(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 […]

(Feast Day ~ May 12) For those of us who are converts to the Orthodox faith, it is sometimes tempting to go to extremes in our zeal for this new way of life. We often become rigorous in our discipline and critical of “cradle” Orthodox Christians for what appears to us as laxity. It should not […]

Feast Day ~ May 9 In the readings which we heard at the Paschal Vigil, we were reminded that the Christian faith did not begin with the birth of Our Lord or His Resurrection, nor with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Christ – and therefore, Christianity – is from before time; He […]

Feast Day ~ May 9 In the readings which we hear at the Paschal Vigil, we are reminded that the Christian faith did not begin with the birth of Our Lord or His Resurrection, nor with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Christ – and therefore, Christianity – is from before time; He […]