Wednesday, July 30, 2025: St. Marina of Antioch
1 CORINTHIANS 10:12-22, 2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10
MATTHEW 16:20-24, LUKE 7:36-50
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Today we are commemorating the Great Martyr and Trophy Bearer, St. Marina of Antioch. St. Marina, who, as a young pagan, who was betrayed essentially by her father, who persevered in her desire for faithfulness, she’s tempted. She finds herself being at the table of the Governor Olymbrios.
Being tempted, being in essence seduced, at least the tempting of seduction. And Olymbrios is seeking to woo her away from her resolve of virtue. He’s seeking to intoxicate her with his power and his dainties at the tables in which they’re supping.
And this is interesting because this seduction, sitting at the table, is not really about Olymbrios. It’s about Satan. It’s about the way that Satan seeks to seduce. And if Satan can’t seduce, then he’ll have other means.
You see, St. Paul in the Epistle today, he’s talking about those who are sitting at the table. He says that you cannot partake of the table of demons at the table of the Lord. And he says something very interesting. He says, flee idolatry. Flee idolatry.
And we can, as we often do, we can think of St. Paul telling the people of that time, the Corinthians, flee from the statues of Dionysus. Flee from the statues of Hermes. But this is not really the thing, is it? Because whatever the statues of those demons – quote unquote gods – whatever they manifested, truly it was experienced in the actions of the people of that time.
Yes, they would give their tribute and they would offer whatever they would in front of those statues, quote unquote. But the real idolatry came in their actions. Their weakening of their will. They’re giving themselves over to sensual pleasures. They’re giving themselves over to even, let’s say, envy, strife, for the sake of climbing a social ladder. These are the things that were corrupting the people and even then that threatened the Corinthian church.
And so we see that St. Marina, fast forwarding, St. Marina sitting at the table and being seduced, allegedly, by Olymbrios. This is still the case because the devil has a way, if he can, to entice us. He has a way to speak to us and slyly lead us, if you will, into partaking with him.
So often we are looking for the devil to come at us at all, as if we’re Christ ourselves. We’re thinking the devil’s going to come and boo and roar and scare us. But in reality, no. The devil doesn’t need to do that. Because all the devil needs to do is to offer you a little bit of boredom. All the devil needs to do is offer you a little bit of envy: “Don’t you want to be like, look what they have.” All the devil needs to do is offer you just a little bit of want. And then we are so quickly taken in.
Let us be more like Marina. See, St. Marina, in her resolve, with the hammer of her will, she refused the seduction. And in this, God granted her something amazing. You see, part of Marina’s tortures was to be drowned. She prayed that this would be made for her a baptismal font, and God granted it. I find this very fascinating.
Because we can obviously interpret the fact that St. Marina asked of God, once she passed the test of not being seduced by the devil, and the devil seeking to then, well, if I can’t seduce you, then I’ll destroy you. She turned that attempted destruction into baptism. And I would connect this, if you’ll allow me, to the Gospel today.
Because this is a huge difference, sitting at the table of seduction with the demons. And how we are so quick to offer the washing of the feet, all the good stuff. The Lord said himself to Simon the Leper, he says, look, I’ve come at the table, you haven’t offered to wash My feet, you haven’t given Me anything to drink. This woman, who is a sinner, she hasn’t ceased to wash my feet with her hair.
This is the thing. At the table of the devil, we are so quickly seduced. And we gladly eat of the dainties. And yet, when we sit at the Lord’s table, do we offer Him the hair? Do we offer Him the precious things? This is what the hair is. A woman’s glory is her hair.
This is why women veil themselves. And so for her to take her hair, which was an ultimate act of intimacy, and to wash the feet of the Lord, this is what it means to sup with the Lord. It doesn’t mean to just sit there and just say, “Thanks, God, I’m not as bad as I could have been.” And that’s what many of us do. “I’m not as bad as I could have been.” No, no, no.
This is why our love is so little. That woman, she offered everything, her very essence, her very dignity to the Lord. Because she was at a table, and she was hungry. And the Lord gave to her. God willing, you’ll push past seduction, my sons and daughters. And when you do push past the seduction, and you find yourself sitting at the table of, let’s say, temptation, the devil has failed in seducing you, and now he’s going to hammer you if he can.
Rejoice. Rejoice. Because like St. Marina, you should take that trial and understand that you’re now sitting at the table of the Lord and offer Him your best, offer Him your everything.
Don’t let that trial fool you. Know that at that very moment, you’re offering the Lord your very best. Through the prayers of St. Marina, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us.
Sunday, July 27, 2025: Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils
ROMANS 15:1-7, HEBREWS 13:7-16
MATTHEW 9:27-35, JOHN 17:1-13
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 these two blind men. Who, with faith and hope, call upon Christ to heal them and to help them. I want to share with you a little something about being blind. As many of you know, or may not know, my mother was blind. And so, there’s something that has to happen in order for someone who is blind to operate. They have to have a measure of trust.
They have to have a measure of trust. When my mother went blind, one of the things that we had to do, we had to arrange the house in a certain way. Cups and things like this. That she was familiar, and that she knew where to go, and how to go. And even when you see someone blind on the street, and they’ll have a care dog. Or they’ll have a cane. They have to trust in the tools given them to navigate the world. They have to trust the animal that was given to them. They have to trust the training that was given to them. They have to trust the cane. They have to trust all these implementations by which they’re able to move in the world. Without that trust, well, it’s deadly. Terrible things can happen.
And so, we see that Jesus says to these two blind men, “Your faith.” Faith meaning trust. Faith not about, we oftentimes think of faith as, “How many doctrines do I know? How much information do I have? How smart am I?”
This is not faith. Faith is trust. Trust in God. Trust in Christ. Trust in the goodness of God. And this is the faith that allows the blind to see.
You see, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we heard that in the Epistle. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, forever. Jesus is not changing. He does not change. He is eternity. He is eternal. And so, what that means is, the same Christ that gave sight to the blind men is the same Christ that opened the eyes of the heretics.
