St Peters Orthodox Church

The miraculous conception and birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary removed the shame of barrenness from her parents, Saints Joachim & Anna. She was a precursor of the One Who would come through her to remove the shame of us all, our Lord Jesus Christ. To honor this most blessed among women, we look to the types fulfilled by her in the Old Testament. She is the fulfillment of the Ark of the Covenant, the burning bush, and the golden candle stand in the Tabernacle. As we do so, we remember that when we consider the Mother of God, she either reveals something wondrous about her Son our Lord, or we see something of our most true selves because of Him.

Our Gospel reading today is Jesus' teaching of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The harmony of the early Church Fathers teach us that this parable is actually the great parable of our salvation; God's wisdom and design for how He would bring mankind to salvation. Jesus is the Samaritan who sees the fallen man robbed and beaten half dead. It is He who begins to heal him with oil and wine (the Sacraments). Jesus brings the broken man into the inn (the Church, the House of Healing) for the completion of the fallen man's healing and restoration. This parable is about all of us. It reveals the love, compassion, and mercy of our God. And, it reveals to us that wonder that we have been invited to join with Christ in His ministry of salvation, by grace, for all who have been brought into the inn.

In the healing of the deaf man, Christ’s command “Ephphatha”-“Be opened” reveals something deeper than the restoration of physical hearing and speech: it points toward the restoration of humanity’s communion with God. Echoed in the ancient Western baptismal rite and described by St. Ambrose as the “mystery of opening,” this Gospel sign recalls how sin gradually closed humanity’s ears to God and reduced our speech about Him to a stammer. In Christ, the divine Word enters creation to reopen what had been closed, and in baptism He gives us anew the capacity to hear Him, speak to Him, and truly pray. Yet the opened ears of baptism must be continually trained through the life of the Church-through Scripture, Liturgy, fasting, almsgiving, and the lives of the saints-especially in an age filled with the constant noise of information and distraction. Christ continues to say Ephphatha to each of us, calling us toward the restored communion of Eden and ultimately the New Creation; the question is whether we will cultivate the ears to hear Him.

In our Faith, we are taught that one of the foundational prayers of the Christian in fellowship with God is, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." We know this as the Jesus Prayer. And, why is this prayer known to us to be such a foundational prayer for the one in Christ? Because of our need for the mercy of God always. But to understand this prayer for mercy, we must consider the true scope of the God's mercy. We tend to think of mercy as the covering of our sins, an unearned forgiveness by a merciful God. And, while this is a wondrous layer of God's mercy. God's mercy is even far more vast than that. There is more to God's mercy than even the blessed gift of His forgiveness. Today, we seek to gain a greater understanding of the mercy of God. As we do, we will find that we are in need of His mercy at every moment of our lives.

Today is the Feast of St. Joachim, father to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Joachim was a devout and faithful man of God all of his life, yet he had to endure shame; the shame of barrenness at a time where the culture of the day believed such a condition to be a result of sin. He and his wife St. Anna pleaded with God all their adult life, even to an old age, for God to show mercy and relieve them of their shame by granting them a child. Today, we look at the life of St. Joachim to discover the path where the mercy of God overcomes the shame in our lives. That path is to let the shame that is in our lives press us urgently directly to the Lord Who is mercy.

On the Feast of the Dormition, the Church celebrates the beautiful repose of the Theotokos and her entrance, body and soul, into the heavenly sanctuary. Her death and glorification reveal the beauty and hope of the general resurrection: the Mother of God follows her Son through death into transfigured life. Drawing upon the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant, the Psalms, and the Fathers, the homily presents Mary as the true and living Ark who bore within herself Christ—the fulfillment of the Law, the eternal High Priest, and the Bread of Life. Just as King David brought the Ark into Jerusalem, Christ, the New David, receives His Mother into the heavenly Jerusalem, escorted not by oxen but by the hosts of angels. The Dormition therefore calls the faithful not merely to explain or categorize a doctrine, but to behold and celebrate the beauty of what Christ has accomplished in His Mother and what, through the resurrection, He promises to accomplish in all who belong to Him.

