Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on the Feast of the Transfiguration, Sunday, August 6, 2017 It is very important that we wrap our minds around the two truths when we are drawn to speak of the Holy Trinity. One, that the doctrine of the Trinity is the beating heart of our faith. Without it there is no Christianity. And Christianity where the Trinity is not central or has been forgotten or ignored has lost
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 18, 2016 at St. Mary Orthodox Church. Holy Orthodoxy has a vision of human nature than is unrelentingly positive. This vision originates in the biblical reference from Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Because this is so, to know the truth of who we are, is to know God. St. Clement of Alexandria wrote that, “…if one
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on the Feast of the Transfiguration, Sunday, August 6, 2017 It is very important that we wrap our minds around the two truths when we are drawn to speak of the Holy Trinity. One, that the doctrine of the Trinity is the beating heart of our faith. Without it there is no Christianity. And Christianity where the Trinity is not central or has been forgotten or ignored has lost
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 5, 2020 I search for inspiration everywhere and find it everywhere. All we have to do to see it is to be open and receptive. The wind of the Spirit is always blowing. We just have to raise our sails. I remember my homiletics teacher who taught us one significant thing that I have never forgotten: to develop what he called “homiletical eyes.” Simply put that
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 19, 2020 Here is a beautiful prayer I found just the other day that mirrors the teaching of Christ that we are the light of the world. “You who are within and without, above and below and all around, You who are interpenetrating every cell of my being, You who are the eye of my eyes, the ear of my ears, the heart of my heart,
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 9, 2020 at St. Mary Orthodox Church We spoke last week about leaving behind our “smaller” minds, our egoic and worldly operating systems so we can enter into the “larger” mind, the selfless and heavenly operating system of Christ. First, I want to read a quote from the great Maximus the Confessor. He was a genius, often very much above my pay grade. “Grace irradiates nature
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 27, 2020 In every Gospel there are multitudes of meanings obvious and hidden. You couldn’t possible uncover them all in a sermon or series of sermons. There is something infinite and ineffable about Holy Scripture. The more we look and the more we allow them to speak to us in the quiet temple of our hearts, not projecting our own meanings on them, the more they
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 4, 2020 I have a beautiful little story to tell you. It comes from a teacher of English as a Second Language in Illinois who happens to be the niece of my dear friend Dr. Anthony Bashir. It seemed like a great day for it given the Gospel reading from Luke. Nicole’s class has many Chinese students some of whom are not Christian even though the
Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, January 17, 2021 Every person, every organization, every religion, every community, every parish has a framing story. That story is the glue that holds the group together, and gives it meaning and purpose. The Gospel gives us an example of that on a small scale. The 10 Lepers formed a cohesive group bound by their disease and the social stigma that came with it. The framing story,
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, June 6, 2021. I thought this would be a short sermon. It got a little bigger as I wrote it. Jesus spits on the ground and makes a paste and anoints the blind man’s eyes. As we know, scripture is metaphorical. It points to truths that are hidden deep behind the words. Fr. John Behr points us to St. Irenaeus’ interpretation of the healing of the blind
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