Fr. Gregory speaks about the spiritual warfare we all face as Christians.

When did fasting begin? Did Jesus start the whole thing off? The righteous and the repentant fasted in the Old Testament. Well, what about Abraham then? The fact is, humankind was taught to fast right from the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden.

If we are to live effectively in the power of God, if we are to know his power to save even in adverse circumstances; then we must listen to him now and do His will, not put it off, not make excuses.

Jesus Christ understood that both the disciples and us would be puzzled about how to react to Him after the crucifixion. What did Jesus do? He told the apostle St Thomas and us: “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here with your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” And the apostle St Thomas was empowered by this remarkable encounter with Jesus Christ to overcome unbelief and to say to Jesus: “My Lord and my God.”

In his sermon on Pentecost, Fr. Gregory says we have the promise of Christ that if we pray and wait on the power of God, the Holy Spirit will descend upon us.

Fr. Gregory's homily on the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

Father Deacon Emmanuel gives the homily on the banquet story in Luke 14.

Fr. Gregory preaches on the story of Zacchaeus and his determination to see Jesus.

Fr. Gregory suggests that perhaps it is time to take stock of our own service, to consider what talents God has given us, and to take care that we use them fully.

Fr. Christopher delivers the homily on Great and Holy Pascha.

Fr. Gregory helps us understand the harmony of faith and works.

The parable of the sower shows us how; we must yield to the Sower, which is the Father. No one ever grew spiritually for salvation without such yielding to the Father’s hand.

Fr. Gregory asks how we can protect ourselves and the poor, who are our brothers and sisters, from those tendencies within ourselves toward greed and the denial of both death and judgement?

When we repent, when we seek to change our lives and our relationship to Christ, what is “at hand”? What is near? What is about to happen? The kingdom of heaven!

Every experience of sorrow in our lives could be suffering without meaning but if we have the grace to lay aside self-pity, blame and anger then we shall find in the heart of our suffering God a true hope, and yes even a meaning which in the love of God is the source of a robust wisdom.

Fr. Gregory encourages us to embrace not a semi-detached life with all its fatal compromises but a fully detached life with God as our only hope, security and strength.

Fr. Gregory says that St. Peter in Lydda should have taken the trouble to visit Joppa to raise Dorcas from the dead shows the importance that the early Church gave to the plight of widows.

Are we slouched downcast in the belly of the fish or are we striding away from the shore with God’s net in our backpack? Fr. Gregory says the choice is always ours. Let us choose well.

Fr Gregory explores true wisdom from the life of St. Xenia.

Fr. Gregory gives the sermon.

Fr. Emmanuel preaches on this the first Sunday in Lent known as The Triumph of Orthodoxy. Today we celebrate the endurance of the Orthodox Faith for nearly 2,000 years in the face of persecution and heresy—in the face of hostility and suffering, in the face of many wrong understandings of what Jesus Christ taught. Fr. Gregory begins with a lesson for the children.

Fr. Gregory talks about humility as a lesson in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee.

There are people who want to be healed, sometimes desperately, but there are others who, while they claim that they want to be healed, deep down do not.

Fr. Gregory tells us that one ordinary person hearing but one verse of Scripture in the Church and, more importantly, acting on it can change the whole world.

Fr. Emmanuel Kahn preaches on St John Maximovitch.

After Fr. Gregory Hallam speaks to the children, Fr. Emmanuel Kahn preaches on the Publican and the Pharisee.

Fr. Gregory Hallam begins with the children and then Fr. Emmanuel Kahn speaks to the adults about Joseph of Arimathea.

Fr. Emmanuel Kahn preaches from the 19th chapter of the Gospel of St Matthew about a rich young man who did not wish to give away his wealth to the poor and to then follow Jesus.

This morning we celebrate the feast of our patron, St Aidan of Lindisfarne.

