Sunday, August 31, 2025: Martyrs Florus and Laurus
1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-11
MATTHEW 19:16-26
Forgive me for introducing a bit of a difficult analogy, but there was a television show that many of us are familiar with, many of us saw. And if you didn’t see it, it’s really simple. It was this zombie show, The Walking Dead. And the big twist in there was that everyone was infected. You thought that, well, if you got bit by the zombie, you got infected, but they come to find out that everyone’s actually infected.
We’re all infected, my brothers and my sisters, my sons and my daughters. We’re all infected with this same disease that infected the rich young ruler. Don’t think that that doesn’t apply to you. Don’t think that you’re different than him. We’ve all been tainted with this disease which will kill us, which will rob us of eternal life.
You see, this parable is known as “The Rich Young Ruler.” And it describes everything that he had. And the thing is, you may say to yourself, “Well, I’m not rich.” Are you sure? “I rule nothing.” Are you sure? “I’m not so young.” That may be true, but at one time you were young.
Many possessions, they weigh us down, and we are overcome with sorrow as we begin to lose these possessions. Rich. How many of us here have begged for bread? How many of us here are wanting for something out of necessity? How many of us here are actually weighed down and poisoned in the mind because of our ambition, because of wanting more?
Young. Your body will fail you. Your mind will fail you. Your loved ones, their bodies, their mind will fail them. You will watch everyone around you die, and you will die.
Ruler. None of us here are in prison. None of us are being told when to go to the restroom, when to eat. You have complete autonomy over your life. In fact, you won’t even surrender your autonomy to God, us as Christians. We seek God’s obedience when we want something, but outside of that, we don’t look to God for direction. We won’t even look to our own parents, our own spouses, our own bosses. No, we’re all rulers. Our egos have made sure of this.
In the Gospel today, this rich young ruler, he is an icon for all of us. He is an icon of all of us. He had a mastery of the commandments. So on top of whatever worldly wealth he had, he had religion also. And so we see his ambition, his desire to climb higher, but yet the higher thing was there right in front of him, or rather I should say, the higher One was right in front of him, and he was not aware of his visitation, as I’m oft to say. You see, the keeping of the commandments is about acquiring something, but eternal life is about letting go of something.
And the reason why the Lord – and we hate it, we hate hearing from the Lord about the cross, we hate hearing from Father Turbo all the time about, “Oh, we’re not doing this, we’re not doing that,” – but did I not just tell you your body will fail you? Who else is going to tell you? Did I not just tell you that your wealth, you can’t take it with you? This is the Gospel story over and over and over again. There’s a reason we hear this Gospel every year. We hear everything in the Gospel all the time.
We are supposed to be the inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. Us here, those of us who are going to take Holy Communion, we’re to be inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, and yet are we going to inherit the Kingdom? Not because God isn’t generous, not because God doesn’t want us or love us, not because God is looking to get us on a technicality, but because we won’t let go. Everything in the Christian life is about learning to let go for the sake of gaining the higher thing.
Food is not bad. We don’t fast because burgers are bad. We fast because we want something higher. Wealth and a nice car and a nice house are not bad, but we cannot let them become idols. Why? Because when you begin to get squeezed on them, when you begin to worry about losing your status or your possessions, what happens to you? You lose your Christianity. You lose your life in Christ. You lose the spiritual fruits, and you become like a demon. You become possessed with irritability and vanity and inability to see things, and it drives you mad. And then you have to go and get medicine.
You have to go and have someone coax you into feeling it’s okay. But the reality is you’re sick in the first place because you do not want to let go of something that you cannot take with you. And so we fear death. We push death to the side. Why? Because we want to stay drunk. We want to stay intoxicated.
We want to be like zombies, the walking dead. Christ came back from the dead, and he’s given us life. Many of us were like St. Paul, and we were enemies of the church, and here we are now, never imagining that we would give ourselves over to Christ.
You see, that same Christ, He’s the same One who is able to make the impossible possible. It is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. It’s impossible.
But with Christ, all things are possible. And Christ makes it possible that you and I find the inoculation, that you and I find that magic serum that seems to be eluding everybody. How do I find actual peace? Why do you think the pharmaceutical company is such a large principality? Where does that come from? It’s because people, they’re searching for peace so desperately, and they can’t find it.
Why? Because they won’t find it where it can be found, in Christ. Yes, yes, yes, I have Jesus. Do you? Is He your Master? Do you follow what He says? Or do you carry just enough lip service to be religious and to be okay? The rich young ruler walked away sad, but Jesus loved him.
This is what the Scripture says. Jesus loved him, and so He told him the truth. Pay attention. Jesus told him the truth. Did he change? Did he snap out of it at the end of the parable? Jump for joy, and rainbows flew out of his hands? No. The Lord is teaching us to let go.
When your body fails you, when your wealth begins to crumble, you’re being tested. What will you do? Because you see, the state in which you persist in, the key word here is persisting. We’re all found wanting, but do we persist in that? That state is the state of your soul, and God is beckoning you to let go so that your heart can be light and not weighed down with the sorrow and the grief which produces death, but there is a sorrow that produces life, and it’s the sorrow of our fallen states.
It’s the humility and the contrition and the repentance that says, “Yea, Lord, I thought I knew, but I don’t.” So when He tells us the truth of who we are, instead of turning away sad, we learn to mourn, and in that mourning, we learn eventually to have joy, and that joy is eternal. Examine yourselves, my brothers and my sisters, examine yourselves.
Many of you are about to take Holy Communion. Examine yourself. Look to see, is the sorrow that is in your heart over the loss of something, the sorrow that leads to death, or are you on the verge of finding joy? The joy that comes from being freed from the decay and the death of this world, and to enter into life eternal.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, and bring us Your resurrectional life. Amen.
Friday, August 29, 2025: Midnight Liturgy for St. Joseph the Hesychast and St. Gerasimos
GALATIANS 5:22–6:2
MATTHEW 11:27-30
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ is in our midst. We are here this morning to commemorate the great light Saint Joseph the Hesychast. And, those of us who know Geronda, and those of us who maybe do not know him personally, but we are aware of him, we all share this awareness of the great fact that his repose is on the day of the Dormition.
