Daily Meditations

The Fourth Friday of Pascha. When Death Dies (II)

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 22, 2022  One of my earliest experiences within my present parish was the sudden death of a beloved parishioner. She died in a car crash only three days after her Chrismation at Pascha. As the Church staggered through the days of our mourning and her burial, each day seemed to exactly parallel the events of Holy Week which we had just completed. Indeed, when someone

The Fourth Thursday of Pascha. When Death Dies (I)

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 22, 2022  Christianity is not reconciliation with death. It is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of Life. Christ is this Life. And only if Christ is Life is death what Christianity proclaims it to be, namely the enemy to be destroyed, and not a “mystery” to be explained. Religion and secularism, by explaining death, give it a

The Fourth Wednesday of Pascha. Mid-Pentecost

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou ‘I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely’ [1]. During Great Lent, to a certain degree, we taste of Christ’s death. In the middle of this period, the Church institutes the Veneration of the Precious Cross, to quicken inspiration and strengthen us in our struggle to be vouchsafed to enter into the life-giving presence of the Risen Lord.

The Fourth Tuesday of Pascha. The Holy Great Martyr Irene

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The holy Great Martyr Irene was born in the city of Magedon in Persia during the fourth century. She was the daughter of the pagan king Licinius, and her parents named her Penelope. Penelope was very beautiful, and her father kept her isolated in a high tower from the time she was six so that she would not be exposed to Christianity. He also placed thirteen young maidens in the

The Fourth Monday of Pascha. The Life-Giving Word

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Ioannis Karavidopoulos, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Hermeneutics, A. U. Th. The subject of the narrative in the Gospel of Saint John (5, 1) concerning the complaint of the man who’d been paralyzed for 38 years, is genuinely moving: ‘I have no-one to put me into the pool when the water’s disturbed’. He was alone and helpless. However, the help which he was unable to find from other people, was

Sunday of the Paralytic

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Metropolitan Anthony Bloom † In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We have heard today in the Gospel of a man who for thirty-eight years had laid paralysed. The only thing that separated him from healing was the possibility to reach the waters, which the angel brought into motion once a year. Thirty-eight years had he attempted to move towards healing but someone else has

Parish Community Letter – May 1, 2026

Dear Saint Sophia Parishioners, CHRISTOS ANESTI!!! CHRIST IS RISEN!!! With the blessings from Father Steve and Father Gregory, the Parish Council is providing you with this monthly update. We look forward to seeing everyone at our Spring Festival, Friday, May 15 – Sunday, May 17. LITURGICAL CALENDAR: Every Sunday 8:30 AM Orthros and 10:00 AM Divine Liturgy. Please see the website, website calendar, bulletins, and emails for other services and updates. The Cathedral’s pre and

The Third Friday of Pascha. A Multitude of Invalids

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos ‘Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the waters to be moved’. One of the factors of human existence, which often constitutes a trap for us, is the need to overcome loneliness. We want self-affirmation and this is expressed by the number of people who

The Third Thursday of Pascha. Apostle James the Brother of St John the Theologian

~ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Commemorated on April 30 The Holy Apostle James, the son of Zebedee, was the brother of Saint John the Theologian, and one of the Twelve Apostles. He and his brother, Saint John, were called to be Apostles by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who called them the “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). It was this James, with John and Peter, who witnessed the Raising of the Daughter of Jairus, the Lord’s

The Third Wednesday of Pascha. The Icon of the Resurrection

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Father Stavros N. Akrotirianakis Peter said, “Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was