Passover Archives - Saint Sophia

The Second Tuesday of Pascha. Pascha in Orthodoxy: Why We Celebrate the Holy Season (Part I)

04/21/2026

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~By Orthodoxy Christianity 101 Pascha, or Easter as it’s widely known, is the most significant feast in Orthodox Christianity. It’s a time when I delve deep into the heart of my faith, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This isn’t just a one-day event; it’s the culmination of a sacred season filled with profound spiritual significance. You might wonder why Orthodox Christians call it Pascha and why it’s often on a

Palm Sunday: The Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem

04/05/2026

Introduction On the Sunday before the Feast of Great and Holy Pascha and at the beginning of Holy Week, the Orthodox Church celebrates one of its most joyous feasts of the year. Palm Sunday is the commemoration of the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem following His glorious miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. Having anticipated His arrival and having heard of the miracle, the people went out to meet the Lord and welcomed

The Third Tuesday of Great Lent. Lent: The Other Dimension of Life

03/10/2026

Fr. Andreas Agathokleous Amid the turbulence of our life, the deafening noise surrounding us, the long and pointless conversations on the telephone or in person, the stress and uncertainty regarding the state of the world today and tomorrow, the Church offers us the period of time of Great Lent. What meaning can this period, beginning with Monday in the first week and lasting until Great Saturday, have for all of us who live the modern

Irony and Belief

08/22/2025

~By Stephen Freeman, August 24, 2018 Irony is probably too much to ask of youth. If I can remember myself in my college years, the most I could muster was sarcasm. Irony required more insight. There is a deep need for the appreciation of irony to sustain a Christian life. Our world is filled with contradiction. Hypocrisy is ever present even within our own heart. The failures of Church and those who are most closely

Providence and the Music of All Creation

07/14/2025

~Father Stephen Freeman, June 20, 2018 God’s being and actions are one. This is essentially the teaching of the Church on the topic of the Divine Energies. When I read discussions about this – it seems to get lost in the twists and turns of medieval metaphysics or passes into the territory of seeing the “Uncreated Light.” Both approaches are unhelpful for me, and both obscure something that should be far more transparent. Some of

Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit

06/08/2025

By Father Thomas Hopko In the Old Testament, Pentecost was the feast which occurred fifty days after Passover. As the Passover feast celebrated the exodus of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt, so Pentecost celebrated God’s gift of the ten commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. In the new covenant of the Messiah, the Passover event takes on its new meaning as the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection, the “exodus” of men from

The Ascension of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Fall of Constantinople, May 29, 1453

05/29/2025

Jesus did not live with his disciples after his resurrection as he had before his death. Filled with the glory of his divinity, he appeared at different times and places to his people, assuring them that it was he, truly alive in his risen and glorified body. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). It

The Friday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. What Happens When We Play (Pray)

05/16/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 13, 2014 In my previous article I compared children’s use of play to the place of ritual words and actions in the life of the Church. I absolutely did not mean to imply that one thing is like the other. I mean to say clearly that they are very much the same thing. And I say this both to change how we understand play as

The Fourth Wednesday of Pascha. The Feast of Mid-Pentecost, the Pentecostarion and Churches Named after Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia

05/14/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The fifty days following Pascha until the Feast of Pentecost are known as the period of the Pentecostarion in the Orthodox Church. At the mid-point between these great feasts of Pascha and Pentecost, on the twenty-fifth day which is always a Wedneday, is one of the most beloved feasts for the most devout Orthodox Christians known quit simply as Mid-Pentecost. Mid-Pentecost is to the Pentecostarion what the Third Sunday of

The Third Tuesday of Pascha. Prefigurations of the Resurrection in the Easter Canon

05/06/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Professor Mihaïl Tritos, School of Theology A.U.Th. No other text is able to express with such force and fullness the redemptive, existential and metaphysical dimension of the resurrection so well as the incomparable canon by Saint John the Damascan. It’s a masterpiece of Byzantine poetry and one of the most wonderful texts in the whole of world literature. Full of lyrical expressions of sublime spirituality and messages of salvation, the

Archive

The Second Tuesday of Pascha. Pascha in Orthodoxy: Why We Celebrate the Holy Season (Part I)

Palm Sunday: The Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem

The Third Tuesday of Great Lent. Lent: The Other Dimension of Life

Irony and Belief

Providence and the Music of All Creation

Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit

The Ascension of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Fall of Constantinople, May 29, 1453

The Friday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. What Happens When We Play (Pray)

The Fourth Wednesday of Pascha. The Feast of Mid-Pentecost, the Pentecostarion and Churches Named after Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia

The Third Tuesday of Pascha. Prefigurations of the Resurrection in the Easter Canon

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