Stepping Into This New Life (EP49)
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
Fr. Hans reflects on the meaning of St. John the Baptist, and the baptism of Christ, reminding us that God’s work in the world has always unfolded slowly, through patience, preparation, and deep compassion for humanity. He explains that salvation was never a quick or abstract idea but a lived reality that required a long history of human readiness, culminating in Christ’s baptism, where the Holy Spirit enters the human heart and heals the deep inner fracture caused by sin. Faith, he says, is not simply agreeing with ideas about God but actively stepping into the light Christ offers,...
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Man Cannot Abide Disorder Very Long (EP48)
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
Fr. Hans confronts the modern belief that individuals can stand as neutral judges of truth, exposing it as a form of pride no earlier civilization would have recognized. He contrasts this posture with the humility of ancient peoples who understood themselves as living within an order they did not create. He argues that Christ is the fulfillment of humanity’s ancient search for meaning, the “myth made real,” and the true foundation of both personal and civilizational stability. When societies reject this foundation in favor of secular ideologies, they do not become free but fragmented, as...
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Christ Picks up Where Adam Failed (EP47)
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
Fr. Hans explains the teaching of Christ as the "second Adam," a title given to him by the Apostle Paul. He presents the Incarnation as the fulfillment of centuries of preparation, culminating in the Theotokos, whose faith and purity made possible the union of Creator and creation, and emphasizes that Christ’s mission involved a direct confrontation with the forces that held humanity in bondage. By freely embracing death and rising again, Christ defeated the power of the devil and stripped death of its ultimate authority, revealing Orthodox faith not as abstract theology but as a lived,...
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We Don’t Get to Make It up as We Go, Folks (EP46)
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
Fr. Hans explains why the Church begins the celebration of the Nativity by reading the long genealogy of Christ. He reveals that this lineage is not just a historical list but is the essential context (the living Tradition) into which, by virtue of our baptism, we have been adopted into the commonwealth of Israel that begins with Abraham. Fr. Hans argues that without understanding this framework passed down through generations, the story of Christ's birth becomes sentimentalized and disconnected from its true meaning. He warns that when we detach the Gospel from this living Tradition, we risk...
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(EP 41) 11-23-2025 - 9TH SUNDAY OF LUKE
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, Gregory, Bishop of Agrigentum, Dionysios, Patriarch of Constantinople, Ischyrion, Bishop of Egypt, Afterfeast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple, Sisinios the Confessor ST. PAUL'S LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS 2:14-22 LUKE 12:16-21 The Lord said this parable: "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my...
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(EP 40) 11-20-2025 - THURSDAY OF THE 9TH WEEK - ENTRANCE OF THE THEOTOKOS
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
The Forefeast of the Presentation of the Theotokos into the Temple, Gregory the Righteous of Decapolis, Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople ST. PAUL'S FIRST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS 4:18-5:10 LUKE 16:1-9 The Lord said this parable, "There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the...
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(EP 39) 11-9-2025 - 7TH SUNDAY OF LUKE
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
Onesiphorus and Porphyrius of Ephesus, Matrona, Abbess of Constantinople, Theoktisti of the Isle of Lesbos, Nektarius the Wonderworker, Metropolitan of Pentapolis, Symeon the Translat ST. PAUL'S LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 6:11-18 LUKE 8:41-56 At that time, there came to Jesus a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue; and falling at Jesus' feet he besought him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As he went, the people pressed round him. And a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years and had spent all her living upon...
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(EP 38) 11-2-2025 - 5TH SUNDAY OF LUKE
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
5th Sunday of Luke, The Holy Martyrs Acindynos, Pegasios, Aphthonios, Elpidophoros, and Anempodistos, Domnina, Domna, & Kyriaki, the Martyrs ST. PAUL'S LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 2:16-20 LUKE 16:19-31 The Lord said, "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazaros, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and...
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(EP 37) 11-1-2025 - Saturday of St. Raphael of Brooklyn
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
Cosmas and Damian the Holy Unmercenaries of Asia, and their mother Theodota, Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn, David the Righteous of Evia, St. Raphael of Brooklyn ST. PAUL'S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 12:27-31; 13:1-8 MATTHEW 10:1, 5-8 At that time, Jesus called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you...
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(EP 36) 10-26-2025 - 6TH SUNDAY OF LUKE
Homilies of Fr. Hans Jacobse
6th Sunday of Luke, The Holy Great Martyr Demetrius the Myrrh-streamer, Commemoration of the Great Earthquake in Constantinople (740), Eata of Hexham ST. PAUL'S SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY 2:1-10 LUKE 8:26-39 At that time, as Jesus arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, there met him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me." For he...
info_outlineST. PAUL'S LETTER TO THE HEBREWS 9:11-14
MARK 10:32-45
At that time, Jesus took his twelve disciples, and he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise." And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him, and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant of James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."