And so, I wish to highlight this connection, this shared resonance between our dear lady, the Mother of God, her falling asleep, and our father, Geronda Joseph, who Saint Joseph is one of these great lights of these modern times. You know, I am oft to say that the Lord saves the best wine for last. And I am one of those people who have the opinion that the latter saints are the greatest ones so far.
So God has saved this best wine for last. Saint Joseph the Hesychast being the example of what is seemingly not possible. Seemingly not possible. If Saint Joseph did not exist, if we did not have his relics, if we did not have the accounts of his life from his synodia, if we did not see the fruit of his existence, it’s very easy to think of him as a myth. A man who wrestled literally with demons. A man who was burned in his very soul, his soul scalded with the love of Christ.
Saint Joseph, being on a time on the Holy Mountain, when monasticism was seemingly all but dead. Searching, longing for an elder to teach him the ways of prayer and repentance. And this brings me to this connection with him, the Mother of God.
Let us not forget, and if you do not know, now you know. Everyone thought Saint Joseph was deluded. Saint Joseph, like other great saints, these last ones, these good strange wine. Saint John Maximovitch was another one that people thought was deluded. Some people thought Sophrony was also deluded. Many people, many people unaware of the good strange wine hidden in these vessels.
There’s something about being mischaracterized, being misunderstood. Saint Joseph and both the Mother of God were misunderstood by men. Both of them shared this expression of living out the Beatitudes. Understanding the blessing of being reviled by others for Christ’s sake. It’s very difficult, my sons and daughters. This is one of the Beatitudes that no one ever wants to touch.Nobody wants to be reviled.
And yet, Our Lady, we often forget that Our Dear Lady was a human being. This is part of what I was talking about in the homily this morning for the Dormition. That this is the problem with the Immaculate Conception, is that we’re tempted to bring her to a pedestal in which she’s no longer human. And this is wrong.
She drew water from a well. She had to interact with other women. And the scandal of the Incarnation, I can imagine, it was never truly far from the gossiping lips of other hens. Saint Joseph, he too, his ears and his awareness of never being far from the gossiping lips of those who are envious and those who are without faith.
Oh, the wonder. Oh, the strength. To persevere in what you know is right, even though everyone else thinks that you’re mad. This alone is worthy of praise. To love Christ is, in essence, to have the world think that you’re mad. To truly love Christ and to truly live honestly before Christ, not for the sake of getting accolades or being praised by others. But for Christ alone.
Saint Joseph was seen as a gruff curmudgeon. But in reality, he was a man of the softest of hearts. Why? Because those hard-fought, hard-earned tears and the prayer and the grace that he had, it was hard-fought because he suffered the disdain of others for the sake of Christ. In this world, if there’s nothing else that we can learn, if there’s nothing else we can have, we don’t have long vigils like Saint Joseph. We don’t have feats of asceticism like Saint Joseph. But we can endure a little bit of misunderstanding for the sake of Christ. We can do that. And if we do that, then not only Saint Joseph, but also Our Holy Lady, perhaps will call us blessed.
Through the prayers of Saint Joseph the Hesychast, Lord Jesus Christ, help us to become one of the blessed ones.
Thursday, August 28, 2025: Baptismal Liturgy for the Dormition of Our Lady the Theotokos
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11, ROMANS 6:3-11
LUKE 10:38-42; 11:27-28, MATTHEW 28:16-20
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ is in our midst!
Today we have the great joy, the great joy of celebrating the Dormition of Our Holy Lady, the Mother of God. Our Holy Lady who kept full attention.
Her whole life was a life of prayer, and her passing, her falling asleep, and her being taken unto the Lord, taken unto her Son, incorrupt and whole. This is the fruit of her paying attention. Today, I would simply say this to all of you who are baptized.
All of you who entered into the baptismal font, which as the reading in Romans says, is the tomb of our Lord. We are dead and baptized. We are dead and buried with Him in baptism.
The one temptation that we all face when we are brought into the Holy Church is to lose sight of that attention. There isn’t one of us here who have been baptized, who haven’t had that regretful and mourning, wishing that we could have kept pure our baptismal garment. And I share this with you, newly baptized, not to discourage you, but actually to encourage you.
Because the Lord knows our weakness. And the Lord knows that although if we would, and if we could, we would keep our baptismal garments pure. Nevertheless, He gives us confession. He gives us confession for this precise reason, that even in the midst of our sin, even in the midst of our weakness, we can keep attention. We can keep our eye on God.
Our Lady’s passing away is her confession. She who knew not sin, what is her confession? Her confession is that although she knew not sin in a voluntary sense, she still suffered the pains of sin and death, being a daughter of Eve.
And this is why we do not accept the Latin heresy of the Immaculate Conception. Because it separates Our Lady from us. It makes her into something other than what she is.
It takes away her glory, interestingly enough. Because her glory isn’t that she was some perfect doll that had no problems and could not have been tempted. There’s no glory in that.
The glory is that although she could have been tempted, she wasn’t. Although she could have fell, she didn’t. And so what is her confession? Her confession is simply this, that she died.
That her death will be just like your death. Just like my death. Insofar as we give our spirit up to God. This is the weakness of our mortality. And this weakness of our mortality is done away with baptism, and it is assisted and it is maintained through holy confession. So you newly illumined, when you feel the corruption of your life, run to the confessional.
Pray to the Mother of God that she would help you and encourage you and allow you to have full attention as you take one more step towards that final closing of your eyes, that laying asleep, which is a joy because when your eyes finally close, they will open to the resurrection. Our lady has gone before us in her confession of death, and she is the model for all of us. All of us who have been born into the new kingdom through baptism.
Our baptism is linked with her death, and in that we have hope in her. For the prayers of Our Holy Lady, Lord Jesus Christ, grant us the remission of our sins and unite us unto You unto the ages. Amen.
