576. First Sunday of Lent: The Triumph of Orthodoxy – A Feast during the Fast

  A blessed and refreshing and challenging Lent to you! This year during Lent (and perhaps through Paschal season as well) we’ll concentrate on the Sunday Scripture readings and themes of the season. We haven’t done this for a while. The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy After all these years, I still feel slightly […]

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572. The Three Hierarchs: The Festival of Learning

Often in history, and most definitely today, we see what happens when people fail to seek truth, disregard facts, and therefore lack knowledge. Serious trouble ensues. We’ll come back to that. But before we get started: The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (The Meeting with Simeon) is on February 2. If you […]

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571. Pre-Lent – already?

Well, actually no. The First Sunday of Pre- Lent (the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee) doesn’t come till February 1. However, next Friday, January 30, I want to talk about the Three Hierarchs’ festival which falls on that very day. So… Today let’s anticipate the Publican and the Pharisee. Then, for the rest […]

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566. Antiochian Metropolitan Saba: “Male and Female He Created Them, in Complementarity”

His Eminence Metropolitan Saba is Archbishop of the Antiochian Christian Archdiocese of North America What follows here is one of Saedna * Saba’s consistently wise and pertinent weekly teachings. This one, published on December 5, 2025, speaks well to one of today’s issues in the Orthodox Church, which also was one of our topics in […]

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565. Many things: 1. Orthodox “Advent”, 2. Santa Claus, 3. Once Upon a Time, 4. Pope Leo, 6. Let’s feast! Let’s fast? 5. Ortho-bros and on-line sectarian “Orthodoxy”, 7. A Peoples’ Church

Here are some shorter items I’ve been saving up. 1. Orthodox “Advent” I put “Advent” in quotes, because it is nowhere found in Orthodox texts, though it is sometimes used as a popular nickname. I loved Anglican Advent. It begins with a flourish on the fourth Sunday before Christmas: the vestments go violet or blue, […]

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