Theosis Archives - Page 2 of 7

The Sixth Friday of Great Lent: Hopko on the Cross of Christ

04/26/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 30, 2019 An excerpt from a commencement address at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 2007, given by Fr. Thomas Hopko. It is deeply worthy of conversation. I first posted this back in June, 2007, when it was “new.” That which is true is always new and timeless. …I can tell you that being loved by God, and loving Him in return, is the greatest joy given to creatures, and that without

St. Athanasius the Great

01/18/2024

By Fr. Matthew Swehla, June 10, 2018 Αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐνηνθρώπισεν, ἵνα ἡμεῖς θεοποιηθῶμεν He became man, that we might be made god. This is perhaps the most quoted sentence from any of the Church Fathers. It was written by St. Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria, in the Fourth Century, in his theological treatise, On the Incarnation. This month we commemorate St. Athanasius, along with his successor, St. Cyril of Alexandria, on January 18. St. Athanasius was

Be True to Yourself

10/13/2023

By Stephen Freeman, October 11, 2017 I recall the excitement that I felt every year as a child and as a teenager as the signs of summer’s end came. Looming ahead was the beginning of a new school year. It never felt like a return to what I had known the year before, but as an opportunity for something new. In my teen years, the secret something new that felt exciting was a “new” me.

Old Friends

08/28/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 19, 2017 A young man imagines that the mistakes he is making are, with more effort, things that he will correct. An older man knows better. It can be a source of humility, or a source of painful regret. Humility is to be preferred. I wonder if this by itself is the reason why the spiritual life is not populated with wise young people. If you are young and holy,

The Transfiguration of All Things

08/06/2023

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on the Feast of the Transfiguration, Sunday, August 6, 2017 It is very important that we wrap our minds around the two truths when we are drawn to speak of the Holy Trinity. One, that the doctrine of the Trinity is the beating heart of our faith. Without it there is no Christianity. And Christianity where the Trinity is not central or has been forgotten or ignored has lost

A Transition to Life: The Dormition of the Mother of God

08/01/2023

The Erotic Language of Prayer

06/26/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 4, 2018 The very heart of true prayer is desire, love. In the language of the Fathers this desire is called eros. Modern usage has corrupted the meaning of “erotic” to only mean sexual desire – but it is a profound word, without substitute in the language of the Church. I offer a quote from Dr. Timothy Patitsas of Holy Cross in Brookline: By eros we mean the love that makes us forget

The Third Monday of Great Lent: Mystery as Reality

03/13/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 13, 2018 C.S. Lewis once discussed the question of how angels (and such things) could pass through a wall. His response was intriguing: he suggested that they could do so not because they were less substantial, but because they were more substantial. Just as a rock is more substantial than water or air, so, he posited, an angel (or such) is more substantial than our materiality. Of course, this is completely arguable and unprovable.

The First Friday of Great Lent: Getting to the Point

03/03/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 20, 2017 English is a great language, except when it isn’t. We have an incredible range of vocabulary, both as a legacy of the many languages that have invaded the homeland, as well as its incredible propensity to borrow words. The English vocabulary exceeds 200,000 words, the most of any language in the world (I am told). Thus, it is interesting when English doesn’t quite have a word for something.

The Thirty-Seventh Day of Christmas Advent: Incarnation to Parousia

12/21/2022

By Fr John Breck, December 2, 2009 Celebration of Christmas, the Nativity of our Lord, invites us to look in a fresh way at the intimate relation that exists between the Incarnation of Christ and his “Second Coming” in glory. Too often Nativity is taken as a feast in and of itself, a family festival so deformed by the season’s commercial pressures that two of its major emphases, cosmic and eschatological, become lost in a

Archive

The Sixth Friday of Great Lent: Hopko on the Cross of Christ

St. Athanasius the Great

Be True to Yourself

Old Friends

The Transfiguration of All Things

A Transition to Life: The Dormition of the Mother of God

The Erotic Language of Prayer

The Third Monday of Great Lent: Mystery as Reality

The First Friday of Great Lent: Getting to the Point

The Thirty-Seventh Day of Christmas Advent: Incarnation to Parousia

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