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The Thirty-Third Day of Great Lent. St. Mary of Egypt and Moral Progress

04/12/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, January 11, 2015 The suggestion has been made several times recently that my criticism of moral progress is not supported by the example of the saints. Surely, it is said, the transformations we read about in the lives of the saints are clear examples of moral progress. A noted such example, perhaps the greatest story of repentance and asceticism known in the Church, is that of St. Mary of Egypt. It is worth

“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

The Gift of Silence III

07/19/2018

The Gift of Silence (III) From the time of Elijah through the period of classical prophecy, God continued to reveal Himself through His Word of blessing and judgment. At the same time, silence was increasingly perceived as something negative: the absence of God’s voice and thus of His presence. “The land of silence” became synonymous with Sheol, the place of the dead where, by definition, the life-giving God is not to be found (Ps 88:11-13;

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Tuesday of the Third Week of Pascha: The Paradox of Christian Life

04/24/2018

In Christ, our consciousness expands, our life becomes unlimited. In the commandment ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself, we must understand the words ‘as thyself in this way: every man, the ‘whole Adam’, is my being. The kingdom of Christ, writes Saint Silouan, is to bear in our heart the whole universe and God the Creator Himself. When you pray, pray for each and every one. And add: ‘By their prayers, by his/her prayer, have mercy

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Thursday of the Second Week of Pascha: Jesus Rose with His Wounds

04/19/2018

Jesus rose with His wounds; and we, too, rise with our wounds. In repentance, we are able to realize a resurrection of the heart before the final resurrection of the dead. The key to this mystery is given to us at the moment of our baptism, which offers the possibility of repentance and the foretaste of resurrection. Through baptism, we find that our resurrection through repentance is not a denial or a disparagement of our

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Tuesday of the Second Week of Pascha: Through the Cross, Joy! (Part II)

04/17/2018

This descent, this final and ultimate penetration into the realm of the dead, is accomplished once and for all. It frees patriarch, prophet, and king. But at the same time it frees us, liberating us from the consequences of death. The hand that reaches out to grasp the hands of Adam and Eve reaches out to embrace their descendants as well: every “Adam” who responds to His gesture with longing and with faith. We, like

Friday of the 4th Week of Pascha. Darkness Can Never Defeat the Light

05/12/2017

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5 (From the Gospel at the Divine Liturgy on Pascha) Christ is Risen! Allow me to share with you a view from the priest’s perspective for a moment. Just before midnight on Pascha, all of the lights in the Orthodox churches are extinguished, save for one light that remains

Mary the Contemplative (Part III)

08/03/2016

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT Mary like any Christian contemplative had to learn to walk by faith. We can believe that the great faith she needed to give her fiat to the message of the angel had been prepared by series of acts of faith developed throughout Mary’s life as she contemplated God’s message unfolding in her life before the Annunciation. We see her deep spirit of contemplative faith when we examine Lk 1:37, “For nothing

ON THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

03/02/2016

Stripped of all knowledge, lacking in every good thought or deed, without memory from the past or wish for the future, as useless as a worn-out rag, unfeeling as a stone in the path, corroded as a worm-eaten mushroom in the woods, mortal as a fish on the shore and grieved to tears over this wretched plight of yours, thus you will stand in prayer before the Almighty, your Judge and Creator and Father, your

ON AN INTERPRETATION OF ZACCHAEUS (Part II)

01/29/2016

But the less you possess, the simpler is your mode of life. All excess has been thrown away, and the heart gathers itself together at its core. Little by little it tries to get into the kernel, where the stairs to heaven are to be found. Then prayer, too, becomes simpler. Prayers gather around the centre and enter it. There in the depths is seen the only prayer that is needful: the prayer for mercy.

Archive

The Thirty-Third Day of Great Lent. St. Mary of Egypt and Moral Progress

“There was an evening and a morning…”

The Gift of Silence III

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Tuesday of the Third Week of Pascha: The Paradox of Christian Life

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Thursday of the Second Week of Pascha: Jesus Rose with His Wounds

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Tuesday of the Second Week of Pascha: Through the Cross, Joy! (Part II)

Friday of the 4th Week of Pascha. Darkness Can Never Defeat the Light

Mary the Contemplative (Part III)

ON THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

ON AN INTERPRETATION OF ZACCHAEUS (Part II)

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