St Patrick is not only a saint for the Irish or for Roman Catholics. He is verily an Orthodox Saint and celebrated on March 17. He lived from the late 4th Century until the late 5th Century. Patrick was actually from Wales, not Ireland but was taken captive by pirates to Ireland. He was actually sold as a slave and made a herder of swine. It was during his time as a slave that he
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 9, 2019 As Great Lent has passed its mid-point, attention begins to move towards Holy Week itself and its very intense focus. It has been an unusual time for me, having traveled on two successive weekends to lead retreats. Travel is always disruptive, and absence from your own community creates a break in the normal continuity of the Fast. I have great sympathies for those whose jobs involve frequent travel.
~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2016 This bondage or slavery to sin is also similar to language applied to the devil: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. (Heb 2:14-15 RSV) St. Paul
~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2016 Recent conversations on the blog have bounced around the imagery of debt in the Scriptures. Contemporary Protestant thought often likes to express the notion of a “sin debt.” The idea runs that God’s righteousness and justice have proper demands. When we fail to keep the commandments, we create a debt for which God’s justice demands payment. Christ’s innocent self-offering on the Cross is seen as the payment for
~Sermon preached by Kyra Limberakis at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA on Sunday, March 20, 2016 The present moment gives us two options: to love or not to love, to walk with Christ or to stray from Him. While this may seem harsh, the present moment is the most important moment we are given in life. Yet, we spend the majority of our lives planning for the future or dwelling on the past.
Fr. Andreas Agathokleous Amid the turbulence of our life, the deafening noise surrounding us, the long and pointless conversations on the telephone or in person, the stress and uncertainty regarding the state of the world today and tomorrow, the Church offers us the period of time of Great Lent. What meaning can this period, beginning with Monday in the first week and lasting until Great Saturday, have for all of us who live the modern
~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 15, 2016 And here, as we approach Christ’s death on the Cross, it is appropriate to ask, “Why death?” There are many meditations on the death of Christ. Meditations that see Him as the Paschal Lamb sacrificed for us, as the “Serpent lifted in the wilderness,” and others. Here, temptation sets in and Christians seek to explain Christ’s death by comparing it to their own faulty understandings of lesser things.
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 15, 2016 Several years ago, someone wrote and asked, “Why did Christ have to die on the Cross?” It is the question that prompted this article. Recently, we have been having a discussion regarding the atonement within the comments section of the blog. I have pointed out that the notion of Christ being punished by the wrath of God for our sakes is not, in fact, found in the Scriptures. Sin
~By Shannon Sakellariou, March 22, 2021 Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit—one God. Amen. First, I need to make a disclaimer: I am definitely not further along on the journey to understanding love or learning how to love than others. But this reflection has been a good spiritual exercise for myself as I’ve prepared for Great Lent. As I thought about and read about God’s love for us,
Elder Patapios Kavsokalyvitis, Superintendent of the Skete of the Holy Trinity, Mount Athos By fasting, we learn to say ‘No’ to our desire for food and also learn to say ‘No’ to our often self-destructive will. We also learn to say ‘Yes’ to God, which is always redemptive. We’ve begun the Triodio, this blessed period of the liturgical year, with repentance, because we’ve felt deeply, existentially, within us the need to return from our expatriation.
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