The number forty is a sign of that laborious period in ‎which, under the discipline of Christ the King, we have to fight ‎against the devil. This is also indicated by the fact that both the law ‎and the prophets solemnized a fast of forty days– that is to say, a ‎humbling of the soul– in the person of Moses and Elijah, who ‎each fasted for a period of forty days. Through the fast of – …

He indeed did not baptize, but they who carried the news, desiring to excite their hearers to envy, so reported. “Wherefore then ‘departed’ He?” Not from fear, but to take away their malice, and to soften their envy. He was indeed able to restrain them when they came against Him, but this He would not do continually, that the Dispensation of the Flesh might not be disbelieved. For had He often been seized and escaped, – …

Take Your Bed and Walk The passage of the holy gospel which speaks about the Pool of Siloam, beloved brethren, addresses us in particular, because owe are freed. From the listlessness of sin through the grace of Baptism. Just as the paralytic whom the Lord cured was weak in all his members that he could accomplish no good act, so before the coming of the Lord the entire human race was weakened interiorly in soul – …

The Light of this World Again My Jesus, and again a mystery; not deceitful nor disorderly, nor belonging to Greek error or drunkenness (for so I call their solemnities, and so I think will every man of sound sense); but a mystery lofty and divine, and allied to the Glory above. For the Holy Day of the Lights, to which we have come, and which we are celebrating today, has for its origin the Baptism – …

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this holy period is specified for correction, purification, an enlightenment of our entire being, both physically and spiritually. Great Lent is considered the spring of our spiritual life, and for every soul that yearns for her Heavenly Bridegroom, this is considered “a honeymoon,” in which the soul relinquishes worldly cares in order to be free for the Bridegroom and can say with the bride of the Song of – …