“We are called to keep the faith, but we are not called to keep it to ourselves.” ~ St. Spyridon

Fr. Gabriel-Allan's sermon from Sunday, June 24, 2018—the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

“Brothers and sisters, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”

Fr. Gabriel-Allan's sermon Fathers’ Anti-Anxiety Medicine - seeking the Kingdom with all of our Heart, Soul & Strength.

What does it mean to be a man? The manhood of the men around us profoundly effects every single one of our lives.

Fr. Gabriel-Allan's sermon on Sunday, June 10, 2018. Fishers of Men - All In, Follow Him.

Jesus promised to make them fishers of men. In the journey that lay ahead of them, He would show them the risk that comes with faith, as the essential element of love.

Fr. Gabriel-Allan's sermon on the Sunday of Pentecost 2018.

If only we could know what we are meant to do and be in life. Why is discovering our purpose so perplexing? How do we come to realize what God intends for each of us?

Fifty days after Christ’s resurrection, the Holy Spirit was poured into a frail group of a hundred and twenty disciples who had gathered together in an upper room in Jerusalem that day. How could such frail people become such powerful witnesses?

Fr. Gabriel-Allan speaks on Jesus’ Last Words to his Disciples about Oneness with Him & His Father.

Are challenging circumstances keeping you tangled up? Do you feel sapped by your situation? Do you want to be made whole?

They gladly went down and began digging. Excited to know that not only were they improving each other’s lot, but also the lives of so many others who might have been struggling like they had.

Who will roll the stone away from our hearts?

They found the kind of courage where they had so much love for God, that they resolved to stick by Him and to offer of themselves to Him, no matter what the circumstances.

On Thomas Sunday, it’s an odd scene in the Gospel reading (John 20:19-31). After Christ’s joyous resurrection…after His conquering of death by death…the disciples spend the end of Easter Sunday hiding behind locked doors.  What gives?

“Today is the summary of our salvation!” Those are the very first words in the Apolytikion hymn for today’s Great Feast of the Annunciation. “Today is the summary of our salvation…and the revelation of the age-old mystery.” Well…what is this mystery that’s being revealed to us- today... …this age-old mystery? 

The world has done its best to convince us that fleshly pleasures bring us happiness and that sin has no consequence.  The world (who thinks that sin is a made-up legal problem instead of something that steals life from us) says, it’s not really sin if it gives you pleasure…if it makes you happy!  However, this Saint, who had a salacious beginning, challenges us to take a more realistic look at these things and at ourselves. 

Both, our Gospel reading this morning (Mark 9:17-31) and the icon of St John’s Ladder of Divine Ascent draws our attention to something that we should really come to grips with at this point in Lent. Our belief in God is much more fragile for us broken human beings than we often realize…and yet, in spite of this, there’s enormous hope in the promise that we can still find salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

A few years ago, when Presvytera and I lived in Arizona, we moved into a house whose backyard had a conspicuously bare patch of ground. Nothing ever grew there. The Arizona desert is famous for illustrating every imaginable shade of brown. So, as I began to make good use of our back yard for grilling and entertaining guests, it wasn’t long before I was longing to see some color on that bare patch of desert soil.