St Peters Orthodox Church

All of the disciples wanted to believe Christ had risen, but they doubted and struggled to believe it was possible. They doubted, that is, until they experienced Him after the Resurrection. Christ knew precisely what the disciples needed to strengthen and mature their weaker faith, and gift them with a greater faith. It is the same for all of us. Today we talk about the disciples experience moving from their doubts to belief. We are reminded today that we are to take the experiences we had with Christ our God, both in Lent and Holy Week, and carry them forward. We are not meant to go back to the way we were before, but to move forward; keeping all that Christ has done for us and revealed to us right in front of us. Christ disciples are always moving onward and upward as they follow their Living Lord.

As is tradition each year in the Orthodox Church, on this day we hear the blessed Paschal homily once preached by St. John Chrysostom.

This sermon reflects on the Resurrection account in St. Matthew, drawing attention to the plural “Sabbaths” in the Greek to reveal the profound transition from the old covenant of rest under the Law to the new and eternal rest inaugurated by Christ. While Christ’s body lay in the tomb, His soul descended into Hades, as described by St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, to liberate Adam, Eve, and all the righteous, proclaiming victory over sin and death and calling humanity to rise with Him into new life. This moment marks not only the defeat of death and the devil, but the fulfillment of the Law and the beginning of a restored creation, where God’s commandments are no longer external but written on the hearts of His people. Living now in this “age after the Sabbaths,” believers are invited to enter into the eternal day of the Resurrection, where Christ, the Life Himself, leads humanity out of darkness and into the fullness of divine communion.

Tonight we have arrived where Christ has been leading us during the entirety of Lent. We have come to the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here, love is manifest for us all to see and experience. Not that we feel love only, but that we become the love that we see. How far Christ our God went that we might regain all that we had lost. When we see His great sufferings, we encounter His great love. The Prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 52, tells us that Christ's sufferings would render Him unrecognizable. His disfigurement would make the for us to regain the original form that we lost in the fall of man.

On Maundy Thursday, we see two Divine and extraordinary actions of Christ our God on behalf of us all. The Lord of all disrobes and puts on the garb of a common household servant and washes the feet of His disciples. And, our Lord instituted the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, on the night He was betrayed. At the washing of the feet, blessed St. Peter had trouble coping with what Christ needed to do for Him. At first, he denied our Lord what He desired to to him. Receiving the love and ministry of Christ to us is not always naturally comfortable to us. Yet, we are the ones in great need of that very love and ministry. Tonight, we look at this, that we may thankfully receive and keep receiving the love of Christ that heals the soul.

As we gaze upon the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see the most wondrous revelation of the love of God for mankind. We see the immense suffering. We see how far God lowered Himself so that our nakedness from the fall could be clothed with His glory. But we most certainly do not stop there. As we look upon the suffering, we rejoice in the victory. Our deliverer has delivered us. His blood is shed to cover the sins of mankind, reaching back to Adam, the first to fall. That precious blood stretches forward to cover the sins of mankind until Christ comes again. Tonight, as St. Paul instructs us, we glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This sermon calls Christians to recognize Christ’s suffering not as a substitute that removes their own trials, but as the perfect model by which they are to measure and endure their own crosses. Emphasizing that Christ descended, suffered, and endured mockery to lead humanity into glory with Him, the message insists that the path to resurrection always passes through suffering. Drawing on the witness of the martyrs and the profound prayer of St. Nicholas Velimirovich—written amid the horrors of Dachau concentration camp imprisonment—the sermon highlights the transformative power of suffering when embraced with humility, even to the point of blessing one’s enemies. Ultimately, believers are exhorted to bear the particular cross given to them with patience and love, trusting that through these trials God conforms them to the image of Christ and leads them into true spiritual freedom and eternal glory.

In Mark 14, we are given the testimony of the woman with the alabaster jar of oil coming to Jesus. She falls at His feet, breaking the jar open and pouring the oil upon His head and feet. Jesus says that this woman's actions will be proclaimed in every Gospel throughout the whole world. How important is this to us, then? The Church has handed down to us that the infinitely valuable jar of oil is indeed the human soul. This sinful woman poured out her worship and repentance before Christ. Her soul was broken and poured out upon Him. And there, she received and experienced the Divine mercy of her Savior. May our souls be broken and poured out upon Christ that we may experience the same.

This sermon reflects on Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as both the fulfillment of Old Covenant prophecy and a foreshadowing of His final return in glory, emphasizing the contrast between those who laid down garments and those who offered only palm branches as a symbol of varying degrees of self-surrender to Christ. As Holy Week begins, the faithful are called to move beyond partial devotion and instead offer their whole lives—heart, soul, mind, and body—to the Lord, uniting themselves more fully to His Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. The preacher urges intentional participation in the sacred liturgies of the week, renewed commitment to fasting and repentance, and a detachment from worldly concerns, reminding believers that this sacred time is uniquely filled with grace—enough to sustain the soul for the year—and that through sharing in Christ’s suffering, they may also share in His eternal glory.

Today is Passion Sunday. All of the Icons of our Lord Jesus Christ have been covered. What prompts this? In John 8, our Lord Jesus Christ reveals His true Identity, proclaiming Himself publicly in the Temple to be the "I AM." The masses took up stones to stone Him for His blasphemy, and we are told that He was hidden from them as He passed through them, for it was not yet His time. From whom was He hidden? He was hidden from those who rejected the true revelation of His identity. He was hidden from those whose souls did not perceive the need for Him. But our Lord would go on to be greatly revealed to those who believed that He had come to minister to them and heal their lives. We want to be a people who see Christ for Who He truly is, and not as we make Him out to be. We want to be those who receive Him and, in our need for Him, come to Him that He might minister to us. Christ is hidden from all others, not by His will, but by the will of those who keep Him at a distance.

