St Peters Orthodox Church

May 28, 2020 - We are told in Scripture as well as through the teachings of the Church Fathers that when Jesus Ascended the angelic hosts were amazed. They were amazed as they saw Christ ascend through the heavens leading a train of souls into Paradise. And they were amazed how far the Word of God, Jesus Christ, had gone to save His most precious creation out of His immeasurable love for mankind. This sermon focuses on the love of God on display as Christ Ascends to the Father placing humanity before the Father for all eternity.

May 17, 2020 - What are you experiencing in this life right now? Because of the COVID-19 virus are you experiencing fear, anxiety, anxiousness, restlessness? Or, are you experiencing contentment, peace, and even joy? Perhaps like most you are ebbing and flowing between all of these. In today's Liturgy we are reminded that the Christian should always sing a new song of praise to God for the salvation that He is and that He has wrought for us. It is in this homily that we realize that our experience in life at any given moment is completely dependent on what we are having the eyes of our soul focus upon.

May 3, 2020 - Today we celebrate the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross. Again we are set to remember why St. Paul says in Galatians that we should glory, that is boast and rejoice, in the Cross of Jesus Christ our Lord. As we look upon the Cross we remember two stories in the Old Testament that prefigure the Cross and the ministry of Christ upon the Holy Cross. As we look to them, we see clearly the fierceness of the love of God that wars for us to set us free from our oppressor and forge the path back to Paradise. We also have shown to us His infinite tender mercy being poured out for the healing of our souls.

April 26, 2020 - After our Lord's Crucifixion the disciples found themselves in rooms hiding within locked doors. They hid because of fear. They hid because of anxiety. The hid within their confusion and bewilderment based on the circumstances life just seemed to throw at them. But the One Who is the Resurrection did not burst down the doors, but He did enter directly into the place of their brokenness giving them hope and grace to live a new life. The Resurrection is a life to be lived by the Christian, not just an event.

Paschal Vigil 2020 - As Christ willingly gave up His spirit and died, He descended immediately into Hades. There He broke the gates of Hades asunder. There our oppressor became oppressed. And there, He revealed Himself to all of the souls kept there from the Fall of Mankind until that very moment. If our Lord can illuminate the darkness of Hades with His uncreated light, He can go to the depths of our soul where oppression and darkness still remain; and He can dispel that darkness coming to us with healing and release in His wings.

April 17, 2020- Tonight on Good Friday we have the Cross and our Lord's Crucifixion as the Paschal/Passover Lamb placed before us. In this reflection, we consider how the Cross is the journey of the Christian and a necessary one that we might experience fully the Resurrection in our own lives.

April 16, 2020 - Today marks the beginning of the Sacred Triduum, that is, the last three days of our Lord's life just prior to His glorious Resurrection. These three day begin with Maundy Thursday, the night our Lord was betrayed. On this night our Lord Jesus Christ would institute the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist and on that night He would wash the feet of His disciples. In one act He would give us one of the most profound loving gifts He could give us. And in the other act He would demonstrate for us the nature of the Agape love of God so that we may become that love for one another.

April 15, 2020 - Our Lord Jesus Christ wrestled greatly in His humanity in the Garden of Gethsemane when faced with His Crucifixion. But in His Divinity He overcame what Adam & Eve could not. He denied Himself and said, "Thy will be done." He then went to make Himself the offering that would bring us life and salvation. In this message, we examine the great and beneficial impact on our lives when we ,by grace, turn to God and say, "Thy will be done."

April 14, 2020 - The Mass of Holy Tuesday begins with these words, "It behoveth us to glory in the Cross of Jesus Christ." It is appropriate and beneficial that we boast and rejoice in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Immediately following Christ giving up His spirit unto death, the first thing in the Gospel of St. Mark we are told is that the Temple Veil was torn in two. In this reflection, we consider the benefits our Lord Jesus Christ afforded for us in the tearing of the Temple Veil.

Holy Monday 2020 - As part of the Gospel reading tonight from the Gospel of St. Mark Chapter 14, we have the story of the woman who poured out her alabaster jar of ointment upon our Lord Jesus Christ as an act of love and worship. That ointment would have been worth a year's wages and to many it seemed impractical and unreasonable to waste it all on just one person and all in one moment. This homily reflects on the reality that love is never limited by reason and practicality, in fact these things can often limit love. Tonight we see this love on display toward Christ and are compelled to develop a love like this woman had in her heart for our Lord.

April 12, 2020 - The King of Kings and Lord of Lords rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Many might think to ask, "Why would a King ride in on a beast of burden?" Throughout history, the way in which a King or ruler would present himself to a people communicated precisely why he had come to them and what he intends to do. Today we look at the way in which Christ our God came to His people in Jerusalem that day. And we look to see how they not only responded that day, but also how they responded throughout that week to His offering of peace. Today we are challenged to examine how we respond to all that Christ offers us on a daily basis.

