by Max Massell | Mar 28, 2023 | Faith, Sunday Scriptures, Feast Days, Great Fast & Holy Week
FROM ARMENIA TO EVERY CORNER of the Middle East Palm Sunday is celebrated as a feast for children. Describing Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, St Matthew’s Gospel highlights the participation of children in the event. “When the chief priests and scribes saw the...
by Max Massell | Mar 21, 2021 | Faith, Sunday Scriptures, Great Fast & Holy Week
AS THE GREAT FAST DRAWS TO A CLOSE we are presented with the story of St Mary of Egypt. Her Life, by St Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem, is read on the Thursday of Repentance, along with the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete. On the fifth and last Sunday in the...
by Max Massell | Mar 14, 2021 | Sunday Scriptures, Great Fast & Holy Week
AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT SINAI, in the Egyptian peninsula of the same name, sits the monastery of St Catherine. It has been inhabited continuously for over 1700 years, making it one of the oldest such places in the world. Its unique climate has preserved icons and...
by Max Massell | Mar 7, 2021 | Faith, Sunday Scriptures, Great Fast & Holy Week
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN THE GREAT FAST is highlighted in the Byzantine Churches by the veneration of the holy cross. We adorn it with flowers, carry it in procession and prostrate ourselves before it. The Fast is preparing us to celebrate the death and resurrection of...
by Max Massell | Feb 21, 2021 | Faith, Sunday Scriptures, Great Fast & Holy Week
AT EVERY DIVINE LITURGY during the Great Fast we read from the Holy Gospel according to Mark – except for today. Why is John 1:43-51 read on this Sunday, the Sunday of Orthodoxy? The brief answer is that both the Gospel reading and the triumph of Orthodoxy, which we...
by Max Massell | Jan 31, 2021 | Faith, Sunday Scriptures, Great Fast & Holy Week
EACH YEAR, AS WE PREPARE to embark upon the Great Fast, we hear the Lord’s parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) read at the Divine Liturgy. Some commentators have said that the story might better be called the Parable of the Forgiving Father as he is the most...
