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That's understandable. Both start with Christ Is, plus the Lenten season and Pascha right around the corner for 2026.
 
Reflection from His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

The Lenten Triodion begins today, and it begins with a weeklong period of feasting. This fact, coupled with today’s Gospel reading, warns us against pride and hypocrisy: the Lord desires, not that we become puffed up because of our pious works, but that we repent in our hearts and in our lives. Fasting is a means, not an end.

Moreover, by starting this penitential season with a fast-free week, we are reminded that the goal of Lent – the goal of repentance and the entire Christian struggle – is not self-denial and deprivation per se; the goal is restored relationship with God. Ultimately, we seek to deprive ourselves not of food, but of sin, and our final goal is not sorrow, but the everlasting joy of the heavenly banquet. Once again: fasting is a means, not an end.

Blessed Sunday, brothers and sisters in Christ
 
Reflection from His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon on the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord

Joyous feast!

Today’s feast is a feast of liminality. For one, it stands on the threshold between Christmastide and Lent. Christ still appears to us as a newborn Child, just as he did at his Nativity, but the lingering joy of the holy birth is blended with tragic foreboding as Simeon, having pronounced his canticle of light and peace, follows it with prophecies of the Savior’s Passion.

This feast also stands at the threshold between the Old Covenant and the New: St. Joseph, bearing his two doves, fulfills the Old Covenant, even while Christ, presented in the temple as an offering to the Father, foreshadows the New Covenant that he will author on the Cross with his own precious Blood.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, presented in the temple and met by Simeon and Anna for our salvation, have mercy on us! Amen.



Blessed Candlemas
 
Reflection from His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

When the father runs out to meet his prodigal younger son, the former has nothing to gain, no profit motive, no angle: he is simply overflowing with love for his child for no other reason than the latter is his child. Likewise, our heavenly Father needs nothing from us, and he does not love us because of what we do; he loves us for who we are, not as defined by our often-sinful actions, but as defined by our relationship to him. We are his beloved creation, and, through baptism, his beloved children. When we were still rebels, sunk in sin and staunch in opposition to his divine sovereignty, God came running into the world to meet us, his arms stretched wide on the Cross in order to embrace our prodigal selves.

Glory, O Lord, to thy fathomless love and mercy!

EDIT: Forgot to post that His Grace Bishop Seraphim reposed.
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Ughubughughughughughghlug dijo:
Letting you know I appreciate you Orthodox kings
The actually good version of Catholicism
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Technically speaking. The Eastern Orthodox Church full Orthodox Catholic Church
'cause the word just means canonical. So I don't know how the Catholics could call themselves that, but then again, the. Currently acting to defend. The anti American Pope. And unlike them, we aren't smuggling hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the United States. Just so we can profit. The Orthodox Church actually has nothing to do with refugee resettlement.
 
Hi I'm a catechumen and my baptism is coming up soon and my priest told me to choose a patron saint that I relate to but I'm kind of having a difficult time because there are simply so many to sift through, do you guys know any resources where they're sorted by traits rather than just the date?
 
Forprexxer dijo:
Hi I'm a catechumen and my baptism is coming up soon and my priest told me to choose a patron saint that I relate to but I'm kind of having a difficult time because there are simply so many to sift through, do you guys know any resources where they're sorted by traits rather than just the date?
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This might help. Although if you already have a name from a man in the Bible, itd be best to use him as your patron.
 
Grew up non-affiliated, Agnostic if you will, but over the years I've felt myself drifting towards Orthodoxy. Maybe it's a symptom of the world I grew up in where I can no longer afford the luxury Agnosticism.
Thread tax.
 
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Dearly beloved faithful in Christ,

On the first Sunday of Great Lent—the Sunday of Orthodoxy—we joyfully commemorate the restoration of holy icons to the life of the Church. This feast celebrates the unity established by the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) and the final restoration of icons in 843 under the leadership of Empress St. Theodora, together with her son, Emperor Michael III, and Patriarch St. Methodios. Today, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America carries this legacy forward, manifesting that same spirit of unity. In this light, “Assembly of Bishops Sunday” is now observed nationwide in conjunction with this historic celebration.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul’s ancient plea still resonates: he calls us to be “united in the same mind and the same judgment,” leaving no room for division (1 Cor 1:10). This mandate, paired with the celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, reminds us that the restoration of icons was more than a historical event—it was the restoration of Church unity itself. It was the victory of faith over fear and the reality of a God incarnate over a distant deity. Just as we honor holy icons, we are called to see the icon of Christ in one another. By standing firm like the Saints of the 8th and 9th Centuries, we move past our differences to embrace the grace that unites us in the Body of Christ.

As we celebrate Assembly of Bishops Sunday – along with the Sunday of Orthodoxy – we encourage you all to learn about the Ministries of the Assembly as well as to support our sincere efforts for Orthodox Christian Unity through the steadfast and generous gifts of your time, talent, and treasure.

With Paternal love in Christ and prayers for a blessed Lenten journey, on the 1st of March, 2026.
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Reflection on the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas
Though St. Gregory is best known as a teacher and practitioner of hesychasm, the cultivation of holy silence, his life was in fact colorful and tumultuous: he was driven from his monastic home on the Holy Mountain because of the Turkish threat, imprisoned on multiple occasions, captured by pirates, and initially rejected by the people when he tried to take up his episcopal see at Thessalonica.

All of this reminds us that hesychasm, properly understood, is not a rejection of life with all its texture, troubles, and demands: after all, in the Incarnation, God himself entered into this messy world and its multitudinous trials. Rather, hesychasm entails our striving to open ourselves up to encounter God’s grace in the midst of these very tumults. “Be still, and I will fight for you,” God says to Moses (Exod. 14:14). Moses was not fleeing the battle; rather, in the midst of battle, he trusted in God to take up his cause. Likewise, as we try to make our own, in some small way, the practice of the Jesus Prayer and silence, we are not fleeing from worldly concerns, but turning those concerns over to God, taking refuge, through stillness, in his boundless love and mercy.

Holy hierarch, father Gregory, pray to God for us!
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O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.
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Christ is Risen! Happy Pascha Kiwi brothers and sisters.
 
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