St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary

St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary Engaging the world with Orthodox Christianity since 1938.
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With God’s help and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Seminary aspires to be the premier center of Orthodox Christian scholarship and pastoral education and to operate as an exemplary Orthodox Christian institution.

In order to be able to see anything, the eye needs light. In order to see truths about God, ourselves, the world, we req...
06/19/2026

In order to be able to see anything, the eye needs light. In order to see truths about God, ourselves, the world, we require light of another kind. The “enlightenment” of our minds depends on God. As the 20th-century monastic elder Sophrony tells us, “To apprehend sin in oneself is a spiritual act, impossible without grace, without the drawing near to us of divine Light. …”
Divine Light and the insight that it brings is a matter of gift; it is grace. My access to it doesn’t depend entirely on me. I can’t will it into existence. For that matter, I can’t save myself, I can’t have faith purely out of my own intellectual acumen. I can’t become virtuous purely out of my own willpower; I can’t come to a right understanding of myself and my sinfulness on my own. God grants these gifts.
I have to seek divine Light, and cooperate with it. I have to earnestly desire it. I have to pray about it and pray for it.

—Dr. Peter Bouteneff, How to Be a Sinner

To receive Apostles' Fast Meditations and the daily scripture readings in your inbox each morning throughout the Apostles' Fast, please register here: https://buff.ly/pKS03i6

☦️ Panikhida for Departed Church MusiciansOn June 25, as part of this year's Summer Music Institute, a Panikhida will be...
06/19/2026

☦️ Panikhida for Departed Church Musicians

On June 25, as part of this year's Summer Music Institute, a Panikhida will be held at the Seminary's Three Hierarchs Chapel for all departed Church musicians.

Would you like to have a departed choir director or other musician from your parish prayed for as part of this special memorial? Submit their names (along with parish name and years of service, if desired) to [email protected]​u.

May their memories be eternal!
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📸: Eminent Orthodox Church musician and noted SVOTS Professor Boris Ledkovsky (1894–1975) with the Seminary Choir.

When God brings His hidden saints to light, it is in order that some may emulate them and others be without excuse. Thos...
06/18/2026

When God brings His hidden saints to light, it is in order that some may emulate them and others be without excuse. Those who wish to remain amid distraction as well as those who live a worthy life in communities, in mountains and in caverns (Heb. 11:38) are saved, and God bestows on them great blessings solely because they have faith in Him.

—St. Symeon the New Theologian, The Discourses

To receive Apostles' Fast Meditations and the daily scripture readings in your inbox each morning throughout the Apostles' Fast, please register here: https://buff.ly/pKS03i6

Giving thanks to God, nearly 30 seminarians and alumni of St. Vladimir's Seminary were ordained to holy orders since las...
06/17/2026

Giving thanks to God, nearly 30 seminarians and alumni of St. Vladimir's Seminary were ordained to holy orders since last summer. That's 2 new bishops, 16 new priests, and 10 deacons who are already or will very soon begin ministering to dioceses, parishes, and communities such as yours.

As living stones, they help strengthen and build up Christ’s Church. But the need for more priests and leaders is growing. If you haven't already, Give by June 30 and your gift will be matched dollar for dollar by the Seminary's generous Board of Trustees up to $60,000. Please help strengthen the Church—one priest at a time.

🤲 Give Now to Support More Clergy: https://buff.ly/AvVejOg
✝️ Learn More about the Newly Ordained: https://buff.ly/7qmXpXs

God is indivisible in Himself. When He comes, He comes wholly, as He is in His eternal Being. We do not contain Him. He ...
06/17/2026

God is indivisible in Himself. When He comes, He comes wholly, as He is in His eternal Being. We do not contain Him. He reveals Himself to us at the “point” where we knock: “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Lk. 11:9). He speaks in brief dicta but life is not long enough to uncover their full content.
Reverently we sense His Fatherhood, His clemency. We see that He hungers to communicate to us His eternal life; to have us attain the perfection of His Son, who is the equal mold of the Father. Incomprehensible is His design for us. From “nothing” He creates gods like Himself. And our whole being bows before Him—not in dread before the stern Master but in humble love for the Father.

—St. Sophrony, On Prayer: Reflections of a Modern Saint

To receive Apostles' Fast Meditations and the daily scripture readings in your inbox each morning throughout the Apostles' Fast, please register here: https://buff.ly/pKS03i6

A healthy approach to yourself as sinner depends upon knowing something of God’s mercy. Without faith and trust in God—a...
06/16/2026

A healthy approach to yourself as sinner depends upon knowing something of God’s mercy. Without faith and trust in God—as merciful and loving beyond measure—our self-condemnation would be impossible to bear. It would be self-destructive. And there is no clearer portrait of God than the crucified Christ, who has voluntarily surrendered everything for us. The cross—the limitless self-giving, voluntary co-suffering that it represents, the extent of love and mercy that it conveys—reveals to us what it is to be God.

