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Our Holy Father St. Maximos the Confessor

A mighty spiritual giant who was broken by nothing and no one, and whose image does not fade with time, Venerable Maximos the Confessor is a faithful indicator, even till now, of how one may follow after Christ by that path by which he himself so faithfully followed the Lord. St. Maximos the Confessor was born in 580, a citizen of Constantinople and a nobleman. He became a high-ranking courtier at the court of the Byzantine Emperor

Full of Grace and Truth: Saint Euthymios the Great

Saint Euthymios the Great came from the city of Melitene in Armenia, near the River Euphrates. His parents, Paul and Dionysia, were pious Christians of noble birth. After many years of marriage they remained childless, and in their sorrow they entreated God to give them offspring. Finally, they had a vision and heard a voice saying, “Be of good cheer! God will grant you a son, who will bring joy to the churches.” The child

Macarius the Great of Egypt

Saint Macarius the Great was from the Thebaid of Egypt, a disciple, as some say, of Saint Anthony the Great. He was born about 331 and struggled in asceticism in the desert at Scete. Although young, he was called “the child elder” because of his great wisdom and austere manner of life. He was ordained presbyter and reposed in 391, at the age of sixty. There are fifty homilies ascribed to him. It is said

Saint Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria

Saint Athanasius the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria, was a great Father of the Church and a pillar of Orthodoxy. He was born around the year 297 in the city of Alexandria into a family of pious Christians. He received a fine secular education, but he acquired more knowledge by diligent study of the Holy Scripture. In his childhood, the future hierarch Athanasius became known to Saint Alexander the Patriarch of Alexandria (May 29). A group

A Faerie Apocalypse

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 1, 2015  Somewhere in the late 60’s (my teen years), I found myself home recuperating from an appendectomy. In those days they actually recommended a period of convalescence before returning to normal activities (today’s medical advice, written in insurance offices, deems recuperation to be a needless bit of a money-drain). But I suddenly had extra time on my hands with little to do. I searched the bookshelves for something unread,

Spiritual Despondency

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – Spiritual Despondency “In the Church Fathers, we have repeated warnings about despondency. We have to be careful because many people have a modern interpretation of what despondency means. So often we hear people talk about despondency as if it is the same thing as depression, the psychological condition of being down, low, lacking in joy, and seeing everything as dark; this is

Spiritual Resources for the Twelve Days of Christmas and the New Calendar Year

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification TOPIC OF THE WEEK – Spiritual Resources for the Twelve Days of Christmas and the New Calendar Year Christ is born! Glorify Him! Wishing you God’s abundant blessings for the new year. Adult/Family: Read the article A Time of Beginnings: 3 Resolutions for the New Year “…If we do not begin now to nurture our souls with God’s grace, when will we? If we do not resolve

Struggling with Prayer. Standing in Worship.

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

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

Suffering: Freedom from Fear

Man suffers most through his fears of suffering. —Etty Hillesum [1] I would like to reflect on the role of Jesus as the one whose very presence is incarnational testimony of how to approach our life and the ways we suffer. In the Christian tradition, the cross is right at the center of this great mystery. Jesus is the archetypal master teacher, who reveals his teaching through the very concreteness of his life. What is