Homily on Great Saturday – Christ’s Descent into Hell

There is a homily for the current day which no one on the earth heard or will hear, that no on on the earth read or will read, which, however, is worthy of the reverence of the earth as well as the very heavens. What is this homily? It is the one about which the [...]

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The Light of Christ Enlightens All! – Homily on Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Special thanks to Felix Culpa for his superb scrutiny of this translation! The light of Christ enlightens all! One of the most significant liturgical actions of the Great Fast takes place when, between the Old Testament readings, the Royal Doors are suddenly opened, the serving clergyman appears with a candle and censer and, making the [...]

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Homily on Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. (Luke 23:42) The Holy Church treats us like mothers treat children when teaching them to speak. To do this, they make children repeat after them the names of people and things which are most necessary for conversation. The Church does the same. In as much as [...]

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Homily before Confession – Friday the Second Week of Lent

It is good to give praise*[confess] unto the Lord (Psalms 91:2 LXX in Holy Transfiguration Monastery translation) *Translator’s note: The Slavonic text reads “confess.” Other examples of use of the same verb in the Slavonic are Ps. 96:12, 6:6, 29:10, 117:1, 78:13, and 75:11. The Slavonic verb can mean both to praise and to confess. [...]

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Homily on the Kontakion of St. Andrew of Crete’s Canon

This is a homily from the second week of the fast on a kontakion from the first week but it’s appropriate for any time your soul needs a wake up call. Homily on Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent My soul, my soul, arise! Why are you sleeping? The end is drawing near, and [...]

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Homily on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy

What does it mean that all the anathemas just proclaimed by the Church refer to false teaching and heresy and not one condemns impiety and vice? Is an impious life really less contrary to the Gospel than incorrect faith? No, impenitent vice is more criminal than impenitent unbelief. If a vice was not condemned by [...]

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Another Homily on Cheese-fare Sunday

Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Eph. 5:14) By the mercy of the Lord we are again in the arena of the holy fast and repentance! Some of us who together with us last year set out to confession and the holy meal have been taken [...]

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Homily on Cheese-fare Sunday

I have started a new translation project appropriate to lent, that is, homilies of St. Innocent (Borisov), Archbishop of Kherson, for every day of the fast. I will say right now that I will not be translating one a day, but, maybe, if I’m lucky, one or two a week. As St. Innocent is, from [...]

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Objective science you say?

The near-sighted philosophy of the previous century [i.e., the 18th] had for a time dreamt of breaking this holy union and had forced knowledge to dig a grave for faith, but what came of this attempt at matricide? Holy faith, honored by self-forgetting reason, hid in a depth of the heart inaccessible to this reason, [...]

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