Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 24, 2021. Jesus asked the man his name. He answered, “Legion.” Legion was not his real name; it was what had become of him. He was fragmented, shattered, traumatized. He had lost sight of who he really was. His true identity had been hidden away. No matter what has happened to us, or what we have become, Christianity has Good News for us. There is a
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, January 11, 2017 “The self resides in the face.” – Psychological Theorist, Sylvan Tompkins There is a thread running throughout the Scriptures that can be described as a “theology of the face.” In the Old Testament we hear a frequent refrain of “before Thy face,” and similar expressions. There are prayers beseeching God not to “hide His face.” Very clearly in Exodus, God tells Moses that “no one may see my face
Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 13, 2017 † Archimandrite Georgios Kapsanis, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou The more that people are cleansed of the passions, the greater their capacity for real communion with God and other people. Those who take a romantic and external view of the human person transfer wickedness from the person onto society, which is why they proclaim that any improvement in society will bring with it an improvement in
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 28, 2016 I was in a small shop yesterday in a coastal town. Among its many knick-knacks were a large variety of compasses. We have become a compass-driven culture today, after a lull in which they were largely passé. Of course, the compass is now a very passive thing, hidden within the workings of the resident GPS system in our phones. There has long been a debate about the presence
Published by Pemptousia Partnership, August 1, 2021 From the 1st to the 14th of August we fast in honor of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God. It’s a strict fast, with fish eaten only on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Savior (6 August). If 15 August falls on a Wednesday or Friday, there is a dispensation only for fish. Fasting is a commandment from God. The first. The oldest of all.
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 25, 2016 In a now-famous experiment, volunteers were fitted with inverting lenses, such that everything they saw appeared upside-down. In a few days their brains adjusted and what they saw appeared correctly. When the lenses were removed, their naked eyes now saw things inverted, though again, after a few days their vision returned to normal. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and created in such a fashion we adapt to
Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 3, 2017 Ioannis Kornarakis, Emeritus Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Confession, University of Athens († 2013) All of us have had the experience of unwittingly committing a sin. And, of course, every confessor/spiritual guide often hears, at almost every confession, the assurance or claim on the part of the penitent that a particular sin was unintentional. ‘Honestly, father, that sin occurred without me realizing. It was entirely unintentional. I didn’t
Published by Pemptousia Partnership, January 14, 2017 According to the Biblical concept, ‘patricide’ is essentially the same as the sin of Adam and Eve. Their effort to become gods through the forbidden fruit and not through the alignment of their will and their actions to the commandment and will of God is the first attempt to remove God from the world and from our life. It’s the first attempt to expel God from the human
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 2, 2010 The Orthodox year has a rhythm, much like the tide coming in and going out – only this rhythm is an undulation between seasons of fasting and seasons (or a few days) of feasting. Every week, with few exceptions, is marked by the Wednesday and Friday fast, and every celebration of the Divine Liturgy is prepared for by eating nothing after midnight until we have received the Holy
Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 14, 2016 By Archimandrite Kyrillos, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Essex My immediate answer to both parts of this question is a very affirmative ‘Yes’. God does not change. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And the nature of human beings has not changed either. Since Adam, humans are dignified with such a power over their own destiny that they can to a great degree turn
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