Archive

The Second Friday of Great Lent: The Mystery of “Mystery”

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 9, 2018  Few words can be more misleading to the modern ear than the Orthodox use of the word “mystery.” It’s a fine New Testament word and is (technically) the proper name for the sacraments in Orthodoxy (though we most often say ‘sacrament’ in English). Its root meaning is that of something “hidden.” In our culture’s language, mystery is more a matter of a who-done-it or a reference to something

The Sixth Day of Christmas: The Last Christmas – Ever

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 24, 2021  This Christmas was the last Christmas – ever. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. Wherever He is, there is the beginning and the end of all things. If Christ is truly present in this year’s Christmas, then it is the last Christmas – and the first Christmas. And if statements like this make your hair hurt – then read on. Our common way of thinking about

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Second Thursday of Pascha: The Bridge of Diamond

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, January 3, 2017 Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia ‘Thou hast brought us into being out of nothing’ (The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom). How are we to understand God’s relation to the world he has created? What is meant by this phrase ‘out of nothing’, ex nihilo? Why, indeed did God create at all? The words ‘out of nothing’ signify, first and foremost, that God created the universe by an act of

God and the Box

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 24, 2015  It is a commonplace that you “cannot put God in a box.” It is an affirmation of the transcendence of God and of the limits of human understanding. It is also a common rhetorical ploy to shut down a theological discussion. But, let’s think a little more about the box. I am deeply averse to statements that begin: “God cannot.” They are often little more than bad theological