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The Forty Days of Christmas: The Presentation, “Ypapanti,” of our Lord

02/02/2021

By Stephen Freeman My title is slightly misleading. There are not “forty days of Christmas” in the Orthodox Church – but there is a major feast that marks the fortieth after Christmas: the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, sometimes called the Feast of the Meeting (February 2). It occurs forty days after Christmas in accordance to the requirements of the Jewish Law. Tradition holds that Joseph and Mary brought the child to Jerusalem before

Care for the Soul

02/01/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 8, 2015 I do not understand Zombies. When I was a child, Zombie movies were virtually non-existent. The word referred to something like a Golem in Jewish thought – a creature without a soul. It is properly a frightening thing – for that which we think of as the soul, is also the seat of compassion and kindness. A creature without a soul would be driven by something other –

Three Guiding Lights of Truth Faith

01/30/2021

By Very Rev. Stephen Rogers, from The Word, January 2001 As the month of January draws to a close, the Church calls us on the 30th to celebrate the Feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom. In celebrating these three great teachers of the Church, the Church in its hymnody refers to them as “harps of the Spirit,” “rays of light,” “scented flowers of Paradise,”

When Belief Is Complicated

01/29/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 10, 2015 “It’s complicated.” This statement sums up much of the modern experience. I don’t think the world we encounter is actually complicated – but our experience is. Simplicity is the reflection of an inner world free of conflicts and undercurrents. The truth of the modern inner-world is that it is generally pulled in many directions. Modernity is a juncture in history – a place where many rivers meet to form

The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on February 2nd

01/28/2021

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on February 2nd “What does this Feast mean for us today? It is exactly forty days since Christmas, it is time for us to think about the last forty days and ask ourselves some questions…. Whatever our answers to these questions, on this, the Feast of the Meeting of Christ, one

Feast Day of Saint Ephraim the Syrian

01/28/2021

St. Ephraim was born early in the fourth century in the ancient city of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, where the Roman Empire bordered on the Persian Kingdom. At one time Mesopotamia belonged to Syria and for this reason St. Ephraim is known as “the Syrian.” He was born of Christian parents before the Edict of Milan was issued (313), establishing official toleration of religion, and, as he later wrote, his ancestors “confessed Christ before the judge;

The Non-Orthodox

01/27/2021

What about people who are not Orthodox? By Abbot Tryphon, November 11, 2019 It is always a pity when people who claim to be Orthodox make judgements against fellow Christians. In the tradition of Orthodoxy, wherever we find beauty and truth, it is of God, and it is our calling, as Orthodox Christians, to rejoice when we see others have at least some portion of the Truth. Slamming others for what they do not have,

Atheism and the Imagination

01/26/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, October 26, 2015 Einstein was famous for his “thought experiments.” He worked his way into radical new insights, not through careful research in a laboratory, but through careful work in the imagination. The same is true for almost all work in cosmology. You cannot simply observe the data generated from particle experiments and announce a conclusion. What is required is a work of imagination to describe a universe in which what

Saint Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople

01/25/2021

This great Father and Teacher of the Church was born in 329 in Arianzus, a village of the second district of Cappadocia, not far from Nazianzus. His father, who later became Bishop of Nazianzus, was named Gregory (commemorated Jan. 1), and his mother was named Nonna (Aug. 5); both are among the Saints, and so are his brother Caesarius (Mar. 9) and his sister Gorgona (Feb. 23). At first he studied in Caesarea of Palestine,

Apostle Timothy of the Seventy

01/22/2021

The Holy Apostle Timothy was from the Lycaonian city of Lystra in Asia Minor. Saint Timothy was converted to Christ in the year 52 by the holy Apostle Paul (June 29). When the Apostles Paul and Barnabas first visited the cities of Lycaonia, Saint Paul healed one crippled from birth. Many of the inhabitants of Lystra then believed in Christ, and among them was the future Saint Timothy, his mother Eunice and grandmother Loida (Lois)

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The Forty Days of Christmas: The Presentation, “Ypapanti,” of our Lord

Care for the Soul

Three Guiding Lights of Truth Faith

When Belief Is Complicated

The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on February 2nd

Feast Day of Saint Ephraim the Syrian

The Non-Orthodox

Atheism and the Imagination

Saint Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople

Apostle Timothy of the Seventy

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