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Tuesday of First Week of Great Lent: Tackle your Fears Head-On. Reach out to the Good in the Freedom of Love.

02/20/2018

Tackle your Fears Head-On Fear is a childish feeling of the adult but empty soul. Fear is really a lack of faith that becomes obvious when we think of what unforeseen things might happen. It is lack of trust in God. The proud soul is a slave to fear precisely because it trusts in itself and so shudders at any noise or any shadow. Those who are contrite for their sins have no fear. So

A LENTEN RETREAT by Best Selling Author & Radio Host ERIC METAXAS

02/19/2018

http://www.saintsophiadc.com/metaxas/

Monday (Clean) of the First Week of Great Lent: The Attainment of Perfect Freedom. Let us Glory in Temptation.

02/19/2018

The Attainment of Perfect Freedom What are the external objects which rouse the passions in us? Chiefly the opposite sex, material possessions and fame. To avoid being overwhelmed by these passions, there are certain steps we can take. As far as the opposite sex is concerned, it is enough to gain control of our own bodies by mortification. With respect to material possessions we must make a resolution to be content with the bare necessities.

Get Real for Lent

02/16/2018

By Father Stephen Freeman According to St. Basil, God is the “only truly Existing.” Our own existence is a gift from God who is our Creator. None of us has “self-existing” life. We exist because God sustains us in existence – in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Sin is the rejection of this gift of God – a movement away from true existence. +++ Much of our attention in the modern world is

Stillness and Silence: The Practical Dimensions of Silence

02/15/2018

Abba Gregory Nazianzus, the theologian, said, “These three things God requires of all the baptized: right faith in the heart, truth on the tongue, temperance in the body.”42 The desert elders taught that there must be a direct flow from purity of heart to speech and action. When words have their origin in the silence of purity of heart they will be congruent with the monk’s behavior. The common vocation of all Christians is to

Will the Real St. Valentine Please Stand Up?

02/14/2018

By Bryce Buffenbarger Cancel your plans for February 14! As many of us prepare to celebrate Valentine’s day this coming Sunday, I thought it would be nice to explore a little bit of the day’s history. As we might expect from our experience with Christmas, the celebration of this secularized holiday bears very little resemblance to the Church’s memory of this great saint. For starters, the date is wrong! The Orthodox Church actually remembers three

The Voice of God

02/13/2018

AS WE SLOW DOWN to hear our breathing, we can become aware of an inner vastness opening up, a new dimension to our awareness. This is the beginning of an awareness of the holy presence of God. Within that space we can become alert to God guiding and strengthening us, aware of His voice. We slowly become aware of Him as our strength and our song. When I first began to give retreats in Orthodox

Trinity: God Is for Us

02/12/2018

Love is just like prayer; it is not so much an action that we do, but a dialogue that already flows through us. We don’t decide to “be loving”; rather, to love is to allow our deepest and truest nature to show itself. The “Father” doesn’t decide to love the “Son.” Fatherhood is the flow from Father to Son, one hundred percent. The Son does not choose now and then to release some love to

You’re Not Doing Better

02/09/2018

By Father Stephen Freeman “I’m doing better.” Over the years I’m sure I’ve heard this many times in confession. I’ve also heard, “I’m not doing so well.” These are timely updates, personal measures and reports on the state of spiritual lives. And they are wrong. You are not doing better. You are not doing worse. In truth, we don’t know how we’re doing. Only God knows. But we have internalized a cultural narrative and made

Society: Compassion (Part III)

02/08/2018

It is helpful to observe that repentance through compassion is perhaps nowhere more available to us than in our mediated relationships with society. Living in the world, we are surrounded constantly by stories of awful vice and sin, found in the news, on the web, told through friends and the like. Our usual instinct, which is one strongly encouraged in the secular world, is to sit in judgment of the wrongs we hear about on

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Tuesday of First Week of Great Lent: Tackle your Fears Head-On. Reach out to the Good in the Freedom of Love.

A LENTEN RETREAT by Best Selling Author & Radio Host ERIC METAXAS

Monday (Clean) of the First Week of Great Lent: The Attainment of Perfect Freedom. Let us Glory in Temptation.

Get Real for Lent

Stillness and Silence: The Practical Dimensions of Silence

Will the Real St. Valentine Please Stand Up?

The Voice of God

Trinity: God Is for Us

You’re Not Doing Better

Society: Compassion (Part III)

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