Cross Archives - Page 3 of 30

The Third Friday of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled (Part II)

03/13/2026

~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2016 This bondage or slavery to sin is also similar to language applied to the devil: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. (Heb 2:14-15 RSV) St. Paul

The Third Thursday of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled (Part I)

03/12/2026

~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2016 Recent conversations on the blog have bounced around the imagery of debt in the Scriptures. Contemporary Protestant thought often likes to express the notion of a “sin debt.” The idea runs that God’s righteousness and justice have proper demands. When we fail to keep the commandments, we create a debt for which God’s justice demands payment. Christ’s innocent self-offering on the Cross is seen as the payment for

The Second Friday of Great Lent. The Death of Christ and the Life of Man (Part II)

03/06/2026

~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 15, 2016 And here, as we approach Christ’s death on the Cross, it is appropriate to ask, “Why death?” There are many meditations on the death of Christ. Meditations that see Him as the Paschal Lamb sacrificed for us, as the “Serpent lifted in the wilderness,” and others. Here, temptation sets in and Christians seek to explain Christ’s death by comparing it to their own faulty understandings of lesser things.

The Second Thursday of Great Lent. The Death of Christ and the Life of Man (Part I)

03/05/2026

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 15, 2016 Several years ago, someone wrote and asked, “Why did Christ have to die on the Cross?” It is the question that prompted this article. Recently, we have been having a discussion regarding the atonement within the comments section of the blog. I have pointed out that the notion of Christ being punished by the wrath of God for our sakes is not, in fact, found in the Scriptures. Sin

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: A Modern Lent

02/23/2026

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 29, 2019 Few things are as difficult in the modern world as fasting. It is not simply the action of changing our eating habits that we find problematic – it’s the whole concept of fasting and what it truly entails. It comes from another world. We understand dieting – changing how we eat in order to improve how we look or how we feel. But changing how we eat in order to know God

The Friday of Cheesefare (Forgiveness) Sunday: Forgiveness for All the Sundays to Come

02/20/2026

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 18, 2018 I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; (John17:20-21) The Elder Sophrony, together with St. Silouan, wrote about the “whole Adam.” By this, they meant all the human beings who have ever existed and those yet to come. For Silouan and Sophrony, this was something known in the present tense, a “hypostatic” knowledge of the fundamental unity of

Radical Compassion

02/18/2026

~Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 8, 2006 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever! I want to speak about radical compassion, the kind that encompasses everything and everyone. Not only do we see an example of it in the Gospel today, of Jesus toward the widow who had lost her only son, but there

Being Faithful in Small Things

01/14/2026

~Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 1, 2006 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! “We cannot do great things,” said Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “but we can do small things with great love.” St. Francis came upon an almond tree in the dead of winter. He said to it, “Speak to me of God” and the

The Way of Shame and the Way of Thanksgiving

01/09/2026

~By Father Stephen Freeman, July 17, 2023 The language of “self-emptying” can have a sort of Buddhist ring. It sounds as we are referencing a move towards becoming a vessel without content – the non-self. Given our multicultural world, such a reference is understandable. It is, however, unfortunate and requires that we visit the true nature of Christian self-emptying. Our self-emptying is deeply tied to shame and the Crucified Christ. As a touchstone, I cite

The Ninth Day of Christmas. The Significance of the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan

01/02/2026

Sophia Kafkopoulou On 6 January, our Church celebrates Theophany, one of the great feasts of the Lord. Jesus’ baptism is the event which formally confirmed the advent of the Messiah. Although the Lord Himself had no need of the remission of sins, He nevertheless came to John ‘to be baptized by him and to fulfil all righteousness’ (Matth. 3, 13-15). As regards Jesus, the Gospel stresses that, as soon as He entered the waters of

Archive

The Third Friday of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled (Part II)

The Third Thursday of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled (Part I)

The Second Friday of Great Lent. The Death of Christ and the Life of Man (Part II)

The Second Thursday of Great Lent. The Death of Christ and the Life of Man (Part I)

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: A Modern Lent

The Friday of Cheesefare (Forgiveness) Sunday: Forgiveness for All the Sundays to Come

Radical Compassion

Being Faithful in Small Things

The Way of Shame and the Way of Thanksgiving

The Ninth Day of Christmas. The Significance of the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan

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