forgiveness Archives - Saint Sophia

The Fifth Wednesday of Great Lent. The Beauty and Sanctity of All He Has Made

04/02/2025

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 23, 2020 Forgiveness, offered, isn’t always accepted or passed on. The unforgiving servant is the New Testament version of the narcissist. Receiving extravagant mercy from his master and caring only for himself, he refuses it to his fellow servant. “Why ask forgiveness when I’ve done nothing wrong,” the narcissist asks? For such a person there are rarely second thoughts and no effective arguments. It is vain

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: It’s a Crying Shame.

03/03/2025

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 2, 2016 Orthodox Christians make a beginning of their Lenten discipline with the forgiving of everyone for everything (theoretically)…. forgiveness is perhaps the most difficult spiritual undertaking. I believe the reason for this is clear: to forgive is to endure shame. The experience of shame (how I feel about who I am) is easily the most vulnerable point of encounter in our lives. Generally, we cover our shame with any

Forgiveness Sunday – Do We Know What We’re Doing?

03/02/2025

~By Fr Stephen Freeman, March 13, 2016 This is a meditation I shared with my parish this week as the Sunday of Forgiveness approaches: Perhaps the most generous words spoken by Christ are those we hear from the Cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Taken at face value, the words make little sense. Surely, those who crucified Christ knew that they were killing a man. Surely they were

Forgiveness for All the Sundays to Come

02/28/2025

~By Father Stephen Freeman, February 25, 2023 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

Why We Forgive

10/21/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 14, 2016 There are many ways to think about forgiveness, not all of them true or helpful. It is easily the most emotionally and psychologically difficult aspect of the Christian life revealing both the power of trauma as well as the tenacity of lingering memories. The directness of Christ’s commandments (“forgive your enemies”) and the consequences of ignoring them (“if you do not forgive others neither will your heavenly Father

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Third Friday of Pascha: Can You Forgive Someone Else’s Enemies?

05/24/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 25, 2020 I have written from time to time about the concept expressed in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, “Forgive everyone for everything.” It is a quote taken from the fictional Elder Zosima, but it is certainly a sentiment well within the bounds of Orthodox Christian thought. I have been challenged from time to time by people arguing that we cannot forgive those who have not sinned against us – that this right

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: The Poor, Debts & Your Enemies: Learning to Forgive

04/08/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 12, 2017 He who has pity on the poor makes a debtor of God. (Prov. 19:17) Jesus told a story about a man with a huge debt. He owed it to his master and was unable to pay. When he was dragged before his master, he begged for mercy. Strangely, the master was so moved by the man’s begging that he forgave him the entire debt. This same man, Jesus

The Second Tuesday of Great Lent: Faith Lets Go

03/26/2024

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 31, 2016 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (9:1-8) Often in the Gospel stories, when Jesus brings hope, comfort and healing, detractors often show up. Like the scribes in today’s story. See them as representing the know-it-alls and the self-righteous. We all know people like that and sometimes they may even be us. We must be careful not to be like that.

The First Wednesday of Great Lent: How Elder Iosif Resolved the Issue of a Priest-Monk Who Mocked Him

03/20/2024

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on August 18, 2021 Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of the Vatopaidi Monastery The humility, goodness and love which Elder Iosif [Vatopaidinos, (1921-2009)] bore in his soul moved God and were the solace of our brotherhood, who looked to him as our guide. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol tells of an event which shows the extent to which God was well-pleased with the spiritual labours of the Elder and also reveals the careful attention required in a

Return to Paradise (The Friday of Cheese-Fare)

03/15/2024

By Metropolitan Anthony Bloom 6 March 2022 In the person of the old Adam, the human race fell, when it sinned against love; and God’s dread judgement will be a crisis (i.e. judgement) for human love. Humankind was called to total unity of the whole of our lives with God, through love, but fell because it wanted to learn the secret of being through cold logic and the blind perception of the flesh. And it

Archive

The Fifth Wednesday of Great Lent. The Beauty and Sanctity of All He Has Made

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: It’s a Crying Shame.

Forgiveness Sunday – Do We Know What We’re Doing?

Forgiveness for All the Sundays to Come

Why We Forgive

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Third Friday of Pascha: Can You Forgive Someone Else’s Enemies?

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: The Poor, Debts & Your Enemies: Learning to Forgive

The Second Tuesday of Great Lent: Faith Lets Go

The First Wednesday of Great Lent: How Elder Iosif Resolved the Issue of a Priest-Monk Who Mocked Him

Return to Paradise (The Friday of Cheese-Fare)

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