Daily Meditations

Holistic Faith

Published by Lea Povozhaev, March 13, 2017 The term holistic means working with nature rather than against it. And faith is belief that calls one to act. When we cooperate with God, His mercy becomes more apparent to us. God’s mercy enables one to fathom the natural meaning of life: belonging to Jesus Christ. One’s will to accept God fosters more wholeness in a person’s life, and an individual becomes more well—body, mind, and soul.

The Struggle for Holiness

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, May 15, 2017 Fr. Tryphon, Abbot of All-Merciful Savior Monastery We are powerless to change those bad habits that dominate our lives without help from God. However, we may attempt to change behavior, we cannot do battle with the passions unless we surrender ourselves in humility to God, for such change can only come about by God’s grace. Struggle as we may, our flesh will resist until that moment we seek

Being Saved – The Ontological Approach

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 12, 2016 I cannot begin to count the number of times I wished there were a simple, felicitous word for “ontological.” I dislike writing theology with words that have to be explained – that is, words whose meanings are not immediately obvious. But, alas, I have found no substitute and will, therefore, beg my reader’s indulgence for dragging such a word into our conversations. From the earliest times in the

The Divine Compass

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 28, 2016  I was in a small shop yesterday in a coastal town. Among its many knick-knacks were a large variety of compasses. We have become a compass-driven culture today, after a lull in which they were largely passé. Of course, the compass is now a very passive thing, hidden within the workings of the resident GPS system in our phones. There has long been a debate about the presence

Anxiety Departs with Trust in God

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – Anxiety Departs with Trust in God “People create their problems by having the wrong attitude before God… As you know from the fathers of the Orthodox Church, evil is the absence of good. Evil cannot exist in and of itself. It is the same with darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. Wherever there is light, it would be impossible for us to

Journey Through Darkness

By Fr John Breck, November 1, 2007 The disclosure that Mother Teresa spent long years of agony, unable to sense the presence of God, led many people to doubt the sincerity of her public writings and the genuineness of her vocation. Was she a saint, or merely someone like ourselves? Or maybe both? Any doubts that Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a true saint, a genuinely holy person, have been amply, if ironically, dispelled by

The Woman Who Dwelt in a Cave – Part II

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 13, 2016 She finished her story here and invited to me to eat some of the beans she had in her basket, because she’d been told “from the outside”, that I was very hungry. We ate and drank until I was full. But I saw that both the basket and the pitcher were still full, so I gave glory to God. When it was time for me to go, I

The Woman Who Dwelt in a Cave – Part I

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 11, 2016 Pantelis Paschos, Professor of Theology A saintly hermit told the brothers the following story: One day, as I was sitting in the desert, I began to feel worried and sad. A thought came to me: “Get up and go for a walk in the desert”. So I walked and came to a water-course and gazing into the distance in the moonlight- night had fallen already- I saw something

The Dormition

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 15, 2021. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ. The scripture readings today are extremely significant and apropos to the day. Saint Paul’s talking about self-emptying: the Kenosis of Jesus Christ, who came to the world, giving up all His divine prerogative to become one of us and save us in

Sent By God: the Life of Geronda Ephraim

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Sent By God: the Life of Geronda Ephraim Saint Anthony’s Monastery is releasing a 5 volume set of books about the life of Geronda Ephraim: “In every generation God sends His chosen servants to help those who are searching for eternal life.In the last half century, there was a man who transformed more people’s lives than anyone else in the history of