prodigal son Archives - Saint Sophia

Sunday of the Prodigal Son. So It Shall Be With Us

02/08/2026

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 20, 2022 The question behind much of the great Karl Rahner’s work is this: “which do we love better: the little island of our own certainty or the ocean of incomprehensible mystery?” I find in the Parable of the Prodigal Son two essential ingredients in the recipe for grace. I have mentioned them before. They are Radical Acceptance and Unconditional Positive Regard. Who in Holy Scripture

You are the Light of the World

10/08/2025

~Sermon Preached by Father Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 17, 2004 We must consider what it means to be the light of the world. The importance of this is self-evident. We are the hands of God in this world. What we do is supposed to reflect Him. We are mirrors, no, even more! We are bearers of mercy and grace. Jesus said of Himself that He is the Light of the world and He has

Repentance is like Lightning

06/12/2025

~Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis I was in the Evangelismos Hospital. I was concerned about my soul’s unreadiness. When my spiritual guide (the late Elder Epifanios Theodoropoulos) visited me, I said: ‘I’m praying that God will give me a few more years of life, so that I can repent’. He answered: ‘You don’t need years, repentance is like lightning (K. Yiannitsiotis, Κοντά στον Γέροντα Πορφύριο [Close to Elder Porfyrios]. The late author had a close relationship with Saint Porfyrios-

Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt. Finding God in the Heart of the Soul.

04/06/2025

By Father Stephen Freeman, March 12, 2020 The Prodigal Son is said to have “come to himself” when he was feeding the pigs in a foreign land. Hungry, lonely, having wasted his inheritance, it is said that he envied the pigs for their food. But, what does it mean that he “came to himself?” This is one of the primary stories of repentance in the Scriptures, as well as a primary story of forgiveness and

The Second Thursday of Great Lent. Great Lent: An Empirical Journey into the Depths of Our Being

03/13/2025

~ By Elder Patapios Kavsokalyvitis, Superintendent of the Skete of the Holy Trinity, Mount Athos By fasting, we learn to say ‘No’ to our desire for food and also learn to say ‘No’ to our often self-destructive will. We also learn to say ‘Yes’ to God, which is always redemptive. We’ve begun the Triodio, this blessed period of the liturgical year, with repentance, because we’ve felt deeply, existentially, within us the need to return from

A Single Moment

02/21/2025

By Father Stephen Freeman, May 19, 2018 Grushenka, a character in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, relates a now-famous fable about an old woman: Once upon a time there was a woman, and she was wicked as wicked could be, and she died. And not one good deed was left behind her. The devils took her and threw her into the lake of fire. And her guardian angel stood thinking: what good deed of hers can I

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son: “From a far country…”

02/16/2025

By Father Steven Kostoff “And He said, ‘There was a man who had two sons….’” This is how Christ begins what is perhaps the greatest of his parables, the one we know as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but which could easily be titled the “Parable of the Two Sons” or the “Parable of the Compassionate Father.” With this parable, which we will hear at the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, February 4, we are

Judgment and Apocalypse – The Tale of Two Parables

03/01/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 1, 2022 “He came to himself.” These words form the turning point in the story of the Prodigal Son. They are words of judgment, apocalypse, and revelation. When the younger son demanded his inheritance from his father, he was not himself. When he traveled to a far land and wasted everything in wild pleasure, he was not himself. Only when everything was lost and what was in front of him became disgusting do we

Why Does God Hide?

08/18/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 16, 2017 God hides. God makes Himself known. God hides. This pattern runs throughout the Scriptures. A holy hide-and-seek, the pattern is not accidental nor unintentional. It is rooted in the very nature of things in the Christian life. Christianity whose God is not hidden is not Christianity at all. But why is this so? In a previous article, I wrote: Our faith is about learning to live in the

The First Monday (Clean) of Great Lent

02/27/2023

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, Clean Monday, March 2, 2020 The Journey to the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 Today the Orthodox Church begins the journey of Great Lent. Today is known as Clean Monday. The reason why Lent begins on Monday is that we have a forty day fast PLUS Holy Week. In the Orthodox Church,

Archive

Sunday of the Prodigal Son. So It Shall Be With Us

You are the Light of the World

Repentance is like Lightning

Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt. Finding God in the Heart of the Soul.

The Second Thursday of Great Lent. Great Lent: An Empirical Journey into the Depths of Our Being

A Single Moment

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son: “From a far country…”

Judgment and Apocalypse – The Tale of Two Parables

Why Does God Hide?

The First Monday (Clean) of Great Lent

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