essence Archives - Saint Sophia

The Third Friday of Great Lent: The Eternal Cross-How Is the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World?

03/21/2025

~By Father Stephen Freeman, April 20, 2022 Among the many striking images in the book of Revelation, there is one that stands out in particular. In Chapter 13, vs 8, we read: “All who dwell on the earth will worship him [the beast], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The passage is not unlike that in 1 Peter: “knowing that you

The Eleventh Day of Christmas. Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.

01/04/2022

The Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles was established by the Orthodox Church to indicate the equal honor of each of the Seventy. They were sent two by two by the Lord Jesus Christ to go before Him into the cities He would visit (Luke 10:1). Besides the celebration of the Synaxis of the Holy Disciples, the Church celebrates the memory of each of them during the course of the year: Saint James the Brother of

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

The Natural World: The Substance of God

06/10/2019

Saint Irenaeus . . . taught that the whole of creation flows from the very “substance” of God. [1] All things carry within them the essence of the One. Irenaeus . . . signaled his concern about the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing. . .. This was to become the standard of Western Christianity’s approach to creation. Creation would be viewed not as coming forth from the substance of God but as fashioned

The Second Sunday of Lent: Our Holy Father Gregory Palamas

03/06/2015

On the Second Sunday of Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Holy Father Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, the Wonderworker. The feast day of Saint Gregory Palamas is November 14, however, he is commemorated on this Sunday as the condemnation of his enemies and the vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14th century was acclaimed as a second triumph of Orthodoxy. One day in a dream, he saw that he was full

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The Third Friday of Great Lent: The Eternal Cross-How Is the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World?

The Eleventh Day of Christmas. Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.

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

The Natural World: The Substance of God

The Second Sunday of Lent: Our Holy Father Gregory Palamas

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