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The Holy and Great Saturday: Knocking Down the Gates of Hell

04/23/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 1, 2021 The Swedish Lutheran theologian, Gustav Aulen, published a seminal work on the types of atonement theory in 1930 (Christus Victor). Though time and critical studies have suggested many subtler treatments of the question, no one has really improved on his insight. Especially valuable was his description of the “Classic View” of the atonement. This imagery, very dominant in the writings of the early Fathers and in the liturgical

The Holy and Great Friday: Unbelief and Good Friday

04/22/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 5, 2018 Christmas and Easter are often difficult days for those who do not believe in God. Christians are more public about their faith than at other times of the year and this brings with it an annoyance. Christmas bespeaks the birth of God as a human being. Easter bespeaks a resurrection from the dead. For those who do not believe, such miracles, spoken of so glowingly and with such

The Holy and Great Thursday: What Great Thursday Tells Us

04/21/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 27, 2016 On our journey to Pascha, we are reminded of the Lord’s desire for unity of his flock, that he wishes us to be as one. The importance of this wish is reflected in the Divine Eucharist because to be in communion with God, we must first be in communion with our fellow man. All of Jesus’ actions on earth teach us how to love our fellow man. As

Living Holy Week

04/20/2022

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Living Holy Week “…Lent was a time to begin reorienting our lives around Christ and His Church. If Lent was the start, Holy Week is the culmination. It is the time when every Christian is called to put aside the things of the world and hit the pause button on their outside lives. The world is passing away. Only the Lord’s kingdom will

The Holy and Great Wednesday: “If this is how you see Christ, then Holy Week won’t mean a thing to you…”

04/20/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 12, 2017 Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou Holy Week is the heart of the Christian Orthodox Faith and the centre of the yearly cycle of Christian Feasts. Every year our churches are packed at Holy Week and, come the last three days, they are bursting at the seams with both people who attend church every Sunday and people who attend only on special occasions. Holy Week brings the pious and the not

The Holy and Great Tuesday: The End of the Fast and the ‘Air’ of Asceticism

04/19/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 9, 2017 Having completed the forty days that bring profit to our soul, we beseech You, in Your love for us: May we behold the Holy Week of Your Passion that in it we may glorify Your majestic works and ineffable dispensation for us, singing with one mind, ‘Lord glory to You’. Great Lent has come to an end. It’s an event which cannot but move all consciously-striving Christians, whatever

The Holy and Great Monday: The Bridegroom and Judgment

04/18/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 9, 2017 Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through the Theotokos, have

On Palm Sunday

04/17/2022

Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, April 1, 2007 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! The crowd in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday long ago was mistaken. Jesus was not the Messiah they had hoped for. He did not come to overthrow Rome or to establish an earthly kingdom. They would have known that if they had listened

Lazarus Saturday

04/16/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 24, 2021 Largely ignored by much of Christendom, the Orthodox mark the day before Palm Sunday as “Lazarus Saturday” in something of a prequel to the following weekend’s Pascha. It is, indeed a little Pascha just before the greater one. And this, of course, was arranged by Christ Himself, who raised His friend Lazarus from the dead as something of a last action before entering Jerusalem and beginning His slow

The Sixth Friday of Great Lent: An Atonement of Shame – Orthodoxy and the Cross

04/15/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 6, 2017 Some decades ago in my early (Anglican) priesthood, a parishioner brought a crucifix back from South America. The question for me as a priest was whether I would accept the crucifix as a gift and place it in the Church. I like crucifixes, my taste was always towards the Catholic direction. But, you have to bear in mind that Spanish/Latin crucifixes have a tendency to be, well, rather

Blog

The Holy and Great Saturday: Knocking Down the Gates of Hell

The Holy and Great Friday: Unbelief and Good Friday

The Holy and Great Thursday: What Great Thursday Tells Us

Living Holy Week

The Holy and Great Wednesday: “If this is how you see Christ, then Holy Week won’t mean a thing to you…”

The Holy and Great Tuesday: The End of the Fast and the ‘Air’ of Asceticism

The Holy and Great Monday: The Bridegroom and Judgment

On Palm Sunday

Lazarus Saturday

The Sixth Friday of Great Lent: An Atonement of Shame – Orthodoxy and the Cross

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