Sermon on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Georgios Patronos

Introduction

The parable of the Prodigal Son, which is the Gospel reading for today, is, as is well-known, one of the most beautiful texts of world literature.

It also recalls for us the Classical narrative, from Greek mythology, of the adventure of Odysseus who left Ithaca in order to become a man and wiser than before. This is to do with the eternal quest which people undertake, within time and history, leaving everything- certainty and security- to seek the unobtainable, the dream, and, in the end, made wiser by this experience of life, to return to their home and roots, where they eventually find rest.

How do we treat the gifts of God? The Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

How simple and how restrained are the words in which the Gospel describes his cruel rejection of his father, and prepares his departure into the far, strange country! “Father, give me my part of thy inheritance!” Do these words not mean: “Father, I can’t wait until your death! You are still strong, and I am young; it is now that I want to reap the fruits of thy life, of thy labors; later they will grow stale. Let us come to an agreement: for me you are dead; give me what belongs to me or what would belong to me after your actual death, and I will go, and I will live the life I have chosen.”

FASTING AND ORTHODOXY: LONGEVITY IN LIFE

Fr. Ted Bobosh

Sometimes we Orthodox need a little extra push to get into the Lenten Spirit.

I saw a few items in an article in the 22 February 2016 edition of TIME, “Longevity: It’s the Little Things That Keep Us Young” written by Alexandra Sifferlin which might help jump start our leap intoLent. Of course these aren’t the spiritual reasons we fast in the Orthodox Church, but maybe they can help convince us the benefits of Great Lent outweigh the risks. As we can see below there are several reasons why Great Lent may have long term benefits to our bodies and souls.

Sunday Themes for Great Lent

Fr. Ted Bobosh

While there is a popular notion about the unchanging nature of Orthodox liturgical practices, any study of history shows that Orthodox liturgical practice has undergone numerous and significant changes over history. One area where we can note significant change is the themes assigned to the Sundays of Great Lent. The big change in Sunday lenten themes begins in the 12th Century when Sundays of preparation were introduced into the liturgical practice. This somewhat further lengthened the time of Great Lent and these additional pre-Lenten Sundays found their way into the Triodion, the Liturgical book guiding Great Lent. According to Archimandrite Job Getcha in his book, THE TYPICON DECODED (p 38),

THE GRATITUDE OF THE PUBLICAN

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

 In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How short, and how well known today’s parable, and yet, how intense its message, how challenging... It is intense in its very words: two men come into the church of God, into a sacred realm—which belongs to Him unreservedly in a world that is otherwise lost to Him. They enter His Divine Realm. And one of the men walks boldly into it and takes a stand before God.