By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 20, 2018 Everybody is familiar with the voice in their head. Sometimes it has the sound of a nagging argument, repeating, rehearsing endlessly to no good end. It can also be the voice of scolding, shaming us for some minor transgression while it consigns us to the lowest of the low. It is rarely a welcome presence in our lives. No one ever says, “You wouldn’t believe how wonderful the
Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 3, 2017 Ioannis Kornarakis, Emeritus Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Confession, University of Athens († 2013) All of us have had the experience of unwittingly committing a sin. And, of course, every confessor/spiritual guide often hears, at almost every confession, the assurance or claim on the part of the penitent that a particular sin was unintentional. ‘Honestly, father, that sin occurred without me realizing. It was entirely unintentional. I didn’t
By Mother Mary and Bishop Kallistos Ware We can apply this approach also to the question of abstinence from sexual relations. It has long been the Church’s teaching that during seasons of fasting married couples should try to live as brother and sister, but this does not at all signify that sexual relations within marriage are in themselves sinful. On the contrary, the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete – in which, more than
The end is at hand, my soul, is at hand! But you neither care nor prepare. The time is growing short. Arise! The Judge is at the door! Like a dream, like a flower, the time of this life passes. Why do we bustle about in vain? (Fourth ode of the Canon of St. Andrew) AS WE SAW IN CHAPTER TWO, the central theme of Lent is repentance. This theme is at the heart of
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