On Loss and Change

...  of the Samaritan Woman, May 29, 2016 Acts 11:19-30; John 4:5-42 Rev. Fr. Andrew ...  the change of the world in mind that we come today to this Gospel of the Samaritan Woman, the Woman at the Well. Jesus has come to this ...  of water, and He meets this woman here. She does not know it yet, but her whole world is about to change. This woman is a ...

Who is God? (Part 1 of 8): God is Our Judge

...  of the Last Judgment, March 6, 2016 1 Corinthians 8:8-9:2; Matthew 25:31-46 Rev. ...  not just talking about the world out there who do not know Christ. I am talking about right here, right in our Orthodox Church, ...  is the Sunday of the Last Judgment, because we read this Gospel today. Of the various images that we have of God, the one we may ...

A Failure at Prayer: On the Publican and Pharisee

...  of the Publican and the Pharisee, February 21, 2016 2 Timothy 3:10-15; Luke ...  talk about two failures at prayer, depicted for us in the Gospel reading from Luke 18. The Sunday on which we read the Gospel of the ...  That is, he is a failure who is praying. Now, everyone knows the Publican is a failure. He’s got a bad reputation. Tax collectors ...

A Time of Beginnings: 3 Resolutions for the New Year

...  before the Theophany of Christ, January 3, 2016 2 Timothy 4:5-8; Mark 1:1-8 Rev. Fr. ...  with the patterns of Orthodox liturgical life, you know that this is nothing terribly unusual. We love to layer things on and ...  worth noting here that, while Matthew and Luke begin their Gospels with the birth of Jesus, the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, which we ...

Christmas Means War

...  before the Nativity, December 20, 2015 Hebrews 11:9-10, 32-40; Matthew 1:1-15 Rev. ...  Claus kneeling down at the manger in Bethlehem. And you know what I think about all that? It’s mostly just noise. It’s mostly ...  talk about Christmas. Why? It’s because of what the Gospel is actually about. The Gospel is the declaration of the coming of a new ...

Christ is the Samaritan & I Am the Beaten Man

...  Luke 10:25-37 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God.  ...  This is probably one of the most beloved and well-known passages in Scripture, and it even enjoys some fame outside of Church ...  on giving together with the message of this beautiful Gospel. A lawyer approaches Jesus and wants to know what it takes to have ...

Walking with Luke on the Road to Emmaus

...  of the Apostle and Evangelist Luke, October 18, 2015 Colossians 4:5-11, 14-18; ...  those names we often hear in our services, but we may not know him unless we have taken the time to learn about him. Because today is ...  a little time getting to know him. Luke wrote the third Gospel account, which is why he is called “the Evangelist” and which we ...

How I Made My Peace with “Ethnic” Orthodoxy

The following is from a larger talk I am working on about Orthodoxy in the West. That ...  “Ethnics” (forgive me the shorthand, but I hope you know what I mean) feel out of place at parishes composed mainly of converts or ...  things which in themselves are not antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then that means I am rejecting the people who love ...

Warnings at the Wedding Feast

...  align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Parable of the Wedding Feast, by A. N. Mironov(From Wikimedia ...  of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. The Gospel passage this morning is one that we do not hear every year in our ...  to be suited up? There is a cultural detail we need to know to understand this piece of the story. In that time and place, the ...

The First Fruits of Achaia: Setting Ourselves for the Ministry of the Saints

...  Sunday After Pentecost / Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew, August 30, 2015 I Corinthians 16:13-24; Matthew 21:33-42 Rev. Fr. ...  to the Corinthian Christians from people they might know. But there’s something beautiful lurking in that part between the ...  Our teachers’ task is to teach the Orthodox faith—the Gospel, the Scriptures, the theology, the lives of the saints, and so on. They ...

From “Membership” to Ministry: Feeding the Five Thousand

...  width="1024"] Church Floor in Tabgha, next to the Sea of Galilee(From Wikimedia Commons)[/caption] Feast of St. Paraskeva ...  Amen. We are all familiar with this account from the Gospels of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Though we read today from Matthew ...  etc., but when it comes to church life, where we know that, if we are faithful, we have God Himself on our side, why is it that  ...

St. Paisios and Salvation from Distraction

...  Sunday after Pentecost / Sixth Sunday of Matthew, July 12, 2015 Romans 12:6-14; Matthew 9:1-8 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen ...  silence for about an hour a day: to test himself, to acknowledge his passions and to fight in order to cut them off and purify his ...  to draw near and listen to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel. We as Christians have been and continue to be preached the good ...

