~Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Christmas Eve – December 24, 2012 In the Western Rite on Christmas Eve the Prologue from St. John’s Gospel is read. It is a good choice for this night. Do you remember it? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…” “En arxn ain ho Logos…” John equates Jesus, the Son of God, with a word that came to
By Fr. Stephen Freeman The Orthodox View of the World As noted earlier, there are certainly Orthodox whose ideas differ little from this “materialist” Christianity. Their sacramental view is just as external as other materialists, their understanding of relationships just as psychological. They defend the Orthodox “meaning” but see this as simply correct thought. They can be highly moralistic and deeply committed to God as the cosmic enforcer. Many are as defensive of the historically
By Father Stephen Freeman Over the years I find myself coming back to a number of ideas within the modern world that differ markedly from Orthodox thought. These are ideas that are imbedded so deep within our culture that they seem self-evident to most people. Many Orthodox believers hold to one or more of them, distorting their understanding of the faith. This article is an effort to create a list and address each one. If
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on August 22, 2021 Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of the Vatopaidi Monastery Nowadays when science and technology are flying, when cultures converge and there is a crisis in values, even the word ‘death’ is avoided and anything reminiscent of it is ignored and discarded. Modern man views death as something negative and as a loss; we usually say for the departed: ‘We’ve lost him’. Whoever does not have the proper knowledge about this issue of
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, September 19, 2016 There is an assumption within our contemporary world that the life we bring into this world doesn’t mean a thing, at least, not at the start. Meaning is something the individual must create for himself/herself. It is, we think, a version of freedom. We are told that if we come into this world with our meaning already established as a given, then we can never be free. Autonomy, being “self-ruled,”
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”
By Stephen Freeman, September 3, 2015 I have continued to meditate this past week on the quote from Stanley Hauerwas that I shared previously: The project of modernity was to produce people who believe they should have no story except the story they choose when they had no story. Such a story is called a story of freedom – institutionalized economically as capitalism and politically as democracy. That story, and the institutions that embody it,
Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing: God never changes. Patience obtains all things Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. —St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) [1] Contemplation is a most radical form of self-surrender and kenosis (letting go). Yet surrender is only possible if there is a profound trust that there is Someone trustworthy to whom we can surrender. Paradoxically, self-forgetfulness leads to a firm and fearless sense of
What could be the meaning of Lent during the long hours we spend outside of home—commuting, sitting at our desks, taking care of our professional duties, meeting our colleagues and friends? Although no clear-cut “recipe” can be given here as in any other area, some very general considerations are possible. In the first place, Lent is a good time to measure the incredibly superficial character of our relations with men, things, and work. The “keep
[My] journey began on Christmas morning, 1988, in Ottawa in a small Anglo-Catholic church called St. Barnabas. It was my first encounter with what my high church friends call “smells and bells.” Throughout that Christmas service a translucent ribbon of incense lingered just above eye level. Its constant presence provided a gentle introduction to the physical elements of the Christmas service that I had not experienced before—the Eucharist, the processions, the sights, sounds, and, yes,
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