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Daily Meditations

The Fourth Thursday of Pascha: Life Uncircumscribed

05/15/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, May 30, 2021. Three Post-Resurrection Gospel readings feature water. Last week it was the story of the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda. This week it is the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well and next week Jesus heals the Blind Man with mud made from his own spittle. Water is a symbol for new life, for cleansing and rebirth. It is from

The Fourth Wednesday of Pascha. The Feast of Mid-Pentecost, the Pentecostarion and Churches Named after Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia

05/14/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The fifty days following Pascha until the Feast of Pentecost are known as the period of the Pentecostarion in the Orthodox Church. At the mid-point between these great feasts of Pascha and Pentecost, on the twenty-fifth day which is always a Wedneday, is one of the most beloved feasts for the most devout Orthodox Christians known quit simply as Mid-Pentecost. Mid-Pentecost is to the Pentecostarion what the Third Sunday of

The Fourth Tuesday of Pascha. Power to Do What?

05/13/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, April 26, 2020 …. Christ enters the Upper Room even though the doors were shut. He does not break down the door or the walls. He goes in as if there weren’t any. To God, of course, there aren’t. Our problem is that we don’t see as God sees. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. While

Monday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. God Likes to Play

05/12/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 12, 2014 There are things that children understand instinctively. And the things that children know and understand are worth consideration. They have much to teach us. Among the most natural things children do is play. Depending on how you define play, it is among the first activities in which we engage. It comes to dominate the lives of children and is the hallmark of their existence. Play

Sunday of the Paralytic

05/11/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Excerpt from a Homily by Saint John Chrysostom If someone’s really knowledgeable about gold mines, they wouldn’t be able to bear not examining the smallest vein for the wealth it contained. So, in the Scriptures, it’s impossible without loss to pass over the merest jot. We must investigate everything since everything’s uttered by the Holy Spirit, and there’s nothing written in them to distract us. Consider, for instance, what the

The Third Friday of Pascha. A Pascha of Beauty – In a Soviet Prison – 1928

05/09/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 8, 2018  Serge Schmemann, son of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in his wonderful little book, Echoes of a Native Land, records a letter written from one of his family members of an earlier generation, who spent several years in the prisons of the Soviets and died there. The letter, written on the night of Pascha in 1928 is to a family member, “Uncle Grishanchik” (This was Grigory

The Third Thursday of Pascha. St. Melito and Pascha – Hell Is Not the Last Word

05/08/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~By Stephen Freeman, April 29, 2025 Among the most powerful meditations on Pascha are the writings of Melito of Sardis (ca. 190 AD). His homily, On Pascha, is both a work of genius as poetry and a powerful work of theology. Its subject is the Lord’s Pascha – particularly as an interpretation of the Old Testament. It is a common example of early Church thought on Scripture and the Lord’s Pascha. I

The Third Wednesday of Pascha. Indifference

05/07/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, May 16, 2021 Today we revisit the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of our Lord. Many of the familiar characters reappear. Pilate, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene, the mother of Joses, Mary the mother of James and Salome. Except for Pilate of course, the faithful and courageous followers of Jesus. Courage does not mean the absence of fear. Fear is very often the

The Third Tuesday of Pascha. Prefigurations of the Resurrection in the Easter Canon

05/06/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Professor Mihaïl Tritos, School of Theology A.U.Th. No other text is able to express with such force and fullness the redemptive, existential and metaphysical dimension of the resurrection so well as the incomparable canon by Saint John the Damascan. It’s a masterpiece of Byzantine poetry and one of the most wonderful texts in the whole of world literature. Full of lyrical expressions of sublime spirituality and messages of salvation, the

Third Monday of Pascha. The Feast Day of St. Irene the Great Martyr of Thessalonica

05/05/2025

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Feast Day of St. Irene the Great Martyr of Thessalonica The holy Great Martyr Irene was born in the city of Magedon in Persia during the fourth century. She was the daughter of the pagan king Licinius, and her parents named her Penelope. Penelope was very beautiful, and her father kept her isolated in a high tower from the time she was six so that she would not be

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