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“May It Be Blessed”

03/23/2022

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: “May It Be Blessed” “…What is the meaning of and when do we say the well-known expression – I won’t call it magical, but so rich in content – “May it be blessed”? We hear this expression frequently; monastics say it, and now more and more people around the world, including laypersons, have become accustomed to saying it: “May it be blessed….” From

The Third Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 3)

03/23/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, November 14, 2014 By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi With a variety of definitions, our Fathers lead us to humility, but the meaning is almost the same: the comprehensive labour of love that supports all the other virtues. We shall now note some of the sayings of the Fathers which refer to the qualities and fruits of the humble outlook and the manner in which those who have it behave. This will

The Third Tuesday of Great Lent: Growing in the Divine Likeness

03/22/2022

Today…more from Tilden Edwards as he emphasizes the importance of lowering the mind into the heart in order to grow in likeness to God. My interpretation of the early Christian desert elders’ over-encouragement of allowing the mind to sink into the heart is that the mind needs to bathe in the contemplative heart’s more naked availability to the gracious Presence, from whence the mind’s fundamental spiritual insights emerge. As our spiritual journey proceeds in grace,

The Third Monday of Great Lent: The Contradictions of Scripture

03/21/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 29, 2016 We can, however, only express the Truth if we foresee the extreme expression of all the contradictions inherent in it, from which it follows that Truth itself encompasses the ultimate projection of all its invalidations, is antonymic and cannot be otherwise. -Pavel Florensky I wrote in a previous article about the importance of contradictions in the knowledge of God. The Orthodox faith utterly delights in paradox and contradiction

The Second Friday of Great Lent: Reading by the Light of Christ

03/18/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 28, 2016 Let us suppose that you have heard the story of Jesus, in a fairly bare form, nothing like as complete as any of the gospels – just a general outline. And then let us suppose that the only Scriptures you have access to are the Old Testament. You have never seen a New Testament and do not have its phrases in your mind. And then let us suppose

The Second Thursday of Great Lent: St Patrick the Bishop of Armagh and Enlightener of Ireland

03/17/2022

Saint Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland was born around 385, the son of Calpurnius, a Roman decurion (an official responsible for collecting taxes). He lived in the village of Bannavem Taberniae, which may have been located at the mouth of the Severn River in Wales. The district was raided by pirates when Patrick was sixteen, and he was one of those taken captive. He was brought to Ireland and sold as a slave, and was

Are We Vessels of the Holy Spirit, or Filled With Worldly Thinking?

03/16/2022

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Are We Vessels of the Holy Spirit, or Filled With Worldly Thinking? “…faith is not renounced overnight. Renunciation can happen bit by bit every day, and then a straw will be enough to break a camel’s back. Sometimes it is enough to remain silent so as not to stand out and be “like everyone else”, finding convincing excuses for your cowardice—and this will be a small

The Second Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 2)

03/16/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, November 4, 2014 By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi Βlessed and favoured people who are humble are meek, calm, serene, attached to virtue, opposed to evil, untroubled by any circumstance or threat. They live in the bosom of the faith, like infants in the maternal embrace of grace. They never live for themselves, because they’ve forgotten what that is. They’ve become one with the others; they become all things to everyone, in

The Second Tuesday of Great Lent: All You Need to Remember Are These Two Things

03/15/2022

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it,

The Second Monday of Great Lent: A Truly Rational Faith

03/14/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 20, 2016 St. Paul notes that “faith works through love” (Gal. 5:6). This describes the very heart of the ascetic life. Only love extends itself in the self-emptying struggle against the passions without becoming lost in the solipsism of asceticism for its own sake. It is love that endures the contradictions of reality without turning away or reducing them. And it is love that finally comprehends the reality hidden within

Blog

“May It Be Blessed”

The Third Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 3)

The Third Tuesday of Great Lent: Growing in the Divine Likeness

The Third Monday of Great Lent: The Contradictions of Scripture

The Second Friday of Great Lent: Reading by the Light of Christ

The Second Thursday of Great Lent: St Patrick the Bishop of Armagh and Enlightener of Ireland

Are We Vessels of the Holy Spirit, or Filled With Worldly Thinking?

The Second Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 2)

The Second Tuesday of Great Lent: All You Need to Remember Are These Two Things

The Second Monday of Great Lent: A Truly Rational Faith

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