372. The First Sunday of Lent: a Fast and a Feast

For many years I felt slightly whiplashed by this First Sunday of Great Lent. For a week we’ve been in the the Lenten Fast with its liturgical color: a sombre violet. Then suddenly and seemingly out of context, on this First of Sunday of Lent here comes the gold for the “Sunday of Orthodoxy” and […]

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371. Last Minute Instructions before we go into Lent

If you think this Post reads suspiciously like the text for a homily or sermon… you are a very perceptive person. For reasons I won’t go into, I have suddenly become “un-retired” and am serving as interim priest at my old parish, Saint Nicholas, Cedarburg, Wisconsin. “But, Lord, I was already over-busy in retirement!”  It […]

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368: It’s time to prepare for Lent. Already…?

Yes, already. We just celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple – a “flashback” to Christmas and Christ as an infant. However, the Troparion of the Feast concludes like this: “Rejoice, O righteous Elder; you received in your arms the Redeemer of our souls, Who grants us the Resurrection.” And with […]

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364. Here’s what we’re going to miss again: Christ’s Temptations

Today Friday January 6 is the Epiphany, when we celebrate Christ’s Baptism. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Christ begins His public ministry. Between those events something extremely significant happened, which most Orthodox never hear about. In fact I could find very few Orthodox icons about it. Christ’s Temptations in the Desert Last summer I wrote that […]

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