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Our Means of Salvation

Metropolitan Ieronymos of Larisa and Tyrnavos As we prepare to celebrate the great feast of the Universal Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, which, according to the liturgical tradition of the Church is comparable to Holy and Great Friday- hence its status as a strict fast- the Gospel reading of the day reminds us of another strange elevation which happened centuries before, in the wilderness, during the exodus of the Israelite people from their

Eudoxia Redux

~Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 14, 2021 I think we Orthodox priests are far too reticent to speak about contemporary issues in our sermons. Perhaps it is because, for the most part, we don’t like to dally with politics. Some, of course, do with great gusto. But in this time when everything is politicized, it is hard to find a way to speak that doesn’t sound partisan. Still, the Gospel must

The Kingdom of God – One-Storey in Time

~By Father Stephen Freeman, May 13, 2022 Among the stranger phrases found in St. John Chrysostom’s Liturgy is this: It was You Who brought us from non-existence into being, and when we had fallen away [past tense], You raised us up again [past tense], and did not cease to do all things until You had brought us up to heaven [past tense], and had endowed us [past tense] with Your kingdom which is to come

Pentecost and the Liturgy of Hades: Soul Saturdays

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 21, 2021  Pascha (Easter) comes with a great note of joy in the Christian world. Christ is risen from the dead and our hearts rejoice. That joy begins to wane as the days pass. Our lives settle back down to the mundane tasks at hand. After 40 days, the Church marks the Feast of the Ascension, often attended by only a handful of the faithful (Rome has more-or-less moved the

The Fifth Monday of Pascha. The Paschal Gift

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 18, 2017  It is impossible to describe the joy of Pascha, particularly as I experience it as a priest. This year, I was deeply aware that I stand in a place that was both created for me, and for which I am unworthy. The joy of such a combination is the realization of the Gift. When you are trying to find a gift for someone,

The Nineteenth Day of Christmas Advent: The Star of Bethlehem

Balaam laid before us precisely the meaning of the words he spoke in prophecy, when he said that a star would dawn, a star that quenches all prophecies and auguries; a star which resolves the parables of the wise, and their sayings and their riddles, a star far more brilliant than the star which, has appeared, for He is the Maker of all the stars, of whom it was written of old: “From Jacob there

The Sixth Day of Christmas Advent. Ho, Ho, Holiness in the Simplicity and Purity of God (Part II)

By Fr. Stelyios Muksuris Every year it seems the feast of our Lord’s Nativity in the flesh becomes more and more secularized. Atheists would advocate a humanistic approach to the festival of lights, seeking to “demythologize” the festival by stripping it of its Christocentric character. Christmas, they would claim, is about the magnanimity of the human spirit to transcend the fallen world by loving others and graciously giving to them. Any notion of a miraculous

The Human Project

By Father Stephen Freeman, August 4, 2014 “Becoming human” is a baffling phrase. Surely we are simply born as human beings. Of course this is true, but the nature of the modern world allows us to configure our lives in ways that can be described as “less than human.” When we visit a zoo and see a tiger pacing in its cage, we are not seeing a “true” tiger, but a distortion of the animal. Tigers cannot

The Tenth Day of Christmas Advent: Thanksgiving as Mystical Communion

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 24, 2021  “This is good. This is bad.” In one form or another, we divide the world into light and dark. It might take the form, “I like this. I do not like that.” What we find easy are the things we see as good and the things we like. If a day is filled with such things, we are likely to be happy. If the day is marked by

Pentecost and the Liturgy of Hades

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 21, 2021  Pascha (Easter) comes with a great note of joy in the Christian world. Christ is risen from the dead and our hearts rejoice. That joy begins to wane as the days pass. Our lives settle back down to the mundane tasks at hand. After 40 days, the Church marks the Feast of the Ascension, often attended by only a handful of the faithful (Rome has more-or-less moved the