The First Sermon of Christ

Theophany IconAny classical public speaking training would tell the aspirant lecturer to always start with a little warm up for the audience, in order to get them engaged, then introduce the topic, present the topic and then a short recap at the end. It is all about building up to your main subject.  This is pretty much what I’m doing now.

There is an old story with a priest in a convent that loved to preach. He always used well thought out  phrases, nice metaphors, parables, comparisons,  his subjects were always good, but he would tend to take a little more time than others. The abbess was a little upset about that because this would cut out the… Continue reading

The dividing wall of hostility – Theophany of our Lord

Reading yesterday a Romanian Akathist Hymn dedicated to Epiphany (You can read it here in Romanian) I was moved by the following verse
“Glory to you cause with Your body You broke down the dividing wall of hostility, so even us, who are far of upon the sea, will get closer to you. “
Doing a bit of biblical digging I found the corresponding scriptural context
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:13-14)
From another source I found out that… Continue reading