Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 20, 2019 When it comes to the subject of demons, I see a bit of confusion in the dialogue that usually arises. Some, of course, are literalists and often are quite fearful of these invisible creatures. Some prefer to disavow their existence as part of the Christian mythology that arose from Zoroastrian myths that also gave rise to the theology of angels. I don’t want to
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 11, 2021 Saint Nectarios of Pentapolis The Road to Happiness Nothing is greater than a clean heart, because such a heart becomes the throne of God. And what’s more glorious than the throne of God? Nothing, of course. Regarding those who have a clean heart, God says: ‘I will live with them and walk among them; and I will be God to them and they will be a people to me’ (2 Cor. 6,
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 8, 2017 There is an old mystical Jewish belief that when God created all things, He did so by speaking their names (in Hebrew, of course). It was further believed (and here’s the mystical part) that if you could manage to speak that name in the right way, you, too, could cause it to be. The instinct behind this is true, regardless of our inability to do such a thing.
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on January 8, 2022 Dr. Haralambis Bousias Christ, our Redeemer, eternal love, is our merciful God, but also a tenacious beggar. He knocks at the door of our heart and entreats us to give him something. What does he ask for? He beseeches us: ‘Son, give me your heart’ (Wis. 18, 26). Alas, we don’t hear him and, naturally, don’t give him anything: not our heart that he asks for; not even a moment of
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, June 27, 2021. I want to talk today about what it means to acknowledge Christ before the world. It cannot be limited merely to the pronouncement of all the right words. We know this because Jesus tells us so. “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven,” even those few who manage somehow to raise the dead or heal the sick.
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on June 14, 2021 Ascension For forty days after the Resurrection, the Lord Jesus was ‘being seen of His disciples’.[1] He was gladdening the hearts of His disciples with His Presence and initiating them into the mysteries of the Kingdom. Christ appeared to them and opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. At the same time, the Apostles were living with such tension of prayer in His Presence, that His words were engraved in their
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Palm Sunday, April 1, 2018 at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge Let me begin today with a quote from Rumi about a caravan, a procession of a kind, of the journey of the soul to God. “Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.
By Fr. Antony Hughes Delivered at the Antiochian Women’s Pre-Lenten Retreat, February 10. 2018, At St. John of Damascus Church in Dedham, Massachusetts We are in the midst of a kind of awakening. The sciences, including neuroscience and the quantum sciences, have discovered that there is mystery at the core of the universe. Psychology is being revolutionized by the discovery of the benefits of mindfulness practice in religious people, including prayer and meditation. Even the
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 23, 2020 Forgiveness, offered, isn’t always accepted or passed on. The unforgiving servant is the New Testament version of the narcissist. Receiving extravagant mercy from his master and caring only for himself, he refuses it to his fellow servant. “Why ask forgiveness when I’ve done nothing wrong,” the narcissist asks? For such a person there are rarely second thoughts and no effective arguments. It is vain
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 12, 2021 We know that Jesus used parables in his teaching. It is important to remember what a parable is. Parables are extended metaphors that use concrete examples to form a brief, coherent story. Parables are not history and their meaning is not immediately accessible. They are meant to draw us in and provoke us to “subvert conventional ways of seeing and living and to invite hearers
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