Because today, we’re also commemorating the fathers of all the six Ecumenical Councils. The first six. And what’s interesting is, each one of those heresies have to do with a personal blindness. The heretics, whether they’re Nestorius, whether those are the monothelite heresy, whether it’s Arius, they all were blinded by their logic. Jesus did not fit into their system. And so, what they sought to do was, they sought to change Jesus, someway, somehow, to fit their system. This is the same thing with all heretics. This is the same thing with all those who find themselves at odds with Christ. You cannot change the one who is unchanging. You cannot change the one that is faithful.
The fact that Christ is steady. The fact that He does not change. The fact that He will forever be both Judge, just, and also merciful and loving. Those two aspects of Christ, those things do not change. What changes is our perspective. What changes is our ability to trust.
And this is where the Church comes in. Because it’s in the Church that we learn to navigate the world. We are blind, my brothers and my sisters. We’re blind. We’re blinded by our arrogance. We’re blinded by our attitudes. We’re blinded by our ignorance. We are ignorant of Who Christ is. We are ignorant of what the Truth is.
And so many times when we come in, and we have these assumptions. We want to prove ourselves against God. We want to prove ourselves against Holy Truth. But the fact of the matter is, we are fickle. We change. Christ does not change.
Our minds are designed in such a way that they are made to reflect the glory of God. But they can also reflect our ignorance. They can reflect the fallenness of which we continually immerse ourselves in. Because of our appetites. And so like a blind man, we have to learn to trust what’s been given to us by the Church. So we can make our way in the world.
This faith of trusting the one who does not change. This is how you will navigate yourself. But pay attention. Because like the heretics, we oftentimes will come to a place of judgment. Oftentimes this is confession. And we come to confession.
And instead of confessing our sins, we confess how someone has wronged us. And we confess how we were actually right. And we seek to justify ourselves before God. But you have to remember something. God isn’t changing.
There’s a very interesting Scripture. It says: Fall upon the rock and you’ll be broken. Lest the rock fall upon you and be crushed to powder.
See the heretics, the ones that the Holy Fathers fought against, they refused to be broken. They refused to let their pride, their self-sufficiency, their arrogance, their ignorance – they refused for that to be broken.
Because it was their identity. It was how they were making their way in the world. Stumbling like blind men. They refused. And so the rock fell upon them and they were crushed.
When you come to Christ in prayer, you come to Christ confessing your sins, confess your sins. Humble yourself before God. Lay your opinions aside. A heretic is not one who has a wrong opinion and is arrogant and ignorant. A heretic is one who persists in his opinion. A heretic is one when the Church warns and says, You’re wrong. Who persists in this. This is a heretic.
Christ doesn’t change. How many times has the devil tried to manipulate and change? How many times over the ages have the heresies repackaged themselves? The devil can keep on going. Because Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He will not change. And He is the rock in which when we fall we are broken. But not crushed.
My brothers and my sisters. We look to the Holy Fathers as an example. Because when we are stubborn, we’re stubborn for our opinions. But we should be stubborn like the Fathers. We should be stubborn for Truth. We should be stubborn and immovable for the things that are eternal. We should be stubborn and immovable for Christ in our life. Don’t be blind.
Trust what’s been given to you. Lean into the faith. Lean into the Fathers.
Lean into what the Church has given you through the liturgical life. Through the sacramental life. This is how you navigate the world. Otherwise you’re just simply blind.
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God. Have mercy on us. Amen.
Monday, July 14, 2025: St. Angelina of Serbia
ROMANS 16:17-24
MATTHEW 13:10-23
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
Today in the Gospel, we have the Apostles and the disciples asking the Lord why He speaks in parables. And He gives them a seemingly even more mysterious answer. Of course, we can stop short and we can understand that he’s speaking of the Jews not receiving the word of the Prophets. And so although the Jews have been given everything – they’ve been given all the means to salvation, they’ve been given the law, they’ve been given the miracles of the passing out of Egypt, the manna, the budding rod of Aaron, the Prophets, as I mentioned – they still were hard of hearing. And so the Lord says, since they are hard of hearing, therefore let them be dull and let them not turn from their ways and seek Me, lest they be healed. Meaning, if they don’t understand now, they won’t understand even if I’m with them, even in the flesh. And so this is true.
But woe unto us, my sons and my daughters. Woe unto us because we have the One Who the Prophet spoke of with us. And He still has messengers in which He sends. The saints of the latter times are so explicit in their instructions. They’re so clear. There is no more peril. We literally have saints holding our hands, spoon-feeding us the way to repentance, spoon-feeding us the way to know God.
And yet even more so this Matthew principle applies. Of he who has much, that more will be given to him. And he who has nothing, it will be taken from him. Why? Because the one who does not understand, when the word is given, the birds of the air snatch it. What does this mean? The birds of the air are clearly the demons. But the birds of the air, at this point, are simply doing their work. Because the good seed that was given to the one who does not understand, it will just stay there. You see, the one who understands, and this is the thing.
When you do not understand something, you have two choices. You can either humble yourself or not. Let me explain to you what that means. When it’s time for you to humble yourself because you do not understand something, God’s trying to speak to you. What that means is, you must now become good soil. You must be able to receive what’s given to you. You must become obedient. You must become humble, meaning low to the ground, meaning low in your opinion of yourself. But why do we struggle here? We refuse to think that we should be humble. “Clearly, if God knew what I was capable of, He would change his opinion.” Would He?
You see, the reason why the one who has much is given more is because they’ve already shown that they can produce fruit. You see, they’ve already shown it. They’ve shown God, “When You give me something, not only will I not argue with You, I’ll receive it and I’ll multiply it.” God is not a fool. God is not going to throw seed just for it to be wasted.
Now, this is hard. But I would say to you, if this is hard in your hearing, that’s exactly the point. Because it’s not about understanding something intellectually, it’s about receiving something spiritually. It’s about not confusing who is the sower and who is the field, you see. Who’s the one giving the seed versus are you receiving the seed? The ability for one to become good soil is only found in its ability to be tilled.
I remember years ago when we first moved into our home. And my brave Popadija began to try to have a garden in our backyard. Midtown Kansas City, you know. Who knows how many houses and broken down things are in that soil. It’s difficult, it’s hard. And I remember very clearly her getting a tiller and trying to work it. I know, to my shame, but it is what it is. And I watched her till this ground. And it amazed me, actually. Because, of course, seeing this kind of play out, this agrarian parable play out in real time, it fascinated me.
