07
Nov 2021
You always try to maintain your things in your life so you can stay renewed fresh and healthy, your body, the things you own, your car and home. And similarly, this is what our church fathers are telling us – renew our relationship with our savior. We are the church. We are the true living members of the body of the Christ. Last week, we talked about Jesus asking the disciples – “Who do the people say that I am.” This week we have the same reading from a different gospel. We......
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31
Oct 2021
Today is the Sunday of the Sanctification of the Church. The new year of the ecclesiastical church. From this Sunday until Christmas is eight Sundays. Sanctification means to make something holy. To set something apart, or consecrate. For us, it means a call for all of us to be holy from inside. Be holy because your Father in heaven is holy. The best reading for this is in the book of Matthew, when the Lord was with his disciples, asking “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13). We......
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24
Oct 2021
In the book of Genesis, it said when God created man, He created him in His image and likeness. But sin corrupted this image. And that’s why people feel they are not worthy or have value. In Luke 18:18-30, there was a rich man who came to Jesus who asked the most important question under the sky. “What can I do to enter the kingdom of God?” Jesus responded – Go, sell everything you have and distribute it to the needy, carry your cross and follow me. And the man became very......
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17
Oct 2021
In a special message to our Sunday School children, Father Andrew speaks about our role on this earth to do good things: What comes to your mind when we talk about money? We think about buying stuff from the stores. Money helps us live or survive. We use the money to buy what we want. Money gives you food, clothes. And anything you want. We can eat and help others with donations. Money could be good, and with it we can help the needy. But money could be bad if we use......
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10
Oct 2021
These days a lot of people don’t consider Sunday a holy day. But holiness shows on the outside, and it must come from the inside as well. In Matthew 12, the Lord spoke of honoring this day as the Pharisees would try to complain about him, by saying “how come your disciples don’t wash their hands before they eat or they don’t consider the sabbath?” The Lord responded with the true meaning of the Sunday. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Have you wondered what mercy and sacrifice means, and what the Lord......
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03
Oct 2021
We have different ways of receiving news around us, like TV and social media, but we should be careful how we hear, and we should be careful how we receive the news from the outside. In Mark 2, when the Lord and his disciples were going in the fields hungry and ate wheat, the Pharisees did not believe in that type of “work” on the Sabbath day and criticized them. They were looking to blame Jesus and his disciples for something. And this is the way we face criticism in our lives.......
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26
Sep 2021
The Lord was talking about how much people should be careful of the teaching from the Pharisees, and the people spoke of their lack of bread. Then, the Lord said in Matthew 16:8, “O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?” “Do you not remember or understand the five loaves or five thousand, and how many baskets you took up.” The Lord brought to their attention the blessings in their lives. This is a personal message to all of us. Why is this a......
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19
Sep 2021
I pray that the words that we sing, read, or talk in our Sunday Liturgy will touch our hearts. Because of the power of the word. This is what the Savior said in Mark 13, when he was talking about the sign of the last days and he mentioned a lot of things. “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words by no means will pass away.” And the earthly things — what you think is solid and strong — those will melt. How is it that we don’t appreciate these......
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12
Sep 2021
This week we celebrate the feast of the discovery of the Holy Cross. I pray we can be protected, blessed, and be under the protection of the cross. When you see the cross you feel safe, and not scared for yourself. When we sign the cross over ourselves and do anything with the sign of the cross, we should feel protected and blessed. Before Christ, the sign of the cross was a sign of shame and curse, a very bad punishment, and a sign of death. And after Christ, it was something......
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05
Sep 2021
Recently a big storm hit this area. A lot of damage, and a lot of people lost their lives. And last Sunday, I spoke about how God is warning us. This week, the Bible tells us how the Lord is calling us to be true children. It was a very strong message. We hear a lot of bad things happening. If there is a clear message, it is we should listen, obey and answer the call of the Lord. Luke 14:16-24 says that in a symbolic way, as there was a master......
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