Saint Sophia Blog (All Categories) - Page 47 of 348

Atheism and the Experience of God (1)

10/04/2022

By Fr John Breck, January 2, 2007 Books arguing for atheism are topping the best-seller lists these days, and more and more people seem to be listening. Those who take issue usually try to fight scientific dogma with religious dogma. They would perhaps do better if they appealed to the unprovable but, to those who give their lives for it, undeniable experience of the living God. The names Dennett, Dawkins and Harris have recently become

Driving by Faith

10/03/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, September 8, 2016 Several years ago my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting England. The beginning of the trip was terrifying – we had decided to rent a car. Our modest little Fiat fit well among the many toy cars that fill British highways. But there was a problem. Everything on English roads is backwards. You sit on the wrong side of the car; you drive on the wrong

Passionately Drunk

09/30/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, September 5, 2016 The Philokalia, that wonderful collection of writings by the fathers on prayer of the heart, has as its full title, The Philokalia of the Neptic Saints gathered from our Holy Theophoric Fathers, through which, by means of the philosophy of ascetic practice and contemplation, the intellect is purified, illumined, and made perfect. Little wonder it is known popularly as the Philokalia. That word, Philokalia, means “the love of beautiful things.” It

The Lord’s Prayer

09/29/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 11, 2017 James W. Lillie In an interview with an Italian TV network, Pope Francis of Rome said recently that the current language of the Lord’s prayer ‘is not a good translation.’… The problem, as he sees it, is that the prayer asks God to ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’. But, says Pope Francis, it’s not the Lord Who tempts. ‘It is not He that

Going Deeper Lecture – Part II

09/28/2022

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – Going Deeper Lecture – Part II “…Look at what St. Paul says in his epistles when he’s talking about the antichrist, and the coming of the antichrist. And he says that ‘Many … will follow him because they have not the love of the truth.’ He doesn’t mean truth in ideas only or even mainly. Truth in ideas would be… the learning

Lost Souls

09/28/2022

By Fr John Breck, December 30, 2007 Back in the early 60s I had to catch the subway each morning on the east side of Manhattan, to get to my seminary intern position. From our tiny 6th floor walk-up apartment on York Avenue, I passed by a run-down tenement building not far from the mouth of the station. Two or three times a week two guys were huddled against the stoop of the building, passing back

Christ and the Social Problem

09/27/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 13, 2017 † Archimandrite Georgios Kapsanis, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou The more that people are cleansed of the passions, the greater their capacity for real communion with God and other people. Those who take a romantic and external view of the human person transfer wickedness from the person onto society, which is why they proclaim that any improvement in society will bring with it an improvement in

Falling Asleep of St. John the Theologian

09/26/2022

By Fr. Nicholas Belcher Today, the Holy Orthodox Church commemorates the repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist, St. John the Theologian. As we learn from the Holy Gospels, St. John, one of the sons of Zebedee, was called by Christ to abandon his fishing nets to become a fisher of men and a son of thunder. Saint John became one of the twelve apostles, and despite his being – according to tradition – the youngest,

Seeing and Believing – A Noetic Life Part 2

09/23/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, September 2, 2016 “I see what you mean.” Language holds many secrets that we ignore. Some of the secrets are quite old. If we pay proper attention, we are able to discover things that we already know, but did not yet know that we knew. The phrase, “Now I see,” or other various uses of “seeing” as a form of “knowing,” is quite ancient in its insight. The Greek word for

Divine Beauty (2)

09/22/2022

By Fr John Breck, March 2, 2009 The preceding column in this space spoke of finding beauty in the little things of our daily life, including in their imperfections. In some cultures, children are imbued from birth with sensitivity toward the visually unusual and appreciation for its deeper meaning. From a jagged crack in an ancient vase to the radiant smile of a Down’s syndrome child, realities considered by many people to be objectionable—the evidence

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Atheism and the Experience of God (1)

Driving by Faith

Passionately Drunk

The Lord’s Prayer

Going Deeper Lecture – Part II

Lost Souls

Falling Asleep of St. John the Theologian

Seeing and Believing – A Noetic Life Part 2

Divine Beauty (2)

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