Weekly Sermons
Reflecting on Holy and Good Friday
May 03, 2024
He was arrested. He was beaten. He was ridiculed. He endured an unjust trial. He was humiliated. He was hated. He was whipped. He was crucified. In the end, he was killed in a most horrible and painful manner.
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PALM SUNDAY and OUR JOURNEY THROUGH HOLY WEEK
April 28, 2024
(For my sermon on Palm Sunday, I introduced different characters we will encounter during Holy Week through a skit I did with my teenagers of the Sunday School.) Read more »
THE TWO WAYS
April 21, 2024
“There are two ways, my soul, my soul, and they are not the same. One leads to everlasting life. One leads to dust and shame. One leads to dust and shame.”
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OUR JOURNEY OF FAITH
April 14, 2024
“We do not reach the Kingdom of God going from victory to victory but more often we have to journey from defeat to defeat,” notes St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. “After each defeat, however, we don’t bewail our misery but we get back up and continue the battle. We go forward in repentance and humility.” Read more »
DENYING OURSELVES
April 07, 2024
The Lord said: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Let’s take a moment and reflect on what Jesus is saying here. It’s pretty radical and counter-intuitive. If any of us want to come after him, to follow him, to become one of His disciples, what’s the first thing we must do? Read more »
Eternal Healing vs. Physical Healing
March 31, 2024
How many of you know someone who is seriously sick? Someone who may have a terminal illness? Do you pray for them? Why?
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CAN WE RECEIVE THE FORGIVENESS OF GOD?
March 17, 2024
The pitcher of water is the same; yet each container receives the water differently. How much each container is filled doesn’t depend on the water being poured, but on the way the container receives the water! Read more »
NOTICING YOUR NEIGHBOR
March 10, 2024
I was at Project Mexico this past week with 18 students from HCHC for their Spring Break. What a meaningful way for college students to spend their spring break – in loving service building a home for a family in need. Read more »
SEEING THE BEAUTY IN THE PRODIGALS OF THE WORLD
March 03, 2024
Do you know that 1 out of 14 school age children in the USA have a parent who is incarcerated?!? 1 out of 14!!! That’s unbelievable! My dear friend, Patrick Tutella, who has worked for many years with prisoners, shared a story about his outreach to school children who have parents incarcerated in prison.
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IN WHOM DO WE TRUST?
February 25, 2024
“In God we Trust.” It is interesting that this is the official motto of the United States. In a country where many contemporary people like to highlight the separation of church and state, thinking that faith should be kept separate from our civil, secular lives, we still say “In God We Trust.” Read more »
CALLING US TO DEEPER FAITH
February 18, 2024
A desperate woman approaches Jesus to help her daughter and yet, at first, “the Lord does not answer her a word.”
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DO NOT ACCEPT THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN
February 11, 2024
Do not to accept the grace of God in vain.
What do these words of Saint Paul, which we heard in today’s Epistle reading, mean? How could someone accept the grace of God in vain?
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Staying in Love with Christ
February 04, 2024
Saint John the Divine received a special Revelation from God at end of 1st century. It begins by giving a warning to the seven churches in Asia Minor, churches that represented the 2nd or 3rd generation of Christians in the early Church. These Christians surely started off their faith journey with such fervor and love for Christ yet Saint John warns them about falling away. Read more »
OUR CHURCH FAMILY - WELCOMING NEW MEMBERS
January 28, 2024
“I don’t know many of the people in the church,” a lifelong member of our church told me recently. This man doesn’t come to church too frequently, yet he has been a part of our church since his birth 80 years ago. And he said to me, “There are so many new people in church. I don’t know who they are.” Read more »
OUR MYSTERIOUS GOD
January 21, 2024
I woke up yesterday to the sad news from one of our parishioners, Diana Megas, who asked for prayers for her brother, Danut, who was in a terrible car accident in Romania. He is on life support. I told her that I would share with our Church Family this very sad and difficult news and ask everyone to please pray for a miraculous healing for her brother Danut, and to pray for comfort and strength for all her family – for Danut’s wife and children, her elderly parents for whom he cares, and of course for Diana and Natalie and Alexis. Read more »
The Extremism of Martin Luther King
January 15, 2024
An extremist. How many of us would like to be labeled extremists? We see this on the far right and the far left. We see violent extremists throughout the world. We often link extremists with certain ideologies or religious movements. Our country, however, pauses on January 15th to remember someone who was considered an extremist of his time – the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Read more »
DO WE KNOW CHRIST?
January 07, 2024
“I myself did not know him.” Saint John repeats this twice in today’s Gospel story.
- “I myself did not know him, but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”
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Learning from Saint Seraphim of Sarov
January 02, 2024
"Acquire inner peace and thousands around you will be saved"
“Where there is God, there is no evil. Everything coming from God is peaceful, healthy and leads a person to the judgment of his own imperfections and humility.”
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HOW TO HAVE A BLESSED NEW YEAR
January 01, 2024
1. Pray every day. Accept a Prayer Rule in your life, and then try to follow that rule every day. Prayer is connecting with God, communing with the Source of life. Say set prayers every morning and evening, but then seek to talk with God throughout the day. Don’t let an hour go by where you don’t “check in” with God and turn your attention to Him. Read more »
THE BEGINNING OF THE GOOD NEWS
December 31, 2023
“The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” As we prepare to enter a new year, today we read from the Gospel of Mark and see him highlight in the very first verse “the beginning of Good News!”
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Monthly Bulletin
Recent Sermons
DIVINE LOVE AND SEPTEMBER 11TH
September 11, 2024
“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.” The call to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” is one of the most radical teaching of Jesus Christ and His Church, and yet, it is a teaching upon which we need to reflect today more than ever. Read more »
Our Orthodox Faith
Our Orthodox Faith and the Centrality of Missions