spirit Archives - Saint Sophia

The Second Wednesday of Great Lent: Depth Spirituality

03/12/2025

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 25, 2020 Let me begin today by reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians chapter 5, vs. 22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Let’s focus on self-control today since one of the hallmarks of what we call “possession” is the loss of it. Our Holy Fathers and Mothers were not acquainted as

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Interplay between Darkness and Light.

02/09/2025

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 5, 2022 The Odes of Solomon is a first or second century document known to the Holy Father’s and quoted by a few. Olivier Clement used it to great effect in THE ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM. Here is the quote. “Blessed are the men and women who are planted…in your garden, who grow like trees and flowers grow, who transform their darkness into light. Their roots

The Ninth Day of Christmas. Another Opportunity: A New Year’s Day Sermon by Father George Papadeas

01/02/2025

Another New Year has dawned, and it is normal that we give extra thought to the new time frame. We all make the customary New Year’s resolutions, only to have them short-lived. To this there could only be one answer, and this was spoken by the Lord: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) Our intentions may be honorable, but we so easily capitulate to the espoused routine of life, simply

The Search for the ‘Place of the Heart’ [I]: The Heart-Spirit

09/03/2024

So there has grown within the rich Christian tradition the idea of integrated knowledge, which assumes the necessity of reason, but in conjunction with the other faculties and senses, such as willpower, love, and the awareness of beauty. Integrated knowledge is knowledge in faith; it combines human nature in a personal movement of encounter and communion. By this communion the fullness of the godhead is communicated to human nature, reaching the very ground of the

Persons in Communion: The Justification of the Good

07/30/2024

….sin turns…unity into a hostile multiplicity, so that space becomes a separator, time a murderer, and language good only for expressing juxtaposition or possession. Whence the slogan of May 1968, ‘Love one another’; this is facile blasphemy, because the erotic encounter itself is given us as a symbol, a foretaste of personal communion. In the universe of sin solitary individuals devour one another. There is a besetting tendency today, when faced with a strictly spiritual

The Ascension of Jesus Christ in Glory

06/13/2024

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on June 10, 2021 Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou ‘God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.’ The Ascension is the last event in Christ’s earthly life. Of course, Pentecost is the fulfilment of God’s dispensation, which is why is called ‘the last feast’. God the Father was well pleased to see man as he had conceived him before the foundation of the world and sent the Holy Spirit

A Sense of Wonder

10/10/2023

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, May 6, 2018 at St. Mary Orthodox Church Every time I turn my attention to the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman I am astonished. There is no end to inspiration in this magnificent story. This morning I will make just a few remarks bookended by a couple of startling quotes and hope your imagination might be stirred to consider for yourself the depth of meaning

Get Your Soul Back

09/29/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 24, 2017 When was the last time you heard someone express concern for their soul? When was the last time you listened earnestly as a friend lamented a psychological or emotional struggle? The reason for the difference is simple: we have become a “soul-less” psychologized society. The classical concern for the soul has been replaced by an overwhelming interest in psychological and emotional “health.” We are becoming a “well-adjusted” society. The soul

The First Thursday of Great Lent: Depth Spirituality

03/02/2023

A Faith You Can Sink Your Teeth Into

07/29/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 25, 2016 In a now-famous experiment, volunteers were fitted with inverting lenses, such that everything they saw appeared upside-down. In a few days their brains adjusted and what they saw appeared correctly. When the lenses were removed, their naked eyes now saw things inverted, though again, after a few days their vision returned to normal. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and created in such a fashion we adapt to

Archive

The Second Wednesday of Great Lent: Depth Spirituality

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Interplay between Darkness and Light.

The Ninth Day of Christmas. Another Opportunity: A New Year’s Day Sermon by Father George Papadeas

The Search for the ‘Place of the Heart’ [I]: The Heart-Spirit

Persons in Communion: The Justification of the Good

The Ascension of Jesus Christ in Glory

A Sense of Wonder

Get Your Soul Back

The First Thursday of Great Lent: Depth Spirituality

A Faith You Can Sink Your Teeth Into

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