“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”(Luke 24:5), the angel asked the Myrrh-bearing women. These faithful followers of Christ had come to the tomb to complete the Jewish burial rituals for the dead. They expected to find the battered body of their crucified Master. Instead, they met an angel with news beyond comprehension and an empty tomb to prove it. The Son of God has triumphed. The Life-Giver is more powerful than death. The grave could not contain the uncontainable God. Read more...
During the Ecclesiastical Year, the sacred period of Great Lent is distinguished. The first week of Great Lent is called “Clean Week,” the allotted time when we are to begin abstaining and fasting for our cleansing from harmful distractions. The first day of Great Lent is Clean Monday and we realize that true fasting is not only the abstention of certain foods, but is foremost the deliverance from anger, rage, gossip, lies, hate and slander. Read more...
"I too will proclaim the greatness of this day: the immaterial becomes incarnate, the Word is made flesh, the invisible makes itself seen, the intangible can be touched, the timeless has a beginning, the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, always the same, yesterday, today and for ever." St. Gregory the Theologian, Oration 38, For Christmas Read more...
"We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your Name is near." -Psalm 75:1 Read more...
In the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, the celebrant boldly, yet with great humility, beseeches our Lord: “Preserve marriages in peace and harmony; nurture the infants; instruct the youth; strengthen the elderly; give courage to the faint-hearted, reunite those separated; bring back those in error; defend the widows; protect the orphans…” These words took on new meaning for me in 2005 when I was elected to serve as the Shepherd of our holy Metropolis. Read more...
The next two weeks, all Orthodox Christians prepare to commemorate the feast of the Falling Asleep – Koimisis or Dormition – of the Virgin Mary. It is a time to recall the sacred role that the Mother of God expressed for our salvation. With a period of fasting and Supplication Services – Paraklesis – our attention will center on the final days of the All-Holy Mother of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. While this Feast celebrates her death, we should also use these days to remember her life and what our Church teaches about Her. Read more...
"We have seen Christ's Resurrection." These words reveal a magnificent statement of our Orthodox faith. While they are recited at every Sunday Orthros service in our churches, in the Orthros of Pascha, this proclamation carries a message that should touch us even more profoundly. Midway through Orthros we will proclaim these words with a freshly lit Paschal candle in our hands and after singing the triumphant "Christ Is Risen" many times. We will have already heard the Good News, the essential message of Christianity, that Jesus of Nazareth has risen from the dead. Our response to the message is indeed, "We have seen Christ's Resurrection". Read more...
Just a few days before we complete our Lenten journey this year we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation. The Good News that the Savior shall be born of Mary cannot be overlooked, and even though it is still Great Lent, we shall joyously celebrate this feast of freedom. Read more...
“But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting" (Matthew 6:17). These words of our Lord, as written in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, are addressed to each one of us personally. They underscore the centrality of fasting in the process of our salvation, as well as the vital need for fasting. Read more...
As a spiritual family, we have been joined in prayer throughout these recent days, praying for our Lord’s mercy to be upon all those traumatized by the recent earthquake in Haiti. I implore you to maintain consistent prayers as a first step towards healing for the millions affected, either directly or indirectly, by this tragedy. As responsible stewards of the grace that God has entrusted to us, I call upon each parish community of the Metropolis of San Francisco to cultivate this prayerful response into a response of tangible action. Read more...
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Third Finding of the Precious Head of St. John the Baptist
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