521. Holy Tuesday morning Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

Troparion of Bridegroom Matins: Kievan chant, sung by “Archangel Voices” Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is that servant whom He shall find awake, but unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death, […]

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516. 1) Palm Sunday Eve (Saturday) Vespers. 2) How to keep Holy Week.

For those who may not know: I’m repeating my annual series of twice-daily Posts during Holy Week. Before we begin: As we move towards this Holy Week please be sure to pray especially for the 35  million Orthodox people of Ukraine, some of whom again this year will not be able to get to church […]

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515. Lazarus Saturday morning Divine Liturgy

   Now we begin our twice-daily commentaries on the services and themes of Holy Week and Pascha – based on talks I gave at these services during the twenty-five years when I was Pastor of Saint Nicholas Church, Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Each year I’ve altered them just a bit as I’ve come across new information, to […]

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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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505. The Return of the Groundhog

That’s a devious way of saying this is a re-run of my old Post, written seven years ago: The Groundhog Who Stole Candlemas When I look back at my former Posts, almost invariably I’m unhappy with them. I think I surely could have written that better. Except for this one. Forgive me, but I really […]

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