This homily examines the difficult Parable of the Unjust Steward through St. Augustine’s insight that Christ commends the steward not for his dishonesty, but for the urgency and foresight with which he prepares for his future. If the children of this world devote such energy, attention, and ingenuity to securing temporary prosperity, Christians should examine how seriously they pursue the eternal Kingdom of God. The great danger is not necessarily that we reject repentance, prayer, generosity, forgiveness, or spiritual growth, but that we continually postpone them, believing the subtle lie that “repentance is for tomorrow.” Yet the past cannot be changed, the future is not promised, and the present is the only time actually given to us. Christian urgency, however, is not motivated by terror but by love for a merciful Father and gratitude that the door of repentance remains open. Therefore, Christ calls us to be shrewd for the Kingdom: to recognize every ordinary opportunity to become more like Him and to begin again today—to pray, give, forgive, read, repent, and give thanks while there is still time.

This homily reflects on the growing number of people entering the Orthodox Church and argues that, beneath attractions such as ancient worship, community, or cultural concerns, many converts are searching for something profoundly theological: a real encounter with God and the possibility of being transformed by Him. The Feast of the Transfiguration reveals the heart of that longing, as Christ manifests His divine glory on Mount Tabor and shows His disciples both who He truly is and what humanity is called to become through participation in His divine life. Yet the path to that glory cannot bypass Golgotha. Just as the disciples must descend from Tabor and follow Christ toward the Cross, Christians are transfigured through the crucifixion of their passions, perseverance, and faithfulness even when the initial beauty and excitement of the spiritual life fade. The homily ultimately encourages believers not to mistake spiritual dryness for failure, but to continue ascending toward God in hope, trusting that through the Cross He is transforming them into His likeness.

In Romans 8, St. Paul tells us that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in us. Stop for a moment; what a wondrous thought and powerful reality. St. Paul goes on to say, therefore, we can either live by the flesh, which produces death in our lives; or, we can live by the Spirit, which bestows life. Today we focus on living by the Spirit of God. What does a life led by the Holy Spirit look like? What are the results of living a life led by the Holy Spirit? These are our thoughts for the day.

Why does the term "Christian struggle" have a negative connotation to us? It truly should not, if understood properly. Today we look at what a healthy Christian struggle toward Christ looks like. St. Anne (the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary), whose feast day we celebrate today, had a condition that brought her shame as she could not conceive a child all through her adult life. Yet everyday she kept struggling toward God with constant cries for mercy and to be released from this condition that brought her shame. The woman with the issue of blood struggled through a multitude just to get to Jesus and touch the hem of his garment. They are not unlike all of us. We struggle with besetting sins and dysfunctions that bring us shame. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. In this parable he invites us to keep coming to Him again and again until He acts on our behalf. What is the Christian struggle? How can we see it as a medicine provided by Christ that unites us to His grace and mercy. These are our reflections in this sermon.

If we are honest, I think we struggle sometimes to believe that we will ever overcome our core besetting sins or be released from our addictions. This is for, at least, two reasons. Perhaps we do not see and behold God clearly for Who He is and what union with Him affords us. And, we do not understand with clarity the Divine Grace of God that saves all who are in Christ Jesus. Today, we set our thoughts on the Divine Grace of God; for it is the very power of God that He shares with us so that we may be delivered, healed, and raised up to a new life.

We need the growing faith of Simon Peter, as seen in the Gospel of St. Luke 5. As Jesus comes to Capernaum, Simon Peter has a growing experience with Christ our God. Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law from a dangerously high fever; Peter sits in his boat at the feet of Jesus as the Word of God reveals the Kingdom of God to a multitude; and then Peter experiences the miraculous catch of fish. His growing mustard seed of faith was enough to follow the command of Christ for Peter to take his boat into deeper waters and let down his net. Peter, Andrew, James, and John had fished all night and caught nothing the night before. And while Peter did not understand how fishing again that day could be productive, his response to Christ was, "At Your word, I will." That is when the miracle happened. Jesus invited Peter to cooperate with a great work of Christ; one that Christ had already prepared to be successful by having the fish He had created ready to be caught. Jesus is always going before us, preparing the way. We have the joy of being invited into the salvation works of Christ. Will we say, "At your word, I will"?

