The spirit of the times often tempts us to think that, in response to every injustice, each of us must “do something,” and this “something” is often a public proclamation—we are…
Saint Mark of Ephesus is rightly known foremost as a confessor and defender of Orthodoxy, for his rejection of the Florentine Council and his treatise against the Latin…
Joyous feast! Christ is baptized! Two thousand years ago, the innocent Lamb, harmless, sinless, and spotless, was plunged into the waters of the Jordan. A dove…
Today is the beginning of a period which the Typicon calls the “forefeast of lights,” and appropriately we begin this brief season with the celebration of Saint Seraphim…
In the services for today’s feast, Christ’s Circumcision is seen, first and foremost, as a sign of his divine humility, prefiguring the humiliation of his Passion. Though he is…
During these last hours of the year, many people settle on their resolutions for the new year. Though we may benefit from Dry January, losing weight, a new morning or evening routine…
Today, the second day of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, we keep festival in honor of the Theotokos, the gate through whom the Divine and Eternal entered the world. The…
Christ is born! Glorify him! May he who descended from heaven in order to ascend the Cross, who was laid in a manger to be our Food, who was borne in the arms of his Mother to…
In some Orthodox traditions, a special fasting dinner, composed of 12 dishes, is served tonight, eaten by candlelight when the first star appears in the sky. That meal is…
Two of the most beautiful hymns of praise in the Church’s service books are the brief song at the end of the seventh canticle of Matins (“Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our fathers . . .”) and the eighth…