Monday, August 18, 2025: Day of the Angels
2 CORINTHIANS 2:3-15
MATTHEW 23:13-22
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
Rules, regulations, traditions, these are all very beautiful things. They are necessary things. No child can learn to walk without watching his parents and emulating them. Even a tomato plant, grapes, they need trellises. They need help to grow, they need help to be set aright so that they can bear fruit. No bone that is broken can ever be truly healed and mend unless it’s been set.
And so, with this understanding: tradition, rules, they’re given to us to help us to grow. To grow in such a way that we will bear much fruit, that there will be an abundance out of our life.
The Lord Jesus says, I came that they would have life and life more abundantly. So this abundance is only possible through the guidance of tradition, through the guidance of rules. The problem, however, happens when the rules and the traditions are mistaken for something else other than a means to abundant life.
And this is so often the case in religious life. Because we can mistake the traditions and the rules, the discipline, we can mistake it as the end versus the means. And the way that you know that you’ve mistaken something is that your joy is being swallowed up. The way that you can know that you’ve mistaken something, that you have lost sight, that your aim isn’t true, is that when you go and you look, there isn’t this abundance of life.
Now, we are often quick to blame others, including God – first and foremost, God. And we are quick to want to find a way to justify ourselves. And this was the problem of the Pharisees. See, the Pharisees, they were the masters of law. And I think this point is so important because we know it well. And us as Orthodox, we can fall into our own little trap, thinking that we truly have the right understanding and that we truly see it. And we understand the Scriptures and this interplay better than anyone else does, but we must be careful.
Because, again, I make this strong emphasis, the Pharisees were correct in their handling of the law. The problem was that they lost sight of it. Now, we all know this. We all know it. We all come from Evangelical and Protestant backgrounds, we’re Americans, and we think that we know best. We think that we know the true way to freedom.
But my question for all of us is, do we have that abundant life? Because remember how I started the homily off, we started talking about how rules and traditions are necessary to bring forth life. And you may have been thinking, oh, this is going to be a homily about throwing off the rules and finding freedom in Christ. Actually, yes, but I want to put the emphasis back on tradition and back on rules.
Because there is an overcorrection that so quickly happens to us. And the loss of tradition and the loss of quote-unquote rules, that will actually kill your joy. And that will swallow you up in a much worse way than too much tradition. You see, the Pharisees were correct in their handling of the law. Their main problem was they saw it as the end, not the means. And so we can very quickly think that we understand the interplay between the Pharisees and Christ, and we can lose this point.
Because the temptation for us, this is a temptation for us, it’s not a temptation for someone who’s raised in Russian culture. This isn’t a temptation for someone who’s Greek, three generations back, or Serbian. This is a temptation for us, to think that we know it, that we got it, and that we’re going to walk in the newness of freedom.
No. We need tradition. Tradition is going to help us bring forth fruit, because this society and the way in which all of us was raised, we are wild grapes at best. Not very sweet, not very big. And with that help and with that assistance that’s needed, we can actually begin to bear fruit that is abundant and sweet. But we must embrace it for what it is. And we must look upon it for ourselves. And this is my point. Because there’s this line in the Gospel today, when the Lord speaks about, they travel, they traverse the world to find a proselyte. And they make them twice the son of hell as themselves. What does that mean? What does that mean?
You see, part of the culture of the Pharisee was to have disciples. Part of the culture of the Pharisee was that you began to ascend when you began to be known as a good teacher. And then a good teacher, of course, is going to have disciples around him. And if you understand this, you didn’t really need to be a good teacher, you just needed to have disciples, you see. As long as you’ve got disciples, well, then everyone thinks you’re a good teacher.
You see this system of corruption? Woe to you, hypocrites. Why? Because they did things to have this appearance. This is the same thing that crushed blessed Seraphim Rose. He found Alan Watts. He was excited. “Oh, this is wonderful. No more American thin plastic religion. Wonderful.” But what he found was a charlatan. He found someone who was just, “Yay, Buddhism and parties. Meditation and lasciviousness.” Hypocrite. He lived one way to make the world see him a certain way and to get disciples. But in reality, he did not follow his own teaching. This trap. We must be very careful of.
So what are we to do? Love the tradition that we have inherited. Nurture, cherish the tradition within yourself. Look at how the tradition is bringing you fruit. And humble yourselves. The need for these assists, this help to bring forth fruit. It is a good thing. But remember. The thing that is helping you may not help someone else. And we will begin to look at our discipline. Look at the way that God is producing fruit in us.
We can begin to question and start wondering, well, what about her? What about him? And very quickly, your joy will be swallowed up. And as it says in the Epistle, being overcome with too much sorrow.
Let us not lose our way. Let us be consistent. Let us be the same that we are in here as we are on the street. Let us be the same in the street as we are in our homes and bedrooms. Take the tradition everywhere with you. Do not leave the tradition on Saturday night when it’s convenient to have a good time. Do not leave the tradition on that rough evening when you had a hard day at work. Don’t leave the tradition there. Take the tradition with you. And the tradition will help you to bear good fruit. But be careful, lest we become hypocrites. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Thursday, August 14, 2025: Procession of the Cross
1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-24, HEBREWS 11:33-12:2
JOHN 19:6-11; 13-20; 25-28; 30-35
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ! On this glorious feast of the procession of the life-giving Cross, the historical background behind it is that the Cross was brought out during this time in which the empire had been afflicted with a disease, and so by the bringing out of the precious Cross, the power of death and disease was beat back. Still to this day, the power of the Cross is able to beat back disease, both of a spiritual and a physical nature.
Still to this day, the Cross and the fruit of the Cross is able to beat back the death that afflicts our minds and our hearts. My sons and my daughters, the Cross isn’t just simply a means by which we think about God, it’s the way in which we become united with God. When we actually embrace the Cross in our life, we notice that sickness, instead of having power over us to bring us down, to bring us to a place where our powers of our soul and our body are diffused, and we feel as if we have lost all hope, it’s through the Cross that sickness can actually become a means of our strength.
