~By Fr Stephen Freeman, May 5, 2025 The parish to which I have retired, St. John of the Ladder in Greenville, SC, has the extreme blessing of an iconographer-in-residence. The Church was built but a few years ago, and has slowly seen its walls frescoed. It is a place of beauty. Serving in the altar, I find that my eyes are frequently drawn to the icons. There are the figures of notable bishops, our heavenly
~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 9, 2025 This is an excerpt from the small book, Nostalgia for Paradise, by Dr. Alexander Kalomiros. It’s good for the soul. When the ascetical life of a Christian and the privations that he imposes upon himself are beyond the measure of grace that he has been given, a void is created in his soul. Either it will lead him to sin, or it will make him perverse, proud, hard, and
~By Fr Stephen Freeman, June 23, 2025 My parents enjoyed farming. They both grew up on farms. Both did hard work in the cotton fields of the South. I never heard them complain about that. We had a small home in a 50’s subdivision. My Dad had a garage built in the backyard. Behind the garage, he put in a garden. It could not have been more than 25’x25′. They planted tomatoes, green beans, okra,
~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 12, 2025 It is interesting that the story of mankind’s first sin involved eating. We didn’t eat too much, only the wrong thing in the wrong way. But as sins go, it seems rather mundane. Murder is more dramatic (that was a second generation sin). Betrayal makes for a better novel. But there it was – we ate our way to perdition. It’s not widely known, but you can eat
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Father Stavros N. Akrotirianakis Peter said, “Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~By Archimandrite John Krestiankin, +2006 Now all things are filled with light; heaven and earth, and the nethermost parts of the earth… Christ is Risen! Children of God! From a fullness of unearthly joy, I greet you with words full of Divine power: “Christ is Risen!” The holy fire of this salvific tiding has burst anew with bright flames over the Lord’s Tomb, and has spread throughout the world. The
Commemorated on March 25 The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the earliest Christian feasts, and was already being celebrated in the fourth century. There is a painting of the Annunciation in the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome dating from the second century. The Council of Toledo in 656 mentions the Feast, and the Council in Trullo in 692 says that the Annunciation was celebrated during Great Lent. The Greek and Slavonic names for
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 11, 2016 The Fourth Sunday of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church, is dedicated to St. John Climacus, the author of the ancient work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. It is a classic work describing “steps” within the life of the struggling ascetic. There is an icon associated with this work, picturing monastics climbing the rungs of a ladder to heaven, battling demons who are trying to pull them off. However,
~By Father Stephen Freeman, July 13, 2023 A Prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ My most merciful and all-merciful God, O Lord Jesus Christ! In Thy great love, Thou didst come down and become flesh in order to save all. Again, I pray Thee, save me by Grace! If Thou shouldst save me because of my deeds, it would not be a gift, but merely a duty. Truly, Thou aboundest in graciousness and art inexpressibly
Alexandros Christodoulou With His incarnation, His humanization, God entered the innermost core of our lives in the most obvious way. He entered our circulatory system, our heart, the centre of everything, the centre of the universe. After He’d been expelled from our world, our body and our soul through our voluntary sin, He returned, through His incarnation, to our world, our body and our soul, becoming completely human and working for us as a human
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