Lorica

On this feast of the Nativity, we see the eternal Word become flesh — and with Him, the meaning of all things made visible. The Christ child, born of Mary, is not only the Redeemer, but the very structure and center of all creation. In Him all things hold together; without Him, nothing can be known, or beautiful, or whole.

And yet this mystery, so vast and cosmic, is made intimate through His birth. The font becomes a womb, the wom...

The question echoes — from the mouths of priests, from Pilate, from us. Who are you? The answer is not always spoken, and rarely heard by those who will not first repent. John the Baptist stands at the threshold, wild and holy, pointing not to himself but to the One already among us, unrecognized.

The light has come, but the darkness does not comprehend. Recognition requires purification. Illumination follows repentance. Not all da...

John is in prison. Christ is healing the blind, the deaf, even the dead. But when John sends to ask, “Are you the one who is to come?” — Jesus does not answer. He says only: “Tell him what you see. Blessed is he who is not offended in me.” This is not doubt. It is Gethsemane.

We are meant to see in John not only the forerunner of Christ’s ministry, but the forerunner in His suffering. He walks every step before the Lord — even into...

We stand again at the turning of the circle — where the liturgical year ends, and begins anew. Not with sentiment, not with celebration, but with a summons. The old year closed with a warning: the end will come, and all will be judged. And the new year opens with the same cry. This, we are told, is not redundancy — but mercy.

The Church does not shy away from final things. She begins her year not with nativity but with apocalypse, ...

There is no such thing as a solitary salvation. St. Paul says, “Imitate me,” not in pride, but in witness — for he himself is imitating Christ, and calls us to do the same, not alone, but together. The Church is not a scattered people with private beliefs. It is a body, moving as one, conformed together in love.

This means setting aside the constant itch of opinion, trading cleverness for obedience, and joining the life of Christ a...

How important is forgiveness in the Christian life? Christ tells us not with answers but with the shape of a story — a man forgiven much, who then refuses mercy to another. We are left to reckon with the “as” of the Lord’s Prayer: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. What we give, we receive. What we withhold, binds us.

This is not a lesson in sentiment, but a call to conversion — from anger to in...

From the garden to the throne, the story is one of kingship — of rule offered, lost, and restored. We begin with Adam, shaped in the image of the Christ who was to come, a king in a walled garden who failed to defend his realm. We end with the white horse and the Rider, flame-eyed and crowned, who comes not only to protect but to reclaim.

The battle is not metaphor. There is an enemy, and Christ our King enters the fray not with fe...

At the heart of the Mass — the center of all things — is thanksgiving. Eucharist. We were made for this: to give thanks, to praise the God who gives Himself to us in grace, in glory, in utterance and knowledge and gift. In Christ, by the Spirit, we are not just blessed — we are made partakers of the divine.

St. Paul calls us to be confirmed in this grace, established and unwavering. Not merely recipients of a gift, but those who ca...

The commandment is clear: love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. But in this moment, it becomes clear that the experts in the law — the very ones who tested Christ — have never kept it. They know the letter, but not the lawgiver. They quote the prophets, but cannot see the one of whom they speak. The truth stands before them with breath and flesh, and they call him a devil.

We are warned: theology without love is dead. Faith...

He did not heal in secret. He waited until their eyes were fixed on him — hostile, watching — and then he opened himself, wounded himself, for love. The Lord of the Sabbath entered the lion’s den not with vengeance, but with vulnerability, because even his accusers were beloved.

This is not a tale of moral instruction. It is the revelation of Christ — meek, majestic, descending to the lowest place. The Psalms speak with his voice. ...

The Cross we exalt today is not a symbol alone — it is a relic of time and earth. Discovered by Helena, lifted by Constantine, lost to the Persians, and recovered again, it moves through history as it moves through us: hidden, revealed, wounded, victorious.

Eusebius saw its triumph in crumbling temples and rising churches. We see it in our own flesh — when we suffer, forgive, endure, obey. The Cross is everywhere present: on our wa...

Ten cried out. Ten were healed. But only one came back — fell down, gave thanks, was made whole. This is not just a healing; it is the pattern of all redemption. We have all received, all been touched by mercy, all walked away with skin made new. But have we returned?

There is a difference between being cleansed and being saved. Gratitude is not sentiment — it is the shape of faith itself. Worship is the only fitting response to a ...

He was a man without guile — transparent, true, already half-turned toward glory. And yet even he bore the skin of death, like Adam after the fall. In the icon, he stands holding it: his own flesh, flayed and offered, not in defeat but in exchange — the garment of mortality for the robe of divine light.

We are all clothed thus, for now. But through daily dying, we too may become what he became: a witness, a martyr, a friend of God....

God, whose power hung the stars and split the sea, declares His might not by force, but by mercy. He comes not in thunder, but in the quiet cry of a sinner bowed low in the temple. We recall the Pharisee and the publican: one proud in righteousness, the other poor in spirit — and it is the poor who walk away justified.

To be healed, we must not only know our need but speak it aloud. Faith begins in recognition, but it lives in the ...

When the world demanded treasure, St. Lawrence pointed to the poor. When they burned his body, he offered laughter. His martyrdom was not somber resignation but cheerful defiance — not because he felt no pain, but because he saw Christ beyond it. He faced the fire as if it were a feast.

This is not irreverence. It is resurrection-shaped courage. We mourn and rejoice in the same breath. We see Christ in each other — on couches of pa...

The steward was unjust — and yet he was praised, not for his virtue, but his vision. He saw the end coming and acted shrewdly. Christ does not tell us to admire his dishonesty, but his clarity: the world is passing away, and what we do with what we’ve been given matters eternally. What if even our wealth — so often a trap — could become a doorway?

We are stewards, not owners. What we hold is not ours to keep, but to offer. If we gi...

Holiness is not the same as goodness. It is not moralism, nor merely clean hands. It is union — with the One who alone is holy. And this holiness has a shape: not spin, not pretense, but fruit. The fruit of confession, of quick repentance, of humble honesty. The false prophet — and the false thought — both wear wool, but devour. The wolf is not always a person. Sometimes it is the voice in our head that tells us to hide.

But Christ...

He speaks not to frighten, but to awaken — not with condemnation, but with clarity. The law is not discarded but fulfilled; not lessened, but transfigured. What is asked of us is not more precision, but deeper union: a righteousness not measured by rule, but made possible by mercy — the righteousness of repentance, of love that returns, of faith that trusts.

We do not possess this holiness. We receive it. And when we fail — as we w...

He is not loitering by the lake. He is looking. The crowd presses near, but His eyes are on those who are not — men still clinging to the safety of nets and night-long toil. They know Him, but they have not yet obeyed. And now the moment arrives: a borrowed boat, a quiet command, and the weight of holiness breaking their nets with more than they can hold.

We are not spectators to this story. We, too, are asked to leave the shore — ...