April 5, 2020 - Today is Passion Sunday, the day we remember that our Lord hid Himself for a time from the public until He would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey and, from there, lay down His life that we all may live. Today Fr. Robert Weber reminds us that all that we are being called to do this Lent in the midst of our world pandemic is being graced by God to make us more like Him. As we sacrifice our freedoms, such as our ability to gather for worship, we are doing so for the life, safety, and health of others. And this is love, that we lay down our lives for a friend.

March 29, 2020 - The Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Lent is named Laetare, the Latin word for rejoice or be exceedingly joyful. We are reminded to rejoice right in the middle of Lent, a season of the blessed gift of repentance. Today we set ourselves to rediscover the joy in the experience of the healing work of Christ for us as we turn our lives to Him with all of our weaknesses, frailties, and the deepest illnesses within our souls. We look at three Gospel stories to remind us truly how our Lord truly sees us. If we only knew what He longed to do on our behalf when we turn to Him, we would run to Him in blessed repentance.

March 25, 2020 - As we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation, one of the 12 Major Feasts of the Church, we look at the Blessed Virgin Mary and her posture before God. When the Archangel Gabriel announces the will of God to the Virgin full of grace she says the most profound words that show clearly her heart before God, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me according to Thy word." In other words, look upon me Lord. I offer myself so completely to you that Your will alone would be done in and through my life. See the Blessed Virgin's selflessness, note her beautiful humility, and comprehend her strong and bold faith that believes the truth that every word that comes from God comes from His love always desiring to reconcile mankind back to Himself from every result of the Fall. My friends, when you see the Blessed Virgin Mary you are to see what God has graced us all to become.

March 22, 2020 - St. Paul instructs the Church in his letter to the Ephesians and Chapter 5 "Be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love." We are the dearly beloved children of God. We are the ones who have experience the immeasurable and inexhaustible love of God in our lives. St. Paul is telling us to mimic the nature of the God Who is love and offer that which we have received to others. In this time of pandemic as we now must spend so much time in our homes, we are reminded that we must cultivate a relationship of love with our Heavenly Father through prayer that we might be transformed and become love. So many in this world right now are suffering physically, struggling emotionally, and oppressed with financial fears. If ever there ever was a time that the love of God must be manifest through His people as an offering to this world, that time is upon us.

Many people are apprehensive, fearful, or uneasy about the Sacrament of Confession/Absolution. Some question why even engage such a practice. I find that all of this is true mostly because of an honest lack of understanding regarding the profound ministry Christ Himself does for us actively in and through this blessed Sacrament. This teaching focuses on the very tangible ministry of Christ on our behalf in the Sacrament of Confession. If we only knew what Jesus desires to do and indeed does out of His immeasurable love for us through this Sacrament, that He ordained for the benefit of His beloved people, we truly would find ourselves rushing to Him.

March 8, 2020 - The 40 days of Lent is modeled after the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting. In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 4 we are told that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to fast for those 40 days and then be tempted by Satan. The fact that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to do all of this should be an indication to us that this was by the Divine will of God would forge something that would be beneficial to our lives and for our salvation. Today we look at this and discover that we are led by the same Holy Spirit into these 40 days of Lent that we might return to Christ Who is our victory over Satan and every temptation he throws our way.

March 4, 2020 - St. Paul teaches that each one of us has become the Temple of the Holy Spirit. But, my friends, throughout the days of our life each year the Temple becomes cluttered and filled with things worthless to our life in Christ and our Salvation; or worse, damaging to our souls. On this Ash Wednesday we are reminded that Lent is a time to simplify our lives and turn our attention so much more to the God of our salvation. It is a time to deliberately, by grace, rid ourselves of the clutter in our minds and hearts. It is a time to make room for God once again. Those who do so, to them He will come in and make His home.

March 1, 2020 - On this last Sunday before we enter into Lent, our Lord puts front and center before us the remembrance that He is our deliverer. But is the deliverance ministry of Christ our God? In our Gospel reading from St. Luke and chapter 18 we see Christ deliver the blind man on the road near Jericho from his infirmity as the blind man cried out desperately for mercy. When we reflect Christ's deliverance of this man as well as other examples, we find that His ministry of deliverance is one that takes His beloved people from a lesser state of existence (one of frailty, weakness, and oppression) to the other extreme; into an abundant life of joy, contentment, and all of the blessings of His Kingdom.

Today, as we are preparing to enter into the healing season of Great Lent, we put our focus on understanding why we fast with prayer and the benefits God offers us as we do so. The people of God have always had prayer and fasting as part of their living experience of God. Jesus taught "when you pray" and "when you fast" not "if you pray and fast." Today we remind ourselves that fasting accompanied by prayer is not something we do as some legalistic rule. It is a prescription that the Healer of our souls offers us, and has always offered His people, that grants us the greater experience of the God Who is our Life and our Salvation.