539. My Search for The Church – Part Two: I find The Church.

  Pray for the people of Ukraine and Gaza. _________________ If you have not read last week’s Post, you really should. Never begin anything in the middle. (Easy access is at the bottom of this Post.) However, for those of you who have read Part One but can’t remember anything about it: A Quick Reprise […]

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534. “Arise!” Here is this Sunday’s sermon two days early.

      I am to present the Homily at Saint Nicholas Church, Cedarburg, this Sunday. I can only keep so many ideas in my mind at one time, so you all are about to read my Sunday “sermon”. (Any members of Saint Nicholas here present have my permission either to stop reading now, or […]

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520. Holy Monday night: Bridegroom Matins

Exaposteilarion at Bridegroom Matins, sung on the first three nights of Holy Week: “Thy bridal chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, but I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me.” from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgK0Fc8QUOs   Pat Tsalgakis at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFrdWVEVKYE Chanted in Arabic […]

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518. Palm Sunday Night: Bridegroom Matins

Introduction In our parish churches, Matins/Orthros is normally sung in the morning. So why, you may ask, are we now suddenly having it in the evening? Also and equally odd, why during Holy Week do we have Vesperal Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (obviously an evening service) in the morning? I’m really sorry you asked […]

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506. The Occasional Virtue of Not Fasting

Or, to take a another angle on the subject,  this might be titled “The Sin of Fake Fasting”. Publicans and Pharisees In next Sunday’s Gospel reading (Luke 18:10-14), which I suspect you could almost recite by heart, we hear about a man who fasted diligently but was condemned by the Lord, and another man who […]

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