Kingdom Struggles In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is one. Amen. On this Meatfare Sunday we are urged by the Church not to eat meat for the next week, as we prepare ourselves for Lent that begins on Monday, the 2nd of March. The challenge is to practise self-discipline, to experience that we “eat to live,” not “live to eat.” Yet in the Gospel today from the 25th chapter of St Matthew, Jesus Christ praises those righteous people who gave Him food when he was hungry and drink when He was thirsty. The righteous are puzzled, because they have not seen Jesus Christ. However, He explains to them that when you gave food and drink to those in need, you gave that nourishment “to Me.” It appears that possibly the Gospel and the theme for Meatfare Sunday might be in conflict about what attitude to take to food. However, in fact, the Gospel and Meatfare Sunday strongly support each other, because what is being considered is not our attitude to food, but our relationship to Jesus Christ. Meatfare Sunday urges us to become more self-disciplined so that we can draw closer to Christ. The Gospel today urges us to help those in need, to seek social justice, so that we can draw closer to Christ. In brief, both Meatfare Sunday and this Gospel are urging us to draw closer to Christ. In this Gospel “the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Later, in the Gospel of St John, Jesus Christ states: “I am the good shepherd; [and] the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” So, why are the sheep praised so much and the goats so rejected? The correct translation of this Gospel verse is “As the shepherd separates the sheep from the young kids.” St John Chrysostom points out that “indeed from sheep great is the profit—as from the milk, as from the wool, and from the young, of all which things the young kid [does not have]” [cited by The Orthodox New Testament: The Holy Gospels, Volume 1, Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado, p. 123]. To put it bluntly, the sheep have grown up and reached spiritual maturity, but the young kids have only begun their lives and are not yet spiritually mature. The division between sheep and young kids in this Gospel passage from St Matthew is linked to judgment on our lives, both God’s judgment of us and our own judgment of ourselves. Metropolitan Antony Bloom has written, and I quote, of how: “the day will come when we shall stand before God and [we will] be judged, but as long as our pilgrimage [on earth] continues, as long as we live in the process of becoming [that is, of growing closer to Christ], as long as there is ahead of us this road that leads to the full measure of the stature of Christ [that is, the importance of following Christ in our lives] which is our vocation [our calling], judgment must be [given on ourselves] by ourselves…. On [this] road [that leads to Christ] judgment is something which is happening all the time with[in] us; there is a dialogue, a … tension between [on the one hand,] our thoughts, emotions, feelings, actions and [on the other hand,] our conscience, which stands in judgment upon us…. There is a continuing dialogue with[in] us through our life,” concluded Metropolitan Antony [Meditations: A Spiritual Journey, Dimension Books, pp. 3-4]. In the reflection that Metropolitan Antony has set out, the sheep could be viewed as our consciences—our awareness of what is right—in conflict with many of “our thoughts, emotions, feelings [and] actions,” that represent the young kids. If Metropolitan Antony is right that “judgment is something which is happening all the time with[in] us”—and that is certainly an Orthodox Christian approach—then this separation between sheep and young kids is happening within us throughout our lives, as well as on the Final Day of Judgment. Essentially, we are trying now to rid ourselves of sin, through sinning less and less, as well as confessing whenever appropriate. However, we can’t rid ourselves of sin through willpower, but rather through prayer and listening to our consciences and listening to the Lord. In our lifelong battle with the tendency to sin, Metropolitan Antony points out; and I quote: “We very often walk in darkness, and this darkness is the result of our darkened mind, of our darkened heart, of our darkened eye; and it is only if the Lord Himself sheds His light into our soul, upon our life, that we can begin to see what is wrong and what is right in [our souls].” Metropolitan Antony then draws upon the writings of the Russian Orthodox priest, St John of Kronstadt, who boldly and rightly claimed that “God does not reveal to us the ugliness of our souls unless He can [observe] in us sufficient faith and sufficient hope for us not to be broken by the vision of our sins. In other words,” continues Metropolitan Antony, “whenever we see ourselves with our dark side, this knowledge increases, as we can understand ourselves [better and better,] more [and more,] in the light of God, that is, in the light of the Divine Judgement…. This means two things: it means, indeed that we sadly discover our own ugliness, but also that we can rejoice at the same time, because God has granted us His trust. He has entrusted to us a new knowledge of ourselves as we are, as He always saw us … [but in His mercy] He did not allow us to see ourselves [earlier] because we could not [yet] bear the sight of truth….[Thus] judgement becomes joy, because although we discover what is wrong [with our thoughts and our actions], this discovery is [given to us with] the knowledge that God has seen enough faith, enough hope and enough [courage in the face of pain and suffering] in us to allow us to see, because He knows that now we can act,” concludes Metropolitan Antony [Meditations, pp. 4-5]. I find those insights from Metropolitan Antony and St John of Kronstadt quite inspiring. When we seek to draw closer to Christ’s unique will for each of us, we still face problems and challenges in our lives However, we can be confident that as we see our sins more clearly this is itself a beautiful sign that God trusts us and is telling us that we are now ready to face and remove those sins from our lives. We are all in the midst of the pilgrimage on earth to draw closer to Christ, with the support of the Theotokos, the Mother of God, and the angels and the saints. This is not a mystic journey reserved for a few holy and sinless souls. On the contrary, precisely as Metropolitan Antony says: on this journey of drawing closer and closer to Christ, “the first step is to get to know ourselves”—our strengths and weaknesses, our hopes and our fears—both within ourselves and with regard to others. “The first step … in our evaluation of ourselves will be to measure this state of disruption [caused by the sin that presently exists within us].” To encourage us to evaluate ourselves, Metropolitan Antony sets out a number of tough questions that each of us, whatever our age, must answer for ourselves: “How much are my heart and my mind at variance [that is, not consistent] with one another? Is my will directed to one unique goal [of drawing closer and closer to Christ] or is [my will continually] wavering? How far are my [thoughts and my] actions directed by my [conscience and by my] convictions [or] how far are [my thoughts and my actions] under the [influence] of unruly impulses [that is, the sudden desire to do something without thinking of the consequences]? Is there any wholeness within me? … How separated am I from God and my neighbour?” [Meditations, p. 5]. These are tough questions that Metropolitan Antony poses to each of us. However, the very fact that we are asking ourselves these questions now is a sign that God is with us and that He will guide us to face our sins and draw closer to Him. Meatfare Sunday and this Gospel about the sheep and the young kids offer us encouraging guidelines for how to prepare for the season of Lent that will soon be upon us. Let us each face our sins, bring them to Confession, and get to know ourselves, so that we will then come to know Christ in His full, resurrected Glory. And so, we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Father Emmanuel Kahn