Welcome to Saint Herman's, Hudson, Ohio

This blog is a partial compilation of the messages, texts, readings, and prayers from our small community. We pray that it will be used by our own people, to their edification. And if you happen by and are inclined to read, give the glory to God!

The blog title, "Will He Find Faith on the Earth?" is from Luke 18:8, the "Parable of the Persistent Widow." It overlays the icon of the Last Judgment, an historical event detailed in Matthew Chapter 25, for which we wait as we pray in the Nicean Creed.

We serve the Holy Orthodox cycle of services in contemporary English. Under the omophorion of His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph of the Bulgarian Patriarchal Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia, we worship at 5107 Darrow Road in Hudson, Ohio (44236). If you are in the area, please join us for worship!

Regular services include:
Sunday Divine Liturgy 10AM (Sept 1 - May 31)
930AM (June 1 - Aug 31)
Vespers each Saturday 6PM

We pray that you might join us for as many of these services as possible! We are open, and we welcome inside the Church all visitors. See our Parish web page:

Monday, March 11, 2024

I Tremble at the Fearful Day of Judgment

Today’s Gospel (Mat 25:31-46) presents us with what our Lord gifts to us as prophecy related to His return, His ‘Second Coming.’

His words are clear.  There can be no misinterpretation. 

When the Son of Man comes in His glory…  Not “if”, but when.  Not this time in humility, but in His glory.  With all power.  With all authority.

And all the holy angels with Him… Jesus has been very careful to explain to His Apostles (and thru them to us) that His return will not be something that can be overlooked, misconstrued, or misrepresented.  During the week of the Publican and Pharisee in the Gospel readings from Mark Chapter 13 Jesus says to them if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it.  If each of us has a guardian angel, and the total population of the earth since creation is estimated to be over 100 billion, and there are additional other myriads of angels whom God has created for other purposes, then when Jesus returns with ALL the angels, it will indeed be something not to be misconstrued!

All the nations will be gathered before Him… Not some, all.  Not from today, but from all time.  All will stand for judgment.

He will separate them one from another… He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left… Sheep are docile animals, willing to follow their Shepherd unconditionally.  Goats are stubborn, independent, and not easily or willingly led.  It prompts the question to myself, “What can I do to change myself from being a goat to becoming a sheep?”

Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you blessed of My  Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world… This is the first mention of “King” - but it shows Jesus for Who He is, and it shows His ‘status’ at His return!  The description gives no relative size of the gatherings of sheep and goats.  Based on our Lord’s sayings (For many are called, but few are chosen…) we can imagine that there are far more goats than sheep!  To those whom the Lord calls the blessed of My Father, He speaks to the fact that the heavenly realms were created for this day, and have been in the ready from the foundation of the world, or more precisely, from the time of creation.

Counter to this blessing given to the sheep, the Lord says Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels… This ‘depart’ is different from others in scripture.  St. Simeon’s prayer uses the English word ‘depart’, but St. Simeon's 'depart' is different from the 'depart' in the Greek from Matthew 25.  St. Simeon's depart means ‘dismiss’.  In today's Gospel, with this depart there’s a finality with the word, which translates to ‘travel’ or ‘remove’.  In short, it carries the meaning of “Leave forever!”

 These will go away into everlasting punishment…  Here’s the proof of this absolute removal.  Like a figurative goat, these have been stubborn, refusing to be led by a loving Master, and in fact rejecting Him at every turn.  Removal from His eternal presence is the sentence for this cursed state.

But the righteous (will be received) into eternal life… Like the figurative sheep, these have always followed the Lord’s voice, and in showing their heartfelt desire to live accordingly, this is the blessing bestowed upon them.

Lord, as we together traverse the days of the Great Fast, let us seek to change our hearts to conform to Your Holy Will.  The Aposticha for this day says it all:  O Good Shepherd, deprive me not of a place at Your right hand in Your great mercy.

May this Great Fast lead us all ever toward the Kingdom, and placement at His right hand! 

Monday, March 4, 2024

Coming Home

 Today’s Gospel (Luke 15:11-32) is a gift from our Lord that paints a picture, an “icon”, of how much the Father truly loves us.

Stop for a moment and think of that love shown for you from your parents.  Some of us still live within that love.  Some of us had that love from one or the other parent for far too short a time.  Some of us have lived to ripe old ages and can now experience that love only in memories.

I fall into this later category.  The memories of packing up the old station wagon with five kids for a four hour trip, pretty much every second week remain with us.  That task might seem daunting, but there was never any reservation about making that trip leaving Friday night and returning after Church on Sunday.  It was always worth it to feel the warmth of the embraces when we arrived, the love in the conversation while we were there.  And it was well worth the education—mom and dad never stopped being teachers to us.