Only through the Cross does the foolishness of embracing the difficulty of physical illness, only through the Cross is it made possible. The rest of the world fights and mourns and laments over any movement of sickness, any aspect of disability. We naturally think, “A curse has come upon me. God has forgotten me. All is lost.”
Cut in the light of the Cross and the power of the Cross, and when you have the mind of Christ, that sickness, that illness, whether it’s of the body, whether it’s of the soul, becomes a means by which you become powerful.
It becomes a means by which you experience the grace of God. Only God, only Christ gives us strength through weakness. And it’s real. It isn’t metaphorical, and it isn’t mind games. But in order for you to feel and to experience that grace, you have to wholeheartedly embrace the Cross. Ask anyone who has gone through a serious illness with faith in Christ, they’ll tell you without fail, it was very difficult, but I wouldn’t take it back for anything.
Why? Because that illness, in the light of the Cross, it brought them to a place they never would have been able to get to, feeling great, feeling good on their own power. The greatest of our saints were afflicted. Why? Because the servant is not above the Master.
And so we find our strength by embracing the fact that nothing can defeat us. Because whether it’s illness, whether it’s sadness, whatever the affliction is, in the light of the Cross, it will be made unto us strength and life through the power of Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday, August 13, 2025: St. Joseph of Arimathea
1 CORINTHIANS 16:4-12
MATTHEW 21:28-32
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
Today we honor Righteous Joseph of Arimathea. Righteous Joseph of Arimathea who, as a man of wealth and means, chose the right and good thing. He used his wealth and his means to tend to the body of our Lord. Make sure that there was a tomb for him. Make sure that his body was cared for. Making sure that Christ was being loved and that His life would remain sanctified.
Meaning, the care of the body is a way of honoring the person. And the honoring of the person is a way of setting aside the greatness and the goodness of who they are. And this is the purpose and the meaning behind burial and honoring our dead. We honor and we recognize the glory of God, the life that was given. And we set it aside in respect.
And so this is what St. Joseph had done for the Lord. And he reveals to us a very important aspect of the spiritual life, which is difficult because when someone is mourning, for whatever reason, the hardest thing sometimes is to set this memory, set the memories of the person, set them aside, let them go.
It’s very difficult. And in our grief and our mourning, we oftentimes become mad. And the thing that we need to do, the letting go and allowing the process to take its course, oftentimes we stifle it. We hold on to something longer than we should. And so you’ll find that when there is a proper burial, then and only then does resurrection happen.
And so oftentimes in our life, we are unable to allow something to die. And this is the case because we have not quite yet had the awareness of the resurrection. And so we hold to things and we mourn things and we grieve the loss of something. And in that mourning and that grief, and really it’s in the, not so much the mourning and the grief, but the inability to set it aside, to let it go, that we never resurrect into who we’re supposed to be.
Every time you lose someone, and to be more particular, every time you lose something, some aspect of yourself – whether it’s a broken relationship, a broken dream, some aspect of your personhood has failed or died – unless we allow the mourning process to come to its fulfillment, to its fruition, and then we set that lost dream, that broken dream, that lost hope, that broken relationship, that unfulfilled quote-unquote aspect of ourselves, unless we’re allowed to really put it to the side and honor it.
Honor the hope that was there, even if it wasn’t fulfilled. Honor the potential that maybe wasn’t realized, but was hoped for. Or perhaps even the potential that was realized, but it’s past its prime, and we’re looking to hold on to something, even though those days are long gone, whatever the case may be. Unless we’re able to give that aspect of our life, of ourselves, of the love, that proper burial, we will not experience resurrection.
But if we do, if we understand and we have this movement, and we say to our soul, “Soul, I must be like St. Joseph of Arimathea.” As you begin to recognize that Christ God sees and knows that very thing, the relationship, the lost potential, the wound from a trauma, whatever the thing is, He sees it. And in the same way that the Father rose Jesus from the dead, see, Jesus submits himself to death.
And He does this in the hope and the faith that the Father is going to raise Him up. And so now us, when we lay that down, whatever that broken hope, that unrealized potential, the trauma, the pain, whatever the thing is, and we lay it into the tomb set aside and said, “I recognize what’s happened here. I recognize it.”
This is the key. Joseph of Arimathea recognized, not to the fullest extent that was possible, he recognized that Christ was not a madman nor a criminal. He recognized Him as Messiah, and he made sure that He had proper burial.
This is the key. You have to recognize what’s happening. You have to say, “Okay, I need to lay this aside. I’m going to honor what happened here. I’m going to let it go.” And it’s in that space that Christ can come and He can resurrect. And it will not be what it was. It cannot be. You do not want it to be what it was.
Jesus of Nazareth was laid into a tomb, but Christ God resurrected, you see, fullness. You do not want what was. You must expect and anticipate and desire what will come, what will be.
But the gap between what was and what will be is only closed – that gap is only closed when you lay it in the tomb, you mourn, and you let go. Then and only then can you step aside and let the power from on high bring about Holy Resurrection.
Through the prayers of St. Joseph, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us.
Monday, August 11, 2025: Day of the Angels
1 CORINTHIANS 15:12-19
MATTHEW 21:18-22
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ!
In the Gospel today we see the terrible reality of who Christ is as God. The Lord is on the road, hungry, His desire, His need, and in looking to fulfill His hunger he turns to the fig tree.
The fig tree has leaves, but it has no fruit. And when a fig tree has leaves, it’s a sign that it should be bearing fruit, that it’s ready to do what it’s meant to do. And so when the Lord, Who designed the fig tree, Who made the fig tree, goes and sees that it is not functioning as it should, He curses it.
It withers and it dies. Now, the same One designed the sweetness of the fig. The fig in of itself, if you’ve ever examined figs, how they are shockingly similar to other types of fruits, shall we say, particular fruits.
The fig themselves, an icon of life. The fig tree, the fig is an icon of mankind, if you see. If you know the fruit, you understand what I’m saying, the way that it’s designed, its shape, the seeds that are within it, it’s a symbol of Adam, you see.
