Goodness Archives - Saint Sophia

Only Love Knows Anything

10/24/2025

~Father Stephen Freeman, August 15, 2023 There’s a part of us that is wired to be careful. It senses danger and hunkers down. It looks for danger. It can easily become the dominant mode of our life. Anxiety and depression, are among the most common noises of this internal warning system. When it comes to dominate, we see the world through fear-colored glasses. In the classical language of the Church, we describe such an experience by the voices

The Singular Goodness of God

07/10/2025

~By Father Stephen Freeman, July 30, 2018 It has long seemed to me that it is one thing to believe that God exists and quite another to believe that He is good. Indeed, to believe that God exists simply begs the question. That question is: Who is God, and what can be said of Him? Is He good? This goes to the heart of the proclamation of the Christian faith. We believe that God has

Where Is God in All of This? God in Providence

01/24/2025

By Father Stephen Freeman, January 24, 2018 Somewhere along the years, I gained a useful insight about “doing nothing.” On the whole, it’s the lousiest strategy for living that can be found. We were not created to be passive creatures. Our life is a gift of a good God, but we are not called to be passive recipients. Anyone who has struggled with a “besetting sin” will understand what I’m saying. Trying to “not” do

The Interior Focus of Great Lent

03/14/2024

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 26, 2017 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (6:14-21) As we prepare to begin the Great Fast, here are a few important points to remember. First, God is love, a kind and compassionate father to us. We must never forget that because love is the reason for all spiritual effort. “God does not love us because we are good, but because he

Discourse on Love

01/24/2024

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on August 19, 2021 Archimandrite Georgios Kapsanis, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou † Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ handed down to us the perfect teaching on salvation. And he himself was the first to implement what he taught. It is he who ‘practices and teaches’ (Matth. 5, 19). He also gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of real love. But the most outstanding Good Samaritan is

Goodness and a Word in Due Season

07/21/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 8, 2017 There is an old mystical Jewish belief that when God created all things, He did so by speaking their names (in Hebrew, of course). It was further believed (and here’s the mystical part) that if you could manage to speak that name in the right way, you, too, could cause it to be. The instinct behind this is true, regardless of our inability to do such a thing.

Divine Beauty (2)

09/22/2022

By Fr John Breck, March 2, 2009 The preceding column in this space spoke of finding beauty in the little things of our daily life, including in their imperfections. In some cultures, children are imbued from birth with sensitivity toward the visually unusual and appreciation for its deeper meaning. From a jagged crack in an ancient vase to the radiant smile of a Down’s syndrome child, realities considered by many people to be objectionable—the evidence

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

09/11/2022

By Fr. John Breck, January 1, 2002 This is a date we shall never forget. Images of planes hurtling into the twin towers, the collapse of the buildings, the faces of the police, firefighters and other rescue workers who lost so many friends and co-workers, the anguished cries of family members who refused to accept the obvious. Images, too, of the Pentagon in flames, followed by the rerouting of Air Force One and the cautionary

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: Sin Is Not a Legal Problem – Athanasius and the Atonement

03/28/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 12, 2016 I often struggle when people speak of their “sins.” Indeed, it is not unusual to be asked, “Is ___ a sin?” The question always makes me feel like a lawyer. Imagine that, instead of a doctor, you have a lawyer whom you consult for your medical problems. You are having trouble breathing. You’re short of breath and occasionally you cough up blood. You go to your doctor (lawyer)

Thoughts on basic kindness, on morals and virtues.

11/03/2021

Thoughts on basic kindness By Michael Haldas, July 21, 2016 “One of the New Testament commands is that Christians display kindness toward other believers (Romans 12:10) …Such kindness is a response to God’s wonderful kindness to us….as we bless others in this way, we will find ourselves receiving similar blessings of kindness (Luke 6:38).” (Foundation Study Bible, Romans 15:25-26) “We need to have our lives and relationships reflect the admonition of St. Paul who wrote

Archive

Only Love Knows Anything

The Singular Goodness of God

Where Is God in All of This? God in Providence

The Interior Focus of Great Lent

Discourse on Love

Goodness and a Word in Due Season

Divine Beauty (2)

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: Sin Is Not a Legal Problem – Athanasius and the Atonement

Thoughts on basic kindness, on morals and virtues.

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