holy spirit Archives - Saint Sophia

The Fourth Wednesday of Great Lent: The Prayer of Righteous Symeon

03/22/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on February 3, 2022 Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios At every Vespers, we hear the prayer: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen your salvation …” (Luke 2: 29-31). As St. Luke the Evangelist writes, it is with these words that the Righteous Symeon praised and thanked God, when he took the 40-day old baby Jesus in his arms, while in the Temple of

Ex Nihilo (1)

09/06/2022

By Fr John Breck, February 1, 2022 In the very beginning, there was nothing. Nothing at all. There was neither time nor space, neither matter nor energy, neither life nor death. There were no galaxies, no stars or planets; nor were there molecules, atoms, or any of the vast array of subatomic particles that constitute physical reality as we know it. There was nothing. The concept of “nothingness” is impossible for us to grasp. “Nothingness”

THE FAST OF THE DORMITION OF THE HOLY THEOTOKOS

08/04/2022

By St Nino Orthodox, August 15, 2016 For fourteen days of August, during each year, the Holy Orthodox Church enters into a strict fast period in honor of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary. The eminent Orthodox theologian, Father Sergei Bulgakov, beautifully expresses the high regard which the Orthodox Christians have for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, for her special role in the salvation of mankind, when he affirms, “The warm

By Thy Holy Spirit

06/09/2022

By Fr John Breck, June 2, 2005 In his reflections on the Knowledge of God, Saint Silouan of Mount Athos (+ 1938) speaks in a very simple and beautiful way of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the faithful. They are words that seem especially significant in this time of Pentecost, when we celebrate and relive the coming of the Spirit in power, to renew us and all of

Through Your Glorious Ascension

06/02/2022

By Fr. John Breck, June 1, 2005 Psalm 67/68 is considered by most biblical scholars to be the most difficult of all psalms to interpret.[1] The current consensus holds that the psalm was an ancient cultic hymn, originally recited in an autumn festival by the covenant-community of Israel. Its theme celebrates the coming of God to His people, from Sinai to Zion, in order to actualize in their midst His past mighty works of salvation. This

Holy and Righteous Symeon the God-receiver and the Prophetess Anna

02/03/2022

“There is an ancient tradition that the holy, righteous elder Symeon, who came from Egypt, was one of the Seventy learned Jews chosen in the days of the Pharoah Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) for the task of rendering the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and that to Symeon was assigned the translation of the book of the Prophet Isaiah. When he reached the famous passage where the Prophet foretells the virgin birth of Christ, saying: Behold,

Unknowing: Dying by Brightness

07/14/2021

I die by brightness and the Holy Spirit. —Thomas Merton (1915-1968) [1] For most of us, growth is a long process of being drawn “by brightness and the Holy Spirit,” as Merton says. I interpret this brightness as being overwhelmed and undone by Immense Mystery and Goodness. Yet the Holy Spirit leads and must direct this undoing. We cannot take control, and this is our “dying” as we have to gradually let go of our need for control,

Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit

06/20/2021

In the Old Testament Pentecost was the feast which occurred fifty days after Passover. As the Passover feast celebrated the exodus of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt, so Pentecost celebrated God’s gift of the ten commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. In the new covenant of the Messiah, the Passover event takes on its new meaning as the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection, the “exodus” of men from this sinful world to

The Saturday Before the Feast of Pentecost

06/19/2021

On the Saturday before Pentecost we commemorate all departed pious Christians, with the idea that the occasion of the coming of the Holy Spirit not only consists of the economy of the salvation of man, but that the departed also participate in this salvation. Therefore, the Holy Church, sending up prayers on Pentecost for the enlivening of all the living through the Holy Spirit, petitions for grace of the Holy Spirit also for the departed,

The Friday before Pentecost: A Little Pentecost at Every Liturgy

06/18/2021

And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, ”Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of

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The Fourth Wednesday of Great Lent: The Prayer of Righteous Symeon

Ex Nihilo (1)

THE FAST OF THE DORMITION OF THE HOLY THEOTOKOS

By Thy Holy Spirit

Through Your Glorious Ascension

Holy and Righteous Symeon the God-receiver and the Prophetess Anna

Unknowing: Dying by Brightness

Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit

The Saturday Before the Feast of Pentecost

The Friday before Pentecost: A Little Pentecost at Every Liturgy

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