priests Archives - Saint Sophia

The Walls of Paradise – and the Fire of God

01/26/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 14, 2020 I love walls. Perhaps the most charming aspect of medieval cities are their use of walls. Some surrounded the city and served as protection. Others surrounded smaller areas and prevented easy access and egress (perhaps understandable in a world with lots of animals present). There were other walls that signaled “higher” boundaries. In a medieval world, the “order” of things was thought important: kings and commoners, high-born and

A New Framework

06/20/2023

Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, January 17, 2021 Every person, every organization, every religion, every community, every parish has a framing story. That story is the glue that holds the group together, and gives it meaning and purpose. The Gospel gives us an example of that on a small scale. The 10 Lepers formed a cohesive group bound by their disease and the social stigma that came with it. The framing story,

The Church is Our Nation

10/05/2021

The Church’s purpose is to unite all men as one nation in Christ By Abbot Tryphon, January 16, 2020 When the Bolsheviks defeated Imperial Russia, the former government’s close ties with the Church led to the wholesale murder of countless bishops, priests, monastics, and faithful, all seen as an inseparable part of the government. The institution of the Church was seen as so closely tied to the former government, the new government sought to completely

Elevation of the Cross

09/14/2020

The Elevation of the Cross, celebrated on the fourteenth of September, commemorates the finding of Christ’s Cross by Saint Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century; and, after it was taken by the Persians, of its recovery by the Emperor Heraclius in the seventh century at which time it was “elevated” in the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. From this latter event the “universal elevation” of the Cross was celebrated

Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Pascha. One of Christ’s Greatest Gifts to Us One of the Greatest Gifts You Can Give Yourself

04/25/2017

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ”Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. John 20:22-23 (From the Gospel Reading at the Divine Liturgy on Thomas Sunday) Christ is Risen! In yesterday’s reflection, we examined the sacrament of ordination, which has its genesis in John 20:22. In the very next verse,

Holy Monday. Stop Living an Old Testament Christianity

04/10/2017

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Matthew 23:23 (From the Gospel of the Bridegroom Service on Holy Monday Evening) One day, when my son was about seven years old, we were driving somewhere and from the backseat, my son asked me, “Daddy, if

A Layman in the Desert (Preface, Part IV)

01/09/2017

There is a second key mistake that we often make in our assumptions about the essential nature of life in the world, which mistake makes monastic literature difficult to approach. We often conceive of worldly life as merely a kind of default existence that anyone who is not specially called to monasticism or ordination simply ends up leading. We assume that it is only the monk, nun or priest who has a special call, while

A Layman in the Desert (Preface, Part II)

11/04/2016

It often seems that we Orthodox only end up spinning our wheels when we try to answer questions… with reference to monastic literature. While we probably have a clear sense that there is something to be learned about such topics there, we do not always have a good picture of how to really find this value while also respecting the basic integrity and purpose of these texts. One of the key sources of this problem

On the Temptations of Bureaucracy and the Power of Love

08/07/2014

By Father Lawrence Farley In the wee hours of the morning on April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler dictated his final Private Testament. There was some urgency about this, for he was planning immediately afterward to marry Eva Braun and then, shortly after that, to avoid the earthly consequences of his past actions by putting a bullet through his head. Most of his final message was simply a rehash of the same old delusional stuff he

Archive

The Walls of Paradise – and the Fire of God

A New Framework

The Church is Our Nation

Elevation of the Cross

Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Pascha. One of Christ’s Greatest Gifts to Us One of the Greatest Gifts You Can Give Yourself

Holy Monday. Stop Living an Old Testament Christianity

A Layman in the Desert (Preface, Part IV)

A Layman in the Desert (Preface, Part II)

On the Temptations of Bureaucracy and the Power of Love

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