St. Mary Orthodox Church

April 07, 2024 - by Dimitri Newman

The Church has set the third Sunday of Lent as the Veneration of the Cross. It stands in the very middle of lent as a reminder of why we are struggling through this period. It stands in the middle as a tree, offering its shade, a staff and support to help us through, to encourage us along the way. It is a promise that our small suffering that we are willingly taking on will be of spiritual benefit for us. 

March 31, 2024 - by Claire Koen, PhD Candidate

Today, on the Sunday of Gregory Palamas, we remember this great saint and his defense of hesychastic prayer and theology, and we reflect on how his teachings illuminate for us the process of drawing ever closer to both God and neighbor.

March 17, 2024 - by Sarah Byrne-Martelli

I suggest we try to forgive and remember. Not to remember the hurt, but to remember what’s involved in the process of healing. To remember how far we’ve come. To remember that we can do the hard work. To remember the power of forgiveness keeps us centered in our faith.

March 10, 2024 - by Sarah Riccardi-Swartz

The criteria for the Last Judgement should not evoke fear for us but rather become the guidebook by which we live our lives—not because we fear judgement but because we love.

March 03, 2024 - by Teva Regule

This parable is not just a story of three strangers. It is a story of us.  As the younger brother, the Church gives us the sacrament of confession to free us from our sins and get back on the path towards God. As the older brother, the Church gives us the sacrament of Unction to heal what ails us. The Church gives us the opportunity to forgive others every Sunday with the Exchange of Peace and, as we approach Great Lent, with the rite of forgiveness at Forgiveness Vespers. 

February 25, 2024 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The Publican is representative of those who actually have a clue, at least enough to know that they are undeserving of receiving anything from God. You see, no one is deserving and the good news is that you don't have to be. Worthiness is not the issue. Openness is the issue. The Publican was unworthy, and yet his humility saved him, because he was open to God in his humility. He knew more about himself than the Pharisee did, that's for sure. Humility is openness to God.

February 18, 2024 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

The underlying context for the Canaanite woman is hope. She is willing to do anything for her daughter, including begging for her because she believes in Jesus' power to heal. Her expectancy – she expects and hopes for great things from God – this is the passport to His kingdom.

February 04, 2024 - by Dimitri Newman

We see here the story of two very different men. Symeon was a good and righteous man, guided by the Holy Spirit. Zaccaeus was a bad man, who stole from his people and became rich by doing so. Yet, in the end both see salvation in Jesus Christ.

January 28, 2024 - by Dn. James Wilcox

How do we stamp out the noise that we might recognize God in our midst, and begin to rightly see one another in the image of God? In the first place we must recognize the state we are in. You can’t put out a fire if you keep fueling it, and you can’t stop fueling a fire if you don’t recognize that you’re fueling it. Therefore, we must awaken to the fact that this is the reality we’ve created for ourselves. In Orthodox thought this type of awakening is described as sobriety, nepsis, or wakefulness. It’s quite literally what it is to be woke.

December 31, 2023 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

It was Good News to the hard Roman world. It was Good News to the ghettos and the slums of the Greek and Roman cities. This proclamation lifted men to their feet. It was not just good advice, but good news. John the forerunner prepared the way with a baptism of repentance that required a thoroughgoing change for the forgiveness of sins.

December 17, 2023 - by Dn. James Wilcox

Each of the invitees in today’s parable was 'locked in' or attached to some other 'thing,' and in such a manner that the gift of God — the good portion — was missed. And so, here is the message we are left with: When Christ stands before us at the end of all things, whatever we have loved a little too much, whatever we have depended on a bit too stridently, whatever we have hoped will define us more definitively, all these will need to be set apart from us and cleansed, that we may be made God’s own more completely.

November 19, 2023 - by Dn. James Wilcox

The attachments we make in this life, like the rich man in the parable, have a notable effect on our bodies. And what affects the body also affects our very souls. We, therefore, must learn how to detach from our dependencies in this life, for we cannot take them with us into the hereafter, which is one of the points of today’s Gospel lesson. This is the critical mistake of the rich man.

November 12, 2023 - by Kyra Limberakis

It’s more than just Christ simply calling us to love and be a kind neighbor. It is Christ calling us to be attentive to the suffering of others through boundless compassion as he models it in the person of the Good Samaritan. His mercy was not bound by race, or religion, or economic status.

November 05, 2023 - by Dimitri Newman

If we wish to cultivate a love of God and union with him, then the preparation begins in this life. That is not to say that our souls are static in the afterlife, but generally, we will continue to love in the next life, what we have loved in this one.

October 24, 2023 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

To fully recognize and understand ourselves is terrifying. Our God demands something that is painful to give up, a radical readjustment, a reorientation, and a new form of discipline that includes forgiveness. Freedom is dangerous and costly. But God can become our companion, our comforter, the source of our strength and peace.

October 15, 2023 - by Dn. James Wilcox

The truth of today’s Parable, however, shows us that the seed which falls on the outside of the good soil - this is the seed that does not take root. Yet, we learn that it is only the seed which falls on the good soil that is taken in and nourished properly, so that the inward journey - the cultivation of the heart — can begin.

October 01, 2023 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

Our world is in desperate need of mercy, forgiveness, love, and reconciliation. We are ambassadors of that mercy. In living out the command of Christ to be perfect, we can bring hope, healing, and transformation to all of those around us all, just like St. Seraphim said we would for the Glory of God.

September 14, 2023 - by Teva Regule

The cross, once a symbol of crucifixion and death, was and is now a symbol of resurrection and life. The wood of the cross that Christ touched was transfigured into the Tree of Life.  It is this Tree that now re-connects us to God, reconciling all of humanity to God and showing us the way to life more abundant. 

September 10, 2023 - by Dn. James Wilcox

As followers of Jesus, we choose to turn the other cheek, so as to absorb that person’s wrath, and to quell their passion. To take a person’s wrath and to remove it, and transform it is an act of peace … this is the transformative work of the Gospel message! The work of transforming the cosmos lies in our choosing to take up our Cross and to live by it. This is why our feast for the Elevation of the Cross refers to the Cross itself as 'A Weapon of Peace!'

August 27, 2023 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

To be a Christian is to be changed, to become not of this world. We are called to be innocent, in the world, but as sheep among wolves. This is the direction that Jesus is calling the rich young man to, when he asks him to give everything he has to the poor and to follow him. Imagine the possibilities if he had answered the call.

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