hymns Archives - Saint Sophia

The Act of Veneration

08/16/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, January 17, 2016 No spiritual activity permeates Orthodoxy as much as veneration. For the non-Orthodox, veneration is often mistaken for worship. We kiss icons; sing hymns to saints; cry out “Most Holy Theotokos, save us!” And all of this scandalizes the non-Orthodox who think we have fallen into some backwater of paganized Christianity. It is not unusual to hear Orthodox who more or less apologize for this activity and seek to

The Feast Day of Saint Romanos the Melodos: The Deacon Who Couldn’t Sing

10/01/2019

By Bev. Cooke He wasn’t a priest or a bishop or a hierarch or even a dedicated monastic. He was born to humble parents who may not have even been Christian. He was a deacon and a reader and a singer, but for part of his life, he had the worst voice in Constantinople and he couldn’t string two words together during a service. Yet today, St. Romanos the Melodist is regarded as the greatest

The Fortieth Day of Great Lent. Get Out of Hell Free

04/19/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 2, 2015 The Saturday before Palm Sunday is known as Lazarus Saturday among the Orthodox, and they celebrate Christ raising him from the dead just prior to His entrance into Jerusalem (gospel of John). It is a feast that offers something of a preview of Christ’s resurrection, and a foretaste of the General Resurrection at the End of the Age. Some years back I sat in a cave that is purported to

Fourth Day of Christmas Advent: Preparing for Christ’s Birth

11/18/2014

ORTHODOX WORSHIP As with Great Lent, so too with the Nativity Fast, the approaching feast is prepared for not only by abstinence, but also through the profound meaning of the biblical readings and the hymns (contained in the hymnbooks known as the Menaia for November and December) that we hear in church during this season. Because the main focus of Advent is our preparation for the Nativity-the Incarnation of the Son of God-the hymns for

Fourth Tuesday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

05/13/2014

The Story By Fr. John Oliver The curtains fill with faint breeze and tease away from the open window, then hang still again. I cannot sleep. In several minutes the clock beside my bed will ring as I have programmed it to do. I hear no sound but the soft rustle of swaying leaves. Time has passed unnoticed. It is night-one hour before the Easter Pascha Liturgy. I dress, then move quietly through the house.

Archive

The Act of Veneration

The Feast Day of Saint Romanos the Melodos: The Deacon Who Couldn’t Sing

The Fortieth Day of Great Lent. Get Out of Hell Free

Fourth Day of Christmas Advent: Preparing for Christ’s Birth

Fourth Tuesday after Pascha, Christ is Risen!

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