Daily Meditations Archives - Page 184 of 349

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Friday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. The Unmoral Christian.

05/11/2018

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 17, 2014 In recent articles I have challenged the place of contemporary morality in the Christian life. Some have had difficulty with this, wondering how we should then think about the commandments that are directed towards our behavior. Others have suggested that my challenge is merely semantic. There are certainly semantic distinctions being made here – but the reason for them is important and goes beyond mere words. But if it

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Thursday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. Atomization.

05/10/2018

One of the most astonishing features of our time is the tendency of spiritual truths, till recently known only to contemplatives, to become historical facts. So the splitting of the atom is only the outward expression in history of the spiritual state of disintegration in humanity known to Tradition and called just the same thing, ‘atomization’. When the self turns away from God, it can no longer contain its nature; it becomes an individual –

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. Endless Suffering

05/09/2018

Earthly existence is for man an endless suffering. Why do we bear all this? Because the Creator has come and has dwelt among us. And we now know Him personally. We are created ‘in the image and likeness of God’. When we measure the reality of our everyday life against this divine revelation, we fall into despair. Why is it so difficult to act as a Christian in the here and now? Because it is

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. Beauty in Orthodox Trinitarian Theology

05/08/2018

There is an extraordinary beauty in Orthodox Trinitarian theology. I all too easily lose sight of that beauty, but it came back to me again the other day after a conversation I had with a non-Orthodox friend…. His problem, as he describes it, is with the Church’s traditional doctrines — which he referred to with a slight edge of hostility as “dogmas” — that appear to “put God in a box.” Formulas such as “One

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Monday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. The Mystery of Suffering.

05/07/2018

It is much easier to appreciate the glory of Jesus’ resurrection than his painful crucifixion. Yet, Mark’s Gospel, written around 65 to 70 AD, focuses on Jesus’ “suffering servanthood.” Christians believe that we are “saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus.” The key is to put both together. We need to deeply trust and allow both our own dyings and our own certain resurrections, just as much as Jesus did! This is the full pattern

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Friday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. Sin is Not a Moral Problem

05/04/2018

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 8, 2014 Many readers have never before heard that there is no such thing as moral progress – so I am not surprised that I have been asked to write in more depth on the topic. I will start by focusing on the question of sin itself. If we rightly understand the nature of sin and its true character, the notion of moral progress will be seen more clearly. I

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Thursday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. Man is an Idolater of Himself.

05/03/2018

From our own experience and from our observation of others we are aware that human nature is damaged. Damaged, first of all, within each one of us; the ‘self is a shadow theatre of neurotic characters, and it is they who are pulling our strings instead of the other way about. Our faculties are disunited and out of order. While the rational intelligence is busy making distinctions, the ‘heart’, in obedience to dark subconscious forces,

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. The Feast of Mid-Pentecost

05/02/2018

The great but often neglected feast of Mid-Pentecost (Wednesday of the fourth week after Pascha) brings together with magnificent hymnody the major themes of Pascha, Ascension, and Pentecost: The Resurrection and Christ’s glorification, together with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On the eve of the feast we read a passage from the prophecy of Isaiah 55, which again focuses on the image of water: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Everyone who thirsts, come to the

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. When “I” Awakens.

05/01/2018

God’s enduring presence places the false self in a blessed insecurity. The false self is like a drop of stagnant water thrown into the raging furnace of the love of God. Even in our sins, in God’s eyes we remain the great pearl for which he has lost all upon the cross in order to possess us as his own. Even in the midst of revolt, we remain his one lost sheep for which he

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Monday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. Heaven: Universal Resurrection

04/30/2018

For Christians, Jesus Christ is the ultimate symbol of the universal pattern of union with the divine: “When Christ is revealed, and he is your life, you will be revealed in all your glory with him” (Colossians 3:4). God’s clear goal and direction for humanity is mutual indwelling, where “the mystery is Christ within you, your hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Henceforth we know our true and lasting life in the new “force field” that Paul calls the