We are also very happy to accept new or additional pledges toward phase 1 of our building fund / expansion fundraising campaign, toward payments and paydown on the mortgage for the new parish hall.
Palm Sunday homily. In looking at Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, Fr. reflects on the need for inner spiritual peace amid confusion and contradictions.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgg--8QxQlY
Video: https://youtu.be/Ah3wN1UYkvA
Audio: http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pen-sun-08_2022+they-need-not-depart+feeding-5000.mp3
When the disciples were in a desperate situation in a desert place with thousands of hungry people and no means to feed them, the Lord told them that they need not depart. The apparent meaning of the statement is that it was a prelude to the multiplication of five loaves of bread into fishes to feed the multitude. The spiritual meaning applies to every day of our lives.
Partial Timestamps:
0-0:58 The primary theological meaning of the Feeding of the 5000. It is the beginning of a full understanding of the story.
0:58 – 4:11 “They need not depart…” part 1
2:14 – 4:11 The patience of the paralytic is that of a man who “did not depart.”
5:44 – 8:29 I am trying my best, which is not good -enough, but it is getting to be good enough. “They need not depart…” part 2
8:29 – 14:26 A tale from our history – Getting land, and “not departing” (with 2 hiccups) from prayer and patience until our church was built.
15:43 – 17:44 WHY did Jesus tell his disciples to get into a ship without Him after He fed the 5000? There is an apparent reason and a very important spiritual reason. “And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. “ (Matthew 14:22)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3wN1UYkvA
Commentary on the reading for Clean Wednesday, Vespers, Genesis 1:24-2:3. What does it mean when God said to man: "Increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over (all the creatures of the earth)"? The answer can be understood from the most important verse in the bible, just a few verses away: "Let us make man according to Our image and likeness". Great Lent is a perfect time to have this truth resonate in our hearts and for us to change. YouTube: https://youtu.be/9EleEu1r934
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EleEu1r934
The story of the Last Judgment from Matthew 25 makes it very clear that if we do not love we will not be saved. We will be helped to love if we know who we are and where we came from and where we are going. We look at two hymns from the Saturday commemoration of reposed which tell us these things, in particular, one which tells us that we are "on the border / between incorruption and mortality".
Thou hast formed Adam with Thine hand, O Savior, / and set him on the border / between incorruption and mortality; / Thou hast made him share in life through grace, / freeing him from corruption / and translating him to the life that he enjoyed at first. / Give rest, O Master, to Thy servants Thou hast taken from us; / may they dwell with the righteous in the choir of the elect; / write their names in the book of life; / raise them with the sound of the Archangel’s trump, // and count them worthy of Thy heavenly kingdom.
Christ is risen, / releasing from bondage Adam the first-formed man / and destroying the power of hell. / Be of good courage, all ye dead, / for death is slain and hell despoiled; / the crucified and risen Christ is King. / He has given incorruption to our flesh; / He raises us and grants us resurrection, / and He counts worthy of His joy and glory / all who, with a faith that wavers not, // have trusted fervently in Him.
Featuring Fr. Seraphim Holland of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, McKinney, TX. Visit us at orthodox.net
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uRxiLHQgNw
A short meditation on the words of Martha, when she met Jesus, shortly before He would raise Lazarus from the dead. She said she believed, but she did not believe completely. We are Martha too.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/r3blVvxAq8s
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3blVvxAq8s
Some thoughts while watching the sunrise, at North Padre Island beach, and after watching the movie: "A Hidden Life", and chewing on the quote at the end of the movie, which perfectly describes the courageous hidden life of all true Christians and also describes our disordered times of secular fear and compliance with uncanny accuracy. How are we to build this hidden life? If we fail to do so, we are dead, even as we appear outwardly to be alive.
"For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” ― George Eliot, Middlemarch "
YouTube: https://youtu.be/IY8Jia8I3hs
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY8Jia8I3hs
We, in this modern materialistic world, are like the blind man. We cannot see God. We rely on our own strength and our own reasoning. We must be like the blind man in a different sense, begging the Lord for mercy. We are like the mute man, bound by our passions. To meet Christ, we need the support of others. We need to be that support for others.
Romans 15:1–7, Matthew 9:27–35
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfh1YwXvhns