Why did God make him blind?

...  of the Blind Man, May 20, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of ...  it was not a lucky day in 1453, and what was formerly known as Pontus or Asia Minor came to be called Turkey, and the city known as ...  encounter this same kind of narrative dynamic in the Gospel of Christ’s healing of the blind man. The Lord’s Apostles provide ...

“Who Shall I Be at Pascha?”: The Cross at the Crossroads

...  is exactly the halfway point between the beginning of Great Lent and the holy day of ...  then there's really no point to any of this. That's the Gospel we're living. There's no other purpose to this holy season than ...  on the Mount from Matthew and the Gospel of John." You know, Lord, that we Orthodox read the entire Gospel in our homes during Holy ...

Lenten Evangelism #6: St. Gregory Palamas and the Paralytic

...  align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Christ and the Paralytic[/caption] Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, March 8, 2015 Rev. ...  heretics, whose assertion was that the highest form of knowledge of God was intellectual—the philosophers, they said, had greater ...  from the beginning of the second chapter of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus was at Capernaum, teaching in a house which was said to be His ...

The Church is Love: More on the Legacy of Fr. Matthew Baker

...  align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Fr. Matthew teaching at Hellenic College[/caption] It's been astounding over the ...  of spirit are part of what makes the actual pursuit of knowledge possible. Reason and learning without love are just cold calculation ...  Holy Spirit in a communion of eternal love. This is the Gospel, that God so loved the world. One of the gifts that Fr. Matthew gave ...

“We need more spiritual brothers”: Losing Fr. Matthew Baker

...  align="alignright" width="320"] Fr. Matthew Baker at his ordination on January 19, 2014[/caption] I awoke this ...  with the charity that comes of being dedicated to knowledge and not making knowledge some kind of competition of possession. He ...  I did indeed see), he somehow had a special gift for the Gospel. [caption id="attachment_3427" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Fr. ...

Lenten Evangelism #3: The Last Judgment

...  align="aligncenter" width="646"] Icon of the Last Judgment[/caption] This sermon can be heard as an audio recording ...  one God. Amen. Today our series on preaching the Gospel—evangelism—continues with the Sunday of the Last Judgment, commonly ...  it is a promise of rescue from eternal suffering. Look, I know that heaven and hell stuff isn’t fashionable, but it’s still real.  ...

On Ecstasy and Laundry: Spiritual Experience in the Orthodox Church

...  id="attachment_3183" align="aligncenter" width="468"] The Ecstasy of Saint Paul, by Nicolas Poussin (1643)From Wikimedia ...  it is himself he is talking about. He simply says “I know a man in Christ” who had this experience. But it has long been ...  teaches us patterns for spiritual life. He preaches the Gospel, which includes teaching what it all means and how to live by it. His ...

Eulogy for My Mother

...  24, 2014[/caption] This eulogy was written for my mother's funeral on August 29, 2014. A few months before, she was diagnosed with ...  and sermons at funerals. Some have been for people I have known for some time, some for only a short time, and some for people I never ...

Spiritual Renewal and the Healing of the Blind

...  of the Blind Man, May 25, 2014 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the ...  of this celebration with the account from John’s Gospel of the healing of the man born blind. Having fasted and prayed our way ...  blind. It is also not his parents’ fault. He does not know any other way of living. Seeing is something he hears people talk about, ...

Returning to the Paradise I’ve Never Seen

...  March 2, 2014 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God.  ...  It is the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. We know what happens when Adam and Eve sin, when they eat of that one thing ...  He loves us without any question. The good news of the Gospel that is revealed to us in a particular, powerful way during this holy ...

Saving the World from Suicide: Localism, Christian Evangelism and the Culture War

The world is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian ...  and strategies we are going to need to pass on what we know to be true to future generations in a culture, legal and otherwise, that ...  but were instead concerned with getting the light of Gospel into a world covered in darkness. So what, then, do we do? I think we ...

The Annunciation and the Absence of God

...  of the Theotokos, 2012 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy ...  news, closely related to Evangelion, the word for “the Gospel.” And yet, somehow, even 2,000 years after the proclamation of this ...  for so much in life—if we want something, we have to know how to ask for it or perhaps how to look for it. The same is very much ...

On the Altar of the Cross

...  align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="The Hill of Crosses, Ć iauliai, Lithuania"][/caption]Sunday of the Adoration of ...  of this world. The Lord Himself says this in today’s Gospel: “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up ...  glory? Doesn’t your heart burn within you not just to know about what is good, what is holy, what is filled with light and ...