spiritual Archives - Saint Sophia

The Eleventh Day of Christmas: The Beginning of the Gospel

01/04/2024

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 31, 2017 The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. (1:1-8) John prophesied that something new was coming, something different, Someone greater than he. John baptized with water meant to cleanse from sin. Ablutions with water were common religious rites as a symbol of the purification, often merely ritualistic, but in the case of John, attached to repentance. Let’s talk for a moment

Evangelist Luke, “the Beloved Physician”

10/18/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on October 18, 2021 Archbishop Lazar Puhalo It has become a commonplace of for critics to suggest doubts about the authorship of Luke’s Gospel and the Book of Acts. Such doubts are, however, clearly unfounded. The evidence is conclusive that both treatises were written by a physician, and Luke was “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14) who wrote them. Both books demonstrate a knowledge of medicine and in both there are clear signs of medical

Curiosity and Confusion

09/06/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 5, 2021 Fr. Andreas Agathokleous It’s not unknown for young people not to have anything to do with Church activities (services, fasts and sacraments), yet they continue to be curious, to wonder, to enjoy talking about God and what emanates from him as a way of life. Anyone would think that these people were unversed in the spiritual life, without experience of the grace of the Holy Spirit and that they were

A Priest’s Thoughts on Depression, Anxiety, the Soul, Your Body and Your Brain

07/31/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 26, 2017 I was 19 years old the first time I had a panic attack. I was trying to go to sleep in my dorm room, when suddenly my heart began racing, my mind speeding forward, with what seemed like crazy, desperate thoughts. That was in the early 70’s and the phrase “panic attack” had not been invented. What I did not know was that this was the beginning of

The Fifth Wednesday of Great Lent: Beware of Habit

03/29/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on January 28, 2022 By Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis ‘Do not become accustomed to being defeated in the spiritual war, because habit becomes second nature’ (Saint Efraim the Syrian). The great Saint Efraim the Syrian makes a profound psychological and also spiritual observation, the truth of which we can all confirm from our daily experience. Who doubts the power of habit? If we do something once and then repeat it, it becomes difficult

Beware of Habit

02/15/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on January 28, 2022 Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis ‘Do not become accustomed to being defeated in the spiritual war, because habit becomes second nature’ (Saint Efraim the Syrian). The great Saint Efraim the Syrian makes a profound psychological and also spiritual observation, the truth of which we can all confirm from our daily experience. Who doubts the power of habit? If we do something once and then repeat it, it becomes difficult to stop. So

To Sing Like a River

10/21/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, October 19, 2016 We stood looking out at a river rushing past the rocks – a brisk morning in the North Carolina mountains, a rare setting for the Divine Liturgy. The tradition of the Church generally holds that services such as the Divine Liturgy are to be held indoors, in the Church. There are exceptions. In monasteries across the world, it is not unusual for a major feast to be held

The Struggle for Holiness

08/23/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, May 15, 2017 Fr. Tryphon, Abbot of All-Merciful Savior Monastery We are powerless to change those bad habits that dominate our lives without help from God. However, we may attempt to change behavior, we cannot do battle with the passions unless we surrender ourselves in humility to God, for such change can only come about by God’s grace. Struggle as we may, our flesh will resist until that moment we seek

Unknowing: Listening and Learning

07/06/2021

Human history is in a time of great flux, of great cultural and spiritual change. The psyche doesn’t know what to do with so much information. I am told that if you take all of the information that human beings had up until 1900 and call that one unit, that unit now doubles every ten years. No wonder there’s so much anxiety, confusion, and mistaking fact for fiction and fiction for fact! In light of

Are We a Bee or a Fly? Joyful Living.

06/22/2021

Are we a Bee or a Fly? We must look only for the good in others By Abbot Tryphon, November 27, 2019 Saint Paisios of the Holy Mountain said there are two types of people. “There are the bees and there are the flies. The bees are attracted to flowers and sweet smells, whereas the flies are only attracted to dirt and stench. Ask a bee where there is stench, and he will say, what

Archive

The Eleventh Day of Christmas: The Beginning of the Gospel

Evangelist Luke, “the Beloved Physician”

Curiosity and Confusion

A Priest’s Thoughts on Depression, Anxiety, the Soul, Your Body and Your Brain

The Fifth Wednesday of Great Lent: Beware of Habit

Beware of Habit

To Sing Like a River

The Struggle for Holiness

Unknowing: Listening and Learning

Are We a Bee or a Fly? Joyful Living.

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