love Archives - Saint Sophia

The Second Thursday of Great Lent. Great Lent: An Empirical Journey into the Depths of Our Being

03/13/2025

~ By 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

Meatfare Sunday: Present Sheep

02/23/2025

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, March 7, 2021 When our Lord and Savior instructs us to love everyone without preference, we must never allow anyone to convince us otherwise. In the kingdom of God there can be neither apathy nor prejudice. Quoting Pope Francis speaking in the ancient city of Ur, “the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters.” Blasphemers, it goes without saying, cannot inherit

Metaphors of the Last Judgment

02/19/2025

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 19, 2023 In view of the very familiar Judgment Sunday Gospel reading from Mt. 25 (and how very often we try to excuse ourselves from its plain message), I would like to offer what may be a slightly different perspective. I want to start with a thought-provoking quote from Fr. Richard Rohr about an unpleasant subject: hell. It is provocative, for sure, and yet, in view

Search Me, O God

02/12/2025

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 20, 2023 Jesus was not a theoretician. He was not all words and theories. His teaching had practical applications and consequences. His core message was about the presence of the kingdom of heaven within us and among us here and now using metaphors from daily life, fishing and farming, wedding feasts and banquets to anchor Christian spirituality in the real stuff of this world. Although many

Apostle Timothy of the Seventy

01/22/2025

The Holy Apostle Timothy was from the Lycaonian city of Lystra in Asia Minor. Saint Timothy was converted to Christ in the year 52 by the holy Apostle Paul (June 29). When the Apostles Paul and Barnabas first visited the cities of Lycaonia, Saint Paul healed one crippled from birth. Many of the inhabitants of Lystra then believed in Christ, and among them was the future Saint Timothy, his mother Eunice and grandmother Loida (Lois)

Persons in Communion: The Disciplines of Communion (Part II)

08/28/2024

The training of our consciousness enables us to recover an immediacy of response to anybody’s face, however spoilt, haggard, or careworn, and precisely because it is such. God loves this person here and now, in their very ordinariness, their cowardice, their loneliness, their sin. Our consciousness being awakened, the eye of the heart is opened, and we begin to see with the eyes of God. Then we can put ourselves in the other’s place, share

Persons in Communion: The Disciplines of Communion (Part I)

08/27/2024

We can…give an outline of the disciplines of communion. The first thing, before love is even mentioned, is humility, and what humility becomes when it is exercised towards another person, that is, respect. Respect rejects all self-interested curiosity, all possession of souls. Some people undergo a strict regime of self-denial to free themselves from carnal desire, only to fall prey to a more exquisite desire, that for souls. This must be identified and overcome, especially

The Marriage of Love and Hate

07/23/2024

By Father Stephen Freeman, June 27, 2014 The genius of Dostoevsky lies in the profound theological insight of his tumbled novels. They can be difficult reads for many people – particularly in our modern setting. He has “too many characters” and they “talk a lot.” His characters are complex: I was a scoundrel, and yet, I loved God… Good and evil are in a monstrous coexistence within man. So says Dmitri Karamazov. And this statement

The Extraordinary Love of God

06/27/2024

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 29, 2013 Luke 6:31-36 (2nd Sunday of Luke) Again we are reminded that God is merciful and compassionate and that we are to follow his example, but this is more than mere imitation. The imitation of God is one thing, but we are called to do more than that; we are called to become divine, not just to be merciful, but to become Mercy. The transformation

Sunday of Pentecost

06/23/2024

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on June 7, 2009 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! St. Gregory the Great writes this on the Great Feast of Pentecost: “My friends consider the greatness of this solemn feast that commemorates God’s coming as a guest into our hearts!” He comes to us to transform us from within in a movement

Archive

The Second Thursday of Great Lent. Great Lent: An Empirical Journey into the Depths of Our Being

Meatfare Sunday: Present Sheep

Metaphors of the Last Judgment

Search Me, O God

Apostle Timothy of the Seventy

Persons in Communion: The Disciplines of Communion (Part II)

Persons in Communion: The Disciplines of Communion (Part I)

The Marriage of Love and Hate

The Extraordinary Love of God

Sunday of Pentecost

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