Daily Meditations

The Wisdom to Know the Difference

By Father Stephen Freeman, May 11, 2018 Our culture changes things. One of its myths is that changing things results in a better world. And so we endure unending advertisements for the newest, the latest, and the improved. Very few things, apart from medications, are tested for their consequences. As such, we are a society in perpetual experiment. It reminds me of a local joke. The last words of a redneck … “Hold my beer.

Saint Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople

Commemorated on February 6  Saint Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, “the Church’s far-gleaming beacon,” lived during the ninth century, and came from a family of zealous Christians. His father Sergius died as a martyr in defense of holy icons. Saint Photius received an excellent education and, since his family was related to the imperial house, he occupied the position of first state secretary in the Senate. His contemporaries said of him: “He so distinguished himself with

The Opposite of Faith

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 25, 2024 In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever! I haven’t really preached since this past Christmas because of my illness so I’m going to give it a go today. We’ll see what happens! It’s interesting Metropolitan Saba is endearing himself to me quite a bit. He wrote a wonderful piece

How Does the Holy Trinity Create a Person?

Dr. Nikolaos Koios, Content Coach of Pemptousia It’s been noted by theological scholarship on more than one occasion that, in Orthodoxy, dogma and ethos, theory and practice, faith and life are indissolubly bound together. Every invitation to spiritual struggle has a powerful dogmatic foundation and vice versa: the spiritual life of the Church of love and humility is what produces, in a sense, the dogmatic conscience of each member individually and of the Church as

The Justice of Creation

By Father Stephen Freeman, February 22, 2018 Your judgments are like the great deep, O Lord, You will save men and beasts. (Psalm 36:6) The notion of justice in Scripture is rather straightforward. It has to do with proper order and balance. The one who has much should not exploit his advantage and oppress the one who has little. In all things, there will be an accounting. And in the accounting, things will be “set

Meeting of the Lord

Forty days after Christ was born He was presented to God in the Jerusalem Temple according to the Mosaic Law. At this time as well His mother Mary underwent the ritual purification and offered the sacrifices as prescribed in the Law. Thus, forty days after Christmas, on the second of February, the Church celebrates the feast of the presentation called the Meeting (or Presentation or Reception) of the Lord. The meeting of Christ by the

Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries Cyrus and John, and Those with Them

Commemorated on January 31  Saint Cyrus was a noted physician in the city of Alexandria, where he had been born and raised. He was a Christian and he treated the sick without charge, not only curing their bodily afflictions, but also healing their spiritual infirmities. He would say, “Whoever wishes to avoid being ill should refrain from sin, for sin is often the cause of bodily illness.” Preaching the Gospel, the holy physician converted many

The Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs

On 30 January, the Church celebrates the memory of the three great hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. This is not a commemoration in the strict sense of the word, i.e. the anniversary of the death of these Fathers, but a common feast, a “synaxis”, to use liturgical terminology. Basil the Great died on 1 January in the year 379 and his memory is celebrated, as is well-known, on January 1;

Calming the Troubled Waters

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, May 26, 2024 A verse from the Paschal Gospel stood out to me in a way I had never seen before. John writes, “He was in the world and though the world was made by him the world did not know him.” The Logos, the Word of God has always been here loving and saving his creation even though we did not know it. And he remains

Saints Isaac and Ephraim, the Syrians

Saint Isaac the Syrian The great luminary of the life of stillness, Saint Isaac, was born in the early seventh century in Eastern Arabia, the present-day Qatar on the Persian Gulf. He became a monk at a young age, and at some time left Arabia to dwell with monks in Persia. He was consecrated Bishop of Nineveh (and is therefore sometimes called “Saint Isaac of Nineveh”), but after five months received permission to return to