Pemptousia Archives - Saint Sophia

The Fifteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Physical or Spiritual Blindness?

11/29/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on January 23, 2022 Protopresbyter Nikolaos Patsalos [It is the]14th Sunday of Saint Luke [this coming Sunday] and we’ve now entered the month of Christmas. Jesus enters Jericho and comes across a suffering person whose affliction is blindness. It’s a terrible cross for him not to enjoy the first and greatest of God’s goods: perceptible light. Apart from being blind, the unfortunate man in today’s Gospel reading is also a beggar. But it was

Saint Stylianos, The Protector of Children

11/26/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 26, 2017 Archimandrite Charalambos Vassilopoulos (†) Saint Stylianos was born in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor, between 400 and 500. He was blessed even from his mother’s womb. As he grew up, by the grace of God he increasingly became a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. From childhood he displayed the rare qualities of his blessed life. When he was young and still an adolescent, although, of course, he was of the flesh, he

The Seventh Day of Christmas Advent: The Entrance into the Temple

11/21/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 21, 2021 Fr. Alexander Schmemann It seems thousands of years removed from us, but it was not so very long ago that life was marked out by religious feasts. Although everyone went to church, not everyone, of course, knew the exact contents of each celebration. For many, perhaps even the majority, the feast was above all an opportunity to get a good sleep, eat well, drink and relax. And nevertheless, I think

The First Day of Christmas Advent: The Christmas Fast

11/15/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 16, 2021 Georgios Arabatzoglou Another blessed period of fasting begins, a time of spiritual struggle and an effort to turn our mind to God, each of us with the strength and spiritual ‘nobility’ at our disposal, and, as always, in conjunction with the advice of our spiritual guide. This fast begins on 15 November and lasts until 24 December, while on 25 December, when we celebrate the Nativity of Christ, we have

The Synaxis of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel

11/08/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 8, 2021 Metropolitan Panteleimon of Antinoes The Synaxis of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel and all the Heavenly Powers The love of Almighty God is a quality which is externalized through the creation, from non-being, of both the invisible world, or that of the angels, and the creation of the material and visible universe. The culmination of the whole creative love of God was expressed with the formation of human beings and

Saints Cosmas and Damian

11/01/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 1, 2021 In times of great fear, need and uncertainty throughout history we have found ourselves going to visit our priests and doctors. It makes sense to look at the history of the church to learn about how people dealt with these issues and those who stood out as paragons of virtue. We are sharing this story of tremendous saints of our faith who met the challenges of their times with their

On Loneliness and Real Communication

10/25/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on September 18, 2021 Saint Nicholas Velimirovich Don’t be afraid to be alone. People are alone if they don’t know God, even if they have dealings with a large number of other people. Even in a densely-populated society, people like this would say- and, in fact, some actually do say- ‘I’m bored. I don’t know what to do with myself, everything’s a burden’. Those are souls empty of God, husks without a pit, ash

Apostle James, the Brother of our Lord, First Bishop of Jerusalem

10/23/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on October 23, 2017 James W. Lillie Saint James was the son of Joseph the Betrothed from his (first) marriage. He was blessed by God while he was still in his mother’s womb and was so righteous in his life that all the Jews called him the “Just”. Even from a very early age, James lived a very ascetic life. He did not partake of wine or other strong drinks. In imitation of Saint

The Conscience We’ve Forgotten

10/04/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on October 16, 2021 Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos ‘When our conscience tells us to do something and we ignore it, and when it then tells us to do something else and we don’t do it, we steadily and relentlessly stamp upon it; we bury it and it can’t shout aloud within us anymore, because of the weight that’s covering it’ (Abbas Dorotheos). Nowadays, our conscience has been banished from the stage of upbringing, education, and

The Pain that Leads to Joy

09/20/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on October 17, 2021 Fr. Andreas Agathokleous The ‘forgive me’ which comes from a heart in pain over a mistake breaks down the hard wall of remoteness, of animosity, and unites that which was divided. This is why it’s neither easy nor painless. Because the easy and painless ‘forgive me’, expressed as a formula for restoring relations on a superficial level, isn’t capable of breaking down walls. There’s ‘forgive me’ to God and to

Tags

The Fifteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Physical or Spiritual Blindness?

Saint Stylianos, The Protector of Children

The Seventh Day of Christmas Advent: The Entrance into the Temple

The First Day of Christmas Advent: The Christmas Fast

The Synaxis of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel

Saints Cosmas and Damian

On Loneliness and Real Communication

Apostle James, the Brother of our Lord, First Bishop of Jerusalem

The Conscience We’ve Forgotten

The Pain that Leads to Joy

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