The Journey of Lent Begins

March 6, 2019

If you’re an Orthodox Christian, this week marked the first day of a 55 day journey called Lent. I like calling it a “journey” more than a “season” because that helps me remember that there is a purpose.

Seasons come and seasons go and nothing really changes. We go through winter for a while and then it’s time for spring. And then soon spring goes and then it’s time for summer. Just a season. Something we go through just because the calendar tells us that it’s the time of year to go through it.

A journey however is something we go through for a purpose.

Getting Ready for Holy Week

March 28, 2018

Below is a post I wrote two years ago, just before the start of Holy Week 2016. As we near the start of another Holy Week, I thought this would be the perfect message for today. I hope you enjoy it and I pray that you all have a fruitful and blessed week as we prepare to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Holy Week Hymns in English

April 7, 2017

Just wanted to let you all know that I'll be offline till the end of Holy Week and the celebration of Easter on April 16. But if you're looking for a way to get yourself ready for Holy Week, check out the HYMNS OF HOLY WEEK in English.

Learning the hymns of the Pascha services is one of the best ways to transform your worship experience and go from a passive bystander to an active participant. Highly recommend it to all!

On Christ’s Suffering and Death

May 6, 2016

The Lenten Season – which concluded last Sunday as we celebrated Christ’s resurrection from the dead – is usually seen as one of the most sacred times of the year for us Christians. This season is at the core of our dogma and our faith, and epitomizes the beautiful story of Christianity, establishing hope for the eternal joy and peace as opposed to the earthly pain and distress. Because of its literally life-changing nature, we are called to engage in more intense daily exercises during Lent, both physically and spiritually

Why Did They Want to Kill Lazarus?

April 22, 2016

Has anyone tried to kill you recently? I certainly hope not.

As Fr. Anthony wrote about earlier this week, we in the Coptic Orthodox Church are now preparing to enter Holy Week. Believe it or not, it actually begins tomorrow with Lazarus Saturday. After that is Palm Sunday, then the events of Holy Week through Covenant Thursday, Good Friday, Bright Saturday, and what many church fathers call the ‘Feast of Feasts’, the Holy Resurrection

Christ is risen...so now what???

April 15, 2015

The day we’ve been dreading has finally arrived. It’s here and we don’t know what to do with it. Do we run and hide? Or do we succumb to its pressure and surrender? What to do, what to do, what to do... What day is it?

It’s the day when LIFE GOES BACK TO NORMAL AFTER HOLY WEEK!

(insert dramatic pause)

LENT: It's not about the food!

February 25, 2015

“Lent is here, we can’t eat meat. Lent is here, we have to put soy milk in our coffee. Lent is here, don’t tell anyone that that’s milk chocolate, not dark chocolate. Lent is here, we can’t eat Cool Ranch Doritos, we have to eat Sun Chips instead.”

For too many people, Lent is all about food. "Don’t eat this and don’t eat that. Stay away from this and don’t even think about that." Food food food. For a season that is supposed to simplify our lives and our eating habits, it sure seems like we spend a lot of time talking (and thinking) about food.

But is Lent supposed to about food? Is that what this is all about? Or do we maybe have this thing backwards?

Offline for Holy Week

April 14, 2014

It has officially begun - the most beautiful/sacred time of the year. Pascha Week (aka Holy Week) is upon us. Because of that, I won't be blogging this week. But I didn't want to leave my faithful blog followers high and dry so below is a message I shared one year which talks about HOW TO PREPARE FOR HOLY WEEK.

Have a great week and hopefully I'll see you all back online next week.

How Valuable is This One Week to You?

April 9, 2014

Here we go. It’s that time of year. We’ve been going through Lent for almost 7 weeks and that means that HOLY WEEK is almost here. As soon as I mention the coming of Holy Week (more traditionally known as Pascha Week), there are two responses that might come forth

a) (church people) YES! It’s Holy Week. Services every day. More prayers, more hymns, more readings…MORE CHURCH! YES!!!

b) (non-church people) Oh no! It’s Holy Week. Services every day. More prayers, more hymns, more readings…MORE CHURCH! NO!!!

Same event, completely different responses. Why is that? Why do some people approach Holy Week like a kid on Christmas, while others approach it like a turkey on Thanksgiving? How can that be? How can they be talking about the same thing?

Pascha Week is Here

April 29, 2013

Just wanted to let my faithful readers know that I won’t be blogging at all this week because this is the week that we in the Orthodox church celebrate Pascha Week (aka Holy Week).

And during Pascha week we have pretty intense schedule of services so therefore I’ll be offline till next week. However, I wanted to share a message which I delivered last night (the first night of Pascha week) over at St. Mark’s church. Something important to keep in mind throughout this week…

Preparing for Holy Week (sermon video)

April 22, 2013

I'm back online! Sorry for being out of touch all last week. We were getting our house ready to be put on the market for sale - so I was wrapped up with that all day, every day, last week.

But now, thanks be to God, we're done and I am back and more pumped than ever! Lots of stuff I can't wait to share with everyone out there in the blogosphere so stay tuned... But for today, I wanted to share the video of the message that I delivered yesterday: PREPARING FOR HOLY WEEK.

NOTE: if you're not Orthodox and you're wondering why we're preparing for Holy Week now, it's because we are on a different calendar than you. You celebrated Easter a few weeks ago; but we don't get to it till May. So you can look at it as we are a month behind the rest of the Christian world, or as I prefer to see it, we are about 11 months ahead. :)

Either way, check out the video and hopefully this helps get you in the right frame of mind - regardless of when you celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord.

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