In this sermon, Fr. James Rooney reflects on the story of the golden calf and God's call - we must abandon the false gods we create in our own image, and instead, learn to follow the living God on His terms. Rather than allowing culture, personal preferences, or worldly values to shape our understanding of God, we are called to encounter Him through worship, Scripture, and faithful obedience. As we surrender our preconceived notions and follow Christ along the narrow path, He grants us the grace to grow deeper into His mystery, continually transforming us and drawing us closer to Himself.

When we hear the term repentance, what comes to mind? A lifestyle of true Christian repentance is filled with joy and wonder. It causes hope to spring up within us and keeps hope before us. Too often, we are deceived by an enemy wanting us to believe that repentance is self-loathing; that repentance is some form of unhealthy groveling before God. When we live from that lie, repentance over our sinfulness and fallenness leads to despair, despondency, and even hiding from God. But this is not true Christian repentance. Today, we seek to have this lie undone. Repentance is the path back home to God. It is the path that brings us to what Christ our God has always wanted to offer us: His healing, a new life, the joy of experiencing His mercy; a very real coming home to Him.

In Luke 14, Jesus tells the Parable of the Great Banquet. In this parable we have the Nature of God behind the gift of this important banquet revealed to us. The Nature of God is to gather the broken to Himself that they might be made whole again. The Nature of God is to provide precisely what every soul needs to be raised up from the condition the fall of man left us in. As Jesus said when He instituted the Lord's Supper, "It is with fervent desire that I have longed to eat this Passover with you." In this parable we see the weight of importance God puts upon this heavenly meal. The banquet is the Eucharist. Our God avails Himself to be present among us. He invites us to come and receive life. Our response, "Lord, we come. Here we are. Heal us, redeem us, and have mercy upon us."

We are now in the liturgical season of Trinitytide, also known as Ordinary Time. But this Ordinary Time is far from mundane or common as our culture understands ordinary. It speaks to the "ordinary" life of those living in the realized and manifest Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. It is in Trinitytide that our Lord disciples us as to how we should live in His Kingdom for our salvation and the salvation of the world. On this first week of Trinitytide, we are taught that we are to become love by our encounters with Christ our God and become the expression of that same love to one another and to the world.

Eternal life, mercy, forgiveness of sins, covenant meal that keeps us in Christ and He in us. These are but a few of the very real benefits Christ our God bestows upon us through bread and wine that He has made His Body and Blood for us. Jesus teaches us this directly in the Gospel of John and chapter 6. The very generation following the Apostles testify to the experience of all of these benefits in this blessed Sacrament. And, the Church passes on the ministry of Christ to His people through the Eucharist even today. The Feast of Corpus Christi is the remembrance of the eternal benefits Christ has wrought for us in the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. And, this Feast is our opportunity to offer great thanksgiving to Christ this great gift, the gift of Himself.

On Trinity Sunday, the Church enters the long season of Trinitytide, often called Ordinary Time—not because it is plain or unimportant, but because it is the ordered season in which Christians learn to live out the faith revealed in the great mysteries of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. As living temples of the Holy Trinity, believers are called to contemplate the mystery of the one God in three Persons, a truth revealed throughout Scripture and faithfully confessed by the Church. Though God remains beyond full human comprehension, He has revealed Himself as both Trinity and Love. The eternal communion of self-giving love shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit becomes the pattern for Christian life. Throughout Trinitytide, the faithful are invited to grow in this Trinitarian love toward God, neighbor, and self, learning to hear Christ’s voice and follow His will in the daily journey toward salvation.

Christ our God, having Ascended, has opened the gates of Paradise to mankind for the first time since the Fall of man. He forged the path for us to ascend in Him to be with Him forever. Today, on the Day of Pentecost, we are given everything we need to be with Him forever. Today God sends Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit and He is poured into us. Today, the age of the healing of the souls of mankind and the redemption of all Creation has dawned. We have Living Water poured into us that we might be made whole again. And, this Living Water overflows out of us with the fruit and wondrous continuing ministry of Jesus Christ for the healing of all around us.

