SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification TOPIC OF THE WEEK: An Impression of God “If a person wants to get an idea about the pyramids of Egypt, he must either trust those who have been in immediate proximity to the pyramids, or he must get next to them himself. There is no third option. In the same way a person can get an impression of God: He must either trust those who

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – The Present Time “Let us take care because the devil tries to steal from us one of the biggest gifts which we have from God: our present. He pushes us into the future with worries, plans and prophecies or throws us back into the past with memories, sentimentalism, sorrows and over-analysis. We must pray and have the necessary stillness and awareness in order to not lose the present

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – Perfecting Our Lives “….this being the liturgical new year, the month that we reset our goals, spiritually, for ourselves, for our family, and it’s very important that this concept of this being the new time, be a real part of our lives…. Now is the time to set our hearts and our minds towards new goals, regaining whatever we have to regain in order to reset our

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – What Christians Are in This World “True Christians live in this world as travelers, pilgrims, and sojourners, and they look ever toward their heavenly homeland with faith and with the eyes of the soul, and they strive to reach it….” (From Journey to Heaven: Counsels of the Particular Duties of Every Christian, Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk)    Adult/Family:  “… We were created for the eternal by our Creator,

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – Arrow prayers: “Many Church Fathers taught the use of the “arrow prayer”, deliberately short prayers for personal devotion that were easily remembered, and could communicate one’s love for God, while seeking His help. They were like arrows being shot into the air, wholeheartedly demonstrating our sincerity in asking God’s help. One of my personal favorites is an arrow prayer attributed to Saint

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Beginning of the Church Year (Commemorated September 1st) How can we begin the new year with a focus on Christ? “Do you know why the first day of September marks the beginning of the Church year? We are accustomed to think of January 1st as the beginning of the year. But the tradition of computing the start of a new year with autumn was

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – If We Want to See God, Where Do We Begin? “…the basic human problem is that we do not see God. In fact, most people cannot see God but can only seek Him. This is because our eyes (both physical and the eyes of our souls) are earthly, they are trained to see, to think about and to contemplate only physical things and

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – The Importance of the Lives of the Saints for our Spiritual Lives  “…I spoke recently to an Orthodox priest who had converted to Orthodoxy from Protestantism. He told me that, when he was received into the Church, the officiating priest told him: “You will never be truly Orthodox without reading the Lives of the Saints.” Later, when he himself became a

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: How to Survive and Remain Yourself in “A Brave New World” “…Truly now the revision of our lives is necessary as never before, and the most important things should come to the foreground or maybe become the only thing that matters most. Noah built the Ark at the command of God and his family was saved from the Flood in it. Now we

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: What is this memory of God? It is the very thing of which Saint Gregory the Theologian said: “It is more important to remember God than to breathe…” Archimandrite Athanasios Mitilinaios “So the remembrance of God strengthens our belief in His providence and in His guidance. God is our infallible guide through life…. “   Adults/Family: “Since we breathe unceasingly, our remembrance of