St. Mary Orthodox Church

August 30, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Jesus calls the rich, young man to a new vocation: to adopt a new way of thinking and a new way of life. This is nothing less than a call to conversion through a change of mind and a change of life. Read more...

August 16, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The father was surprised that the disciples were unable to heal his son, but undeterred he turned to Jesus. The Lord's response was blunt. He lumped his impotent disciples together with what he calls a 'faithless and perverse generation' and exclaims, 'How long am I to bear with you?' When the disciples ask why they were unable to heal the boy the Lord's response was direct, 'Because you have no faith.' Read more...

July 19, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

God has placed his light in all of creation. The universe shimmers with divine energy. Any doubt? Take a look at the Hubble telescope pictures and all you can do is wonder at the grand explosions of color and shape that inhabit deep space. Read more...

July 12, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The demoniacs in today's Gospel were driven by dark forces to choose an unholy place in which to dwell. Tombs were considered to be the dwellings of ghosts and demons. They were not wholesome places. There the demoniacs isolated themselves from other people attacking those who attempted to come near. Read more...

June 07, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

When Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit He uses poetic imagery like wind, breath, fire and water. There are no words to adequately express the great mystery of the Holy Spirit so imagery must do. Read more...

May 24, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Jesus challenged the common view that God is angry, vengeful and ready to punish those who offend Him. The Old Testament is filled with such imagery, but it was written in an environment foreign to what we experience now. It was a primitive world where each tribe had its own gods. The competition was fierce. Read more...

May 17, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Jesus says remarkable things to the Samaritan Woman, speaking of a life that seems so far removed from what we experience in our daily lives. He says to her that if she drinks the water he offers she will never thirst again and that it will become a spring of water in her welling up to eternal life. Read more...

May 10, 2009 - by Deacon Jeffrey Smith

First I want to provide some background by setting the place: I believe the names and places mentioned can make it very real. It takes place near the Sheep’s Gate in Jerusalem, where they led in and washed the sacrificial animals, linking it to healing and to the temple, so this pool became known as the Sheep’s pool, the pool of Beth-zatha, from which comes the word, Beth–hesda (House of Grace). Read more...

April 29, 2009 -

Christ is Risen! Orthodox Christians will proclaim those words and greet one another with them for forty days. What I hope is that those who proclaim them and use them will also consider their meaning. Read more...

April 16, 2009 - by David Vermette

God is the only existing one.  Only God exists in the true sense of that word.  Everything else that exists, exists by participation in God.  That is, He lends His being and His well-being to created things.  Only God is eternal, immortal, unchanging, incapable of decay.  Because it does not share in the Essence of God, everything in the created universe is temporal, and subject to change and corruption.  If mankind, through the power of his and her God-given freedom had remained in Communion with God, as they were in the Garden of Eden, they would have participated in His life, in His immortality and incorruptibility. Instead they preferred and chose to go their own way.

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April 12, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Jesus entered Jerusalem with clarity of mind, compassion and singleness of purpose. He did not allow the adulation of the crowd, the knowledge that its praise would turn into hatred, nor the fear of his inevitable suffering and death distract him. Read more...

April 05, 2009 - by Trish Orlovsky

On this 5th Sunday of Great Lent we enter the closing weeks Fast, and the church fathers give us the story of Mary of Egypt. Mary's story is a quintessential display of the power of repentance - and is key in our understanding of her prominence during this season of repentance and the role of community in the act of salvation. Read more...

March 29, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The Scripture today speaks of forces in a young boy that take away his freedom. As is so often the case in the New Testament the cause was attributed to spirits, that is to demonic possession. Read more...

March 22, 2009 -

Today is the Sunday of the Adoration of the Holy Cross. What does that mean? What is the cross? And why do we have this now, right in the middle of Lent? Read more...

March 20, 2009 -

My talk this evening will explore the role of memory in the Orthodox Christian Paschal celebration. Specifically, I will use the texts of the Vesperal Liturgy of Basil (i.e. the Paschal Vigil) celebrated on Holy Saturday and the Paschal Matins service. Read more...

March 15, 2009 - by Marilyn Robbat

In her 53 brief years, Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia lived a life so full, so rich, so meaningful, so Christ-like....that she became a saint. Read more...

March 08, 2009 - by Ashley Clampitt Purpura

The first time I attended an Orthodox Liturgy was when I was six years old, and it happened to be the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The same Sunday of Orthodoxy we celebrate today. Read more...

February 15, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Compassion is the key. It always is. The attitude of the father towards his Prodigal Son is compassion. In him there is no judgment, only love when he leaves and when the Son returns, joy! Read more...

February 08, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

The story of the Pharisee and the Publican is about two men in two very different places spiritually. The Pharisee represents the selfish, egotistical person, arrogant, prideful, deluded and, paradoxically, a man devoted to religion and Scripture, at least on the surface! Read more...

February 01, 2009 - by Fr. Antony Hughes

Today Jesus goes even further than the Galilee of the Gentiles all the way to the district of Tyre and Sidon in present day Lebanon where the light, according to the religious tradition of first century Palestinian Judaism, was not supposed to shine! Read more...

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