—Dr. Peter Bouteneff, How to Be a Sinner

To receive Apostles' Fast Meditations and the daily scripture readings in your inbox each morning throughout the Apostles' Fast, please register here: https://buff.ly/pKS03i6

With faith in Christ and hope in the resurrection, we share news of the repose of Hieromonk Alexis (Lisenko), an alumnus...
06/15/2026

With faith in Christ and hope in the resurrection, we share news of the repose of Hieromonk Alexis (Lisenko), an alumnus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary ('78). Fr. Alexis, who is remembered as a kind, gentle, and gifted priest, fell asleep in the Lord on Friday, June 12.

Hieromonk Alexis was born in Paris, France, on March 31, 1947, to a Russian mother and a Ukrainian Father. At the age of four his parents immigrated to the US.

In addition to his many years of pastoral ministry, Fr. Alexis was an excellent translator and worked for many years with St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press, translating works from Russian into English. He assisted the OCA’s Department of History and Archives on many projects. His most famous work was the 2014 monumental two-volume translation from Russian into English of My Life’s Journey: The Memoirs of Metropolitan Evlogy (SVS Press). This was the fruit of many years of work. At the time of his death, Fr. Alexis was working on translating into English the diary of His Beatitude Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich).

Fr. Alexis was humble, gentle, soft spoken, and loved the liturgical cycle of the Church, serving all the services up until the last week of his death with the Archpriest Paul Jannakos at Saint Luke Orthodox Church in Palos Hill, IL.

He is survived by his family, two sons Daniel and Timothy, a daughter-in-law Remy, grandchildren Christian, Isabella, and Sofia.

Funeral services for Fr. Alexis will be held at St. Luke Church, Palos Hill, IL.

Thursday, June 18
6pm: Funeral for a Monastic
Friday, June 19
9:30am: Divine Liturgy

May the memory of Hieromonk Alexis be eternal!
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(Info adapted from OCA.org)

This is why God has placed the salutary remedy of repentance so clearly visible in the middle of paradise (namely, the n...
06/15/2026

This is why God has placed the salutary remedy of repentance so clearly visible in the middle of paradise (namely, the new paradise into which the baptized enter), so that those who fall away from eternal life through idleness or negligence, return to it again through repentance with a glory that is more brightly visible.
If God, who is man’s friend, had not foreseen this remedy, no flesh could ever be safe. … It is indeed for this reason that God, the compassionate One who desires our salvation, has in His wisdom placed confession and repentance between Himself and us.

He gives to every man who desires it the strength to turn away from error and to regain the former state of intimate glory, and freedom of speech with God. This is not all; he can also recover the inheritance of these and even greater goods provided he is willing to show fervor in his repentance.

—St. Symeon the New Theologian, In the Light of Christ: Saint Symeon the New Theologian—Life, Spirituality, Doctrine

Now the will of God is precisely what Christ both did and taught. It entails being humble in our lifestyle, steadfast in...
06/14/2026

Now the will of God is precisely what Christ both did and taught. It entails being humble in our lifestyle, steadfast in our faith, modest in our words, just in our actions, merciful in our dealings, disciplined in our conduct, incapable of inflicting a wrong but able to bear one inflicted on us; keeping peace with our brothers; loving God with all our heart; cherishing Him as Father while fearing Him as God; putting absolutely nothing before Christ, since He put nothing before us; clinging tenaciously to His love; standing, brave and confident, by His cross; and whenever His name and honor are involved, displaying in our speech the constancy to confess Him, under torture the courage to fight for Him, and in death patience for which we shall be crowned.

—St. Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lord’s Prayer

To receive Apostles' Fast Meditations and the daily scripture readings in your inbox each morning throughout the Apostles' Fast, please register here: https://buff.ly/MuOUJew

Active life requires on our side effort, struggle, the persistent exertion of our free will. “Strait is the gate and nar...
06/13/2026

Active life requires on our side effort, struggle, the persistent exertion of our free will. “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life. … Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father” (Mt. 7:14, 21). We are to hold in balance two complementary truths: without God’s grace we can do nothing; but without our voluntary cooperation God will do nothing. Our salvation results from the convergence of two factors, unequal in value yet both indispensable: divine initiative and human response. What God does is incomparably the more important, but man’s response is also required.

—Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way

To receive Apostles' Fast Meditations and the daily scripture readings in your inbox each morning throughout the Apostles' Fast, please register here: https://buff.ly/MuOUJew

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