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A Life of Luminous Actions

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 29, 2017 Mystics like De Chardin believed that the luminous heart of Christ is the center of the cosmos. We agree, of course. Professor Jaroslav Pelikan said that the problem with modern theology is that it has lost sight of the Cosmic Christ. True Christianity always rests in the revelation that Christ is Forever and All-Encompassing. The reason we have forgotten him, I believe, is encapsulated

A Place Both Strange and Wonderful

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 26, 2017 The lawyer had eyes and he could not see. He stood before God incarnate and did not know him. “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear,” Jesus often says. The same is true, of course, of eyes. The lawyer had healthy eyes and could not see and healthy ears and could not hear. He did hear something with his ears and saw

A Sense of Wonder

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, May 6, 2018 at St. Mary Orthodox Church Every time I turn my attention to the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman I am astonished. There is no end to inspiration in this magnificent story. This morning I will make just a few remarks bookended by a couple of startling quotes and hope your imagination might be stirred to consider for yourself the depth of meaning

So Plain, So Clear, So Beautiful

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, May 20, 2018 Meeting an actual Christian – that is a saint – is such a beautiful thing. They don’t usually come, in my experience, draped in black robes, wearing weird hats, with long, bushy beards and birken stocks. Saints are far less ostentatious, as if they don’t want to be seen. Humility makes them like children playing hide and seek with the world as St. Seraphim

Go and Sin No More

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 8, 2018 at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA. I want to begin today by drawing a comparison between the healing of the paralytic in today’s reading and the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda in John’s Gospel, especially the Lord’s exhortation to go and sin no more. We know that the word sin most used in the Gospels is hamartia or

More than a Religious Rule

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 30, 2018 The Golden Rule is not too hard for us. It is not unnatural or even extraordinary. For those who are created in the image of God, baptized into Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit, unmitigated compassion and kindness is normal. Every time we act in any way opposite to love we are acting against our own nature. That is what we call sin.

The Compassionate Way of Self-Care

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 18, 2018 at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA. No matter how hard we try, we suffer. Sometimes it even seems like the more we try the more we suffer. Resistance is futile and resist we still do! Suffering is a part of life and to deny that is to miss a good portion of it. It comes in small ways and big ones. For

Learn How to Walk

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 25, 2018 The Reading is from Luke 18:18-27 Every Gospel is full of messages. After 31 years I’m beginning to believe the number is infinite. I thought I might take a bit of a break today when inspiration arrived unexpected from a Danish philosopher. And a story sent to me earlier by a new friend at UMass Amherst sprung to memory. First, Jesus attempts to wake

The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross: Losing Ourselves in Love

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 16, 2018 at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA. The Reading is from the Gospel According to Mark 8:34-38; 9:1 Today’s Gospel reading from Mark chapter 8, marks a turning point in the Lord’s ministry. From chapter 8 to chapter 13 we read the account of Christ’s final journey to his crucifixion in Jerusalem. Jesus announces his death and meets with resistance. Peter rebukes him,

Extreme Humility and Radical Love

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 10, 2019 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.  Glory to Jesus Christ! The Gospel always gives us a glimpse into Christ’s Great Good Heart.  The Lord reveals to us His Father’s gracious will to heal and save all of creation by living among us an incarnate life and demonstrating in living color what it