burning bush Archives - Saint Sophia

The Walls of Paradise – and the Fire of God

01/26/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 14, 2020 I love walls. Perhaps the most charming aspect of medieval cities are their use of walls. Some surrounded the city and served as protection. Others surrounded smaller areas and prevented easy access and egress (perhaps understandable in a world with lots of animals present). There were other walls that signaled “higher” boundaries. In a medieval world, the “order” of things was thought important: kings and commoners, high-born and

Epiphany: Eureka!

01/06/2024

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, January 10, 2021 Epiphany means: “a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. An intuitive grasp of reality through a simple and striking event. An illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.” It is not only a religious term. It can refer to any other sphere of human interest as well. For example, there is the famous story of the Greek mathematician Archimedes who,

The Holy and Great Wednesday: “If this is how you see Christ, then Holy Week won’t mean a thing to you…”

04/20/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 12, 2017 Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou Holy Week is the heart of the Christian Orthodox Faith and the centre of the yearly cycle of Christian Feasts. Every year our churches are packed at Holy Week and, come the last three days, they are bursting at the seams with both people who attend church every Sunday and people who attend only on special occasions. Holy Week brings the pious and the not

The Eleventh Day of Christmas Advent. Thanksgiving Day! Catherine the Great Martyr of Alexandria

11/25/2021

A day set aside for giving thanks to God By Abbot Tryphon, November 28, 2019 Thanksgiving has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when during the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving. The word Thanksgiving has its roots in the Greek word, eucharistia, where the Church gets the word Eucharist. For we Orthodox Christians the ultimate giving of thanks to God comes when we offer the Eucharistic sacrifice, and enter into

The Ninth Day of Christmas Advent. The Created and the Uncreated.

11/23/2021

By Abbot Tryphon, January 6, 2020 This season of the Nativity of Christ is the perfect time to look closely at what this pivotal moment in human history meant for this material world. That the Logos, the Word of God, joined Himself to our humanity was singularly the most important event in human history. That this was done by God in order to join His Divinity with our humanity, making it possible for us, His

“There was an evening and a morning…”

07/31/2018

“There was an evening and a morning…” No less than six times in the first chapter of the first sacred book of the Hebrews, God is represented creating the days of the week and setting evening as the time at which the day begins. The way people today count time is not Your way, O Lord. Instinctively, they tend to start the day with morning. The day begins with the pale light of daybreak. Then

Boundless Love

06/14/2018

“My child,” God declares, “you have seen the Bush that burns without being consumed. You have recognized Love, which is a consuming fire that desires you completely. The ‘great vision’ of the Burning Bush can help you give Me a new name. That name will not replace the name or names you have used until now. Nevertheless, like a lightening flash in the night, the radiance of this new name can enlighten your entire surroundings.

This Great Vision

05/31/2018

“Fire burst forth from the burning bush, yet the bush was not destroyed. Draw near to the Burning Bush, my child. Reflect on this great vision, and why the bush burned and still was not consumed. “The fire that burns the bush without destroying it is a fire nourished by nothing apart from itself. It subsists alone, by itself. And of itself it spreads abroad in infinite growth. This fire does not destroy the wood

The Container and the Contents

09/18/2017

Theologically and objectively speaking, we are created in union with God from the beginning (e.g., Ephesians 1:3-6). But it is very hard for people to believe or experience this when they have no positive sense of identity, no strong boundaries, and little inner religious experience. Thus, the first part of the spiritual journey is about externals, formulas, superficial emotions, flags and badges, correct rituals, Bible quotes, and special clothing, all of which largely substitute for

Human Beings and the Cosmos (Part V): The Cosmos Secretly Transfigured in Christ

07/09/2015

When the Son of God, the fullness of personal existence, becomes the Son of the Earth, he allows himself to be contained by the universe at one point in space and time; but in reality the universe is contained in him. He will not use his body to possess and exploit the world, but by his constantly Eucharistic attitude, he makes it a body of unity, flesh which is both cosmic and sacrificial. In him

Archive

The Walls of Paradise – and the Fire of God

Epiphany: Eureka!

The Holy and Great Wednesday: “If this is how you see Christ, then Holy Week won’t mean a thing to you…”

The Eleventh Day of Christmas Advent. Thanksgiving Day! Catherine the Great Martyr of Alexandria

The Ninth Day of Christmas Advent. The Created and the Uncreated.

“There was an evening and a morning…”

Boundless Love

This Great Vision

The Container and the Contents

Human Beings and the Cosmos (Part V): The Cosmos Secretly Transfigured in Christ

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