In this sermon for Ascensiontide, the faithful are reminded that Christ’s Ascension is not His departure from humanity but the exaltation of human nature itself, as Jesus ascends bodily to the right hand of the Father and prepares His Church for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Drawing from Scripture and the teachings of St. John Chrysostom and St. Seraphim of Sarov, the sermon presents Pentecost as the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to baptize His people with the Holy Spirit and fire, establishing the Church as the living Body of Christ. Through Chrismation, every Christian experiences a personal Pentecost and is called to pursue “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit” through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and every good work done purely for Christ’s sake. Rejecting mere moralism and worldly recognition, the sermon calls believers to live in communion with God despite misunderstanding or opposition from the world, preparing their hearts during Ascensiontide to receive the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who has overcome the world and invites His people to reign with Him in the age to come.

The Angels were in wonder as Christ our God ascended into Heaven. They were in wonder because, in Him, humanity reentered Paradise for the first time since mankind was banished from Paradise at the fall. Can you imagine it? The Angels behold Christ in human form, enter Paradise, ascend beyond even them, and be seated on the "throne of glory," as St. Leo the Great taught. How far the Word of God went to restore us to our rightful condition and our rightful home. In Christ, we are all kept before the Father for all eternity that we may be saved and with Him, where He is, for all eternity.

The summary of the Collect prayer for the Fifth Sunday After Easter Mass is this: "All good things come from you, O Lord. Grant that we may think as You think, desire what You desire, and do what You do." The good works of Christ being manifest through us are, by far, not depended upon our perfection. They are completely dependent on His perfection being the strength in our weaknesses and frailties as well as the fullness that completes what we lack. Our created purpose is to know our God, and from knowing Him to glorify Him as He manifests Himself through us. There our joy is made full.

Today we celebrate Mass for the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross; a Feast Day that celebrates how the Holy Cross of our Lord was discovered by St. Helen, mother of St. Constantine, after the Roman persecution of Christ and His Church. What a blessing we have so soon after Holy Week of remembering the might and loving work of Jesus Christ for us upon the Cross once again. Today we remember two revelations of what Christ accomplished for us as He lowered Himself to suffering and death on the Cross. By the Cross, we are delivered as Satan and the demonic are thrown down and maimed. And, by the Cross of Christ, we are healed. The moments in time of Christ our God upon the Cross were the very moments where everything changes. The Fall is undone and the age of the salvation of mankind is opened.

Jesus said in John 10, "I am the good Shepherd." The good is defined by the actions rooted in the virtue of the Shepherd on behalf of the sheep. Who He is and what He does for our salvation is what makes Him good. Today, we use the Icon of the Good Shepherd to see how it reveals the nature of our good Shepherd to us. Christ our God reveals Himself to us so that we might know Him, be drawn to Him, and follow Him all of our days.

As is tradition each year in the Orthodox Church, on this day we hear the blessed Paschal homily once preached by St. John Chrysostom.

This sermon reflects on the Resurrection account in St. Matthew, drawing attention to the plural “Sabbaths” in the Greek to reveal the profound transition from the old covenant of rest under the Law to the new and eternal rest inaugurated by Christ. While Christ’s body lay in the tomb, His soul descended into Hades, as described by St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, to liberate Adam, Eve, and all the righteous, proclaiming victory over sin and death and calling humanity to rise with Him into new life. This moment marks not only the defeat of death and the devil, but the fulfillment of the Law and the beginning of a restored creation, where God’s commandments are no longer external but written on the hearts of His people. Living now in this “age after the Sabbaths,” believers are invited to enter into the eternal day of the Resurrection, where Christ, the Life Himself, leads humanity out of darkness and into the fullness of divine communion.

Tonight we have arrived where Christ has been leading us during the entirety of Lent. We have come to the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here, love is manifest for us all to see and experience. Not that we feel love only, but that we become the love that we see. How far Christ our God went that we might regain all that we had lost. When we see His great sufferings, we encounter His great love. The Prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 52, tells us that Christ's sufferings would render Him unrecognizable. His disfigurement would make the for us to regain the original form that we lost in the fall of man.

On Maundy Thursday, we see two Divine and extraordinary actions of Christ our God on behalf of us all. The Lord of all disrobes and puts on the garb of a common household servant and washes the feet of His disciples. And, our Lord instituted the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, on the night He was betrayed. At the washing of the feet, blessed St. Peter had trouble coping with what Christ needed to do for Him. At first, he denied our Lord what He desired to to him. Receiving the love and ministry of Christ to us is not always naturally comfortable to us. Yet, we are the ones in great need of that very love and ministry. Tonight, we look at this, that we may thankfully receive and keep receiving the love of Christ that heals the soul.

