Psalm 140 In his Letter to Marcellinus, St Athanasius states that within the Psalter you will find “all the movements of your soul, all its changes, its ups and downs, its failures and recoveries.” How blessed then are we that the Orthodox Church has enriched its services by use of the psalter. The vespers service in particular includes the chanting of psalm 140 in its entirety. It begins with the pleading words “Lord, I have cried out to you, hear me. Receive the voice of my prayer when I cry out to you”, and is chanted according to the tone [...]

Entrance of the Theotokos On November 21 our Church commemorates the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos. This event is not mentioned in the Holy Gospels, so our source is Holy Tradition, being drawn from the hymnology and iconography of the feast, as well as the writings of the Fathers. When the blessed Virgin was three years old, Joachim and Anna fulfilled their promise to dedicate their child to the Lord. Her father gathered a procession of young pure virgins, each carrying a lit candle. The holy Maiden outran her attendants in her great zeal to enter [...]

St Basil the Great on Attentiveness St Basil’s sermon on attentiveness is based on Deuteronomy 15:9: “Be attentive to yourself, lest an unlawful word be hidden in your heart”. It can be found in the book titled On the Human Condition, which contains a collection of St Basil’s homilies and writings published by St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. Focusing on the first phrase, St Basil discusses the usefulness of attentiveness and explains that it is a God-given gift for our protection. Just as animals have the abilities required to defend themselves in the wild, so we have attentiveness. But against what [...]

The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) The Lord said that “there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously each day” (v19). This man possessed every known comfort. Many would say he was successful and had made it. Poor Lazarus “full of sores, lay abandoned at his gate” (v20). Lazarus was consumed with thirst at the very edge of the spring. The two men then died. The theatre performance, being their lives on Earth, abruptly ended. The masks that they both wore were removed and the truth revealed. The rich man, [...]

How was the common cup for Holy Communion instituted? The profound Sacrament of Holy Communion was instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper and is recorded in all the gospels. As Jesus and His twelve disciples were consuming the traditional Jewish Passover meal, Jesus took bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is My body” (Mark 14:22). He then took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and gave it to His disciples who all drank from the one cup, saying, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many” (Mark [...]