sheep Archives - Saint Sophia

Meatfare Sunday: Present Sheep

02/23/2025

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, March 7, 2021 When our Lord and Savior instructs us to love everyone without preference, we must never allow anyone to convince us otherwise. In the kingdom of God there can be neither apathy nor prejudice. Quoting Pope Francis speaking in the ancient city of Ur, “the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters.” Blasphemers, it goes without saying, cannot inherit

Before the Judgment Seat of Christ

03/08/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 23, 2017 For a Christian ending to our life: painless, unashamed, and peaceful; and a good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ, let us ask of the Lord. From my childhood, I have memories of the phrase, “Great White Throne of Judgment.” It comes complete with an abundance of frightening images and threats. It is the last possible moment before all hell breaks loose and the preachers at

St. Macarius the Great: Hiding in Plain Sight

01/19/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 31, 2018 In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble. (Wisdom 3:7 RSV) The story is told of St. Macarius that he was falsely accused of fathering a child by a young woman in the village. After being beaten and humiliated by the people there, he returned to his cell and gathered all of the mats and baskets he had

Judgment with a Mixed Bag

01/14/2022

Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 7, 2016 If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn puts his finger

Figures of the Nativity—All of Creation Rejoiced

12/20/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, December 14, 2018 We began this short series on figures of the Nativity by comparing them to roles in a Christmas pageant. There are eight defined “speaking” roles in just about every Christmas pageant—Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the magi, the innkeeper, King Herod, the angels and the crowd in Bethlehem. There are some other roles in the story. I’ve watched many a Christmas pageant in my years as a priest,

The Twenty-Eighth Day of Christmas Advent. Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker of Trymithous

12/12/2018

The island of Cyprus was both the birthplace and the place where this glorious saint served the Church. Spyridon was born of simple parents, farmers, and he remained simple and humble until his death. He married in his youth and had children, but when his wife died he devoted himself completely to the service of God. Because of his exceptional piety, he was chosen as bishop of the city of Tremithus (Trymithous). Yet even as

The Twenty-Seventh Day of Christmas Advent. Emmanuel, God with Us.

12/11/2018

Christmas is about Emmanuel, God with us. The accent is on the immanence of God. We cannot understand the miracle of the immanence unless we understand the glory of the transcendence, and the other way around. “In the poorest of the poor we see Jesus in distressed disguise.” So said Mother Teresa as she and her nuns ministered to the abandoned babies and dying aged whom they gathered in from the streets of Calcutta. Disguise

The Living God. The World in its Depths

07/12/2018

The Living God “O Lord of Love,” the soul replies, “if I call you Love, if I discover in you Love without limits, I do not seek in any way to deify a ‘feeling.’ Love without limits is not a ‘feeling of love’; is it not some subjective, human sentiment. “My Love, you are by no means some metaphysical attribute or psychological experience. Nor are you some moral imperative. You are not, either, an impersonal

The Holy Glorious and All-Praised Leaders of the Apostles, Peter and Paul

06/29/2018

Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Today the Holy Church piously remembers the sufferings of the Holy Glorious and All-Praised Apostles Peter and Paul. St. Peter, the fervent follower of Jesus Christ, for the profound confession of His Divinity: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” was deemed worthy by the Savior to hear in answer, “Blessed art thou, Simon … I tell thee, that thou art Peter [Petrus], and on

The Twenty-Eighth Day of Christmas Advent. The Life of Saint Spyridon

12/12/2016

“Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth” – a teaching by Jesus Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. These divine words describe Saint Spyridon absolutely. This is evident from the fact that his life on earth was a flowering of Christianity in all its fullness and constancy expressed through his teaching, which influenced society not just in his lifetime but during the many centuries between then and now, and will certainly

Archive

Meatfare Sunday: Present Sheep

Before the Judgment Seat of Christ

St. Macarius the Great: Hiding in Plain Sight

Judgment with a Mixed Bag

Figures of the Nativity—All of Creation Rejoiced

The Twenty-Eighth Day of Christmas Advent. Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker of Trymithous

The Twenty-Seventh Day of Christmas Advent. Emmanuel, God with Us.

The Living God. The World in its Depths

The Holy Glorious and All-Praised Leaders of the Apostles, Peter and Paul

The Twenty-Eighth Day of Christmas Advent. The Life of Saint Spyridon

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