Sermons & Homilies – Tagged "Acquisition of Virture"– Page 5 – Holy Cross Monastery

Apr 12, 2020

Christ-Like Humility that Overcomes the Whole World - A Homily for Palm Sunday (2020)

How should we live? The question is presented today, on Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, because despite how we have spent the whole of Lent, despite how we have lived our life up until now; knowing what we do about the world’s situation, and seeing the ease by which our whole country and the entire world can simply come undone - how should we live?

Apr 05, 2020

Repentance and the Glory of God - A Sermon for the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt (2020)

What is the gate of repentance which leads to divine and eternal life in God? The awareness of our sinfulness before Him. Such an awareness of sin came to St. Mary whom all Orthodox Christians commemorate today as a lofty standard of true, life-transforming repentance. However, as we see from her life, an awareness of our sins is often brought about by a seeming misfortune, or impasse, or perplexity in our life.

Mar 01, 2020

Compassion and the Path to Our Forgiveness - A Homily on Forgiveness Sunday (2020)

There is no one who comes to Christ in repentance, who will not receive forgiveness, therefore how can it be amongst us that if we have been forgiven that we cannot find the ability to forgive others?

Feb 15, 2020

Patient Endurance and the Tribulations of the Christian Life - A Homily on the Meeting of Our Lord (2020)

Today is the fortieth day since we celebrated the Nativity of Christ. On this day, we celebrate the Meeting of the Lord. In the book of Exodus, the Lord gave the command to Moses: “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” (13.1-2, cf. Luke 2.23). Today, we celebrate this event, as Christ is brought into the Temple by his parents and we note their obedience to the Law, and this particular law which acknowledges God’s beneficence.

Jan 05, 2020

The True Israel of God Are Those Who Imitate the Faith and Virtue of Abraham: A Homily on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (2020)

Last week, we commemorated the ancestors of Christ which helps us to understand the earthly lineage from which Christ came and through which it was prophesied that He would come. Today, they are included along with those others who have found favor in the eyes of the Lord, showing that grace overflows the bounds of the lineage of the Messiah to engulf not only the Jews but the Gentiles also. Soon that grace will flood the earth, and we will hear the angels speak to the shepherds, and say, “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people (Luke 2.10) and understand that the love of God was and is, not only for Christ’s ancestors or the righteous of the Old Testament, but for all people.