Daily Meditations Archives - Page 117 of 333

Second Friday of Pascha: Rediscovering the Beauty of Orthodoxy

05/01/2020

By Abbot Tryphon, April 12, 2020 Let us use this pandemic as the time to rediscover the beauty of our faith This COVID-19 pandemic has afforded me the time to sit in silence, enjoying the beauty of the surrounding forest, like nothing I’ve experienced in years. The forest is so quiet, now that I don’t hear traffic sounds off in the distance, and airlines flying overhead, and the return of our bird population has afforded

Second Thursday of Pascha. Holy Mountain: A Universal Presence and a Heavenward Orientation (Part 1)

04/30/2020

By Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaias and Lavreotikis The spiritual influence of Mount Athos is indisputable and certainly stems from the fact that many men have attained holiness through their secret ascetic struggles there. In recent years many pilgrims have found peace of mind and repose on the Mountain, together with spiritual guidance and support. The higher one rises, scientists tell us, the weaker the force of gravity becomes, the less one feels the pull of

Second Wednesday after Pascha: The Closure of our Churches

04/29/2020

By Abbot Tryphon, April 14, 2020 We must receive the closure of our churches with a peaceful heart I remember hearing, early on in my monastic life, of a holy elder who lived as a hermit, far from any group of other monks, and deprived of the chance to participate in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. Hearing of this, I thought to myself, how could such a man survive without the Holy Body and

Second Tuesday after Pascha. Death and Resurrection: The Illusion of Separation

04/28/2020

Hopefully we begin life as “holy innocents” in the Garden, with a conscious connection to Being. The gaze of loving, caring parents can mirror us as the beloved and gives us a primal experience of life as union. But sooner or later we all have to leave the Garden. We can’t stay there. We begin the process of individuation, which includes at least four major splits, ways of forgetting our inherent oneness and creating an

Second Monday after Pascha: A Different Pascha—1928

04/27/2020

By Father Stephen Freeman, April 4, 2020 This year, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Churches [were] be unable to gather in the usual manner for Pascha. This has happened before in a variety of places and circumstances. In the 1920’s, the Bolshevik’s were unleashing their persecutions. This wonderful account, from Butyrka Prison on Pascha of 1928, is a sober reminder that our “light momentary affliction” is a small thing. It also serves to remind us that

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Friday. The Life Giving Spring of the Mother of God

04/24/2020

Today we commemorate the Life-Giving Spring of the Most Holy Theotokos. There once was a beautiful church in Constantinople dedicated to the Mother of God, which had been built in the fifth century by the holy Emperor Leo the Great (January 20) in the Seven Towers district. Before becoming emperor, Leo was walking in a wooded area where he met a blind man who was thirsty and asked Leo to help him find water. Though

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Thursday. St. George and the Dragon

04/23/2020

04/23/2015 By St. Gabriel Admin – an extract from Praying with Icons by Jim Forest True stories become legends and legends are compressed via symbols into myths. The St. George of myth was a knight in armour who fought a dragon to save a princess. The real George never saw a dragon nor did he rescue a princess in distress. We are not even sure he had a horse, possessed a sword, or was a soldier. It is possible he

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Wednesday

04/22/2020

On Bright Wednesday we commemorate the holy monastic Fathers who have shone forth on the God-trodden Mt Sinai. This commemoration was established by the Church of Russia on April 17, 1997. Saints Theocharis and Apostolos are local saints of Arta. The first fell asleep in 1845 and the second a little later. Saint Theocharis was a teacher at Komboti, Arta. The icons of these saints are in the church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Tuesday

04/21/2020

Commemoration of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene of Lesbos Newly-Appeared Martyrs of Lesbos, Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene These saints were martyred by the Turks on Bright Tuesday (April 9, 1463) ten years after the Fall of Constantinople. For nearly 500 years, they were forgotten by the people of Lesbos, but “the righteous Judge… opened the things that were hid” (2 Macc. 12:41). For centuries the people of Lesbos would go on Bright Tuesday to

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Monday

04/20/2020

On Bright Monday the Church commemorates the Sweet-Kissing (Glykophilousa) Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. Like the Iveron Icon (March 31), the Sweet-Kissing Icon was also saved from the iconoclasts by a pious woman in the ninth century. It also traveled miraculously upon the sea, arriving at Mt. Athos, the “Garden of the Theotokos,” where it was honored by the monks. A nobleman named Simeon was an iconoclast who shared the emperor Theophilus’s hatred for