Forgiveness Sunday Vespers

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

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

We have come to the threshold of Lent. We are starting to move along a road that will lead us to Golgotha, to Calvary; so that one day, at the end of Lent, we will find ourselves standing before Christ crucified—crucified for our own sake, for the sake of each of us. We are starting on a journey that must end with God being able to forgive us, and to say, ‘Go in peace.” But to achieve this we must begin to forgive one another.

Why Do Orthodox Constantly Seek God's Mercy?

By Metropolitan Anthony Bloom of Sourozh

Our modern translation 'have mercy' is a limited and insufficient one. The Greek word which we find in the gospel and in the early liturgies is eleison. Eleison is of the same root as elaion, which means olive tree and the oil from it. If we look up the Old and New Testament in search of the passages connected with this basic idea, we will find it described in a variety of parables and events which allow us to form a complete idea of the meaning of the word.

The Lord's Entry Into Jerusalem

by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

30 March 1980

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

Today Christ enters the path not only of His sufferings but of that dreadful loneliness which enshrouds Him during all the days of Passion week. The loneliness begins with a misunderstanding; the people expect that the Lord's entry into Jerusalem will be the triumphant procession of a political leader, of a leader who will free his people from oppression, from slavery, from what they consider godlessness - because all paganism or idol-worship is a denial of the living God.

Sermon for the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt

by Metropolitan Anthony Sourozh

Sermon on the Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross

Written by Anthony, Metropolitan of Sourozh.

This homily delivered on the Sunday of the Adoration of the Precious Cross, 18th March 1990, London.

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

As we progress deeper and deeper into the weeks of Lent, we can say with an ever-growing sense of gratitude and of joy, of a serene and exulting joy the words of a Psalm, ‘My soul shall live, and with gratitude I will give glory to the Lord'.

In the first week of Lent we have seen all the promises of salvation given in the Old Testament fulfilled: God became man, salvation has come, and all hopes are possible. And then, in the second week of Lent, we had the glorious proclamation of all the saints of Christendom that not only did God come and dwell in our midst, but He has poured out upon us, into the Church and into every human soul ready to receive Him the presence, the transforming gift of the Holy