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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370. Commercials for Jesus at the Super Bowl?

You get to write this Post. Or at least most of it. Did you watch last Sunday’s Super Bowl? – great game! said he who doesn’t much like football. Did you see the commercials? If you watched very closely, in between the likes of: and perhaps you noticed two short commercials, one of which concluded […]

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369. The Kind and Gentle Bishop who Refused to be Silenced – Saint Meletios of Antioch

Before we get started on Saint Meletios: Does the Orthodox Church celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day? Yes, three times for three Saint Valentines, commemorated on October 24, April 24 and July 6. Hooray for love! but (Saint) Valentine’s Day on February 14 seems to derive from a Roman pagan holiday of love, originally celebrated on February […]

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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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