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Daily Meditations

The Life of Beauty in an Ugly World

09/22/2025

~By Father Stephen Freeman, September 26, 2018 In my last article, I described our personal existence as something that is not self-contained but found only in relation. Who-I-am is seen in the face of the one beholding me. There is an element of this in the perception of beauty that is worth noting. Some years ago, my wife and I visited the Grand Canyon. Its beauty is impossible to describe. I consistently felt frustrated with

Facing Up to Reality

09/19/2025

~By Father Stephen Freeman, September 20, 2018 Imagine that you have never seen a mirror, much less had a picture taken of yourself or broadcast your image on social media. Imagine, as well, that you’ve never taken advantage of a still pool of water to admire yourself. How would you know what you look like? Lost within our modern culture is the fact that the face is not created for its owner. For eons, human

Sunday after the Elevation of the Honorable Cross: The Three Conditions for our Salvation

09/18/2025

Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria, Naousa and Kampania ‘Let those who desire to come after me deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me’ (Mark 8, 34). A few days ago, our Church celebrated the universal elevation of the honorable and life-giving Cross; and today, the Sunday after the Elevation, the Gospel reading reminds us of the importance of the Cross in our lives. Because, although Christ ascended the Cross for our salvation and although

Do Unto Others

09/17/2025

~Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 2, 2005 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! And just as you want men to do to you, do also to them. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to

Euphemia the Great Martyr

09/16/2025

St Euphemia the Martyr is celebrated twice a year in the Orthodox Church…. on the 11th of July is the miracle of her relics that decided the 4th Ecumenical Council, held in Chalcedon, 451 AD…. the second Feast, on September 16th, celebrates her repose as a martyr. The Slavic tradition does not have a separate Sunday for the 4th Ecumenical Council, instead celebrating the Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils on that same Sunday.

Saint Nikitas the Great Martyr (15 September)

09/15/2025

The Holy Great Martyr Niketas (Nikḗtas) was a Goth (a Germanic tribe). He was born and lived on the banks of the Danube River, suffering for Christ in the year 372. The Christian Faith was already spreading throughout the territory of the Goths at that time. Saint Niketas believed in Christ and was baptized by the Gothic bishop Theophilos, who participated in the First Ecumenical Council. Pagan Goths started to oppose the spread of Christianity,

The Elevation of the Precious Cross

09/14/2025

Fr. Gennadios Manolis, Theologian The Lord’s Precious Cross is the supreme symbol of sacrifice and sanctification for the Church of Christ, Who was crucified and then rose, because the Cross, together with the Resurrection, are the two pillars which support the life for the Church and its members. The honour paid by the Orthodox Church to the Precious Cross on 14 September (though not only on that day) began in the very first, Apostolic years,

Orthodoxy Represents Our Original Incompetency

09/12/2025

~By Father Stephen Freeman, September 11, 1018 There is one thing to be said about Church-shopping: you can always find a better one… I often see examples of what I would describe as “comparative denominationalism.” It is the comparison of one Church to another (yes, I know that Orthodoxy is not a denomination). Indeed, the drive for a “better Church,” a “more authentic Church,” the “true Church,” the “New Testament Church,” is little more than

The 9-11 Cross at Ground Zero

09/11/2025

When someone says 9-11 almost everyone in America will know that it refers to September 11, 2001, the day of the infamous attacks on the United States by 19 hijackers who flew two airline passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon near Washington DC, and one that crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, while it was undoubtedly bound for the Capitol or White House. 9-11 became a

Our Means of Salvation

09/10/2025

Metropolitan Ieronymos of Larisa and Tyrnavos As we prepare to celebrate the great feast of the Universal Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, which, according to the liturgical tradition of the Church is comparable to Holy and Great Friday- hence its status as a strict fast- the Gospel reading of the day reminds us of another strange elevation which happened centuries before, in the wilderness, during the exodus of the Israelite people from their

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