But what really fascinated me was, man, how hard that ground was. And I remember her borrowing a tiller from someone and the tiller broke. And it’s at that moment, this parable took on a whole new insight for me. Because, you see, the ground was so hard. That to this day, Popadija’s garden is flourishing, it’s incredible, but not in that space. All around, she’s been able to grow something, but not in that space, not where the tiller broke. That ground was so hard, all she could do was now put down some mulch. But nothing can grow there. It wasn’t from a lack of her trying.
Don’t harden your hearts. Be careful. Be careful. God gives you what you need for you to be bearing fruit. If you do not realize this, and if you persist in thinking that the things of the Spirit are given in such a way for your exaltation, are given in such a way for anything other than you bearing spiritual fruit, well, then you might find yourself not being used at all. Through the prayers of the Holy Unmercenaries, may the Lord help us to till our hearts.
Amen.
Sunday, July 13, 2025: Synaxis of the Twelve Holy Apostles
1 CORINTHIANS 4:9-16
MARK 3:13-19
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ is in our midst.
Today we are commemorating the rest of the Twelve. We are in the shadow of the Apostles fast, Peter and Paul, and now the Twelve Apostles we are commemorating. And in the Epistle today, St. Paul speaks of how he was defamed, of how he was lacking, going without. He’s writing to the Corinthians, and he’s encouraging them to remember not just what, but to Who they were called unto.
He reminds them of who he is, that he is in Christ, and he reminds them of his credentials of being in Christ. And his credentials are that he’s willing to suffer. His credentials are that he’s willing to be defamed, to be slandered, to go without, to struggle. These are his credentials. And his credentials are such, and they’re necessary, because he is hid in Christ, and what he’s bringing them is Christ.
And this is very important, because unfortunately, we see a full harvest. Unprecedented numbers coming into parishes all across the country. But the great concern, at least in my heart, is what are they coming to? Are people flocking to the Orthodox Church to find Christ, or are they flocking to the Orthodox Church for some other reason? And the only way to truly know, from my perspective, is to make sure that the people are given Christ. That the people fully understand what they are in store for. You see, the devil will sell you a bill of goods. But Christ will tell you, up front, everything that you are expecting. He gives you full awareness of what you have in store for you.
You see, the servant is not above the master. The servant is not above the master. If Paul came, and he began to preach about liberation from a political authority, if he began to preach about trying to find a better way to improve human society, if he began to preach anything else but Christ’s eternal kingdom, he would not have been bringing Christ. And in order for him to bring Christ, he must be like Christ.
What is the harvest? The harvest is souls. The harvest is souls. Rome collapsed. The harvest is souls. And so, in order for those souls to receive the true Christ, the one who is preaching must be like Christ. Christ is revealed in His cross. Christ is revealed by coming on the donkey. Christ is revealed by His willingness to be slandered and to lose all things.
And I know you must be tired of hearing it, but I cannot do anything else but tell you how Christ is found and who Christ is. If you want eternal life, there is no other way but Christ. And you do not know Christ except in His cross. It is in His cross that everything will begin to make sense.
Do you not know how to be a father? Do you not know how to be a mother? Do you not know how to do well in your job? Do you not know how to go forward? It’s because you’re not looking for Christ. It’s because you’re not willing to take on Christ. It’s because you say, “Well, the world says I must do it like this.” And all the while, you’re losing. You’re losing.
In the Gospel today, the Lord said, “I will give you power to cast out demons. I will give you the power to heal infirmity.” Let me tell you something. Do you know why you see saints fasting for 40 days? Do you know why you see saints struggling so hard against lust, against despondency? Do you know why? Because you cannot cast out an unclean spirit until you’ve dealt with yourself first. You cannot.
That’s why when you see all of these mini-ministries of deliverance, they are liars. Because you cannot cast out a demon, you cannot cast out an unclean spirit by anything but Jesus Christ. And you do not have Jesus Christ unless you are willing to live like Christ. Period. It is not an ideology.
The harvest is souls. I don’t want this parish filled for numbers. I want this parish filled because I want my Master to receive the fruit of His suffering. I don’t care about conservative society. I care about souls. Society isn’t bringing you down. It’s your passions. And it’s you being linked to the demons. And it’s you not being willing to do what Christ is showing you to do so that you can be free. Period. That’s it.
You come to confession to acknowledge what you’ve bent your knee to the demons so that you can bend your knee to Christ by acknowledging where you have given in. That is where you are given power. By Christ. That’s why justification cannot work. Our infirmities are healed because He bore the stripes for us. Not that we don’t have to, but to show us the way.
The Apostles bore the infirmities of being defamed and not having earthly pleasures and luxury and status so that they could bring Christ. Why? Because as the Gospel said, the harvest is plenty. Pray the Lord that he would send laborers.
I want all of you to be laborers. Every single one of you. If you knew the percentages, you would weep. We are small. We are small. The numbers of the tradition of the church in this country are microscopic. Glory to God. Because God doesn’t care about numbers. He cares about those who are actually willing to be with Him. Actually willing to follow Him, to be His disciples. These are the ones who change the world. These are the ones who labor. These are the ones who will enter into their rest and say, “Well done, my faithful servant.”
I’ve been spending a lot of time the last few days watching videos of people dying in hospice. Every single one of us here is going to come to a point and what I want for all of you is to come to that point and not be laden with regret. Because the things that you are so worried about here I promise you – and I know the Gospel – the Lord says, “Let your yea be yea and your no be no.” Anything more than that is from the evil one. So when I say to you, I promise you, I’m not speaking from the evil one’s perspective. I’m speaking on something that’s true.
I promise you. What you think you are concerned about when you are dying, you will not be concerned about unless you regret that you spent and wasted your whole life being weighed down by it.
The harvest is plentiful, my sons and my daughters. We need to get busy. Through the prayers of the Holy Apostles, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.
Saturday, July 12, 2025: Sts. Peter and Paul
2 CORINTHIANS 11:21-12:9
MATTHEW 16:13-19
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ!