As we gaze upon the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see the most wondrous revelation of the love of God for mankind. We see the immense suffering. We see how far God lowered Himself so that our nakedness from the fall could be clothed with His glory. But we most certainly do not stop there. As we look upon the suffering, we rejoice in the victory. Our deliverer has delivered us. His blood is shed to cover the sins of mankind, reaching back to Adam, the first to fall. That precious blood stretches forward to cover the sins of mankind until Christ comes again. Tonight, as St. Paul instructs us, we glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This sermon calls Christians to recognize Christ’s suffering not as a substitute that removes their own trials, but as the perfect model by which they are to measure and endure their own crosses. Emphasizing that Christ descended, suffered, and endured mockery to lead humanity into glory with Him, the message insists that the path to resurrection always passes through suffering. Drawing on the witness of the martyrs and the profound prayer of St. Nicholas Velimirovich—written amid the horrors of Dachau concentration camp imprisonment—the sermon highlights the transformative power of suffering when embraced with humility, even to the point of blessing one’s enemies. Ultimately, believers are exhorted to bear the particular cross given to them with patience and love, trusting that through these trials God conforms them to the image of Christ and leads them into true spiritual freedom and eternal glory.

In Mark 14, we are given the testimony of the woman with the alabaster jar of oil coming to Jesus. She falls at His feet, breaking the jar open and pouring the oil upon His head and feet. Jesus says that this woman's actions will be proclaimed in every Gospel throughout the whole world. How important is this to us, then? The Church has handed down to us that the infinitely valuable jar of oil is indeed the human soul. This sinful woman poured out her worship and repentance before Christ. Her soul was broken and poured out upon Him. And there, she received and experienced the Divine mercy of her Savior. May our souls be broken and poured out upon Christ that we may experience the same.

This sermon reflects on Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as both the fulfillment of Old Covenant prophecy and a foreshadowing of His final return in glory, emphasizing the contrast between those who laid down garments and those who offered only palm branches as a symbol of varying degrees of self-surrender to Christ. As Holy Week begins, the faithful are called to move beyond partial devotion and instead offer their whole lives—heart, soul, mind, and body—to the Lord, uniting themselves more fully to His Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. The preacher urges intentional participation in the sacred liturgies of the week, renewed commitment to fasting and repentance, and a detachment from worldly concerns, reminding believers that this sacred time is uniquely filled with grace—enough to sustain the soul for the year—and that through sharing in Christ’s suffering, they may also share in His eternal glory.

Today is Passion Sunday. All of the Icons of our Lord Jesus Christ have been covered. What prompts this? In John 8, our Lord Jesus Christ reveals His true Identity, proclaiming Himself publicly in the Temple to be the "I AM." The masses took up stones to stone Him for His blasphemy, and we are told that He was hidden from them as He passed through them, for it was not yet His time. From whom was He hidden? He was hidden from those who rejected the true revelation of His identity. He was hidden from those whose souls did not perceive the need for Him. But our Lord would go on to be greatly revealed to those who believed that He had come to minister to them and heal their lives. We want to be a people who see Christ for Who He truly is, and not as we make Him out to be. We want to be those who receive Him and, in our need for Him, come to Him that He might minister to us. Christ is hidden from all others, not by His will, but by the will of those who keep Him at a distance.

Here, just beyond the midway point of Lent, we are given a Mass that bears the name "rejoice!" We remember today that "rejoice!" is not a suggestion, but rather a command. Our God is worthy of our praise, and we are in great need of making that offering. Rejoicing, thanksgiving, praising God; that spiritual discipline is oxygen to the Christian soul. We rejoice because, if we have failed in the little that Christ has asked us to do (to take the medication He has offered for our healing; fasting, prayer, and almsgiving), as long as we have breath we have another day to begin and experience Christ's healing and transformation. And we rejoice because He only asks us to offer a little. He fills what lacks in our offering with Himself and does wonders for our salvation.

