How can you possibly define love? Aside from love being undefinable, English-speakers face the added difficulty of having only one word for love. We often use the name of love in vain. We hear the verse “God is love” and the next minute we say how we ‘love’ our favorite breakfast foods. This naturally leads to a fair amount of confusion and prevents us from honing in on love’s true meaning. To clear this confusion, we
February 9, 2011 The Martyrdom of the Saint in Rome Saint Valentine lived in Rome in the third century and was a priest who helped the martyrs during the persecution of Emperor Claudius II the Goth. The great virtue and catechetical activities of the Saint had become known. For this he was arrested and brought before the imperial court. “Why, Valentine, do you want to be a friend of our enemies and reject our friendship?”
SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – The Triodion “…If there exists in us even a faint inclination towards things spiritual, then, however deeply we are engrossed in a distracted and busy life, we await with hope and trepidation the approach of the great days of repentance, and each time we hope to step a little higher on that mysterious ladder which lifts our hearts toward heaven.
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 25, 2016 Reading discussions about life after death, it is easy to get the impression that people actually know what they’re talking about, that perhaps they have been there, seen what goes on and therefore authoritatively opine on the nature of things. But, the truth is that we mostly don’t know. We have a few things given to us in Scripture, and even those few things are often somewhat cryptic
The holy, glorious Martyr Haralambos lived at the time of the Emperor Septimus Severus (194-211) in the city of Magnesia on the River Meander near Ephesus. He was 107 years old and had ministered as priest to the Christians of the city for many years, devotedly instructing them in the way of truth and preaching Christ to all, regardless of the threats of the pagans. When he was denounced as a dangerous mischief-maker and brought
Thoughts on Modernism By Michael Haldas, August 8, 2016 “A symbol has an ontological connection with what it symbolizes not just an arbitrary connection assigned by human culture…There is a great tendency in our modern society to reduce symbols to mere signs. This stems from a secular view of the world which views the universe not as the Spirit filled creation but as a cold, external and empty void, devoid of human meaning and independent
The Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates came from the city of Euchaita in Asia Minor. He was endowed with many talents, and was handsome in appearance. For his charity God enlightened him with the knowledge of Christian truth. For his bravery St Theodore was appointed military commander [stratelatos] in the city of Heraclea, where he combined his military service with preaching the Gospel among the pagans subject to him. His gift of persuasion, reinforced by his
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 18, 2016 The preparation for Baptism in the early Church often lasted as long as three years. Of deep significance is the fact that during that three-year period, many basic doctrines were not explored. The “mystagogical catechesis” (instruction in the sacramental mysteries of the Church) did not begin until after Baptism. What, we may wonder, were they doing for those first three years, and on what basis were individuals making lifetime conversion
Commemorated on February 6 Saint Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, “the Church’s far-gleaming beacon,” lived during the ninth century, and came from a family of zealous Christians. His father Sergius died as a martyr in defense of holy icons. Saint Photius received an excellent education and, since his family was related to the imperial house, he occupied the position of first state secretary in the Senate. His contemporaries said of him: “He so distinguished himself with knowledge
SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – What Place Does Social Justice Have in Orthodox Christianity? “The Christian gospel, beloved, is not a social gospel, aiming to solve the various social problems (to procure social justice.) Christianity’s primary purpose is the salvation of the human existence. Based on this, it cannot be said that Christianity has not fulfilled its purpose because it failed to solve the problem
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