St. Mary Orthodox Church

December 14, 2025 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

The danger is not loving our families; the danger is letting our gifts overshadow the Giver. Christ does not call us to abandon our relationships and responsibilities but to hold them lightly. When our possessions become our identity, when they become the sources of meaning that we cling to tightly, they, of course, become our idols.

November 23, 2025 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

This story is a tragedy because the rich fool was not able to quiet his mind and to be awakened to a life in Christ, who describes a man externally successful with full barns, comfort, security, and plans for a long life. The rich man’s soul was empty while his barns overflowed.

November 09, 2025 - by Teva Regule

This healing power is available to us today. We, too, are called to experience the power of Jesus’ healing touch. By doing so, we can then share this healing power with others. The power of participating in Jesus’ touch of love in faith and trust can help to realize His mission for the world.

September 28, 2025 - by Dn. James Wilcox

St Peter encountered the Lord in today’s Gospel reading, and did what many do when they sense the genuine nature of holiness enveloping around them. Peter couldn’t bear to stay in the Lord’s presence because he knew his own sins very well, and standing next to this figure of holiness unsettled him greatly.

September 21, 2025 - by Subdeacon Jeremy Swartz

We defend the faith by living it. And we live the faith by taking up our cross and following Christ. Once we join the Church, whether at birth or in adulthood, we have no home in this world anymore and yet we are bound by the Cross to both our God and our fellow persons.

August 24, 2025 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

They will know we are Christians by our love. When love becomes challenging (and it always does) it behooves us to find a way to meet the challenge in favor of the Lord's clear and inescapable commandments and to compassionately address any concerns that may arise. I am sure of two things.The Gospel comes first always and must be obeyed and two, all concerns can be addressed in creative and Christian ways. It is up to us to find them.

August 17, 2025 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

This kind of compassion, reaching beyond ourselves, reaching out to reduce the suffering of others is what we are called to do every single day. The boy’s father kneels before Jesus and begs him to act, and Jesus instantly heals not only the boy, but through his exasperation, he heals his disciples as well.

August 03, 2025 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Everything that is not love in us must be cleared away. The Light of Christ will transfigure all the darkness in us. The Lord commands us to love our enemies. Give expecting nothing in return. Take up the cross and die to ourselves. Turn the other cheek.

July 20, 2025 - by Subdeacon JD Swartz

You are empowered to love, and to love more greatly and more deeply than you may think or believe – you can love one another into the Kingdom of Heaven and reveal paradise on earth now.

June 29, 2025 - by Dn. James Wilcox

Tradition, therefore, is not simply an act of remaining loyal to our past inasmuch as it is about making known the truth which was handed to us from the past. If we become too attached to the past for the sake of the past, it leaves room to ignore, dismiss, or even interpret the Gospel outside of the guidelines given to us by the Apostles of our holy tradition.

June 22, 2025 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

This is what we are all called to. We too can respond to the needs of others, not with cruelty, but with compassion and understanding, just like the midwives. We too can do as God as wills in our lives, living according to maxim, 'Thy will be done.'

June 08, 2025 - by Subdeacon JD Swartz

What we find here, brothers and sisters, is that the peace and stillness granted to us by the Holy Spirit is an effect of God’s being, which is love. And in us, a love ablaze for God is ablaze also for His creation. The love of the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit, and the love of Christ and us through the Holy Spirit, and the love of us with one another, with our neighbor, with our enemy is through the Holy Spirit.

June 02, 2025 - by Dn. James Wilcox

There is a clear picture given in this warning from the Apostle Paul, which is not unlike the situation facing the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. Namely, that it is from within the body of believers that division will threaten, not from outside of it. For the body can only be divided when it is fractured from within. It is, therefore, essential that we hold to the rudimentary teachings about God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit that have been passed down to us through the centuries, for this is where our salvation lies! The faith we possess is not some passing trend or a way of life, which serves as a suitable alternative to worldly living. It is, rather, a confession of faith that demands our conformity to the reality of who God is.

May 25, 2025 - by Dn. Jeff Smith

Celidonius stands before them so that the Word of God will be made manifest. In a way, this man is a cipher, or a tool being used to reveal God’s glory.

May 18, 2025 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The Lord never acts the way we want or expect or believe he must like a performing seal. God is not constrained by anything except the law of unlimited and unconditional love. He would not ever allow any social or religious norm keep him from loving an immoral Samaritan Woman.

April 13, 2025 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

His path was the way of letting go. He demonstrated the difference between the worldly life and the spiritual life not just by speaking about it, but also by living it. This dichotomy is not spoken of very much. It should be. From the beginning of his earthly life when he, the Son of God, became the Servant of all, his path was the way of the Cross and not the way of the world.

March 30, 2025 - by Teva Regule, MDiv, PhD

And so, we continue our dance—working to free or purify ourselves from the passions that afflict us—taking steps forwards and backwards—and practicing the virtues that illumine our hearts and move us closer and closer to that intimate relationship with God.  This is the relationship that allows us to see as God sees, have mercy as God has mercy and love as God loves. 

March 23, 2025 - by Christina Palis

It can feel frightening and vulnerable to confront the uncertainties, questions, contradictions, and concerns that we experience in our spiritual lives and in our relationship with God. We may feel the urge to either blindly accept or reject completely. But what if we embraced Mary’s curious stance as we face our faith and God?

March 16, 2025 - by Dr. Ioana Popa

Interestingly enough, the Jesus Prayer is exactly one pathway in achieving an authentic compassionate presence, toward the union of God, Theosis, in the midst of polarized opinions which we all face today in our country and the world.

March 09, 2025 - by Natasha Smith

God gives gifts to us, we offer them back, and then He gives them back to us as a means for communion with Him. A beautiful relationship. God gives us His best, and we must respond with our best—engaged, sacrificial, humble, sustained charity.