After Jesus' Baptism, the Holy Spirit leads Him to fast and pray in the wilderness for 40 days. After the 40 days, Satan comes to tempt Jesus when Satan perceives Him to be weak. The deceiver was deceived and his temptations were easily thrown down. Jesus fasted and prayed for those 40 days to make a path for us to do the same. By fasting and praying for 40 days by grace, Jesus empowers us to share in the same victory over Satan in our own lives. But what is the fast God calls us to do? Is it just food? Absolutely not. Today we look at the fast our Lord has called us to.

We begin Lent with blessed ashes being placed upon our foreheads. The ashes remind us to keep our mortality daily before us, so that we press into Christ everyday as if that one day is all we have to experience Him and His wondrous healing in our lives. And, in the Old Covenant, God's people would put on sackcloth and pour ashes over their heads. This was always an external sign of internal suffering. It always accompanied the cry for mercy and relief from God. So, we walk into Lent invited by God to return to Him, come to Him. Come to Him with our pains, sufferings, wounded consciences. For He is the God of mercy Who delights in giving mercy to all who return to Him.

As the Church commemorates the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch, we remember not the greatness of a man, but the greatness of God’s mercy. Peter, who once denied Christ in fear and wept bitterly, became the shepherd of the Church because he chose repentance instead of despair. In contrast to Judas, whose sorrow led to hopelessness, Peter’s tears became the seed of restoration and mission. As Lent approaches, this feast calls us to the heart of the Christian life: receiving God’s mercy and extending that same mercy to others. Our fasting, prayer, and almsgiving bear fruit only when they are rooted in the compassion that restored Peter and continues to restore us.

We see in the Luke 18 Jesus, with the multitude of His followers, drawing near to Jericho. There a blindman hears the noise and finds out that Jesus is coming. He cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Some of Christ's followers tell him to "be quiet." So the blindman cries out all the louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus restores his sight and tells him that his faith made him well. This blindman's suffering had made him desperate to be relieve. And, he believe that Jesus was the only hope he had to have his sight restored. Have we had enough of our sufferings to press toward Christ when our enemy and our own fallen humanity tell us to "be quiet?"

As we are in our three-week preparation for Great Lent, we are reminded that, in Orthodoxy, Lent is known as the Springtime of the Soul. For one, Lent occurs as Winter passes and we enter into Spring. But it is also known as the Springtime of the soul because everything that we see happen in nature, as it comes out of its lesser existence of being dormant and begins to live and bloom, is precisely what our Lord desires for the soul of His beloved children. Today, we discuss this transformation and focus on the importance of the condition of the soil of our soul as this spiritual Springtime sets upon us.

Septuagesima is the Church’s merciful call to begin preparing for the Lenten journey, reminding believers that earthly life is a temporary exile and a pilgrimage back to the heavenly Jerusalem. Drawing on biblical symbolism of the number seventy and St. Gregory the Great’s interpretation of the laborers in the vineyard, the message emphasizes that we live in the “eleventh hour,” yet are promised the same reward of eternal life by God’s generosity rather than our merit. Pre-Lent is described as a motherly warning to simplify life, practice temperance, and prepare through fasting, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, and renewed spiritual discipline. Holding together sorrow for sin and hopeful joy in Christ’s healing, the sermon urges the faithful to respond with humility and urgency, remembering that time is short and the Master still calls all into His vineyard of repentance and resurrection hope.

Stations 4 & 5 sung by a Cantor and choir

In the Gospel of St. Luke 2, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph present Christ our God to blessed St. Simeon in the Temple. There, the Messiah is revealed to both the aged Priest Simeon and the aged prophetess Anna, both of whom had been eagerly waiting for the Consolation of Israel to come. Christ our God was revealed to them, which brought them great joy and welled up great praise from within them. They needed Christ to be revealed to them. We have the same need for Christ to shine upon us and reveal Himself to us again and again in our lives. Today, we consider how they waited for this revelation to learn how we, too, might wait upon God daily.

In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 8, we are given the testimonies of Christ our God healing the leper and the servant of the centurion. The leper comes before Christ to intercede for his own sufferings. The centurion comes before Christ to intercede for the sufferings of someone else, other than himself. Both of these men come before Christ with two very important virtues. Both the leper and the centurion petitioned Christ with faith and humility. This sermon examines the true faith and the humility with which we should come to Christ as His Kingdom of Priests; a Kingdom ordained by God for the ministry of intercession, both for ourselves and on behalf of others.

