Daily Meditations

Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt. Finding God in the Heart of the Soul.

By Father Stephen Freeman, March 12, 2020 The Prodigal Son is said to have “come to himself” when he was feeding the pigs in a foreign land. Hungry, lonely, having wasted his inheritance, it is said that he envied the pigs for their food. But, what does it mean that he “came to himself?” This is one of the primary stories of repentance in the Scriptures, as well as a primary story of forgiveness and

The Fifth Friday of Great Lent. The Frightful Path of Judas

~By Father Stephen Freeman, April 7, 2023 I recall the first time the phrase, “On the night in which He was betrayed,” struck my heart. I was attending the evening service of Maundy Thursday at my Episcopal parish when I was a student in college. There was communion, followed by the “stripping of the altar” that symbolized the arrest and scourging of Christ. But the phrase, “On the night in which He was betrayed,” haunted

The Fifth Thursday of Great Lent. The Sin of Judas Was Not the Betrayal

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. Matthew 26:6-16 (Gospel of Pre-Sanctified Liturgy on Holy Wednesday Morning) “The Passion” of Christ refers to His sufferings. The first act of the Passion was the betrayal by

The Fifth Wednesday of Great Lent. The Beauty and Sanctity of All He Has Made

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 23, 2020 Forgiveness, offered, isn’t always accepted or passed on. The unforgiving servant is the New Testament version of the narcissist. Receiving extravagant mercy from his master and caring only for himself, he refuses it to his fellow servant. “Why ask forgiveness when I’ve done nothing wrong,” the narcissist asks? For such a person there are rarely second thoughts and no effective arguments. It is vain

The Fifth Tuesday of Great Lent. Lent: The Other Dimension of Life

Fr. Andreas Agathokleous Amid the turbulence of our life, the deafening noise surrounding us, the long and pointless conversations on the telephone or in person, the stress and uncertainty regarding the state of the world today and tomorrow, the Church offers us the period of time of Great Lent. What meaning can this period, beginning with Monday in the first week and lasting until Great Saturday, have for all of us who live the modern

The Fifth Monday of Great Lent. By the Rivers of Babylon: Inconsolable Home-Sickness

Mihaïl Koutsos Psalm 136. By Jeremiah to David, on captivity 1 By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 We hung our instruments on the willows, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, and our abductors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion’. 4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you,

Sunday of Saint John of the Ladder (Climacus): The Authentic Person.

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, April 14, 2024 I want to begin this morning with a story told to me by my dear spiritual son and friend, Yianno. He has been going with me to minister at the prison in Concord for years. One day he and his wife got into an argument and their youngest daughter who is 5 heard it all. After the argument ended she followed her mother into

The Fourth Friday of Great Lent. The Epistle Reading for the 4th Sunday in Lent

By Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios † In today’s Epistle, Saint Paul calls hope ‘a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul’. A ship without an anchor runs the risk of being dashed against the rocks along a coast. When people without hope are faced with the adversities of life, they’ve got nothing to lean on. What an anchor is for a ship, or air for the lungs, hope is for our spiritual existence. Hope is

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Great Lent. The New Covenant

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I shall

The Fourth Wednesday of Great Lent: Metanoia and Repentance

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 20, 2020 Knowing, as we do, that scripture for one person can be a call to an exemplary life of love, self-sacrifice, and compassion and for another an invitation to the exact opposite, it is very important not only that we read scripture, but also how we translate it. That is why I love the old adage that scripture is not in the reading, but in