Feast Day ~ May 27 Many saints of the Church have received the crown of martyrdom because of the policies of political leaders – from the first Christian martyrs who refused to reverence state deities or to acknowledge emperors as divine to those who suffered in the twentieth century at the hands of atheist Communist […]

(Feast day ~ May 27) It is in the wonderful providence of God that a humble monk – who had lived his entire life from the age of seven in the confines of a monastery in a remote northern region in the seventh century – should have given a testimony of faith and devotion to […]

(Feast Day ~ May 26th) The life of St. Augustine of Canterbury serves as a wonderful inspiration and example for any mission parish whose task is the spread of the Gospel. St. Gregory the Great, who before becoming Pope of Rome in 592 had a great desire to travel to Britain to convert the heathen […]

(Feast Day ~ May 25) As we journey through life, seeking perfection by conforming our wills to God’s will, we are surrounded by many mentors, both among our fellow Christians and those saints – apostles, teachers, missionaries, martyrs and monastics – who have gone before us. Through their examples, their writings and their intercessions, we […]

(Feast Day ~ May 24) The saints of God are a great gift to all who are in the Church. Through their intercessions, our prayers are multiplied before God. Learning of their holy lives and deeds, we are inspired and encouraged in our spiritual journeys. In venerating their relics, we are sometimes blessed with healing […]

(Feast Day ~ May 19) So often we find, in the Orthodox approach to life, that issues are “both/and” instead of “either/or”. We learn from Holy Scripture that Christians are to be both in the world and in heaven; in the Liturgy, we express both sorrow for our sins (“Lord, have mercy upon us”) and […]

(Feast Day ~ May 18) Most of the earliest saints of the Church were martyrs, and for many of those saints, we have few historical details other than their names and the fact that they faced death rather than deny their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But a detailed report was written and preserved […]

(Feast Day ~ May 16)  St. Brendan epitomizes the Irish monastic: he was born into a devout family, his brother becoming a bishop and his sister an abbess; he was destined for the monastic life from an early age; he was keenly aware of the supernatural; and he carried the Irish desire for peregrinatio to […]

(Feast Day ~ May 14) The goal of the Christian life is sanctification, union with God. We are to follow holy Scripture and the traditions of the Fathers, we are to pray fervently and partake of the Sacraments in striving for holy living. In our quest for “deification” we are to abstain from all that […]

(Feast Day ~ May 14)    Time and time again we are reminded that God, in his infinite mercy, will receive even the most dissolute sinners if they repent of their sins and turn to him. The story of the Passion, which we hear many times in Holy Week, gives us the penitent thief as an […]