The Eastern Rite

Romans 2:10-16 (Epistle) Matthew 4:18-23 (Gospel) Hebrews 11:33-12:2 Epistle, Saints Matthew 4:25-5:12 Gospel, Saints For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though [...]

Hebrews 11:33-12:2 Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30 On the coincidence of All Saints Sunday and Memorial day weekend…. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Tomorrow the President will lay a wreath at the tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery, in a ceremony that will be repeated over and [...]

Acts 2:1-11 John 7:37-52; 8:12 …Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome – both Jews and proselytes – Cretans and Arabs… Our hymnody at Pentecost makes much of a difference between our reading [...]

Acts 20:16-18, 28-36 John 17:1-13 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves Do you remember the images of the Christmas tsunami from several years ago? I don’t [...]

Acts 11:19-26, 29-30 John 4:5-42 Christ is Risen! Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” Do you have a “fish” sticker on your car? Or, if not [...]

Matthew 28:16-20 Acts 5:12-20 John 20:19-31 Christ is Risen! In a more traditionalist sort of parish (the kind that tries to emulate monastic life in a way that many Monks no longer do) we would have spent the afternoon, prior to our Pascha service Saturday night, reading the book of Acts aloud here in Church. [...]

Hebrews 9:11-14 Galatians 3:23-29 Mark 10:32-45 Luke 7:36-50 After faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. St Mary Sunday is one of those days in the Orthodox year with two Gospels and two Epistles. The cross-reading of Hebrews and Galatians, Mark and Luke, creates an interesting experience, no? The life of St [...]

Hebrews 6:13-20 Mark 9:17-31 Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! One of the things I greatly admire in Orthodoxy is her sense of inclusion. I’ll pause for a minute and let that sink in. Let me try again: one of the things I greatly admire in Orthodoxy is her willingness to include persons all over [...]

Hebrews 4:14-5:6 Mark 8:34-9:1 What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? My friend Cam, Rector of Trinity Church here in Buffalo, blew my mind out the day we discussed the following question in our Bible study class: What group in the New Testament most parallels [...]

Hebrews 1:10-2:3 Mark 2:1-12 On the Second Sunday of Lent we commemorate St Gregory Palamas. Gregory was a writer from the 13th and 14th Centuries, living in Thessaloniki or Thessalonica – which most Americans will know vaguely as a city where St Paul sent a couple of Letter. His writing solved a crucial problem in [...]