Saint Sophia Blog (All Categories) - Page 178 of 372

The Twenty-Ninth Day of Great Lent. Love, Not Atonement

04/08/2019

All the great religions of the world talk a lot about death, so there must be an essential lesson to be learned here. But throughout much of religious history our emphasis has been on killing the wrong thing and avoiding the truth: it’s you who has to die, or rather, who you think you are—your false self. It’s never someone else! Historically we moved from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice to various modes of seeming self-sacrifice, usually

The Twenty-Sixth Day of Great Lent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

04/05/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 11, 2016 The Fourth Sunday of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church, is dedicated to St. John Climacus, the author of the ancient work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. It is a classic work describing “steps” within the life of the struggling ascetic. There is an icon associated with this work, picturing monastics climbing the rungs of a ladder to heaven, battling demons who are trying to pull them off. However,

The Twenty-Fifth Day of Great Lent. “. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part III)

04/04/2019

[Fasting] should be practiced on two levels: first, as ascetical fast; and second, as total fast. The ascetical fast consists of a drastic reduction of food so that the permanent state of a certain hunger might be lived as a reminder of God and a constant effort to keep our mind on Him. Everyone who has practiced it—be it only a little—knows that this ascetical fast rather than weakening us makes us light, concentrated, sober,

The Twenty-Fourth Day of Great Lent. “. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part II)

04/03/2019

What then is fasting for us Christians? It is our entrance and participation in that experience of Christ Himself by which He liberates us from the total dependence on food, matter, and the world. By no means is our liberation a full one. Living still in the fallen world, in the world of the Old Adam, being part of it, we still depend on food. But just as our death—through which we still must pass—has

The Twenty-Third Day of Great Lent. “. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part I)

04/02/2019

In the Orthodox teaching, sin is not only the transgression of a rule leading to punishment; it is always a mutilation of life given to us by God. It is for this reason that the story of the original sin is presented to us as an act of eating. For food is means of life; it is that which keeps us alive. But here lies the whole question: what does it mean to be alive

The Twenty-Second Day of Great Lent. The Cross: Suffering Love

04/01/2019

Many people rightly question how there can be a good or just God in the presence of so much evil and suffering in the world—about which “God” appears to do nothing. Exactly how is God loving and sustaining what God created? That is our constant dilemma, and without some answer you can quite reasonably become an atheist or at least an agnostic. I believe—if I am to believe Jesus—that God is precisely suffering love. If Jesus is the living

The Nineteenth Day of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled

03/29/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2016 Recent conversations on the blog have bounced around the imagery of debt in the Scriptures. Contemporary Protestant thought often likes to express the notion of a “sin debt.” The idea runs that God’s righteousness and justice have proper demands. When we fail to keep the commandments, we create a debt for which God’s justice demands payment. Christ’s innocent self-offering on the Cross is seen as the payment for

The Eighteenth Day of Great Lent. A Lenten Meditation, by Saint Leo the Great

03/28/2019

Dear friends, at every moment the earth is full of the mercy of God, and nature itself is a lesson for all the faithful in the worship of God. The heavens, the sea and all that is in them bear witness to the goodness and omnipotence of their Creator, and the marvelous beauty of the elements as they obey him demands from the intelligent creation a fitting expression of its gratitude. But with the return

The Seventeenth Day of Great Lent. FASTING & PARTICIPATION IN LENTEN SERVICES

03/27/2019

[Not everyone] can attend the entire cycle of Lenten worship. Everyone can attend some of it. There is simply no excuse for not making Lent first of all the time for an increased attendance of and participation in the liturgy of the Church. Here again, personal conditions, individual possibilities and impossibilities can vary and result in different decisions, but there must be a decision, there must be an effort, and there must be a “follow-up.”

The Sixteenth Day of Great Lent. Synaxis in Honor of the Archangel Gabriel

03/26/2019

On the Leavetaking of the Feast of the Annunciation, the Church commemorates the Archangel Gabriel, who announced the great mystery of the Incarnation of Christ to the Virgin Mary. Mindful of the manifold appearances of the holy Archangel Gabriel and of his zealous fulfilling of God’s will and confessing his intercession for Christians before the Lord, the Orthodox Church calls upon its children to pray to the great Archangel with faith and love. The Synaxis

Daily Meditations

The Twenty-Ninth Day of Great Lent. Love, Not Atonement

The Twenty-Sixth Day of Great Lent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

The Twenty-Fifth Day of Great Lent. “. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part III)

The Twenty-Fourth Day of Great Lent. “. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part II)

The Twenty-Third Day of Great Lent. “. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part I)

The Twenty-Second Day of Great Lent. The Cross: Suffering Love

The Nineteenth Day of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled

The Eighteenth Day of Great Lent. A Lenten Meditation, by Saint Leo the Great

The Seventeenth Day of Great Lent. FASTING & PARTICIPATION IN LENTEN SERVICES

The Sixteenth Day of Great Lent. Synaxis in Honor of the Archangel Gabriel

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

Daily Meditations

Categories

Archives

Trending

View Our Live Stream Services

Keep In Touch

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

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