Well, we’ve come to the end of the fast, made it ashore, if you will. We have labored, we have journeyed, and God willing, most of us are, all of us are coming away with something, but God willing, most of us will be aware of the blessing that’s been imparted to us during the fast.
Today, when we commemorate the Apostles, primarily Peter and Paul, but all the Apostles, I think it’s important to remind all of us of this very simple fact, but it’s a fact that is, I think, often taken for granted, and it’s important for us to hold on to this, because we’re living in the strangest of times.
I don’t want to go overboard and say never in the history of man, because we don’t know what kind of technology and things like that they had in the days of Noah, but we do know this, we know that we are living in times in which the very fabric of reality can be dabbled. Because of the sorcery in which we are all immersed in, fantasies and imaginations, things that, if you can imagine it and if you can think it, then you can put it together and you can make someone believe it. This is true.
This is true. If the Lord tarries, who knows how many countless souls and generations are going to be twisted and demented because they’re not grounded in reality, because from the earliest ages they’ve been immersed and their brains and their souls have been utterly crippled through fantasy, through make-believe. This is why people, if they have a desire for religion, if, they’re very easily swayed, because they’re looking for fantasy, they’re looking for something not based in reality, they want something fantastic, not just to escape, but to keep their attention, to keep them entertained.
And so, the real tragedy here is that unless the Lord comes and saves us, who knows what will become of us? Because it’s almost irresistible. It’s almost irresistible. Having your own reality formed and curated and given to you like a hamburger, it’s a dangerous thing.
It says in the book of Ephesians that the Apostles are the foundation of the kingdom of heaven. And many of you may have wondered, and a few of you asked me during this fast, well, why the Apostles’ fast? What does it mean?
First of all, you should understand the Apostles’ fast is an ancient fast. And you should understand this, that our faith is not built on abstract concepts. Our faith is not built on lofty maxims. We have concepts, we have lofty maxims, but that’s not what our faith is built upon. Our faith isn’t even really built upon quote-unquote symbolism and things like that. We have and do employ symbolism, but that’s not what our faith is built upon. Our faith is built upon the Apostles who are built upon Christ. And this is the key thing.
The Apostles were actually men. The Apostles were human beings. We’re not talking about blue men playing flutes and running in the forest. We’re not talking about strong Vikings clapping thunder from their hands. Real men. And you may think, as often you may think, “You’re going too far, Father.”
But let me explain something to you. When you get used to having something a certain way, I’ve said this before, it’s very difficult for you to appreciate the simplicity of a salad when you’ve just been drinking salad dressing with maybe a little bit of lettuce and a little bit of tomato. It’s very difficult for you to appreciate the simplicity of a steak, which we will all enjoy here soon, if you’ve just been inundated with all the preservatives and all of the chemicals that have been given to us to overshoot our taste buds, you see.
Our palate is not refined. When you hear St. Paul’s account, some of us may have been like this, kind of zoned out because of the kids. Some of us may be zoned out like this because we heard it before in our dad’s Baptist church.
But a lot of us are zoned out because our palates are dull, spiritually speaking. When you hear of his account, you aren’t roused to heaven. You are not inspired to struggle. You are not thinking to yourself, “I would do anything to attain those heights.” The finest of men, the choicest of journeys, the most exquisite of experiences you could not take in. And, St. Paul, do you know what it means to be cast aside by false brethren? Do you know what it means to be in the deeps, not knowing if you’re going to survive? Do you know what it means to be lashed 49 times? Do you know what it means to see things and to hear things that are unlawful? That is a real human being.
We have his relic in the altar. When we are given over to fantasy, and when we are so far removed from the human struggle because we just want to escape, when it comes time for us to taste of the finer things, we can’t. Our minds, our hearts, they’re deluded.
St. Peter, the rock, he had a wife, he had a mother-in-law. He also had a temper. He also struggled, he also had pride. He was a human being. And our faith is built upon that. Not mythology, not fantasy. Real, living, human beings.
And we need to remember this. Because the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it isn’t fantasy. The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t about us reaching for something untouchable. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is about God coming down to us in all our brokenness, in all our foolishness. And if God wills, actually changing us, transforming us, and sending us out.
An Apostle is one who is sent. But how can you be sent? How can you receive 49 lashes? How can you put up with being betrayed? How can you be put in the deeps and still go on? Because you have seen. Because you have touched.
Because God has come to you in your real life. This is why the Apostles laid down their life. And this is why they are the foundation of our faith. And this is why we must be very careful, my brothers and sisters. Because when you hear the lives of the Apostles, when you read the lives of the saints, and you find yourself where you’d rather be watching something in fantasy, or reading something in fantasy, be careful. Be careful. Because what’s happening is, the very foundation of reality for you is no longer real. It’s something false. And if, God forbid, it might be even something demonic.
Let us be sober. And let us hold to the Apostles. Let us hold to the tangible realities of our faith, so that we would weather this terrible storm.
Through the prayers of the Holy Apostles, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Friday, July 11, 2025: St. Sophrony of Essex
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
This day, my meditation on this great light of heaven, St. Sophrony, is very difficult because you would assume, when you have a great love and devotion, that you could easily begin to gush forth words of adoration, contemplation, gratefulness. That could, I could spend days here, speaking to all of you about St. Sophrony.
St. Sophrony saved my life. St. Sophrony delivered me even more firmly into the hands of my Lord Jesus. So it’s difficult because I don’t really know where to start. And so, in my prayer, in my hope, and in some regards, desperate searching, to wish to honor a saint who has been so instrumental in my life, lo and behold, my mother comes.
Today, we commemorate the icon of the Three Hands, the Mother of God, the Three Hands. This icon is named such because of St. John of Damascus, who himself was an incredible light of heaven.
St. John, a brilliant, brilliant theologian, a brilliant writer. St. John, who was in his monastery, denied the ability to write. His spiritual father, refusing him his gift. Not only refusing him his gift, St. John was put underneath such incredible humiliation and strain. Why? Because this spiritual father, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, knew that in order for the brilliance of John to be revealed, he had to be pressed. The coal had to be pressed to be made into a diamond.
