Witnessing the Gospel to Central Virginia
and the Shenandoah Valley
About Our Parish
St. Nicholas Orthodox Church is a local parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA. Our parishioners live in Charlottesville, Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, and other towns in Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.
Please explore this website to learn more about our parish and our holy Orthodox Christian Faith.
Please click here for a welcome from our pastor, Father Robert Holet.
Announcements and News
Fr. Robert's Recorded Homilies
Our parish will occasionally offer Fr. Robert’s Sunday homilies for download. Here are some of the first recordings in .mp3 format.
First Sunday After Pentecost:What’s in Your Wallet
4th Sunday of Pascha: Pivotal Moments
The Lampada: Pascha Edition
The most recent Lampada newsletter is now available for download.
PASCHA: By St. Gregory Nazianzus
This is the Day of the Resurrection; and for me a fitting beginning. Let us all be united in heart, and let us give glory to God on this solemn festival. Let us address as brothers even those who hate us, as also those who love us, and have helped us, and have suffered anything on our behalf. Let us forgive all things in the Resurrection. Let us forgive one another: I who have suffered this honourable violence, and you who have inflicted it; should you be angry with me because of my reluctance (i.e., to accept the priestly dignity). For it may be that my reluctance is more acceptable to God than the readiness of others. For it is good to be retiring, even with God, as Moses was, and after him Jeremias; and then to run obediently when He calls, as Aaron did, and Isaias, provided that the one and the other are done in a right spirit: the one because of one’s own weakness, the other because of the Majesty of Him Who calls. Yesterday the Lamb was slain, and the doorposts sprinkled with His Blood; while Egypt mourned for her firstborn. But the Destroying Angel and his sacrificial knife, fearful and terrifying, passed over us: for we were protected by the Precious Blood. This day we have wholly departed from Egypt, and from Pharoah its cruel tyrant, and his oppressive overseers; we are freed from labouring with bricks and straw, and no one forbids us to celebrate the festival of our passing over, our Pasch, and to celebrate, not with the leaven of malice, and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and carrying with us nothing of the ancient and evil leaven of Egypt.
Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I am glorified with Him. Yesterday I died with Him; today I am given life with Him. Yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise again with Him. Today let us offer Him Who has suffered and Who has risen for us – you think perhaps I was about to say, gold or silver, or precious things, or shining stones of rare price, the frail material of this earth, which will remain here, and of which the wicked and those who are slaves of earthly things and of the prince of this world possess the greatest part – rather, let us offer Him ourselves, which to God is the most precious and becoming of gifts. Let us offer to His Image what is made in the likeness of this Image. And let us make recognition of our own dignity. Let us give honour to Him in Whose Likeness we were made. Let us dwell upon the wonder of this mystery, that we may understand for what Christ has died.
Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. Let us become Gods because of Him, since He for us became man. He took upon Himself a low degree that He might give us a higher one. He became poor. Chat through His poverty we might become rich. He took upon Himself the form of a servant that we might be delivered from slavery. He came down that we might rise up. He was tempted that we might learn to overcome. He was despised that we might be given honour. He died that He might save us from death. He ascended to heaven that we who lie prone in sin may be lifted up to Him
Patristic Reflections on the Crucifixion
From St. Justin Martyr
But that, having become man for our sakes, Christ endured to suffer and to be dishonoured, and that He shall come again with glory.
Hear the prophecies which relate to this; they are these: “Because they delivered His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, He has borne the sin of many, and shall make intercession for the transgressors. For, behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, and shall be exalted, and shall be greatly extolled. As many were astonished at You, so marred shall Your form be before men, and so hidden from them Your glory; so shall many nations wonder, and the kings shall shut their mouths at Him. For they to whom it was not told concerning Him, and they who have not heard, shall understand. O Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have declared before Him as a child, as a root in a dry ground. He had no form, nor glory; and we saw Him, and there was no form nor comeliness: but His form was dishonoured and marred more than the sons of men. A man under the stroke, and knowing how to bear infirmity, because His face was turned away: He was despised, and of no reputation. It is He who bears our sins, and is afflicted for us; yet we did esteem Him smitten, stricken, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of peace was upon Him, by His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; every man has wandered in his own way. And He delivered Him for our sins; and He opened not His mouth for all His affliction. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. In His humiliation, His judgment was taken away.”
Accordingly, after He was crucified, even all His acquaintances forsook Him, having denied Him; and afterwards, when He had risen from the dead and appeared to them, and had taught them to read the prophecies in which all these things were foretold as coming to pass, and when they had seen Him ascending into heaven, and had believed, and had received power sent thence by Him upon them, and went to every race of men, they taught these things, and were called apostles.
