The Orthodox observance of Great and Holy Saturday On Great and Holy Saturday the Church observes the day on which Christ reposed in the tomb. Foreshadowing this day as the day blessed by Moses as the seventh day, the Church sees it the Blessed Sabbath. In other words, this is
The Orthodox observance of Great and Holy Friday The commemorations of Holy Friday begin with the Matins service of the day which is conducted on Thursday evening. The service is a very unique Matins service with twelve Gospel readings that begin with Christ’s discourse at the Last Supper and end
Holy Tradition supports the proper interpretation of the Bible Many evangelical protestants see Holy Tradition as standing in direct contrast to Scripture, as though Tradition is always relegated to “the traditions of men”. However, there are numerous references in Holy Scripture to Holy Tradition. For example: “Many have undertaken to
Facebook shut me down! As many of my blog readers know, I post each blog article on two facebook pages. One is under my name, Abbot Tryphon, where facebook allows only 5,000 friends. The second one is an organizational page for the monastery, titled “All-Merciful Saviour Orthodox Christian Monastery”, where
The joyful sorrow in the expectation of the resurrection The main reason Christianity spread so rapidly following the Resurrection of Christ, was the power behind the resurrection. The truth of Christ’s resurrection empowered believers to joyfully embrace martyrdom, knowing that they would be joined in eternal bliss with their resurrected
Beholding our King on Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is the feast of the Church where we believers greet the Lord our king: the Word of God made flesh. He is greeted not simply as the One who came to us once riding on a donkey, but as the One who
Loosed from the stench of sin In the mystery that is the sacrament of holy confession, which Christ established after His Resurrection, He said to His disciples, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit: Whose so ever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven” (John. 20:22-23). As we wind down our Lenten journey,
Confronting our weaknesses As we continue our Lenten journey, this is a time when the Church puts much emphasis on the role of repentance. We strive to go to confession more frequently during Great Lent, just as we’ve increased our level of fasting, and frequency of attending the services. Holy
Educating the mind while ignoring the heart The stress that is placed upon the importance of educating the mind is enormous, yet misplaced. Without a good solid education, we are told, our life will amount to nothing. One of my grandmothers grew up in Wisconsin as a simple, uneducated woman.
Accusing only ourselves We see people’s sins, but we don’t know whether they have made peace with God. We don’t know if the person who has sinned regrets it, but we are not called to judge them, but only to forgive them. As we become aware of our own sins,