So, St. John, after being denied his gifts, denied the accolades that were seemingly deserved of such a brilliant mind and such a wonderful writer, he was reduced to cleaning latrines. And in this, St. John became a true light. And he began to write, and he began to expound the faith.
And it found him defending holy icons, even against the great enemies of the empire, of the church. And for this, St. John Damascus was slandered. And for this, St. John had his hand cut off. The very thing that manifested and expressed his brilliance was severed from him. And in his agony, both physical and spiritual, emotional agony, he lay all night before the Mother of God, begging her, praying to her, asking for her to restore him. St. John, falling asleep in his prayer, in his pain, in his desperation, he awakes, and lo and behold, his hand is miraculously restored to him by the Mother of God with a simple red line around his wrist, denoting that in fact his hand was severed, and in fact the miracle is true.
I have no other or better way to describe the life of Sophrony. Because St. Sophrony, who by all accounts was gifted this natural brilliance, from a young man he was able to be granted a vision of the uncreated light. From a young man, by God’s providence, he was born and raised and nestled in the heart of the Mother of God. In the heart of faith in Russia.
By God’s providence, he was raised in a time of modernity. Beyond the beginning of world wars, St. Sophrony was at this critical time in all of human history in which the hubris of man was no longer simply nestled deep within the heart of our nature, but it became manifest in the whole world. We began to become too big for our britches, as they say. And so chaos, and fear, and enmity, and all sorts of hatreds begin to now simply bubble up from underneath the surface of man’s consciousness into the material world. This is the life in which St. Sophrony found himself.
Moreover, he found himself being seduced by the vanities and the dark mysticism of the Far East, giving himself over to meditation, giving himself over to contemplation of self. And it is in this place he discovers hell. And it is in this place that he realizes something is missing.
But furthermore, he realizes something even more powerful. That all his brilliance, in all his gifting, in all the accolades of the world, especially since he was a gifted artist, rising to fame in Paris, all of it was vanity. Every aspect of his life that the world would look at, his skill, his intellect, his mystery, all of it being, all of it in fact crushing him. All of it in fact being unbearable. And it is in this space, it is in this existential terror, that Sophrony found the way forward.
God severed his hand. Sophrony offers his hand to God. He leaves behind art. He leaves behind the sophistication of intellectual pontifications and contemplations. He leaves behind the vanity of modernity. He leaves behind the land of his fathers. He leaves behind everything that is familiar and good and comforting, and he becomes a holy ascetic on Athos.
And it is there that he leaves even the comfort of bodily health. Can you imagine being pampered in Paris and living in the Karoulia, one of the most dangerous and remote places on Athos, with nothing? The hand is severed, but something so much more greater is given back. The Lord gives back Sophrony more than just his art, because he would eventually give his gift back.
He would become an iconographer. He would introduce a whole new style of iconography, not out of originality, not out of vanity, but that of deep prayer, deep hesychastic prayer. But more than that, the Lord gave back to him awareness of self.
You see, Saint Sophrony encapsulates the terror of our time. We’re so aware of ourselves, and yet we do not know ourselves. This is what it means to be a modern person. You’re so aware. We are so aware of all our feelings, of all our thoughts. At every single discomfort, we are painfully aware, and yet we do not know ourselves.
Sophrony is the way forward for us to redeem our neurotic mindsets. Saint Sophrony is the way for us to find a way to redeem our despondency, our despair, our anxieties. Saint Sophrony, he alone, shows the modern man what to do while they are in the depths of despair.
And it is in this that he became the greatest of painters. It is in this that he became the greatest of ascetics. Because to more than just deny the body, he denies the mind. And he says the heart is what must reign. The simplicity, the willingness to forego the self, the ego, and all its hubris. Like I said in the beginning, I could spend days, but rather I would leave you with this image.
Saint Sophrony shows us what we must be and what we must do as modern people. We must have the thing that we think is our greatest strength be severed from us. We must give it to God. We must beg God to restore us. We must beg God to restore us. We must beg God to bring us back to a place of sobriety.
Through the prayers of Saint Sophrony, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Thursday, July 10, 2025: St. Samson the Hospitable
ROMANS 15:17-29
MATTHEW 12:46-13:3
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst! In the Epistle today, we hear of the Apostle Paul, speaking of his need to go and to further the work of the Lord.
And he speaks in particular about the need to, as they say in contemporary parlance, not duplicate services. He’s speaking of the need to not be original for the sake of vanity. But to further the work of the Lord, and to not build off of another man’s foundation for the sake of the work being spread out.
For it to be furthered. Not to his own glory, but to the glory of Christ. To bring the good news to those who have not yet received. And so, we see very plainly and very clearly that St. Paul’s not speaking of, or excuse me, rather I should say, he’s not speaking in a manner of pride. And again, as I mentioned, the vanity of originality. Rather, he’s solely concerned with the furtherance of the Gospel.
And we see this evidenced even further. Because St. Paul, who was once Saul, he understood something very clearly. He understood the futility of being autonomous. He understood the futility of seeing himself in autonomous light. Remember, St. Paul is also the one who, in another one of his letters, he speaks of the complaint of cult of personality. He says, I’m glad I baptized not many of you.
St. Paul is very aware that the work of the Gospel, any good work, is a work first and foremost of the Lord. It’s a work of sacrifice. Sacrifice in which one is not concerned with one’s vanity, with one’s accolades, with building up one’s own personal virtue.
He recognizes especially the frailty of his own being. In the Epistle today of St. Paul, he makes note of giving thanks for those who extend to him hospitality. And this is very important because St. Paul understood that although the Lord strengthened him, the Lord worked many miracles through him, he was utterly dependent upon the Lord and upon the Lord’s people.
And that, in fact, in another Epistle, St. Paul speaks of those who did him harm. And so St. Paul became aware that his ability to further the Gospel was a work of synergy, not just with him and God, but with him and the fellow people of God.
You see, hospitality was the means by which St. Paul was able, who was destitute, St. Paul was able, who was physically infirm, we speculate, struggling with his eyesight. St. Paul was able, in spite of being without friend, to continue in his ministry through the hospitality of the people of God.
