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The Twenty-Eighth Day of Christmas Advent: St. Spyridon’s Shoes – and My Shoes

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, September 9, 2019  Earlier this year I was making my way to Antiochian Village for a Writers’ Conference. Walking across the expanse of the Atlanta Airport, I became aware of something odd about my shoes. At first, I thought something had gotten into my shoe, a rock, or some such thing. Then I thought that maybe there was something strange about the foot bed. One of my toes seemed to be

The Twenty-Second Day of Christmas Advent. The Life of St. Nicholas.

More than 1,600 years ago, in the year 270 AD, St. Nicholas was born not far from Myra, in what is now modern day Turkey. At that time, Orthodox Christians were persecuted for their faith. Many of them were tortured and executed because of their belief in Jesus Christ. Nicholas was taught by his parents to love the Lord with his whole mind, heart, soul, and with all his strength. When they died he inherited

Fifth Tuesday of Great Lent. Orthodox Christian Lent, Prayer, Fasting and Baptism

By Fr. Patrick Reardon, March 13, 2005 The word “Lent,” now associated exclusively with the observance of the liturgical year, originally meant “spring” and had no directly religious significance. In English usage, however, its reference was gradually limited to the season of preparation for Pascha, a season that does, in fact, coincide with spring. In languages dependent on Latin, the word for Lent is some variant of “forty,” derived from the Latin *quadragesima*. This is

The Twenty-Second Day of Christmas Advent. The Life of St. Nicholas

More than 1,600 years ago, in the year 270 AD, St. Nicholas was born not far from Myra, in what is now modern day Turkey. At that time, Orthodox Christians were persecuted for their faith. Many of them were tortured and executed because of their belief in Jesus Christ. Nicholas was taught by his parents to love the Lord with his whole mind, heart, soul, and with all his strength. When they died he inherited

The Destiny of Eros: The Nuptial Way (Part I)

It is entirely fitting that the first revelation of the consubstantiality, the unity, of human nature, in the Bible should be in terms of marriage: ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,’ says the man when God brings the woman before him. And Genesis adds this comment on what marriage actually entails: ‘Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one