Gospel Reading July 2nd (Matthew 8:5-13) Jesus Heals a Centurion's Servant   In this Gospel reading, a centurion pleads with Jesus in the town of Capernaum: “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented” (v. 6). Jesus responds, “I will come and heal him”, but the centurion answers: “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed!” (v. 8). The centurion teaches us many lessons about the humility required in cultivating our personal relationship with Christ. We know that he was an important man [...]

Gospel Reading May 7th (John 5:1-15) Sunday of the Paralytic   On the third Sunday after Easter, we read in the Gospel of John about Christ’s visit to the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where there lay “a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed, waiting for the moving of the water”. The fact that only one person at a time was healed by the occasional appearance of the angel was not a limitation of God’s power, but rather a pedagogic means through which the people could be led, through patience, to place all their hope in God. The [...]

Gospel Reading February 5th (Luke 18:10-14) Sunday of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee The Lenten Triodion, marking the period of ten weeks leading up to Pascha, begins with the Sunday of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee. During this time, the Church calls us to focus on our personal repentance and relationship with Christ. In this parable, the Pharisee had kept correctly all the external rules of uprightness. For example, he was not an adulterer, he fasted twice a week, and he regularly gave away one tenth of all he possessed. Outwardly he did all the right things, and [...]

Gospel Reading Sunday 1st January (Luke 2:20-21, 40-52)   During the period between Christmas and Theophany, many of the Gospel readings are focused on the life of the young Jesus. One reading during this period is Luke 2:40-52. In this passage we read that Jesus’ parents would go to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. When Jesus was twelve years of age, He went to Jerusalem with His parents, as was the usual custom. When the feast was over, the young Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem for three days. His parents initially assumed He was with them [...]

Gospel Reading Sunday November 20th (Luke 12:16-21) This passage recounts the parable of the rich fool, which Jesus narrated to warn against the dangers of material possessions dominating our life, corrupting our spiritual journey towards the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus describes the life of a rich man whose fields yield a great harvest. In fact, the fields yielded so plentifully that the rich man did not have enough room in his barns to house all that he was harvesting. He then set about building bigger barns and said to himself proudly: “soul you have many goods laid up for many [...]