May 26, 2024

What’s the difference between a résumé and a eulogy? Well, on this Memorial Weekend Sunday, I want us to reflect on what the difference is between a résumé and a eulogy, and ask ourselves whether we are building up our résumé attributes or our eulogy virtues in our life.  Read more »

May 12, 2024

How many of us have some doubts mingled with our faith? How about certain skepticism about fundamental tenets of the faith? For example, what questions arise in your mind when thinking of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead? Or when we think of bread and wine becoming the holy Body and Blood of Christ? Or what happens when we immerse someone in water in the Mystery of Holy Baptism? Read more »

May 05, 2024

Christ is risen. He’s alive. Darkness did not prevail. Evil did not have the final say. Death is no longer the destiny of all humankind. And the world has changed because of it. If we embrace His Resurrection, our lives will change. Everything in life changes because of Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead! Read more »

May 04, 2024

Satan: This is my world! I could not serve in heaven so I rule in hell. I could not serve with joy so I rule in misery. But I had my revenge. I corrupted God’s world, I corrupted his creatures. It was I who made Adam and Eve fall. I have their children, too, MILLIONS upon MILLIONS dead, dead and in darkness. Read more »

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. Read more »

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 »

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.” Read more »

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 »

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 »

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? Read more »

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 »

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 »

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.  Read more »

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 »

February 18, 2024

A desperate woman approaches Jesus to help her daughter and yet, at first, “the Lord does not answer her a word.” Read more »

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? Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »