Homily for the Sunday of the Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Saint Anna Greek Orthodox Church
Today is the Sunday of the 630 Holy Fathers who constituted the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon, the ancient city just across from Constantinople on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. It is the Council that gave to the Christian World for all time, a definition about the Human and Divine natures of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this definition has secured the Christian Faith forever by its wise and balanced understanding of the Theanthropos – the God-Man Jesus Christ.
Read MoreJuly 15, 2024
Homily at the Thyranixia and Great Vespers of the Saint Anna Greek Orthodox Church
We are assembled as One Body in Christ, here before the doors of your Temple, which is dedicated to the Mother of the Theotokos and the Grandmother of our Lord, so that we may pray to be worthy to open these doors which lead heavenward.
Read MoreJuly 15, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for the Great Vespers of Ss. Constantine & Helen May 20, 2024
Tonight, my beloved Christians, we commence our annual celebration for the Feast of your Celestial Patrons, the Equals-to-the-Apostles, Saints Constantine and Helen.
Read MoreMay 21, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily at Great Vespers and Stavrophoria May 17, 2024
Tonight, my beloved Community of Hellenic College and Holy Cross, we begin in earnest our celebration for the Commencement Exercises of tomorrow. With this Vespers and Stavrophoria of the Graduates, here at the conclusion of the Second Week of Pentecostarion, the Week of our Θωμᾶς ὁ λεγόμενος Δίδυμος, as we chanted this evening in the Prosomoia of the Feast.
Read MoreMay 18, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily at Great Vespers and Stavrophoria
Christ is Risen!
Tonight we celebrate those observing their tenth, twenty-fifth, and fiftieth anniversaries of graduation from our precious Σχολή, awarding them Alumni Crosses to recognize their years of service.
Read MoreMay 16, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily at Great Vespers and Stavrophoria May 15, 2024
Tonight we celebrate those observing their tenth, twenty-fifth, and fiftieth anniversaries of graduation from our precious Σχολή, awarding them Alumni Crosses to recognize their years of service. I find the particular confluence of Feastdays quite auspicious for this award, as we have just left the commemoration on the Fifteenth of May of Saint Pachomius the Great, the great Egyptian father of cenobitic monasticism. And we now celebrate the Great Vespers commemorating the Holy Patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Nicholas Mystikos.
Read MoreMay 15, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for the Great Vespers of the Life-Giving Fountain May 9, 2024
What a joy it is to be with you – the faithful of our Ζωοδόχος Πηγή Church here in the Bronx. Your Feast day – the Life-Giving Fountain, is the answer to a warning of the Prophet Jeremias, by whom the Lord chastised the children of Israel, saying:
Read MoreMay 10, 2024
Homily for the Vespers of Agape - The Holy and Great Pascha
Christ is Risen! [and in response: Truly He is Risen!]
Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη! [and in response: Ἀληθῶς Ἀνέστη!]
This truly is the Day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice together and be glad in it![1] What a blessing to have arrived at the Holy Pascha of the Lord, and especially to celebrate it here at Holy Resurrection in Brookville, after having come through the fire and water of Holy Week.
Read MoreMay 5, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for the Divine Liturgy of the First Resurrection
My Beloved Christians,
Σιγησάτω πᾶσα σάρξ βροτεία, καὶ στήτω μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου, καὶ μηδὲν γήϊνον ἐν ἑαυτῇ λογιζέσθω.
Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and stand with fear and trembling; and let it take no thought for any earthly thing.[*]
Indeed, my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we keep silence and interior stillness in the presence of this profound mystery, the Sabbath of Rest of our Lord in the Tomb. We hear the ancient prophecies of this day – there are fifteen by tradition – that were used in this Baptismal Liturgy. Today, the Catechumens went down into the Font of Rebirth, just as Christ descended into the grave and beyond, in order to be reborn.
Read MoreMay 4, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for the Service of the Lamentations
My Beloved Christians,
Tonight I ask you to look within yourselves, to look around your life, to look around the world, and ask a single question:
“Can these bones live?” [*]
The Lord God challenged the holy Prophet Ezekiel with these very words, when He showed him the Valley of Dry Bones. And He challenges us as well.
Read MoreMay 4, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros - Homily for the Service of the Twelve Gospels
My Beloved Christians,
Tonight, our service overwhelms our hearts and astonishes our minds, as we contemplate the vision of God crucified in the flesh.
We stand in awe before the One Who suspended the land in the midst of the waters, and our planet in the midst of the stars, as He hangs upon the Cross for our redemption and eternal life.
We have listened to the eloquence of the Twelve Gospels, which contain the agonizing details of our Lord’s arrest, trial, and Crucifixion. And we have glorified His condescension, his Humility, and His long-suffering – His μακροθυμία on behalf of us all.
Read MoreMay 3, 2024
As I have been well pleased in past years, so I am also tonight to be with you, once again, for this Third Bridegroom Service, when we are blessed to hear once again the most beloved Hymn of Kassiani.
Read MoreMay 1, 2024
We are now in the midst of our most precious season, and the hymns of the Church alert us to what is happening in this last week of the Lord’s earthly ministry. Day by day, we will follow the Lord on His Way to the Cross.
Read MoreApril 30, 2024
Now we have arrived at the somber services of Holy Week, so that may greet the Lord, as our Bridegroom, for He is Coming to His voluntary Passion for our sake and the sake of the whole world.
Read MoreApril 29, 2024
Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for Palm Sunday April 28, 2024
Μετὰ κλάδων νοητῶς, κεκαθαρμένοι τὰς ψυχάς, ὡς οἱ Παῖδες τὸν Χριστόν, ἀνευφημήσωμεν πιστῶς….
With our souls cleansed and in spirit carrying branches, with faith let us sing Christ’s praises like the children….
Read MoreApril 28, 2024
His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for Lazaros Saturday
Λόγῳ σου Λόγε τοῦ Θεοῦ, Λάζαρος νῦν ἐξάλλεται, πρὸς βίον παλινδρομήσας….
O Word of God, by your word Lazaros now leaps forth, taking up again the path to life….[*]
Indeed, my beloved Christians, today the Lord Jesus Christ reveals His complete identity as the Logos of God and Lord of the living and the dead, when He calls forth Lazaros from his four-day tomb.
Read MoreApril 27, 2024
HOMILY By His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America On the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,
I am delighted to be with you, here in this wonderful community of Staten Island, as we prepare for the final week prior to Holy Week. Today, we celebrate one of the greatest Saints of the Church, Mary of Egypt, whose life was completely changed by her experience of Jerusalem, and the power of the Holy Cross in the Church of the Anastasis. We, too, are called to be changed by the same power of the Cross that we will witness not many days from now, and by the glory of the Lord’s Resurrection.
Read MoreApril 22, 2024
Tonight, we sing this magnificent canticle – the Akathist Hymn – in its entirety, in praise of our Παναγία, our Heavenly Champion.
Tonight, we join with Orthodox Christians around our country and around the world – beseeching the Holy Virgin to grant us spiritual victory, to grant us peace and to grant us relief from suffering.
Read MoreApril 20, 2024
We have now arrived at another Vespers of Contrition – ὁ Κατανυκτικὸς Ἑσπερινὸς. These services provide a way for us to move from the relaxation of the Fast that we experienced over the weekend, into the rigors we encounter the other five days of the week. Tonight at this Vespers, the next day commences and we engage again in our intentions and our ἄσκησις for the Holy Fast.
Read MoreApril 15, 2024