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Congratulations to our SERMON of the MONTH Award recipients for November 2010. This month we received 15 entries in our three categories. Remember, we are now also accepting Sermon submissions for the December 2010 Awards. Whether you are a seminarian, deacon, priest or bishop you can submit your own homily, or someone else's properly attributed sermon. Submit them to … [Read more...]
by Fr. John A. Peck Part Two of our Five Part series. A Short History of the Liturgical Location for Preaching: The Ambo, the Pulpit and the Lectern. The Ambo An Ambo (pl. Ambones) is a Greek word, supposed to signify a mountain or elevation. This was understood in the west as well – and well after the Great Schism. Even Pope Innocent III of Rome so understood it, for in his work on the Liturgy (II.I. 33), after speaking of the … [Read more...]
by Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus The seasons blush varied with the flowery, fair weather, and the gate of the pole lies open with greater light. His path in the heaven raises the fire-breathing sun higher, who goes forth on his course, and enters the waters of the ocean. Armed with rays traversing the liquid elements, in this brief night he stretches out the day in a circle. The brilliant firmament puts forth its … [Read more...]
by St. Ephraim the Syrian Our father among the saints, Ephraim was a prolific Syriac language hymn writer and theologian of the 4th century. He is venerated by Christians throughout the world, but especially among Syriac Christians, as a saint. Here Ephraim presents his "counsel of life", warning against various sins such as greed, pride, fornication, and slander. 1. Not of compulsion is the doctrine; of free-will is the word of life. … [Read more...]
by Theodore the Syncellus On the foolish attack of the Avars and godless Persians against this city, protected by God, and of their shameful retreat which the divine love brought about for mankind by the intervention of the Mother of God. I. Prophesying long ago, by the prophetic inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the benevolence of God the Father, with regard to the incarnation and the birth of the divine Word by the Mother of God, … [Read more...]
by St. John Chrysostom John was called to the priesthood and ordained by Flavian, bishop of Antioch, early in the year 386. So this is the date of his first discourse: he had not yet descended into the lists, as he himself puts it. In this essay, his modesty shines no less than his eloquence: he frequently calls himself a little boy; although, as his birth dated back at least to the year 347, he was then about forty years old. … [Read more...]
by St. John of Kronstadt Our righteous father John of Kronstadt was an archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church. Born in 1829, from 1855, he served as a priest in St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Kronstadt. Here, he greatly committed himself to charity, especially for those who were remote from the church, and traveled extensively throughout the Russian empire. He was already greatly venerated at the time he died. His feast days … [Read more...]
by Fr. Hans Jacobse Director of the American Orthodox Institute, and editor of OrthodoxyToday.org, Fr. Hans provides Orthodox Christians today with updated news and articles on social, cultural and political events from an Orthodox Christian moral tradition. His editorials and essays have been published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Duluth News Tribune, International Herald Tribune, Hellenic Voice, Breakpoint website, Front Page Magazine … [Read more...]
St. Gregory Palamas gives us the examples of Moses and Elijah as examples to motivate us in our fasting. Moses fasted for many days. Awaken your minds, I entreat You, and lift them up at this opportune time, in company with Moses when he went up the mountain towards God. In this way may you start off afresh on your ascent, and be lifted up together with Christ, who did not merely go up a mountain but up to heaven, taking us with Him. Moses … [Read more...]
by St. Anastasius of Sinai Upon Mount Tabor, Jesus revealed to his disciples a heavenly mystery. While living among them he had spoken of the kingdom and of his second coming in glory, but to banish from their hearts any possible doubt concerning the kingdom and to confirm their faith in what lay in the future by its prefiguration in the present, he gave them on Mount Tabor a wonderful vision of his glory, a foreshadowing of the kingdom of … [Read more...]
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