St. Mary Orthodox Church

December 28, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

In order to grow we must let go. We must leave what is familiar. Abraham had to leave his homeland to find his destiny and become the father of many nations. Joseph, the son of Jacob, had to be sold into slavery to become a prince of Egypt. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, had to take off for Egypt to save the Christ child. Frodo had to leave the Shire to destroy the Ring and save Middle Earth. This is the Hero Quest - a classic theme in life and in literature.

December 21, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

We read today the genealogy of Jesus from St. Matthew’s Gospel. It is different from St. Luke’s genealogy and there are reasons for this which we do not time to talk about this morning. I would rather spend time on the point of this Gospel and that is, God became man to save everyone and everything.

November 30, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

One of the most important things I have discovered this year, is that the last part of the Great Commandment, especially the 'as yourself' part is as important as the first two, to love God and neighbor. I had never realized this. Perhaps Jesus who said, 'The first shall be last,' put it at the end deliberately because of its importance. Without proper self-love we cannot love our neighbors and if we do not love our neighbor, then we cannot love God..

November 09, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Something stirred in her, the desire for freedom and from suffering. Isn’t repentance in one sense freeing ourselves from the illusion of the past? She began to see that she was more than her past, more than a disease, more than a label.

October 26, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

When there is a storm at sea the surface of the water is troubled, wild and dangerous. But in the bottom of the sea what is there? There is peace. The storms cannot touch the deep. The soul is like the depth of the sea. It is undisturbed and peaceful, a still point in the midst of everything.

October 20, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The miracle he performs is not to demonstrate his power, but to heal the widow's broken heart. God is not interested in power. He does not need to prove himself. The thing he wants us to know is that he cares for all of us personally in every detail of life.

September 28, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Notice how attentive Jesus is to the needs of Peter and the other fishermen in today’s Gospel reading. He is totally engaged with them as he is with everyone he meets. He is completely mindful of them, their lives, their interests, their joys and sufferings. When he is with fishermen, he talks about fishing. When he is with farmers, he talks about seeds and soil and weeds. Jesus is always present with the people he meets as if there was no one else in the world.

September 07, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

According to John, God loved the world so much that he came to tell us and to show us. Although God could always be found in nature and in Scripture, that was not enough. Love cannot stay at arm’s length. An incarnation is God’s most personal invitation to us to accept his embrace.

August 31, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Today a rich, young man - a man who had all the material possessions he needed and all the religious pedigree possible according to the Law – approaches Jesus with a question: 'What must I do to have eternal life.' He knew the answer Jesus would give (at least part of it). The Lord goes down a short list of the Ten Commandments. This is the law both of them knew very well.

August 24, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Jesus uses metaphorical language when talking about the kingdom because mysteries cannot be described in any other way. The kingdom cannot be analyzed or quantified; it must be experienced to be known. That is why Jesus spoke so often in parables. The kingdom of heaven is a mystery beyond the power of thought.

August 17, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

I do know that there are other kinds of mountains that do need to be moved. They are inside of us. These are those interior hindrances to love (and to faith) that Rumi writes about.

August 10, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The month of August is a month of theophanies. A theophany, from the Greek, literally means a 'revelation of God', not 'from God', but 'of God.' The Transfiguration of Jesus is a theophany. God reveals himself present in Jesus Christ in this world. He shares his light and energy with us and with all of creation as his face, his clothes, the mountain and even the apostles are bathed in light and cloud.

August 03, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

I read some patristic commentaries on this Gospel reading, the feeding of the five thousand, and every single one of them focused on the meaning of this Gospel as the proof of Christ's divinity. Although the patristic commentators meant well in their context, and their writing made sense, I think that if we stop there, we have missed the point. The reason Jesus fed the thousands was not to show His power, and not to prove that He was the Messiah. Why did He perform all of his miracles? There's another reason.

July 27, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

What is remarkable to me is how Jesus works with the people he meets. He is interested in them and their lives. He asks questions to get a better picture of what each person needs. He brings things out of them things that need to be brought to the surface before he heals them. Often he asks for and receives their permission to do his work before he works his miracles.

July 20, 2014 - by Fr. Gregory Harrigle

When I was 15, I was paralyzed from the waist down, suddenly, and didn't know why. I spent that summer in bed, unable to walk or move my legs or feel anything below my waist. What would happen next? I spent a long time in bed trying to figure out what I had done to deserve this and why this has come to me.

July 13, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

This Gospel is used to point to the importance we place on sharing the message of Christ to the world. The Holy Fathers of the Fourth and all the other six councils met in order to ensure that the Gospel was understood correctly. The intimation is that the bushel with which we try to hide the light is a lack of courage to share it and ignorance of its true meaning. Therefore ... Councils!

July 06, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

It is always interesting when a celebrity wakes up to the spiritual life. Two caught my attention recently. Russell Brand, believe it or not, came out sounding like a veritable guru, in his typical fast and furious style of talking and what he said, if you could keep up with it, was astoundingly true! It was tiring to listen to and refreshing all the same.

June 01, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Jesus is not talking about some ephemeral joy, but His own joy, God's own joy, infinite and luminous, magnificent, and incomparable. That is amazing that he would pour His own joy into us.

May 25, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

This has been a very wrenching week for we lost two amazing people - Mary Sioras and Donald DiFiore. During the Little Entrance, there's a prayer that the priest says: "Blessed is the entrance of Thy saints." Now, why do we say that?

May 12, 2014 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The Lord Jesus asks the paralytic man a simple, direct question, 'Do you want to be healed.' He does not get a direct, simple answer. Instead, the paralytic deflects the question and tells Jesus a story that sounds rehearsed. I imagine he had told it a hundred or more times before. It always sounded a bit fishy to me.

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