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Equal of the Apostles Great Prince Vladimir, in Holy Baptism Basil, the Enlightener of the Russian Land

07/15/2020

The Holy Great Prince Vladimir, Equal of the Apostles. Few names in the annals of history can compare in significance with the name of St Vladimir, the Baptizer of Rus, who stands at the beginning of the spiritual destiny of the Russian Church and the Russian Orthodox people. Vladimir was the grandson of St Olga. Though Vladimir indulged himself in a wild, sensuous life, he was far from the libertine that they sometimes portray him

Contemplative Consciousness: Awe and Surrender

07/14/2020

To begin to see with new eyes, we must observe—and usually be humiliated by—the habitual way we encounter each and every moment. It is humiliating because we will see that we are well-practiced in just a few predictable responses. Not many of our responses are original, fresh, or naturally respectful of what is right in front of us. The most common human responses to a new moment are mistrust, cynicism, fear, defensiveness, dismissal, and judgmentalism.

Overcoming the Tyranny of History

07/13/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 10, 2015 History is tyranny. A seemingly inescapable part of human life is its history (and the baggage it brings with it). So much that shapes our identity: language, culture, economics, health, personality (and the list goes on), are largely products of history. As such, all of these things are outside of our control, not a part of our choosing. I am white, Anglo-American, lower middle class, with high blood

How are Saints considered for canonization?

07/10/2020

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification TOPIC OF THE WEEK: The Recent Canonization of Metropolitan Kallinikos of Edessa on June 23, 2020; Who was he? How are Saints considered for canonization? How blessed we are that in today’s modern world there are still holy people we can learn from, who lived saintly lives! These are the stories we should be reading about; what the Saints said and how they lived so

The Soul and the Hidden Weight of Glory

07/10/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 8, 2015 Everyone likes things for various reasons. This is perhaps my favorite piece that I’ve done this year. I’m not entirely certain why. I think that in some way it touches on the fragility of our existence and even of our belief. I hope that rereading it might be a blessing for you as well. From a Facebook conversation: Though I wish I believed otherwise, in the depths of my being,

Christ and Nothing (Part VI)

07/09/2020

By David Bentley Hart, October 2003 It is true of Aristotle too: the dialectic of act and potency that, for sublunary beings, is inseparable from decay and death, or the scale of essences by which all things—especially various classes of persons—are assigned their places in the natural and social order. Stoicism offers an obvious example: a vision of the universe as a fated, eternally repeated divine and cosmic history, a world in which finite forms

The Seen and the Unseen. Shutting Out all the Noise.

07/08/2020

By Abbot Tryphon, October 22, 2019 The limits of human reason and the knowledge of God The things that are of God are far beyond the capabilities of our finite mind to comprehend. According to Orthodox theology, the divine can only be known through the nous, that place in the heart that is our true center. It, unlike the brain, is capable of knowledge that is beyond human comprehension, coming as it does from noetic

Contemplative Consciousness: Mirroring the Divine

07/07/2020

In Christianity the inner self is simply a stepping stone to an awareness of God. Man [sic] is the image of God, and his inner self is a kind of mirror in which God not only sees Himself, but reveals Himself to the “mirror” in which He is reflected. Thus, through the dark, transparent mystery of our own inner being we can, as it were, see God “through a glass.” All this is of course pure metaphor. It is a way

A Matter of Life and Death

07/06/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 5, 2015 There are very few categories more basic than life and death. For Classical Christian thinking, they are essential. There has also been a tendency in both theology and philosophy, however, to move away from these fundamental categories and become lost in the complexities of other language. Thinking about the moral life is a prime example. A word like “sin” becomes an obscure subset of legal wrangling and tortured

INDEPENDENCE DAY: Martyrs of the Fourth of July

07/04/2020

~ Submitted by Mr. John Bonadeo, July 4, 2019 Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

Blog

Equal of the Apostles Great Prince Vladimir, in Holy Baptism Basil, the Enlightener of the Russian Land

Contemplative Consciousness: Awe and Surrender

Overcoming the Tyranny of History

How are Saints considered for canonization?

The Soul and the Hidden Weight of Glory

Christ and Nothing (Part VI)

The Seen and the Unseen. Shutting Out all the Noise.

Contemplative Consciousness: Mirroring the Divine

A Matter of Life and Death

INDEPENDENCE DAY: Martyrs of the Fourth of July

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