St. John Climacus On the Fourth Sunday of the Fast, we celebrate the memory of our Holy Father John, the author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent. In the Church services for the fourth Sunday the Holy Church offers us…

Veneration of the Holy Cross The Third Sunday of Lent is called “The Veneration of the Cross.” At the Vigil of that day, after the Great Doxology, the Cross is brought in a solemn procession to the center of the…

Gregory Palamas On the Second Sunday of the Fast, we celebrate the memory of our Father among the Saints, Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica. The situation in St. Gregory’s time was that Orthodoxy was being debased; it was becoming worldly…

The Sunday of Orthodoxy The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday of Great Lent. The dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 has been that of the victory of the icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had…

The Services of Great Lent The holy season of Great Lent is a time of intense preparation for Orthodox Christians. The forty days leading up to Pascha, the glorious celebration of the resurrection of Christ, call for a concentration on…