The figs are like the fruit of man. And when a man has all the trappings of being fruitful, but is bearing, that man is not operating according to how God designed him. Now, of course, I need to do my due diligence as a priest and share with you the larger reality, the soteriological reality of this gospel account.
Of course, the fig tree is a symbol of Israel and how Israel had the leaves, they had religion, they had tradition, they had culture, but they were bearing no fruit, not the fruit that God wanted. This is, of course, the historical, soteriological interpretation. But as I began, and I shared with you, this is the terrible reality of Christ as God, we should not just necessarily understand it in regards to Israel, the Jews, because are we not Israel? And even more to the point, every single one of us, whether you are physically, biologically a male or not, are you bearing fruit? Truly.
Yes, you’ve heard this many, many times, but listen to what I tell you. This is terrible because I had someone reach out to me the other day, a couple weeks ago. He was encouraging me. “Don’t be so glum,” he says. Yes, the end of this Gospel account is the Lord says, if you have faith, you can do anything. And that’s what we want to hear.
And it’s true. And I tell you, in many ways, that’s the most terrible part, is because every man is a liar. The Lord does not lie. If you have faith, then you can do even greater things than the cursing of the fig tree. The key word is if and you. Not whether God is willing, it’s about you.
And that’s terrifying. It’s absolutely terrifying. If you truly understand what I’m saying to you, it’s terrifying. Because you have no one to blame. None of us will have anyone to blame on that dread day, because the same One who says to you, you can do anything if you have faith, He blesses you with that power to create, the power to take your freedom and to do good.
That same One is the same One Who cursed the fig tree, the same One, the same God. And we would all be given a God that has nothing but smiles and rainbows. But I tell you, that is a false God.
Fear Him. Because at some point in time, He will come looking for what He wants from you. And if you are not prepared to bear fruit, you will be cursed.
May God grant us His holy fear. And in that, we will have wisdom. And in that wisdom, you can’t help but bear fruit.
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Sunday, August 10, 2025: Holy Apostles Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon And Parmenas
1 CORINTHIANS 3:9-17
MATTHEW 14:22-34
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
In the Gospel today, we see the Lord leading the Apostles to the boat, leading the Apostles to the place of the storm. And the leading into the storm is precisely what they should have expected. Moreover, it’s precisely what we should all expect, because the boat is the church.
And the purpose of a boat is to lead someone to a place, a safe harbor, a land in which they are desiring to go. This land, this place which we are desiring to go, this horizon that we’re moving towards is Christ. And we remember that the horizon which we’re looking towards is Christ.
Then everything upon that way we should trust is given to us precisely to get to our destination. Saint Nikolai Velimirovich, he says to us something very interesting. He says that thunder cleanses the air. He says we give thanks to God for thunder because it cleanses the air.
We may often wonder to ourselves, why the storm? Even now, we’re here in the midst of a storm. We can hear the rain hitting upon the roofs. Just a few minutes ago, we felt the shaking of the temple by the thunder. Is not the Church the ark in which we have been given to safely navigate the storms of this world and the storms of lives? But again, why do we have storms? Storms are given to clean and to purify.
This world was created by and in and through the love of God. And so what that means is, this world, both the visible and the invisible inhabitants of this world were given a measure of freedom. And this is the gift that God in His love bestowed upon all His creation, visible and invisible, a measure of freedom.
And free beings, to whatever measure they are free, sin. Freedom, when it’s not aimed towards the horizon of Christ, the building, the edifice, the temple of freedom, when it’s not founded on Christ, as Saint Paul said in the Epistle today, it will be corrupted by sin. And so we may wonder, why must I go through the storm? Or as Saint Paul said in the Epistle, why must I be tried by fire? Why must my works, why must my whole very life be purified? Our life must be purified because the freedom that we were given, which was a gift of love, as we all know, is too often turned towards something else besides Christ.
And instead of having our eyes on the horizon, we begin to look around and we begin to fear, we begin to doubt. And that fear and that doubt, that creates the anxiety within us. And then with that anxiety, we begin to doubt.
And with that doubt, we begin to sink. We go low, not in humility, but we go low for being weighted down with the cares. We fear death.
“If I don’t get that piece of chocolate, if they don’t do what I say, all is lost.” No. And this is why the ship is built in such a way.
When you are on the ship, and when you are a member of the crew, the captain gives a certain means of order. Families have a way of operating. Cultures and nations have a way of operating. Ships, battalions, they have a certain morale that they must maintain.
Without that morale being maintained, all is so quickly lost. When we lose sight of the horizon, all is lost. When the member of the crew of the ship forget that they are part of a bigger unit, and that everything that they do, the way that they go about things, how they eat, how they sleep, how they spend their recreation time, all of it has to be done. That freedom has to be used properly and in alignment with everyone else, because if not, there’s mutiny. If one member of the crew of the ship becomes self-absorbed and starts sneaking chocolates, not cleaning up after themselves, you’ll have vermin, you’ll have disease on the ship.
If they use their freedom to appease their appetites and to deal with their anxiety versus the way that the ship captain has given to them, the captain says, “Well, this is why you need to do PT. You need to do your exercises. This is why you need to do your training. You’ve been given this to deal with your anxiety.”
But when you neglect what the captain has given, and you just go your own way, again, as I said, disease, vermin, mutiny, morale goes down, and the ship will not make its destination.
We are all on the ship together. The Church is the place in which we, as the people of God, we are looking towards that horizon, and we must maintain the custom.
We must have our eyes fixed, because the storms are not there to sink us. The storm is there to test us. The storm is there to cleanse us of the impurities. The things are not of Christ. The things are not pulling us to that place, that great destination. It must be removed.
We have a good Captain, the best. When St. Peter goes out on the water, he moved out in obedience. He had his eyes fixed on the horizon, but very quickly he lost sight. The Lord says to him, O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?
Consider this. Do we forget that Peter was a fisherman? Do we forget that? Peter wasn’t a landlubber like us here in Kansas City. Peter lived by the sea, worked on the sea. His whole livelihood came from the sea. Peter knew what storms were. Peter knew how to be on a boat. Peter knew how to swim. God chose a fisherman to be the captain of that ship. Seems very wise to me, and yet the one who lived by the sea, took his livelihood from the sea, who supposedly knew the sea in and out, he begins to doubt.
