February 28, 7534
Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov) Yesterday, we venerated the shroud, which is a symbol of Christ’s death. We bowed down before the long-suffering of the Lord, His Passion, and His sacrificial love for all mankind. How difficult it is to connect what we are doing now—venerating the Cross and the shroud—with what took place then, when Christ…
On Holy and Great Saturday. A homily of our holy father Gregory of Antioch What is this stillness on the earth? What is this great silence? It is because the King is asleep. The earth was filled with awe and became silent, for God has fallen asleep in the flesh. God has died in the…
The homily of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus for Great Saturday begins magnificently—a homily which the Church Ustav recommends reading before the start of the Paschal Midnight Office, if time permits after the reading of the Acts of the Apostles. “What is this? Why such deep silence upon the earth, and why such stillness? — It is because…
Great Friday is the day of the saving sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, offered for the salvation of the world. Seized by the Jerusalem guard at the command of the high priests, condemned by the Sanhedrin and handed over to Roman authority, the Eternal Son of God—the incarnate Word, the One of the Holy…
St. John Chrysostom Today, my beloved, a little needs to be said to you; a little, not because you weary of much preaching—for no other city is so fond of listening to spiritual discourses. We speak briefly today not because we tire you with much preaching, but because there is an important reason to shorten…
Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov) Dear brothers and sisters, On the evening of Great Thursday, before the Jewish Passover celebrated on Saturday, Jesus Christ gathered His disciples in the upper room in Zion. The Lord washed His disciples’ feet and said, “Do you know what I have done for you? I have given you an example, that…
St. John Chrysostom “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). For this reason, Christ took flesh of our same substance, to teach us virtue through it. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in…
On Holy and Great Thursday, a homily of Saint John Chrysostom on the Holy Communion, that is, on partaking of the Body and Blood of the Lord, addressed to kings and princes and all Orthodox Christians. When a king or prince comes to a city, the people of that city go out to meet him….
Great Thursday of Passion Week holds a special significance that sets it apart from all other days of the year and justifies its popular name — Pure Thursday. This purity is not to be understood in a physical sense, but rather as a spiritual cleansing, brought about by the Sacrament of Communion, instituted on this day…
On Holy and Great Wednesday, the Church commemorates a striking event described in the Gospel according to Matthew: “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto Him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on His head as He sat at…