As we read today’s parable of the Prodigal, we can imagine in his mind the thoughts present as he left the Father.  “I’m going to go out and conquer the world!”, only to have this untamed bravado quickly quashed by the real world. 

It was not just that he didn’t prosper, the Prodigal allowed the temptations of the world to lay hold of him, to entice him into great sin, to sap all the positives taught to him by his Father and cause him to wallow in the mud with common swine, to literally come to a point of starvation as he fed animals that the Jews saw as unclean.

It was this complete collapse of the world around him that brought the Prodigal to that place where he finally could find true repentance.  And so he commits to “going home” - not to a Father any longer, for he sees himself as totally unworthy to be called by that title after how he has chosen to live away from that love.  He now looks to his Father as an employer—one who won’t have him feeding pigs, but who in return will treat him with some level of dignity.  He asks to be a servant of one whom he knows has respect even for those  who are His servants!

But the Father has other plans!  The Father is not caught off guard by the Prodigal’s return.  He is watching, waiting for him to come home.  And when His son does return, He allows him only enough time to offer his message of repentance, but the Father stops the son’s discourse short, not allowing him to ask to become a servant.  What do we find in the Father’s demeanor? 

First:  He’s My son!  Second:  I love him unconditionally.  Third: I prove that love with my running to meet him.  Fourth: I prove that love by embracing him.  Fifth:  I prove that love by kissing him.

When I go back to those long four hour drives, I’m reminded of the warmth of each and every arrival.  Both father and mother came out to meet us.  There were hugs exchanged between two parents and all seven of us exiting the car.  And it all ended with kisses all around before entering the house to celebrate.  There was no fatted calf, but there was feasting and much joy.

Today’s Parable is our Lord’s way of showing us truly how much the Father loves us.  In this world, a parent’s love is perhaps as close we can get to that of our heavenly Father.  And if we still (years later) can feel that parental love, the hugs, the kisses, and if all those memories are as vivid as they are, memories gifted by imperfect human love, how much more intense, more glorious, more wonderful is the love that our Lord shows us to be the definition of who the Father really is?

Let us all begin to prepare our repentant message to Him.  Lord knows we’re all on the path to meet Him soon.  All of us are on our way home.  And He, with all love, is waiting.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Publican and Pharisee

 Today’s Gospel (Luke 18:10-14) has our Lord directing our thoughts (and prayers) with another parable.

In all such instances, we should accept our Lord’s words as being indicative of real-life events, even when they are delivered as parables.  Why?  Because Christ’s teaching is not about nebulous events or people.  He crafts His words to change our hearts from being stony and cold to the place where we can find them molding to His will, and being warm to accepting Him into them.

Today’s parable, like most others, places two people into positions of being at odds with one another.  The Publican is a man hated by the average person on the street because he works for the government, those who are oppressors, occupiers of Israel.  The average Jew wants nothing more than to be freed from the clutches of the Roman Empire.  And the Publican is the Empire’s tie between their treasury and those who are subdued as subjects.

This is in part that which crafts the heart of the Publican towards his state of repentance.  He hates himself for what he is, which for all practical purposes is a traitor to his own people.  And so the Lord describes finding him in the Temple beating his breast in repentance, asking God for forgiveness.  For how many other sins we do not know—perhaps many (like me).  He is filled with such self-judgmentalism that Jesus says that he would not even lift his eyes to heaven.

The Pharisee, on the other hand, judged not himself, but rather the Publican.  Thank You for not making me like THAT man…

Jesus told us, Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Publican has heard this message and has taken it to heart.  He has found that place where he understands that his life is a disappointment to his Father, and he wants nothing more than to become a restored son.

The Pharisee doesn’t need a Father.  He is self-sufficient.  “I’m good!  There’s nothing wrong with me.”  And in these attitudes, Jesus proclaims that the Publican went away justified, while the Pharisee was not.

Saint Basil teaches that there are three states through which we can be pleasing to God.  In the first, we fear His punishment, making us acceptable in the state of slaves.  In the second, we are in the state of servants, working for wages, fulfilling orders for our own advantage and in so doing earning our wages.  The third state is that of children, and here we strive for the highest good.  A child—a mature child—does the will of the Father not for fear of being beaten, nor even to receive a reward from Him, but rather because the child knows that he is loved.  And in return, the child loves and honors the Father, convinced that all that is the Father’s is also his as well.

As we are led by the Church to enter this Great Fast, let us take to heart the messages of these Preparatory Sundays, using them to begin to conform ourselves to where the Lord calls us even before the Fast takes its own loving hold of us—for our own good!