My brothers and my sisters, the storms in which you will find yourself in, He’s the one Who’s led you to it. The storm is there to clear you out. God is bigger than our free will and our sin. He can deal with it. That’s why the storm is there.
That’s precisely why the storm is there. Trust your Captain. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saturday, August 9, 2025: St. Panteleimon
2 TIMOTHY 2:1-10
JOHN 15:17-16:2
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
Today we are commemorating the great and holy martyr, Saint Panteleimon, the holy unmercenary.
And Saint Panteleimon is this wonderful example to help us understand the stern, strong, and hopeful word that came through the Apostle Paul in the Epistle today. Because the Apostle Paul is encouraging his spiritual son Timothy in this one sure fact that all of us need to internalize, that all of us need to live by: Therefore, as good soldiers, endure hardship. And no soldier is concerned with the affairs of this life.
This is not just for bishops, this is not just for priests, this is not just for monastics, it’s for every Christian in exile. This world, this time, this is all an exile. This is all a time in which we are to hold position. We’re sent out in order to take land for the King. That land, first and foremost, must be our own hearts and our minds and our bodies.
Our hearts and our minds and our bodies. We must first have this not be occupied territory of the enemy. Our eyes, our hands, our feet, the mouth. These things belong to God. These things should do the service of God. And when we belong wholly – not just holy, H-O-L-Y, but wholly, W-H-O, completely to God – then that word to endure hardship doesn’t seem so hard, it doesn’t seem so impossible.
But a house divided cannot stand. And as long as you have two intentions warring within you, as long as you have on the one hand, “Yes, I like God, I like Christ, I’m glad that I’m not where I used to be,” that doesn’t cut it. As long as you feel like this, the other side of you, which is, “Maybe it wasn’t so bad over there. Maybe I’m not such a bad person. Maybe I could do something else.” These ideas, they are warring against the commandment of the Lord.
Our hearts need to be set in such a way that we are not distracted with the cares of this life. Saint Panteleimon was an unmercenary healer, meaning he offered his gifts, he offered his vocation, based upon this one fact: He was serving his King, he was serving his God. When a priest loses sight of what he’s doing, terrible things begin to happen.
It’s like driving a car, being at the wheel on the highway and falling asleep. It’s so much more than just him crashing the car, it’s those around him. When a father falls asleep at the wheel, it’s so much more than him crashing the car, it’s his whole family in the car, and it’s everyone else on the highway. A monastic losing their way, forgetting that they’re dedicated to God. It’s so much more than just themselves, it’s their community. A bishop, it’s his whole flock.
You can see how this applies to all of us, because all of us are called as soldiers. We need to fight our passions, we need to fight the demonic influence in our culture, and we need to fight for love, the love of God. We need to fight, we need to show God, not only that we love Him, but more importantly, that we acknowledge that He loves us, you see, because this is what we often forget, that He loved us first.
None of us are here because we love God so much, all of us are here because God loved us first, and shed His blood for us first. And if that cannot inspire you to endure hardship, if that cannot inspire you to give your all, well, pray to St. Panteleimon. And ask him to heal your feeble and broken heart, because the love of God, it changes everything.
Through the prayers of St. Panteleimon, Lord Jesus Christ our God, heal and mend our broken hearts, and grant us the strength of soldiers. Amen.
Wednesday, August 6, 2025: Ss. Boris & Gleb, St. Christina
1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-14:5
MATTHEW 20:1-16
Christ is in our midst. Today in the Gospel, the Lord gives us the order of things. And the order of things is not according to the wisdom of man, but according to the generosity of our Heavenly Father, according to the generosity and the principles of the Kingdom of Heaven. We see that the Lord rewards those who labor. And according to the world, labor is given, and the rewards should be given according to how we understand ranking.
We see the ones who come in the morning, and they agree to pay, to be paid for a denarius. We see those who come in the midday, and the same happens. And then we see the ones who come in the evening, shortly before the work is over, and they also are agreed to be paid a denarius.
The world would have this to be a huge scandal. The world has its ways of operating. But the Kingdom of God operates on one principle: Generosity. Generosity. The ones who came and worked the last, the ones who worked at the end, they understand something very simply.
The labor in of itself is the reward. To be able to work for a generous master in and of itself is the reward. If we look at this Gospel with worldly eyes, and if you hear what I’m saying to you with a worldly heart, you’re scandalized.
But if your heart has been pierced by the Cross, then your heart has also been one that has felt and experienced the generosity of God. Because the bones that be humbled, they shall rejoice, as the Psalm says. And our hearts learn to rejoice in being last.
Our hearts learn to rejoice in celebrating and giving thanks to God for His generosity. This is what should have happened. This is what should have come out of the mouths of those who were first hired.
From their mouths should have poured forth thanksgiving and awe of the generosity of the master. But it did not, because they did not realize the joy and the honor of labor. When we look around and we see so many people, especially in our neighborhood here, lost, without aim.
Why? They may have food, they may have clothing, they may even have cell phones, but they don’t have good labor. They don’t have meaningful work. And anything that we receive as human beings, without that sense of dignity and good labor, good work, it ruins us. We meander. We may have all kinds of possessions and belongings, but without that sense of good, honorable, meaningful work, we are lost.
And this is what the Gospel brings us. The Gospel brings every single one of us vocation as opposed to occupation. Vocation is good work. Vocation is putting yourself and applying yourself to the labor of the kingdom of God.
And when you apply yourself to the vocation of the kingdom of heaven, to its advancement, to the glory of God, then you too begin to have a generous spirit. Because when you see someone who begins to labor with you, and you see them get rewarded by God, you’re not envious, you’re not jealous, you don’t complain that they’re getting paid the same amount as you. In fact, you rejoice and you are in awe.