Today we are commemorating St. Samson the hospitable. St. Samson, who had all the advantages of youth and of a wealthy family, in his zeal for the Lord, decided first to go off into the wilderness and become a monastic, a hermit. But God had other plans, and God called him to become hospitable, to go to Constantinople to begin to establish hostels to serve the indigent, the homeless, those who are sick. He did this without pay.
He did this where, in many ways, others had not gone. St. Paul, as I said, building off of no other man’s foundation, and St. Samson, in a very similar way, went to places where people had not gone before. Why? To offer hospitality.
And so we see this beautiful connection, this beautiful bridge, if you will. St. Paul was only able to go and labor where no man had gone because of the hospitality of the people of God. And St. Samson, seeking to bring forward the Gospel, went where no one wanted to go.
This Gospel, the Lord’s Gospel, has always been furthered through hospitality. When we reflect on our work in our daily lives, as I said last night, let us never forget that that hospitality isn’t just simply extended for the sake of common charity that unbelievers will often extend to one another. The hospitality offered furthers the Gospel.
It reveals the love and the benevolence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hospitality is never offered out of vanity, but always for the sake of love. And so remember, when you offer hospitality, you’re not just simply giving a good hand.
You’re actually giving to Christ and you’re furthering the Gospel. Because in these days, and I’ll end on this, in these days, the love of many grows cold because of lawlessness. The love of many growing cold and the lawlessness that is abounding is a lack of love for the neighbor, a lack of love being extended.
Let’s continue, through the prayers of St. Samson, to be a community that recognizes the value and the importance of hospitality for the furtherance of the Gospel. Through the prayers of St. Samson, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.
Monday, July 7, 2025: Nativity of St. John the Baptist
ROMANS 13:11-14:4
LUKE 1:1-25, 57-68, 76, 80
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ is in our midst! Today we are commemorating the Nativity of the Forerunner, St. John the Baptist. And the Nativity of the Baptist is beyond miraculous, it’s terrifying. Because we see that God’s plans will be brought forth.
And contrary to how someone might understand or perceive the ways of the Lord, it’s not as if the Lord forces things. He waits, and He seeks, and He longs to work with man. This is very clear, and it’s revealed very clearly in the Gospel, the account of Zachariah serving as he should. Zachariah being faithful as he should, his wife Elizabeth, and being faithful as the best that they can, in very difficult circumstances, being barren.
And yet we know, behind the scenes, that the Lord is working, and He desires for the Forerunner to be brought forth. We know that His plans to make way, to make the path straight, that these are about to be enacted, but this is unknown, unbeknownst to Zachariah.
And so we see what is terrifying, we see that when we do not know the time of the Lord, we are not aware of our visitation. So Zachariah is not aware. And, as it says in the Gospel, in the offering of incense, he beheld an angel. Incense, in the offering of incense, is the manifestation, it is the symbolic expression of prayer. Incense is a burnt offering. You burn incense, and the incense then releases an odor and a fragrance.
And this is how our prayers are. The censer of our heart is to be heated up, and the concerns, the desire, the will of the human being is burned up, and is turned into prayer, you see. Zachariah was offering incense, as was his duty. But this incense was to be the symbol of the people of Israel calling out to God for what? What were the children of Israel waiting for? Were they not waiting for the Messiah? Was their offering in the temple to the Lord, unto the Lord, waiting for the Lord’s will to be fulfilled? And so we see, for us, it is very easy to become swept away, to operate on co-pilot, excuse me, on auto-pilot. And we’re offering our prayers, but not truly praying. Because we are not waiting, we’re not expecting, we do not know our Master’s will. So, rather, forgive me, we may know our Master’s will, but we’re not waiting on it.
You see, in the Gospel of Luke, which we read from today, but later on, the Lord Jesus gives a parable, and he talks about the servant who did not know his Master’s will and received stripes. But he also talks about the servant who should have known his Master’s will and did not. And he received a few stripes also.
We must be very careful, because for us now, especially in the shadow of the cross, we’re not anticipating in a measure of ignorance the same way Zachariah was. The Messiah has come. We know what God’s will is. We know that God’s will, now, we’re waiting for one other thing, His second coming. And so, as we’re waiting for His second coming, will we be caught unawares like Zachariah? Will we be going through the motion of offering incense unto the Lord, but our hearts are not truly burning as they should? Will we find ourselves unaware, not in expectation, but rather indolence, a kind of slothfulness? We’re at our duties, but we’re not being attentive, we’re not watchful. And so when the Lord comes and he sends his messenger, and the messenger speaks, we’re not prepared.
And this is where Zachariah failed. He was not prepared. And so, his lack of preparedness was basically received as unbelief. And you can understand this, because if you say, “I believe in the Lord, I fear the Lord,” and in some ways, if you dedicate your life in such a way, saying that you believe and you fear the Lord, and yet when the Lord appears and sends His messenger, you are not prepared, the question is, do you truly believe? Or have you just spoken with empty words?
Zachariah’s heart was revealed, and God in His mercy still was faithful. And this is the good news. God in His mercy was still faithful, His plans were not thwarted.
And I don’t just mean that the Forerunner is to be conceived, I mean that God still worked in synergy with his people. God still worked in synergy with Zachariah. Even though he failed, God still worked with him, and this is good news.
But nevertheless, what would have happened if Zachariah had really been watching? We all in our lives have these points in which we see where we have stumbled. The question is, will we persist in the stumbling? Or like Zachariah, will we accept the chastisement, knowing that it’s bringing us to a place where we will eventually do what we were meant to do? You see, Zechariah eventually prophesied. And his lips were loosed, and he proclaimed what he should have been proclaiming from the very first moment that angel came.
“Blessed be the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.” You see. If he had proclaimed, I submit to you, if he had proclaimed that moment in that temple, in spite of his surprise, well, we very well might have a different account in this Gospel.
And so it is in our lives. If we’re offering incense, if we’re offering our prayers, let it not just be simple duty. Let our hearts burn within us so that the offering of incense is not an abomination, but rather a sweet-smelling offering unto the Lord. Let us be also faithful and anticipate the Lord’s faithfulness. He will send us a messenger. He will appear to us. But will we know the time of our visitation?
Through the prayers of the Holy Forerunner and Baptist John, the Prophet Zachariah, Lord Jesus, help us, keep us, and grant us Your visitation.
