St Peters Orthodox Church

In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul exhorts us to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might...and put on the whole armor of God." Spiritual warfare is a part of every Christian's ascension on the ladder of Divine ascent to Christ and Paradise. There is a war for our souls and every soul ever created. The Apostle teaches us the true nature of this spiritual warfare as he teaches us the identity of our real enemy, as well as how we are to battle in this spiritual warfare so that we might share in Christ's victory.

Christ has forever taught through His Holy Church that the Christian life is one lived always preparing for the day the soul will be separated from the body. The secularization of death is deeply rooted in the Satan lie that we should abhor death, don't look at death, it is too painful and too final; live for the pleasures in this life as distractions to this morbid reality. In reality, the Christian has been given one of the most powerful gifts and weapons so useful to our experience of the salvation of Christ our God, our mortality. Our mortality, living in this one blessed day, which is the only day we are guaranteed, thrusts us so dependently upon the mercy and grace of God. For those who live preparing daily for their falling asleep in this way, death becomes the very gateway to the experience of the eternal joys and bliss of Paradise through Christ our God.

Christ our God tells the parable of the Marriage Feast in the Gospel of St. Matthew 22. All are gathered for the Marriage, and the King discovers one who did not have a wedding garment. That man was then ordered to be cast out into the darkness. How important is the wedding garment and what is the wedding garment according to the unending tradition of our Faith. It is no less that the white garment of our Baptism. In our Baptism Christ dislodges us from the curse of the fallen condition we inherited and clothes us with Himself; His Nature that He has lovingly and mercifully shared with us. And we are charged to keep our wedding garment clean, undefiled, and holy. Today, we consider how we may live a life where we may be found to be clothed with the wedding garment on the last day, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

This All Saints’ Day sermon presents the idea that beyond the four canonical Gospels, there exists a “fifth Gospel” — the Gospel written in the lives of the saints. These holy men and women, diverse in background, vocation, and temperament, reveal Christ’s transforming grace made manifest in human variety. From emperors to hermits, scholars to the simple, their sanctity demonstrates that holiness does not erase individuality but perfects it — making each person more fully themselves in the image of God. The preacher connects this vision to the Beatitudes, emphasizing that true godliness flows not from mere virtue or moralism but from love and union with God. All Saints’ Day, then, celebrates not distant perfection but the invitation for every believer to become holy — to join the great multitude of God’s friends, known and unknown, who point us ever closer to Christ.

Christ our God was exalted to be King of Kings & Lord of Lords through His loving kenosis; the lowering of Himself and offering Himself even unto death. He opened the gates of paradise by such a paradox. His eternal Kingdom of love, mercy, joy, power, and majesty was established by the King dying at the hands of those for whom He had come to establish it and offer it. He lowered Himself. How do we live as citizens of this King? By our own kenosis. We lower ourselves to simply be His children, His disciples. We lower ourselves offering ourselves back to Him and following Him all of our days.

So many passages in Holy Scripture exhort us to "wait upon the Lord." And so many of those verses come with promises of God. Waiting on the Lord is such a vital and integral part of our daily relationship with Him. We must learn to wait upon the Lord in the mere moments of our temptations. We must wait upon the Lord in seasons of suffering and grief. Regarding Christ's healing work in our lives, mending the brokenness within us from which come our sinful actions, we must wait upon the Lord. But what does it mean to wait upon the Lord? Today we consider what Christ, through His Churc,h has revealed to us; for waiting upon the Lord is an active movement toward Him, knowing that we are always in need and He is the only One we need for deliverance, true life, and our salvation.

Christ’s healing of the man with dropsy is a vivid image of the soul swollen with pride and thirsting for self-glory. Drawing on St. Ambrose, the sermon contrasts the Pharisees’ obsession with religious prestige against the humility Christ commands—“sit in the lowest place.” The warning is that pride distorts the image of God within us, leaving us spiritually parched, while humility restores us to wholeness and communion with the Holy Spirit. Quoting St. Silouan of Mt. Athos, the message concludes that humility is not social posturing but the true descent into the presence of Christ Himself, where divine knowledge and peace are found.

In the Gospel of St. Luke 7, we have the testimony of Christ our God raising the widow's son from the dead at the gate of the city of Nain. Here we find two great processions that collide at the gate of the city. One is the procession of the Lord of Life and His multitude of followers. The other is the funeral process of those mourning the death of this widow's son. When Jesus sees the widow, the Scripture tells us that "He had compassion on her." Today, we have the compassionate nature of Christ our God revealed to us. For it is His compassion that comes to our gate of Nain where our sufferings and fallenness may encounter the procession of Life Himself. There, we encounter Christ. And where Life meets death, Life always wins.

In Matthew 6, Christ our God says, "Do not worry about your life." Jesus tells us to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and how God cares for them all. How much more does He care for us? What our Lord is really saying is, "Do not worry or be anxious, consider Me. Keep your eyes set on Me so that you can know Me better." The Lord Jesus Christ is our rest and the answer to all of our anxiousness.

