Whoever honors the priest will honor God, and he who has learned to despise the priest will gradually proceed in time to insult God also. ‘He who receives you receives Me.’ [Mt. 10:40]. And it is written, ‘But hold His priests in honor.’ [Sir. 7:31]. Hence, the Jews learned to despise God because they despised Moses and would have stoned him [cf. 17:4]. And when someone acts reverently towards a priest, he will be much – …

+ Today the Lord is born, the life and salvation of mankind; today a reconciliation is made of Divinity to humanity, and of humanity to Divinity; today all creation has leapt for joy; those above sent toward those below; and those below towards those above; today occurred the death of darkness and the life of humanity; today a way was made toward God for man and a way for God into the soul. – Saint – …

Crossing the sea is baptism, the second birth. When a child is born, it does not mean he will live. Indeed, he needs a care program, of feeding (Manna- the body of the Lord), water (the side of Christ- the rock), guidance and leadership (the Holy Spirit) and faith that God is always present. Such a spiritual atmosphere provides the newborn child with continual growth, till he reaches Canaan. The child also needs to be – …

There are two kinds of worship: Individual and Communal (a) In prayer, for example, there is individual prayer; you pray in your room to your Fr. who sees in secret. This does not cancel the existence of communal prayer for all the groups of believers to pray in one spirit, in one soul and in one voice. Examples of such prayers are numerous in the New Testament. One of these examples is the prayer of – …

The human body consists of a group of organs. Some of these are vital organs, i.e., the human cannot live without them. Examples of such organs are the liver, the brain, the heart, the lungs, the kidneys and the pancreas. Humans can live without eyes, for example, but they cannot live without a liver. Certain diseases can cause functional failure in one or more of the vital organs, and this leads to death. With the – …

With our firm faith in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come, the Diocese of Los Angeles announces the departure of the blessed and beloved hegomen, Fr. Daniel Farag of St. Mina Church in Riverside, on Wednesday afternoon, August 20, 2003. In the morning of this same day, Fr. Daniel celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. Mina Church. Funeral services was held on Saturday, August 23rd, 2003 at St. – …

This star was not a common one–it was not even a star at all, as it seems at least to me. But some invisible power transformed into this appearance, is in the first place evident from its very course. For no star moves like this. For, we see the sun, moon, and all the other stars travel from east to west; but this was drifted from north to south–for so is Palestine situated with respect – …

Born in the Upper Egypt town of Coma near Heracleopolis in the year 251 A.D, St. Antony the Great, when orphaned at the age of 18, became a hermit and thus lived to 105 years old. He lived as an Anchorite, as still exists in Egypt, and it is said that he was tormented his entire life by flatteries and temptations of the devil. He, along with St. Pachomius, were two of the first exponents – …

We celebrate two great feasts on Thursday. The first great feast of the Lord is Great Thursday of the Holy Pascha, on which the Lord gave us the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The second is the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven, after He spent forty days with His disciples. This Thursday is also a Feast of the Lord called the Feast of Ascension. By the Ascension of the Lord, we – …

The words of St. Paul to his disciple, Timothy, were very strange, when he told him, “ I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also” (2Tim.1:5). Is faith inherited? The very genuine faith in the heart of Timothy, the son, was the very same faith as that living in the heart of his – …

It pleases me on this blessed day to congratulate all of you on the occasion of the Nativity of the Lord Christ. I felicitate my Muslim brothers on this occasion as I felicitate my Christian brothers because the Lord Christ is for everyone and everyone believe in His miraculous virginal birth. I would like to talk to you about a single characteristic of His many characteristics and it is His characteristic as a teacher. They – …

God Tires for Us In the Gospel lesson the holy evangelist has shown us most abundantly that our Lord Jesus Christ assumed the weakness of the human race…Our Lord Jesus Christ came to the field which holy Jacob had left to his son, Joseph. I do not think that this field was left to Joseph as much as to Christ, whom holy Joseph the patriarch prefigured, for truly the sun and moon adore Him, while – …