Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 19, 2017 Let me preface my words with a quote from Thomas Merton. “Our real journey is interior; it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.” There are two major themes that today’s parable of The Rich Fool touches upon, if indirectly. The first is that there is there is
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on September 24, 2021 Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou Christ is the miracle that astounds us. He is the sign that God gave to all generations of all times. In His Person, every problem, every impasse, every tragedy received its solution. Being imitations of Christ and bearing Him in their heart, the saints are also the sign of God for their generation. They become tangible examples of the love of God in a world plunged into
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, September 14, 2017 Readers of the New Testament are familiar with St. Paul’s description of Christ as the “Second Adam.” It is an example of the frequent Apostolic use of an allegoric reading of the Old Testament (I am using “allegory” in its broadest sense – including typology and other forms). Christ Himself had stated that He was the meaning of the Old Testament (John 5:39). Within the Gospels Christ identifies His own
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 5, 2021 Fr. Andreas Agathokleous It’s not unknown for young people not to have anything to do with Church activities (services, fasts and sacraments), yet they continue to be curious, to wonder, to enjoy talking about God and what emanates from him as a way of life. Anyone would think that these people were unversed in the spiritual life, without experience of the grace of the Holy Spirit and that they were
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 9, 2020 at St. Mary Orthodox Church We spoke last week about leaving behind our “smaller” minds, our egoic and worldly operating systems so we can enter into the “larger” mind, the selfless and heavenly operating system of Christ. First, I want to read a quote from the great Maximus the Confessor. He was a genius, often very much above my pay grade. “Grace irradiates nature
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 19, 2018 Perhaps the most prominent ladder in our culture is the one associated with careers. It is an image of the American road to success. We begin at or near the bottom and, step by step, make our way towards the top. It is a metaphor that works well with our modern notions of hard work, persistence and reward. It also serves as a justification for many of the
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on June 23, 2021 Saint Justin Popovich Who is Jesus Christ, who is both God and human? What in him is God and what is human? How do we recognize the God in him and the human? What did God grant us in the person of Jesus? All of this is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, the ‘Spirit of Truth’. In other words, he reveals the truth about Jesus, about the God
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 24, 2017 Communities are not built by pioneers. They are rooted in mutual need and brokenness. Stanley Hauerwas has observed: My hunch is that you don’t just make a community up. You discover that you need one another because you’re in danger. The need, created by various forms of weakness, must be acknowledged and accepted. The “shame” associated with it must be borne by the community as a whole. Without
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 29, 2021 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2Co 3:18) Among the many losses within modern Christianity has been the place of transformation. Nineteenth century revival movements and theology emphasized a single experience that was associated with salvation. Those who concerned
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 31, 2016 If…then… Among the most alluring ideas in our lives are the notions of cause and effect, performance and award. Nothing seems more soothing than the simple promise that doing one thing leads to the reward of the other. It is predictable, subject to control, clearly delineates the rules of reward and punishment and makes obvious who deserves what. Nothing could be neater. The limit to this idea comes
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