The Magi were drawn by the light of the star to experience the Light of the World. Epiphany means the manifestation or showing forth of God in the person of Jesus Christ so that we may experience and know our God. How do we live a life for the ongoing Epiphany experience of God for the healing and transformation of our souls? In Romans 12, the St. Paul gives us the words we say in every Mass: "And here we offer ourselves." Today it is suggested that we start by offering our need and our brokenness to God for His help and mending. To those who do so, His Epiphany will be made manifest out of God's love for them.

This sermon reflects on the Feast of the Three Magi, tracing their Persian origins, their roots in Zoroastrian priesthood, and their remarkable response to a Messianic hope only dimly perceived through their own tradition. Drawn by the sign of the star, the Magi journey in humility toward a Messiah they do not yet fully understand, offering gifts that prophetically reveal Christ’s identity as King (gold), God (frankincense), and Healer who conquers death through suffering (myrrh). Their offerings mirror the true gift God desires from every believer: the total offering of oneself—hopes, sorrows, joys, and obedience—returned in thanksgiving to the One who gave all first. Their willingness to follow God’s guidance beyond familiar paths leads them not only to Christ but to transformation, as they “return another way,” a theme echoed by Pope St. Gregory the Great’s teaching on repentance and obedience. In this light, the sermon connects the Magi’s journey to the newly illumined entering the Church, reminding all the faithful that once Christ is encountered, there can be no return to former ways, only a continual movement toward deeper communion with God and the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Name of Jesus is His essence, His character, and His authority. God's desire, from the beginning of creation, was for mankind to represent God; to represent His Name to all of creation. Christ our God became incarnate, He took on a body and all of our fallenness. After His Ascension, the Holy Spirit was poured out, and He took on a body again; all of us, the Body of Christ. Those who live in prayerful humility, knowing their need for Christ, to those He shares His Name, saves them, and glorifies Himself through them to others.

One of the great and important Feasts of the Christian Faith is the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord. A great question is, "Why is our Lord's Circumcision such an important event?" All of the Feasts that center around something specific that our Lord accomplished (His conception, birth, crucifixion, Resurrection, etc.) reveal to us something that Christ our God accomplished, so very necessary for our salvation. In other words, God became man and by these wondrous acts, paved the way for us to ascend with Him to Paradise. In His Circumcision, our Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the Law, bringing an end to the Old Covenant. And, later, through His Baptism (so tied to His Circumcision), Christ our God inaugurates the New Covenant for the salvation of mankind. Our Lord is the bridge between the Old and New Covenants; He is the way to Paradise.

Today is the Feast Day of the Holy Innocents, those first martyrs at the hand of Herod for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. The presence of Christ in the world illumines the darkness, we say. It causes light to shine in our darkness, which raises to the surface all hidden darkness. It rises to the surface that Christ might heal. The love of God is a refiner's fire, as the prophet Malachi said. It brings the impurities to the surface by its heat, so that the refiner scrapes it away and the precious metal is purified. The fire of the love of God either consumes or it purifies. It consumed Herod. It purified Isaiah (from Isaiah 6). Whether it consumes or purifies us is utterly dependent on how we respond to what Christ reveals to us out of His great love for us.

Our Lord Jesus Christ lowered Himself to be born in a cave, the place where animals were kept. He was not born in a palace or a Temple. He was born in a lowly, dark, and smelly cave. And there, the Light of the World illumined that dark place. This was the first Bethlehem. The only reason He was born in the first Bethlehem is that He might be born in the second Bethlehem. The second Bethlehem is the soul of any who would invite Him in. He does not looking for a clean place to enter. He is looking for those who would say to Him, "God, come to my ruin and make yourself a home there."

On the Third Sunday of Advent, we are reminded of such an integral aspect of our relational experience with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The name of this Mass in Latin is Gaudete, a word that means "rejoice." St. Paul, in Philippians 4, teaches us to rejoice and that we are to rejoice even in times of anxiousness and troubling times and events. Our intercessions and cries in our times of suffering are to be interlaced with praise to God. Today we talk about keeping a living remembrance of the loving works of God on our behalf. For it is rejoicing that gives birth to hope and protects us from despair.