After the Divine Liturgy for Lazarus Saturday we had a church cleaning morning to spruce up the building for Holy Week and Pascha. I took some photos of people at work. Palm Sunday Mainly the procession of children with palms. Holy Thursday In the evening of Holy Thursday the Matins for Holy Friday with 12…
Matthew 4:1-11 1-3. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” vs 1 Theophylact of Ochrid AD…
by St John of Damascus {With commentary based on Archimandrite Ephrem’s Paschal Canon Noted} Hypakoe Before the dawn, Mary and the women came and found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They heard the angelic voice: “Why do you seek among the dead as a man the one who is everlasting light? Behold the…
by St John of Damascus {With commentary based on Archimandrite Ephrem’s Paschal Canon Noted} Ode 1 This is the day of resurrection. Let us be illumined, O people. Pascha, the Pascha of the Lord1. For from death to life and from earth to heaven has Christ our God led us2, as we sing the song…
Bishop Irenei (Steenberg) is the bishop of the Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia or ROCOR. Over the years he has produced a number of podcasts of ‘short meditations’ on texts of a patristic nature, the latest one being A Word from the Holy Fathers on the…
Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was its name. He who speaks contemptuously against the humble man and does…
At Matins Sessional hymns I entreat Thee in Thy compassion O Christ, through true fasting and repentance restore to life my soul slain by the fruit of disobedience. Tossed in the tempest of the passions, deaf to the voice on my conscience, I call fervently upon thee, O pure Virgin. Suffer me not to perish…
We all know (or should know) this parable of Christ’s from Luke’s gospel. It’s simple enough and the conclusion seems both obvious and perhaps somewhat trite. But in the Matins Canon for this Sunday there are verses that illuminate a deeper and more profound reading of the parable. Let us examine more deeply the two…
Today, June 1st on the Old Calendar, is the commemoration of St John of Kronstadt. A number of things stand out for me about St John. I remember visiting the St John of Rila convent in St Petersburg which he founded and venerating his tomb in the basement there. In the article by Bishop KALLISTOS…
No Vacations During Wartime Back in the day when my father-in-law lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan the family used to visit him over a weekend. Whenever possible on Sunday morning I would visit the ROCOR church nearby in Dexter, St Vladmir’s. One Saturday evening after Vespers there I made a confession with the priest, Fr…
