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The Twenty-Second Day of Christmas Advent: Saint Nicholas, the Saint of the Seas

12/06/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on December 6, 2021 Alexandros Christodoulou Saint Nicholas was born at the south-east corner of Asia Minor, in the town of Patara, in the 3rd century (at the time of the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian) of devout and rich parents, who had been childless for many years. From an early age it appears that God had destined him for a life of sanctity and of dedication to Himself. The fact he became a

The Twenty-First Day of Christmas Advent: Our Holy Father Savvas the Sanctified

12/05/2023

Our Holy Father Sabbas the Sanctified (pronounced “Sava”) was born in 439 A.D. of pious and wealthy parents, John and Sofia, in the village Moutalaske of Cappadocia. His father was an officer, was forced to leave for Alexandria with his wife Sofia and thus entrusted the upbringing of the five-year-old Sabbas to Ermias, his brother-in-law, on his wife’s side. A few years later, Sabbas, who was dissatisfied by his aunt’s behavior and the subsequent dispute

The Twentieth Day of Christmas Advent: Barbara the Great Martyr and John the Righteous of Damascus

12/04/2023

Reading Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of Maximian. She was the daughter of a certain idolater named Dioscorus. When Barbara came of age, she was enlightened in her pure heart and secretly believed in the Holy Trinity. About this time Dioscorus began building a bath-house; before it was finished he was required to go away to attend to certain matters, and in his absence Barbara directed the workmen

The Seventeenth Day of Christmas Advent: You Are Not Alone – And Neither Is God

12/01/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 16, 2021 I consider it both a strange mystery and a settled matter of the faith that God prefers not to do things alone. Repeatedly, He acts in a manner that involves the actions of others when it would seem, He could have acted alone. Why would God reveal His Word to the world through the agency of men? Why would He bother to use writing? Why not simply communicate

The Apostle Andrew: The First-Called of the Twelve

11/30/2023

At the very beginning of His ministry, Christ passed by two brother-fishermen casting their nets into the Sea of Galilee. He spoke very simple words to them: Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). They did just this, straightaway casting aside their entire former lives. These were Simon-Peter and Andrew. Why, then, has the Apostle Andrew – whose memory we celebrate today – received the title of the “first-called”? The brothers came

The Fifteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Physical or Spiritual Blindness?

11/29/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on January 23, 2022 Protopresbyter Nikolaos Patsalos [It is the]14th Sunday of Saint Luke [this coming Sunday] and we’ve now entered the month of Christmas. Jesus enters Jericho and comes across a suffering person whose affliction is blindness. It’s a terrible cross for him not to enjoy the first and greatest of God’s goods: perceptible light. Apart from being blind, the unfortunate man in today’s Gospel reading is also a beggar. But it was

The Fourteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Embracing Indestructible Joy

11/28/2023

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 13, 2020 The Parable of the Great Banquet is a call to joy. We are all invited to it. In fact, the Banquet can be seen as a metaphor for the Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving. Of course, not everyone comes when invited. Still God invites. He calls even those he knows will reject him. The verse “many are called but few are chosen” can be confusing.

The Thirteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Thanksgiving Communion

11/27/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 29, 2020 Whom should I thank? The question is normally a matter of polite acknowledgement. A gift was given and received. Who gave it? Whom should I thank? It is inherently the nature of giving thanks that thanks must be given to someone. I cannot give thanks to nothing or no one. As such, the giving of thanks is an act of communion on one level or another. Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in

Saint Stylianos, The Protector of Children

11/26/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 26, 2017 Archimandrite Charalambos Vassilopoulos (†) Saint Stylianos was born in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor, between 400 and 500. He was blessed even from his mother’s womb. As he grew up, by the grace of God he increasingly became a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. From childhood he displayed the rare qualities of his blessed life. When he was young and still an adolescent, although, of course, he was of the flesh, he

The Eleventh Day of Christmas Advent: St. Katherine of Alexandria, Virgin & Martyr

11/25/2023

NOVEMBER 25, 2021 It could have been a Washington story: she was young and beautiful, from a wealthy and influential family. She had received the best education that money could buy and her suitors were the most eligible bachelors from other leading families. She lived in tense times when it was important to be on the right side of the issues; it could be dangerous to challenge the authorities. But the story of St. Katherine

Blog

The Twenty-Second Day of Christmas Advent: Saint Nicholas, the Saint of the Seas

The Twenty-First Day of Christmas Advent: Our Holy Father Savvas the Sanctified

The Twentieth Day of Christmas Advent: Barbara the Great Martyr and John the Righteous of Damascus

The Seventeenth Day of Christmas Advent: You Are Not Alone – And Neither Is God

The Apostle Andrew: The First-Called of the Twelve

The Fifteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Physical or Spiritual Blindness?

The Fourteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Embracing Indestructible Joy

The Thirteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Thanksgiving Communion

Saint Stylianos, The Protector of Children

The Eleventh Day of Christmas Advent: St. Katherine of Alexandria, Virgin & Martyr

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