Sunday, July 6, 2025: Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God
ROMANS 6:18-23
MATTHEW 8:5-13
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Christ is in our midst!
In the Gospel today, we have a man, a centurion, a Roman soldier who has a hundred underneath him, slaves, family, household, he has responsibilities, he has authority, he’s also under authority, so he understands how it works. And in the Gospel today, we see that this centurion man, who is this firstfruits, if you will, of the Gentiles, to enter into communion and discipleship, obedience to the Lord, he recognizes very clearly the authority that Christ has.
He may not understand theologically, and I doubt he would have been able to really explain why he could sense the authority of Christ, but nevertheless, he knew it. And he knew it because he was a man who was not only under authority, but also had authority himself. So his real life circumstances were the very thing that informed his faith.
And this is important because so many times we separate our faith from our quote-unquote logical thinking, our logical life. We think that these two things are opposed to each other, but in fact, you have to learn to allow these to come into synergy together. In the Church, the Fathers, they speak about the mind going into the heart. And this is a puzzling thing for so many people. This sounds like some of that esoteric mumbo-jumbo for the monks, but it’s not.
You see, our mind in this fallen world runs in such a way that it’s on its own, if you will. It puts things together, it sees things according to its understanding, and then it tries to solve the puzzle. The problem is, is that that is not the basis of reality. The basis of reality is Christ God.
Christ God is the one who is the very One giving you breath. Your logical mind says, no it’s not. My lungs are functioning on autopilot because of my nervous system. And when that nervous system goes bad and doesn’t work anymore, I’ll stop breathing and I’m dead, that’s it. But that’s actually not the case. Your very breath is in the Lord’s hands.
And the ones who know it, these are the ones who begin to allow their mind to go into their heart. You see, the centurion, his heart led him. It didn’t disengage his logical thinking. It led his logical thinking, you see. He knew from experience that those hundreds of soldiers underneath him, that they had families, that they had farms and lands, and that if they died under his watch, he was responsible. He knew that those soldiers underneath him, that they had children, perhaps even grandchildren, he was responsible.
I don’t know Father, you’re stretching it. Really? Why did the centurion even care to have a servant quote unquote healed? If he was not a man who had a heart, why would he bother to speak to a Jew, a Jewish rabbi, about his sick servant? What motivates that? It wasn’t logic. Think about it.
If it was logic, he would say to himself, if I go talk to this Jesus, Who by that time you know had Rome’s eyes, if I go talk to this rabble rouser and ask Him to heal my slave, isn’t that a big risk? Am I not risking my own elders, the ones who are looking over me, for them to look at me sideways? Maybe my authority would be challenged. Maybe the ones underneath me might question me, they might think, why is he going to this Jew? What is he doing? See, that would be his logic. But his heart told him something else.
He sensed something deeper. He sensed that, no, this is real authority. And so in that, he moved forward. And he asked God.
Now, the saints are the ones who, as we know, as I’m oft to remind us, as our dear bishop tells us, the saints are the ones who love God the most. But I’ll also tell you another secret about saints: Saints make do with what they have. Saints make do with what they have. Saints aren’t given some sort of special dispensation. And we can be tempted to think, “Well, I could never be a saint. I don’t have a favorable family household, like Saint so-and-so or Saint so-and-so.” But if that’s what you think, then you’re not reading the lives of the saints.
Because you know what you’ll find when you read the lives of the saints? Consistently, they struggled. Consistently, they had suffering. Saint Theofil, the fool of Kiev, his own mother tried to kill him more than once. His own mother tried to drown him. Saint Theofil did not have a favorable circumstance.
The centurion today in the Gospel, he did not have a favorable circumstance. Not in the means of faith. Quite the opposite. Logically thinking, the last thing he should have done was to go to Jesus. And especially for a slave. It would have made more sense for the centurion to spend the money to just replace the slave if he died. But this shows us that he had a heart. And so therefore it shows us that he understood authority isn’t just about telling people what to do and that people are expendable. True authority serves. True authority loves. True authority takes responsibility.
And so this is what he did. He used his logical understanding and he brought that into his heart. It served his heart. He did the thing that was illogical. He went to Christ and Christ heard him and answered him and blessed him. Each one of us has a circumstance that seems impossible. A circumstance at home. A circumstance with your health. A circumstance in your life which just feels absolutely immovable. And it’s in that circumstance, if you take it with faith and you go and you bring it to Christ, He will work the impossible. And the impossible isn’t necessarily your health being resolved. The impossible isn’t necessarily your job getting resolved. It’s you being resolved. You see.
Remember the words of Saint John Chrysostom. It’s a greater miracle to turn the heart of a man than it is to raise the dead. So for us to have our hearts turned to God, to faith, to the things of the heart, not to the things of the mind and the body, this is a great miracle. And when you begin to learn to take these things to God, guess what? He will work a miracle. And He will meet you where you’re at, just like He did the centurion. And in that faith, you’ll take your next step.
The centurion’s life didn’t end here. He went on. He went on in deeper faith. Your life will not end in your circumstance. And this is the final point. Your circumstance now is not the sum total of your story. There’s more.
But in order to have that more, you must be with the One Who can give more. He alone has the keys to eternal life. He is eternity. Eternity is not a state. It is a Person. He is eternity. All things that will exist forever, they are in Him. He is eternity.
Lord, grant us faith and help us to enter into eternal life. Amen.
Saturday, July 5, 2025: St. John Maximovitch, St. Alban
ROMANS 6:11-17
MATTHEW 8:14-23
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ is in our midst!
Well, today we are celebrating, we are commemorating the great father of the saints, a modern saint, St. John Maximovitch.
St. John, who is of a special class of saints, because he is one of these saints who finds himself in so many different categories. St. John, who is a hierarch, a wonderworker. St. John, who is in many ways a confessor. St. John, also being a saint of the people. One of the things about St. John is we can ask ourselves, who does St. John belong to? Who does St. John belong to? Maximovitch. St. John’s a Serb. St. John’s also a Russian.
