Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, June 12, 2016 Let me begin with a quote from Walt Whitman which could be said by every mystic in every tradition, “I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.” And this by Fr. Thomas Hopko, “You can’t know God but you have to know him to know that.” Now to the reading. John’s Gospel reflects a cosmic and mystical
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on July 25, 2021 Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis The Christian faith doesn’t doubt the existence of fear in people’s lives. It accepts it as a reality and interprets it. Fear is the product of our Fall into sin- that which opened the gates for every kind of fear to enter our life, and therefore the tragedy of our time on earth. But with Christ’s coming, we found our true path again and once more felt the
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, April 2, 2017 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. (10:32-45) James and John desired power. They wanted to sit at the right and left hands of the All-Powerful God, the Imperial Majesty on High, the Divine Potentate, the Inescapable and Invulnerable Judge. Jesus corrects them by asking a question. You may note in reading the Gospels that Jesus is much more into asking
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, October 17, 2017 There is a proverb from the Soviet period: “History is hard to predict.” The re-writing of history was a common political action – enough to provoke the proverb. Students of history are doubtless well-aware that re-writing is the constant task of the modern academic world. The account of American and World History which I learned (beginning school in the 1950’s) differs greatly from the histories my children have
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 1, 2022 “He came to himself.” These words form the turning point in the story of the Prodigal Son. They are words of judgment, apocalypse, and revelation. When the younger son demanded his inheritance from his father, he was not himself. When he traveled to a far land and wasted everything in wild pleasure, he was not himself. Only when everything was lost and what was in front of him became disgusting do we
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on December 4, 2021 George Arvanitis d) Immortality The victory over death, the sense and assurance of immortality is an experience that is common to all the saints and Elder Porphyrios himself. In the recorded interview mentioned above he also says: ‘The man who belongs to Christ should love Christ, and when he loves Christ he will be freed from the devil, from Hell and from death’. These are not the words of someone
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on December 3, 2021 George Arvanitis His most essential characteristics In our opinion, the most essential characteristics of Elder Porphyrios’s personality were as follows: first of all, the fact that his membership of the Church was of a substantial and not a nominal kind; secondly, his boundless love for Christ and through Him his fellow men, which was accompanied by a saintly humility; thirdly, his experience of mystical joy in Christ; and fourthly, his
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on December 2, 2021 George Arvanitis ‘Now you must be thinking, from what I’ve told you, that – well, I don’t know – I’m quite something. Well, I’m nothing, although I do try and am just beginning, it seems, to get a taste of the things that I talk about. I try to, I want to, and I actually do feel love for others, although I don’t want to force myself. But very often
Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 30, 2017 In a world driven by information, it is more than a little easy to mistake knowing something as important and good in and of itself. As such, the acquisition of spiritual information is something of a going industry. In a Russian novel written back in the 90’s, a woman intellectual encounters a monk who is restoring an ancient monastery in Georgia. During a conversation, she brings up a quote from St.
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 5, 2017. The Publican stands on the threshold of mystery. He has arrived at the doorway of repentance. The things that have been carefully hidden inside him have begun to break free and he goes to the Temple to express his sorrow at a life lived poorly. “At the end of our life our questions are simple,” Jack Kornfield writes, “Did I live fully? Did I
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