This sermon on St. Matthew the Apostle reflects on Christ’s call to sinners, showing how Matthew’s response at the tax booth reveals the Lord’s mercy and transformative power. It highlights the Pharisees’ failure to couple law-keeping with compassion, reminds us that God does not call the worthy but makes worthy the called, and encourages us to openly confess our sins so that Christ may heal us. Through St. Matthew’s example, we are invited to follow Christ as we are—trusting that He will refashion us into His likeness.

Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Today, we remember the discovery of the Holy & Life-Giving Cross by St. Helen, the mother of St. Constantine. St. Paul says in Galatians 6 that we are to boast or glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this reflection, we consider three "types" of the Holy Cross in the Old Testament that reveal so much of all that Christ accomplished for us by His Passion. We also look at how we can continually encounter and experience the fullness of what Christ did for us on the Cross. Every day can be a finding, a discovery of the Holy Cross.

Today we have the Parable of the Pharisee & the Tax Collector. The Pharisee trusted in himself. The tax collector threw himself at the feet of God and cried out to God that he might receive mercy. Jesus said it is the tax collector who went home justified; a word that communicates sins being covered, being made right in the eyes of God, and the blessed experience of the return of innocence to the soul. In the telling of this parable, Jesus gives us the very framework for a life lived in the constant experience of God's mercy and healing.

Today we have the Gospel reading from St. Mark 7, giving us the testimony of Jesus' healing of the deaf/mute. One born deaf cannot receive and process words and language, which hinders a person from being able to communicate by words themselves. Our spiritual life is the same. The fall of mankind made us all like the man who could not hear or communicate, for we lost our union with God, our ability to receive Him with all of our senses as we were created to be able to do in the Garden of Paradise. But Christ has healed our senses beginning at our Baptism so that we may now receive the fullness of God with all of our senses. And, therefore, He can now be manifest and proclaimed through our very lives.

Our Epistle reading today is from Acts 5. We find a description of the life of the newborn Church in Jerusalem as they would meet at Solomon's Porch in the Temple. The description is simple. His people gathered with the Apostles. And through the Apostles, Jesus continued the same ministry for the benefit and salvation of all that He did as He walked the earth. Jesus taught His disciples to pray by giving them the Our Father. In that prayer, He has us pray His will that "His Kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven." It was always in the mind and desire of Christ our God that His Kingdom be experienced by all who are Baptized into Him. Today we explore this wondrous reality.

St. Paul remind us in 1 Corinthians 10 of the Israelites consistent idolatry while following God in the wilderness journey. God had released them from their bondage and delivered them to Himself. There in the wilderness He shepherded them providing all they need for the journey to the Promised Land. But their restless hearts kept wanting more, departing the Lord their God, and pursuing something other than God to find their contentment. How often we do the same. It is time that we learn to find our rest in Christ and Christ alone who has delivered us from our oppressor and provided us with everything we need for life and salvation in Himself.

When Christ was born, the Blessed Virgin held Salvation Himself in her arms wrapped in swaddling clothes. In the Icon of the Dormition/Assumption we see the reverse. It is our Lord embracing His mother as He receives her into Paradise. Tonight we look to the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary to see how she lived a life embracing her Son our Savior. For as Fr. Alexander Schmemann taught, "She is, in every aspect of her life, not the great exception among us, but rather the great example of us all.”

Today we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Laurence, Deacon and Martyr for Christ. When the Roman emperor demanded the God's of Rome be worshipped by all, St. Laurence and the Christians in Rome refused to bow to idolatry. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend. Today we look at the testimony of the life of St. Laurence; a testimony of love for His Lord as he would sacrifice his life for the love of His Savior.

It is quite the wonder that a Holy Savior invites all of us, imperfect and frail as we are, to cooperate with Him in His Holy and good works of salvation on behalf of mankind. But that is just what He does. Today we look at examples of this from the Gospels of St. Luke & St. Mark, which were foretastes of what He desires to do through all who are in Him from Pentecost until He comes again. By Christ's design and in His great wisdom, as we open ourselves to cooperate with Christ in His good works, we are the ones blessed by encountering Him as He ministers to others through us.

In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew 5, our Lord teaches us how we are to live towards those we have offended. To forgive those who have offended us is one thing, but what is our relational responsibility toward those we have offended. Our Lord is very clear. He teaches us to put our offering to Him down, go and be reconciled first, then come and bring our offering to Him. To go to one we have offended and plead for their forgiveness is an act of great mercy. And, as we considered a few weeks ago, Christ our God calls us to be merciful as our Father is merciful.

St. James teaches us that the tongue is the rudder that has great strength in determining the direction of the soul. It both blesses and curses. When the tongue is not controlled and allowed to speak evil and negatively, the soul is darkened in the process. Equally, when the tongue speaks praises, prayers, and blessings, the soul is enlivened by the grace of God. Today we consider the importance of taming the tongue for the health of our soul and the blessing of God.