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Daily Meditations

The First Tuesday of Great Lent: Lent—the Tithe of the Year (Maxims 1-9)

03/08/2022

By Father Thomas Hopko, March 13, 2008 In Orthodox Church tradition, the season of Great Lent is called, in the liturgical books, the “tithe of the year.” We know that in the Bible the believers were obliged to give ten percent of their possessions, their time, their crop, their money to the Lord, to the temple. And the rule of the tithe wasn’t at all because ninety percent of our possessions are our own and

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: It’s a Crying Shame

03/07/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 2, 2016 Orthodox Christians make a beginning of their Lenten discipline with the forgiving of everyone for everything (theoretically). This is expressed in the rite of forgiveness which is part of Vespers on the Sunday of Cheesefare. The ritual expression of forgiveness can easily and often be little more than a ritual. It reminds us of the need to forgive, but does not, on its own, achieve what it expresses.

Everywhere Present

03/04/2022

By Father Stephen Freeman, June 10, 2016 Everything you do, all your work, can contribute towards your salvation. It depends on you, on the way you do it. History is replete with monks who became great saints while working in the kitchen or washing sheets. The way of salvation consists in working without passion, in prayer…. May God give you the strength to keep your spirit, your mind, and your heart in the spirit of

The Real Reasons for War: “There’s a war on today, a holy war… “

03/03/2022

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week:  The Real Reasons for War: “There’s a war on today, a holy war… “ “But we are responsible for not letting the enemies of the Church corrupt everything. Though I’ve even heard priests say: ‘Don’t get involved in that. It’s none of your business!’ If they had reached such a non-striving condition through prayer I would kiss their feet. But no! They’re indifferent because

The Universal Christ: Growing in Christ

03/03/2022

[The cosmos] is fundamentally and primarily living. [1] Christ, through his Incarnation, is interior to the world, rooted in the world even in the very heart of the tiniest atom. [2] —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin As Paul saw Christ as a single “New Human” (see Ephesians 2:15), as Duns Scotus saw Christ as the Alpha point of history, so Teilhard saw the same Divine Icon as the Omega point of cosmic history—both the archetypal starting point and the alluring final goal.

Eating with Mindfulness (Part II)

03/02/2022

By Fr. Brendan Pelphrey A central question, however, is exactly what we mean by “mindfulness.” How do we understand what we are doing? Why we are doing it? As mentioned already, both Buddhists and Christians are taught not to condemn or to act as a judge over others. On this subject, St. Paul says, “Who am I to judge another man’s servant?” (Romans 14:4). However, in this sentence we see an important difference between the

Eating with Mindfulness (Part I)

03/01/2022

By Fr. Brendan Pelphrey Recently while waiting for my wife at a doctor’s office, I flipped through a “wellness” magazine. In it was an article entitled, “Are You Aware of What You Eat?” True to the title, the article suggested knowing what we are eating. We should also know where our food comes from, we should chew slowly, and we should notice how satisfied our stomach feels. This is called “eating with mindfulness.” The idea

The Holy and Great Council and the Hidden Work of God

02/28/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 5, 2016 The science of psychology had its beginnings in the 19th century. It has since gone through many changes, complete with clinical science of the brain and its chemistry. However, in its earliest days it had something of a mystical twist. Freud, Jung and their cohort could see the surface of the personality and the various disorders it presented. Their instinct was that the causes of those disorders lay somewhere

Prayers for the Dead

02/25/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 21, 2016 The Orthodox pray for the departed. The most pressing prayer within the liturgies appointed for this purpose is for God to forgive their sins. We say, “For no one lives and does not sin, for You only are without sin….” This is easily misunderstood, but it goes to the very heart of the mystery of our relationship with God. The same sentiment, interestingly, is offered in the prayers

Saint Dimitry of Rostov: Where God is, There is All Good

02/24/2022

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Saint Dimitry of Rostov: Where God is, There is All Good “…. [in this work Saint Dimitry] addresses how to abide with God and conversely how a person separates himself from God.  The reader will note that St. Dimitry makes it very clear that where God is not allowed to work, there begins the work of the demons.  I believe that this passage

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