The French, they also claim St. John because he’s the one who took their saints out of the ancient dust, and brought them to the remembrance of the faithful again. St. John is the one who resurrected, essentially, the veneration of the saints of the West. It’s very common now for us to see people venerating the Celtic saints, the saints in Gaul, but that’s because of St. John. Prior to St. John really being motivated by the Holy Spirit, the Western saints were all but ignored, definitely in the East. So St. John is, in some regards, single-handedly responsible for bringing back the veneration of the Western saints. But it doesn’t stop there.
The Chinese, they claim St. John. St. John of Shanghai, the great wonderworker who pastored his people out of the Revolution, but also picked up orphans, also cared for those who seemingly were not a part of the Orthodox flock. And speaking of not being a part of the Orthodox flock, San Francisco, St. John, not the great saint of America. When everyone thinks of an American saint, everyone, off the top of their head, they think of St. John. So St. John belongs to the world because St. John belongs to God now.
We all love St. John. We have his icon, we have his oil, we ask for his prayers. The question is, do we really have St. John? Do we really have St. John? Because St. John is a wonderworker, St. John is loved by all. But let us not forget that St. John, first and foremost, was a hierarch who was committed to making sure that his people knew God and feared God and loved God and did the things of God.
Do we keep vigil like St. John? Or do we care for those who are indigent and lost, for those who are struggling the way that St. John did? It’s one thing to have St. John’s icon. It’s another thing to try to emulate St. John. And some would say to me, but that’s impossible. And I would say to you, yes, but that’s not the point.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Remember what our bishop tells us, the saints are those who love God the most. The saints are the ones who love God the most. And let us not forget that people thought that St. John was incompetent. People thought that St. John was a fool. And did that not prove St. John’s love for God even more?
Let us not forget that St. John is the one who also said, “Do not look for miracles, but rather repentance.” Let us also not forget that St. John was the one who went to a hospital and healed a Jew. A Jewish, a female Jew, healed her. And she says to him, “I want to become Orthodox now too.” And St. John says, “This is not a reason to become Orthodox.” Why? Why would St. John say to someone, no, this is not the reason to join the church? Because he knew that she was just joining because of the benefits. He still healed her. He still loved her and showed her compassion. But yet, he still had his allegiance to God. And he didn’t want her coming to God because of the reward.
Do we really have St. John? Soon we’ll cut the slava bread and we’ll join in the prayers. But may our prayers be prayers of repentance. And may our prayers be prayers from our hearts. And may we not get lost in the celebration. And in doing so, St. John will really be with us.
Through the prayers of St. John Maximovitch, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Wednesday, July 2, 2025: St. Paisius the Great
ROMANS 11:2-12
MATTHEW 11:20-26
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst!
Today we have many lights which we celebrate, St. Jude the Apostle, Job the Merciful. Especially of St. Paisius the Great, whose relic we have here with us today.
St. Paisius being one of the great lights of monasticism. In particular, St. Paisius being known that the rule of his community is being strictly about the will, being submitted to God. The will. This is key because in the will, everything is either made or undone.
In the will, one is found to either be a saint or to be condemned. The will is where the one who would be with God finds the redemption, exercises the very means by which they have life and existence, or it is the very place where one finds themselves to be at odds in eternal enmity with God.
We have an account of one of St. Paisius’ disciples who, in traveling, comes across a Jew. This Jew just offhand speaks to the disciple and mentions how Christ is not the Messiah. And this disciple of Paisius, unaware of his visitation, he doesn’t merely agree, he just doesn’t deny. He says, “Oh.” Shrug of the shoulders.
He returns, St. Paisius won’t even rise, won’t even meet him. He’s wondering why his master is angry with him. St. Paisius says, “I had a disciple who left and now this apostate returns. What is this?” The man’s will was so weak and so important because his will was weak. It was such that the Jew didn’t even really force him or argue with him or debate with him. He just merely mentioned offhand light comment that, “Ehh, Christ isn’t the Messiah.” But because his will was not steadfast, he did not set his will. It was neutral, if you will. He was not able to rebuke the evil.
This is very powerful for us. Why? Because the Lord says, “For you to know the good and to not do it, it is sin.” For you to know the good and to not do it, it is as unto you sin. In the Gospel today, we heard the Lord rebuking these cities and saying it would have been easier for Sodom, it would have been easier for Gomorrah. Why? Because these cities, what is it? Bethsaida, Capernaum. These cities, they had him working miracles amidst them. The Lord himself came to them and encouraged them. The Lord himself came to them and gave them wisdom. The Lord himself came to them to lift them up. But the will, the spirit of those cities was such that they remained in a neutral place.
And so when the influence of Rome came, when the influence of other pagan leaders came, they’re very easily swayed. They’re not able to repent. In the Epistle of Jude today, the Apostle Jude, he makes this comment. About those who have apostatized, those who have left the faith. Not just humans. He’s also talking about angels. How and why? Because of their will. Because of their will. Their will was such that they were pulled. They were taken away from their aim.
In our lives – our lives, not the world – I’m talking to all of you. We are here this early morning, giving an offering of our praise and our worship to the Lord. In our lives, I say to all of you, this great crime of our will being put in neutral. It’s very dangerous. It’s as dangerous as sitting at the stoplight with your car in neutral. Do you know how dangerous that is? Do you know why? Because if you’re not paying attention, and it’s time to go, and you go to go, there’s no traction. There’s no movement. Accident. Very quickly.
We live our lives as such in a place of entitlement. And like those great cities, we’re aware of the Lord coming to us and granting us these things. But our wills are not set in such a way that we are ready to obey, that we are ready to defend. The disciple of Saint Paisius, his will was such that he was not ready to defend the truth. And so it was accounted to him as apostasy.
Remember, when great is the gift given to you, even greater the fall. The Lord does not condemn us for struggles. In fact, is our struggle not the place in which we become true disciples? Are not our stumblings in real effort accounted to us as moments of learning and testing? They are. It’s when we’re lax. And it’s when our will is set in neutral. This is the issue.
Let us be aware of the time of our visitation. Because it may not come as you think. That disciple of Saint Paisius, he thought he was just going to sell baskets in the city. He did not know what was coming. Set your will aiming towards the Lord.
Through the prayers of the Holy Apostle Jude, Saint Paisius the Great, have mercy on us, O Lord, and save us.