Editor’s Introduction

The first of three collected volumes of sermons for the Sundays after Pentecost, this one covering the Sunday of All Saints through the fifth Sunday after Pentecost, drawn from the Gospel readings appointed for each week: the calling of the first Apostles by the Sea of Galilee, the healing of the centurion’s servant, and the casting out of the demons at Gadara among them. Several Sundays recur more than once in the collection, each with its own sermon, showing Father John returning to the same Gospel text from a different angle on different occasions.

A frequent theme throughout is the contrast between simplicity of faith and worldly wisdom, most sustained in the several sermons on the parable of the lamp of the body (Matthew 6:22-23) and on serving two masters, which Father John returns to again and again as a call to examine one’s own heart.