Saint Sophia Blog (All Categories) - Page 139 of 353

Prayer of the Heart in an Age of Technology and Distraction, Part 15

02/05/2020

By Fr. Maximos (Constas) The Church knows of no better way to abide in Jesus than to invoke His name constantly, and thereby also invoke and be in His presence. What better way to abide in Christ and become a tabernacle for the Divine Name, to have Him abiding in you and you abiding in Him? Is the point to accumulate wisdom, data about theology and Church history, or is the point to become transparent to Wisdom? I

Being, Keeping, Clinging, Focusing

02/04/2020

Being Joyful Witnesses To speak about Jesus and his divine work of salvation shouldn’t be a burden or a heavy obligation. When we go to people feeling that unless they accept our way of knowing Jesus, they are lost and we are failures, it is hardly possible to be true witnesses. It is a great joy when people recognize through our witness that Jesus is the divine redeemer who opened for them the way to

Hope in the Darkness: Entering the Dark Wood

02/03/2020

The mystics of all the great religions, along with classic literature like Homer’s Odyssey, intuited that life was a journey involving completion of a first half and transition to a second half, sometimes called “a further journey.” Yet most of us were given the impression that life was a matter of learning and obeying the rules; and those who obeyed them won. Many of our pastoral problems and the foundational alienation from religion in Europe and

Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple

02/02/2020

[Tomorrow] the Church commemorates an important event in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 2:22-40). Forty days after His birth the God-Infant was taken to the Jerusalem Temple, the center of the nation’s religious life. According to the Law of Moses (Lev. 12:2-8), a woman who gave birth to a male child was forbidden to enter the Temple of God for forty days. At the end of this time the mother came

The Right Choice

01/31/2020

Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 23, 2015 “If you come to a fork in the road – take it.” – Yogi Berra Nothing is more common in our day than making choices. Our culture celebrates the freedom we have in our choices and points to this as a hallmark of its greatness. Contemporary Christianity echoes the same theme and urges us to “choose Jesus.” But strangely, choice is not a fundamental part of Christian virtue –

History of the Feast of the Three Hierarchs

01/30/2020

During the reign of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus (1081-1118), a controversy arose in Constantinople among men learned in the Faith and zealous for virtue about the three holy Hierarchs and Fathers of the Church, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. Some argued for Saint Basil [known as Basilians] above the other two because he was able, as none other, to explain the mysteries of the Faith, and rose to angelic rank by

The Domestic Church

01/29/2020

Prior to electricity and central heating, most families gathered in parlors, spending evenings with reading, sewing, and family conversations. The notion that everyone would retreat to bedrooms, kitchens, or dens, separating themselves from other family members, was unthinkable. The communal nature of the family was natural. I can remember, as a child (this really dates me), sitting together with my brother and my parents, listening to radio dramas. Before the coming of television, families would

Prayer of the Heart in an Age of Technology and Distraction, Part 14

01/28/2020

By Fr. Maximos (Constas) As we begin to enter into the practice of the Jesus Prayer to engage the presence of the Spirit within ourselves we began to encounter both passing and deeper, recurring thoughts that work to distract us from calling upon the name of the Lord. What is the origin of these thoughts, and what do they show us about ourselves and how we interact with the world? How does the Church teach

Things You Can’t Invent

01/27/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 19, 2015 Most of the things in our lives are not of our own making – they were given to us. Our language, our culture, the whole of our biology and the very gift of life itself is something that has been “handed down” to us. In that sense, we are all creatures of “tradition” (traditio=“to hand down”). Of course, these things that are not of our own making and

The Secular Challenge

01/24/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 12, 2015 Fr. Alexander Schmemann held that secularism was the single greatest challenge of the modern era. I took up this understanding and made it the heart of my book, Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe. It is at the heart of every serious challenge the Church faces in our time. The news is not so good. A recent article by Damian Thompson in the British publication, The Spectator, estimates that at the

Blog

Prayer of the Heart in an Age of Technology and Distraction, Part 15

Being, Keeping, Clinging, Focusing

Hope in the Darkness: Entering the Dark Wood

Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple

The Right Choice

History of the Feast of the Three Hierarchs

The Domestic Church

Prayer of the Heart in an Age of Technology and Distraction, Part 14

Things You Can’t Invent

The Secular Challenge

Categories

Archives

View Our Live Stream Services

Keep In Touch

Stewardship Application

Daily Meditations

Worship Schedule

Light a Virtual Candle

Text-to-Give in 2 easy steps!

1) Text 202-899-7801 to include your donation amount

2) Follow the link to complete the one-time registration