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St Joachim

‘The church will declare his generosity’ (Sirach 31, 11). The liturgy takes these words and applies them to St Joachim, a man whose generosity none of us can ever match. For he has given…

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On Octaves

One of the features of our liturgy is the observance of octaves, an eight-day period during which we continue to celebrate certain major feasts, including the Assumption. The reason is that our joy cannot…

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Thought for Assumption Day

One of the biggest problems people from an Evangelical background have when they explore Orthodoxy is with Mary. We can argue with them intellectually, but really Mary is not an intellectual proposition to be…

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Love and Hate

In his Confessions, St Augustine speaks about being killed spiritually by certain scriptural passages which, when taken literally, seemed to teach perversity (5.24). Perhaps one such passage is 1 Samuel 15, which we read…

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Diakonia

Today we celebrate the feast of St Lawrence, deacon and martyr, put to death for his faith at Rome in 258, by being roasted on a grid-iron. Deacons remind us of two things. First,…

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St. Mary Magdalene

St Mary Magdalene

Many years ago, in what seems like another existence, I used to live not far from the basilica of Vézelay, aUNESCO world heritage site, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful…

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Advent

Already before Advent begins, the liturgy speaks to us of fasting. Almost the first word we hear on the Monday prior to Advent is Joel 1, 14: ‘Sanctify a fast!’ Two days later we…

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