Here, just beyond the midway point of Lent, we are given a Mass that bears the name "rejoice!" We remember today that "rejoice!" is not a suggestion, but rather a command. Our God is worthy of our praise, and we are in great need of making that offering. Rejoicing, thanksgiving, praising God; that spiritual discipline is oxygen to the Christian soul. We rejoice because, if we have failed in the little that Christ has asked us to do (to take the medication He has offered for our healing; fasting, prayer, and almsgiving), as long as we have breath we have another day to begin and experience Christ's healing and transformation. And we rejoice because He only asks us to offer a little. He fills what lacks in our offering with Himself and does wonders for our salvation.

After Jesus' Baptism, the Holy Spirit leads Him to fast and pray in the wilderness for 40 days. After the 40 days, Satan comes to tempt Jesus when Satan perceives Him to be weak. The deceiver was deceived and his temptations were easily thrown down. Jesus fasted and prayed for those 40 days to make a path for us to do the same. By fasting and praying for 40 days by grace, Jesus empowers us to share in the same victory over Satan in our own lives. But what is the fast God calls us to do? Is it just food? Absolutely not. Today we look at the fast our Lord has called us to.

We begin Lent with blessed ashes being placed upon our foreheads. The ashes remind us to keep our mortality daily before us, so that we press into Christ everyday as if that one day is all we have to experience Him and His wondrous healing in our lives. And, in the Old Covenant, God's people would put on sackcloth and pour ashes over their heads. This was always an external sign of internal suffering. It always accompanied the cry for mercy and relief from God. So, we walk into Lent invited by God to return to Him, come to Him. Come to Him with our pains, sufferings, wounded consciences. For He is the God of mercy Who delights in giving mercy to all who return to Him.

As the Church commemorates the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch, we remember not the greatness of a man, but the greatness of God’s mercy. Peter, who once denied Christ in fear and wept bitterly, became the shepherd of the Church because he chose repentance instead of despair. In contrast to Judas, whose sorrow led to hopelessness, Peter’s tears became the seed of restoration and mission. As Lent approaches, this feast calls us to the heart of the Christian life: receiving God’s mercy and extending that same mercy to others. Our fasting, prayer, and almsgiving bear fruit only when they are rooted in the compassion that restored Peter and continues to restore us.

We see in the Luke 18 Jesus, with the multitude of His followers, drawing near to Jericho. There a blindman hears the noise and finds out that Jesus is coming. He cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Some of Christ's followers tell him to "be quiet." So the blindman cries out all the louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus restores his sight and tells him that his faith made him well. This blindman's suffering had made him desperate to be relieve. And, he believe that Jesus was the only hope he had to have his sight restored. Have we had enough of our sufferings to press toward Christ when our enemy and our own fallen humanity tell us to "be quiet?"

As we are in our three-week preparation for Great Lent, we are reminded that, in Orthodoxy, Lent is known as the Springtime of the Soul. For one, Lent occurs as Winter passes and we enter into Spring. But it is also known as the Springtime of the soul because everything that we see happen in nature, as it comes out of its lesser existence of being dormant and begins to live and bloom, is precisely what our Lord desires for the soul of His beloved children. Today, we discuss this transformation and focus on the importance of the condition of the soil of our soul as this spiritual Springtime sets upon us.

Septuagesima is the Church’s merciful call to begin preparing for the Lenten journey, reminding believers that earthly life is a temporary exile and a pilgrimage back to the heavenly Jerusalem. Drawing on biblical symbolism of the number seventy and St. Gregory the Great’s interpretation of the laborers in the vineyard, the message emphasizes that we live in the “eleventh hour,” yet are promised the same reward of eternal life by God’s generosity rather than our merit. Pre-Lent is described as a motherly warning to simplify life, practice temperance, and prepare through fasting, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, and renewed spiritual discipline. Holding together sorrow for sin and hopeful joy in Christ’s healing, the sermon urges the faithful to respond with humility and urgency, remembering that time is short and the Master still calls all into His vineyard of repentance and resurrection hope.

Stations 4 & 5 sung by a Cantor and choir

In the Gospel of St. Luke 2, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph present Christ our God to blessed St. Simeon in the Temple. There, the Messiah is revealed to both the aged Priest Simeon and the aged prophetess Anna, both of whom had been eagerly waiting for the Consolation of Israel to come. Christ our God was revealed to them, which brought them great joy and welled up great praise from within them. They needed Christ to be revealed to them. We have the same need for Christ to shine upon us and reveal Himself to us again and again in our lives. Today, we consider how they waited for this revelation to learn how we, too, might wait upon God daily.

In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 8, we are given the testimonies of Christ our God healing the leper and the servant of the centurion. The leper comes before Christ to intercede for his own sufferings. The centurion comes before Christ to intercede for the sufferings of someone else, other than himself. Both of these men come before Christ with two very important virtues. Both the leper and the centurion petitioned Christ with faith and humility. This sermon examines the true faith and the humility with which we should come to Christ as His Kingdom of Priests; a Kingdom ordained by God for the ministry of intercession, both for ourselves and on behalf of others.