “unbelieving disbelief” of Thomas, always read on the Sunday after Pascha, and also several other times during the year has one core message that applies to every human being. We look at this, and the only reason Thomas stayed with the Apostles through the eighth day, when He saw Christ – love. Without love, and the actions of Thomas replicated in *our* lives the resurrection will be of no good effect for us. the Christology and theology in this selection is deep and important, but the example which we must learn is of even higher importance.
2nd Sunday of Pascha; Thomas Sunday. Realism About The Resurrection. Text and Audio.
Of all the resurrection stories, perhaps the one concerning St Thomas is the one we can most relate to. He is the "common man", who was later able to do uncommon things. We are just like him, so our path of life must also be like his, which is the Christian life in microcosm. He, like us, was a complex indivicdual, believing, then faint of heart, couargeous, then full of fear. The one thing that he did that we must do to be saved is to endure, and "believe in the midst of our unbelief". If we do this, we are not far away from the supernatural exploits of St Thomas, the Apostle.