That God not only has called you and given you good work, but that God continues to call and give other people good work, and that He is inexhaustible. That as long as there are laborers who seek to advance His kingdom, as long as there are laborers who seek to work in His vineyard, He has paid enough for everyone. His generosity should inspire all of us to be generous with ourselves, to be generous with others, because in Him there is enough.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Monday, August 4, 2025: St. Mary Magdalene, St. Markella
1 CORINTHIANS 11:31-12:6, 1 CORINTHIANS 9:2-12
MATTHEW 18:1-11, LUKE 8:1-3
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
Every Gospel is important. Every reading of the Gospel, every liturgical reading is important. Every feast day, every saint is important. But I feel very strongly that today is a very important, special day for our generation.
In the Gospel today, the Lord speaks of the necessity to recognize the beauty, the purity, the holiness of innocence. When He says, unless you become like a child, you will by no means enter into the kingdom. As we should understand children, we should understand what they are an icon of.
Children are not an icon of obedience. Children are an icon of innocence. Children are an icon of purity. And the Lord goes on to say that these little ones, that if anyone were to cause these little ones to stumble, there could be nothing worse. It would be better for this person to have a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the ocean. There’s nothing worse than causing the innocent and the pure to stumble. And this is so important for our generation.
Because there’s so few who are actually innocent. And there’s so few who have been left to their purity. So few. And we know that it’s important because the Lord Jesus Himself said it. And the Lord says that these little ones, their angels, their ministers, their witnesses. They’re forever before the face of my father. Their witnesses.
Today we’re commemorating St. Markella of Chios. St. Markella was one of these little ones. St. Markella was innocent and pure. But her father, pagan, not just in his practice, but in his spirit, beastly, wanted and attempted to defile his own daughter. And St. Markella, in her desire to preserve the thing that was given to her as her birthright, her own innocence, her own purity, with the heart of a lion, tried to avoid and dissuade, to convince her father of his madness, but to no avail.
And so the father despoils and murders and seeks in his heart. And eventually, St. Markella, everything is taken from her. But yet God preserves her. And God preserves her memory even now. Why? And this is why this Gospel on this day is so important, because this Gospel on this day is the Gospel that so many need to hear. This Gospel on this day, and this saint and this Gospel together, so many need to know about St. Markella.
But more importantly, we need to know about St. Markella. Because when we hear of the innocence and the purity being defiled and taken, we are rightfully tempted to despair. We are rightfully tempted to question and doubt God when we hear of such insanity which happens even now today. The abuse of these innocent ones.
What are we to do? So many, in their weakness, they make the error. So many in the church make the error in their weakness, and they think that we are to just ignore it. No, we are not to ignore such crimes. We are to face the horror of these things with the faith and the love and the trust that the word of Christ is true. And that the justice of the Father is true.
And even if no one in the world hears of St. Markella, we do. We have. We know that God sees. The countless innocents that have been defiled, God knows every single one of them. And if the world doesn’t believe it, and the world doesn’t know it, it doesn’t matter. We know.
And we are His body, and we are the ones who bear witness. And in that bearing witness, God is glorified and manifested, and we hold out, and we wait. Not just for His justice, but for His mercy. Because it’s in His mercy that the true thing, the true miracle happens.
And I speak now of the healing of those little ones. This is the mercy. That those who have been so wounded, those who have been consigned to a hell, that God will have mercy on them. And that God will restore them and resurrect them.
Today is an important day. Today is a day that we should all bear witness. Truly, their angels are always before the face of the Father. Through the prayers of St. Markella, St. Mary Magdalene, Lord Jesus Christ our God, grant us the strength to be witnesses.
Sunday, August 3, 2025: Ss. Symeon and John, Holy Prophet Ezekiel
1 CORINTHIANS 1:10-18
MATTHEW 14:14-22
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
In the Gospel today, we hear of the Lord having compassion on the people. Having compassion on those who are hungry, who are in need. Sustaining and providing for those who could not sustain and provide for themselves. And so we know that the Lord took these five loaves and these two fishes and with that he fed the multitudes.
Now, it’s important for us to realize something, that the first thing is the Lord is having compassion. And I think that, especially in life, what I’m about to say, one of the great works for us today as modern Christians is to keep in mind the Lord’s compassion. Because, blessed Seraphim Rose, Saint Seraphim Rose, he said that in the last days, the trials of the believers will be more difficult than those of the early times. They’ll be of a psychological nature, that they’ll be needing to live in a different world if they wish to endure these temptations.
And so for us, we need to remember that the Lord is compassionate. And that when we find ourselves overwhelmed with the weight of the world psychologically, spiritually, it’s so quick and it’s easy for us to forget that the Lord is compassionate. That the Lord loves us and that the Lord Himself is actually suffering with us. Now, this aspect of the Lord suffering with us, this comes from compassion, because compassion means “to suffer with.” And one of the things that it’s very difficult for us to hold on to, to even grasp this concept and this truth, is the Lord suffering with us.
You see, this is especially difficult for younger people who have yet to really experience the trials of life. So they begin to experience the pain and difficulties of life. They struggle reconciling a belief in God with the experience of God. But it’s actually in that pain and suffering, and especially of a psychological nature, the pressures of wanting to fit in. The pressures of wanting to be perceived by people. The pressures of trying to gain things that you think are going to make you happy. I say this in all honesty, these are difficult things. They’re difficult things. And the Lord is suffering with you and with us in those things.
To be compassionate is to suffer with. The first thing is, we think and we expect and we want God to take the suffering from us. We pray, we’re struggling, and then we don’t have the relief that we’re looking for, and we think that God isn’t with us. And so our faith begins to waver. But it’s wavering because of our ignorance. Because we thought that God was going to take away the suffering, when in fact, He was going to be with us in the suffering.
And so the first thing I offer to you is, start looking for God to be with you in the suffering. Not for Him to quote-unquote deliver you out of the suffering, for Him to take it away from you. But rather that He’s with you in it. That’s the first thing. And once you recognize that God is compassionate, then you’ll begin to recognize something almost immediately. That God is providing for you.
