St. Paul Archives - Page 21 of 33

The Sixth Monday of Great Lent: The Mystery of Holy Week and Pascha

04/19/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 2, 2018 This [coming] weekend, Orthodox Churches [begin] the observation of Holy Week. The services are long and plentiful. In my parish, from Lazarus Saturday to Pascha, there will be somewhere on the order of 40 hours of services. It is a large parish effort. Most of the services have the participation of the full choir. Last night, I had the anxious face of a young server in the altar

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: As Lent Moves On – The Greatest Fast Awaits

04/05/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 9, 2019 As Great Lent has passed its mid-point, attention begins to move towards Holy Week itself and its very intense focus. It has been an unusual time for me, having traveled on two successive weekends to lead retreats. Travel is always disruptive, and absence from your own community creates a break in the normal continuity of the Fast. I have great sympathies for those whose jobs involve frequent travel.

The Third Friday of Great Lent: Before Thy Cross

04/02/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 26, 2011 Sunday, the third in Lent, is set aside to honor the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross. I offer these thoughts: In a short work, The Beginning of the Day, (I believe it was a special printing and is not generally available), Met. Kallistos Ware notes this about the Cross and its connection with the whole of creation: …[The] created order in its entirety participated in the Savior’s Passion: the earth shook,

The Third Wednesday of Great Lent. The Spiritual Fruits of Lent.

03/31/2021

+ DEMETRIOS Archbishop of America This month…we entered the sacred period of Holy and Great Lent, a season of the Church that accords us with splendid opportunities to prepare ourselves for the glorious feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate this year in April. Our journey throughout these next few weeks is, thus, of extraordinary significance for our spiritual lives. During this time, our occasions for prayer and worship are greatly increased,

Bob, His Doctor, and Your Moral Life

02/15/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 15, 2015 Bob woke up one morning and felt terrible. He had no energy and his head hurt. After a while, he decided to go to see his doctor. When he got there the doctor had a number of questions for him: “Are you eating good meals? A balanced diet?” Bob replied, “Yes.” “Are you getting enough exercise?” the doctor continued. “Yes,” Bob said. “Do you smoke?” “No.” “Then, I

Struggling with Prayer. Standing in Worship.

01/14/2021

Struggling with Prayer: When prayer becomes a struggle By Abbot Tryphon, November 10, 2019 When we find ourselves struggling with prayer, and feel that it has become dry and lifeless, we are sometimes tempted to stop praying. When our prayer has become a struggle, it is good to remember that God knows our needs, and even knows what we want to say when we don’t seem to know. This is the time we need to

Thoughts on Asceticism, the Difficulty of Love and Burdens

01/13/2021

Thoughts on Ascetism and the Difficulty of Love Compiled by Michael Haldas, July 1, 2016 “St. Paul notes that “faith works through love” (Gal. 5:6). This describes the very heart of the ascetic life. Only love extends itself in the self-emptying struggle against the passions without becoming lost in the solipsism of asceticism for its own sake. It is love that endures the contradictions of reality without turning away or reducing them. And it is

The Twenty-Seventh Day of Christmas Advent. The Morality of Christmas.

12/11/2020

By Father Stephen Freeman Morality is tricky business in what is an extremely moral society. I pray my readers to be patient with me as I explain what I think is the problem. First, I will note that morality is all that is left when the most fundamental grounds of a culture have been destroyed. We indeed live in just such a time, hence the rise of a vehemence in the moral life. Second, I will suggest

A Dog’s Best Friend

10/30/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, September 23, 2015 I would like to suggest that dogs are perhaps the greatest things humans have ever accomplished. If my understanding is correct, dogs are essentially gray wolves, or directly descended from a wolf species, beginning somewhere between 60,000 to 100,000 years ago. At some point they were domesticated by us and used as aids to hunting. It has even been suggested that the domestication of dogs gave us an edge

Elder Porphyrios: On the Means of Preserving Inner Peace

10/13/2020

To preserve inner peace: First of all, keep your outer senses in order and flee all licentiousness in your external conduct, – namely, neither look, speak, gesticulate, walk nor do anything else with agitation, but always quietly and decorously. Accustomed to behave with decorous quietness in your external movements and actions, you will easily and without labour acquire peace within yourself, in the heart; for, according to the testimony of the fathers, the inner man

Archive

The Sixth Monday of Great Lent: The Mystery of Holy Week and Pascha

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: As Lent Moves On – The Greatest Fast Awaits

The Third Friday of Great Lent: Before Thy Cross

The Third Wednesday of Great Lent. The Spiritual Fruits of Lent.

Bob, His Doctor, and Your Moral Life

Struggling with Prayer. Standing in Worship.

Thoughts on Asceticism, the Difficulty of Love and Burdens

The Twenty-Seventh Day of Christmas Advent. The Morality of Christmas.

A Dog’s Best Friend

Elder Porphyrios: On the Means of Preserving Inner Peace

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