That God will provide for you absolutely what you need. But this is where I think the teaching begins. Because in order for you to receive God’s provision, you must first bring something to the table. You must first bring something to the table to receive God’s provision. You must bring your whole life. And the reason why we find ourselves in a perpetual cycle of struggle and doubt and anguish. And we struggle because “I believe, God; I go to church, God; I pray, God; I do these things.” But listen, you have not given your whole life to God. You have not given your whole life to God.
There is five loaves and two fishes. What is man? Man is the body which comprises of five senses. And within that loaf of bread of man’s body is both the mind and the heart, the two fishes. You must give your whole life as an offering to God. And in doing that, then you see the compassion. And in doing that, giving your whole life, your body, the five senses, the mind, the heart, then God’s provision comes.
Why? Do you not know that you are gods? Do you not know that you are gods? You are not called to this life to live a mortal life in which you will die like a dog. And your essence and being will be consumed by maggots. It’s not what you’re intended for. But in order for you to have this taste of eternal life, that offering has to be complete. In order to receive the provision of God, that offering has to be seasoned. And it has to be seasoned with the Cross.
In the Epistle today, St. Paul says, “The Cross is foolishness to the world, but to those who are being saved, it’s the wisdom and the power of God.” You’re tired of me telling you to give your whole life to Christ. And if you’re tired of me telling you that, it’s because you’re a fool. It’s because you’re a fool. It says in Scripture, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” If you knew what God had laid up for you, you wouldn’t hesitate one second.
If you want this offering of your body, your five senses, and your mind and your heart to be accepted by God, if you want to receive the consolation of God, then you must have it seasoned by the Cross. Because the Cross is the only thing that purifies this offering. It purifies it of personality and charisma.
It purifies it of vanity and worldliness. The Cross is the thing that allows you to find love and for you to become compassionate. How do you find the way to truly love? You don’t take away the suffering from your loved ones because you love them. You take it away because you can’t bear the pain of seeing them struggle. It’s not love.
When you suffer with someone, that’s love. Why? Because you know that their end and the whole goal of their life is that they would become like God. And the only way to taste that God-like nature is through the Cross. Everything else is vanity.
In the light of the Cross, we find wisdom. And the beginning of the wisdom from God is the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord leads one to leave off the world and to embrace this other world, and we need it. We need it.
I will continue to talk to you about the technologies that are here. I will continue to talk to you about the things that are seducing us. I will continue to talk to you about these things, because that’s what matters, and that’s why you’re here. And if you don’t start to crucify your mind, and if you don’t start to crucify your heart, you will not survive the temptations. You will be seduced.
The demon that has been unleashed in this world, you have no idea. You have no idea. The sophistication, the power. And you will not know unless you are in the Cross.
Your mind and your heart must be crucified if you wish to discern. I cannot hold your hand. You must turn to Christ, and you must turn to the true Christ who is found in the Cross.
And in turning to Him, He will provide for you. For your whole body, your whole mind, and your whole soul. Through the intercessions of the Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, continue to provide for us. Amen.
Saturday, August 2, 2025: Holy Prophet Elijah, St. Maria of Paris
JAMES 5:10-20, ROMANS 13:1-10
LUKE 4:22-30, MATTHEW 12:30-37
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
Thanks be to God, what a glorious day. We are at our first Liturgy with our Deacon John, may God give him many years. And also today we are commemorating these great lights of the faith, these bookends of Holy Tradition. The Holy Prophet Elijah, and Saint Maria, Mother Maria of Paris. And truly we have two bookends.
You have the Prophet Elijah in the Old Testament, and you have Saint Maria in the New Testament. Both of them revealing to us an interpretation, if you will, of the Epistle today, in Romans 13, speaking of the governments and being subject to them. Saint Maria and the Prophet Elijah being these mirrored opposites, this chiasm, if you will, this inversion of each other. The Prophet Elijah suffering under the ungodly reign of Jezebel, the wicked wife of the apostate King Ahab. Saint Maria Paris suffering under the Nazis. Both governments doing the good. You have the Prophet Elijah who was sent to the widow, the widow being a Gentile. And you have Saint Maria Paris saving the Jews in Paris under the occupation of the Nazis.
Both of them reveal the highest and greatest law, which is that of love. The law of love is what God had always intended, whether in the Old Testament or in the New. And this is no contradiction to the teachings of the great Apostle Paul. When he’s encouraging the Christians, the Church of Rome, to be aware of the true purpose of the government, which is to do the good. And what is the good? God’s will is that man would always be brought to a place of salvation. Which means chastisement because we are sinners, you see.
And so we should understand the not resisting of the law in the sense that God brings these things for our chastisement. He brings these things for us to have opportunities by which love is demonstrated. Which one of you would accuse the Prophet Elijah of being a lawbreaker? Who of us here could stand and condemn him for giving kindness to a Gentile widow? And which one of us would condemn Saint Maria of Paris breaking the law? Her compatriot, the priest Dimitri, forging baptismal certificates to save the lives of Jews.
Which one of us would condemn them? Well, none of us. At least none of us who are following the great and true law of God, which is love for the neighbor. You see, the Prophet Elijah, he encapsulates to us the love of God. Elijah was zealous for the love of God. He obeyed the love and law of God and went against the heresy, the apostasy, the idolatry of Jezebel and the priests of Baal. And Saint Maria of Paris, she encapsulates the love of neighbor, going against the Führer and the decree to exterminate the Jews. Defying even the most base of logic and giving herself up for the love of neighbor.
Both of these form the Cross: love of God, love of neighbor. This is the fullness of the Testament. This is why Christ came. And this is what is always revealed within His saints. The love of God and the love of neighbor are always together to form the Cross. And so on this day, when they are commemorated together, we have a prime example of the Cross being revealed through times, through eons. Many centuries separate these two, but they couldn’t be closer.
Because their love for God is what unites them and their love for God is what unites all of us under the true and great law. Through the prayers of the Holy Prophet Elijah and Saint Maria of Paris, may the Lord God help us to obey the law of God. Amen.