Daily Meditations Archives - Page 29 of 333

Dormition of the Righteous Anna, the Mother of the Most Holy Theotokos

07/25/2023

Commemorated on July 25 Saint Anna was the daughter of the priest Matthan and his wife Mary. She was of the tribe of Levi and the lineage of Aaron. According to Tradition, she died peacefully in Jerusalem at age 79, before the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos. During the reign of Saint Justinian the Emperor (527-565), a church was built in her honor at Deutera. Emperor Justinian II (685-695; 705-711) restored her church, since Saint

The Communion of Friends

07/24/2023

By Stephen Freeman, August 4, 2021 You meet someone and like them. You slowly get to know them. Conversation and sharing, listening and learning, a picture or a reality begin to emerge. You think about them when they’re away. You’re aware that you matter to them as well. The thought of anything hurting them is painful. This is friendship. We easily reduce friendship to a set of shared emotions. Why we like someone else, we can

The Personality of Saint Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles

07/22/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on July 24, 2021 Georgios Zaravelas, Theologian Saint Mary Magdalene is the most outstanding person in the circle of Christ’s women disciples, and, indeed, the most significant female figure in the Christian Church, after the Mother of God. Her importance for the Church is expressed in the lengthy references to her in the Lives of the Saints. We have very little information concerning her life. She was born in Magdala, a town to the

Goodness and a Word in Due Season

07/21/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 8, 2017 There is an old mystical Jewish belief that when God created all things, He did so by speaking their names (in Hebrew, of course). It was further believed (and here’s the mystical part) that if you could manage to speak that name in the right way, you, too, could cause it to be. The instinct behind this is true, regardless of our inability to do such a thing.

Prophet Elijah: Alone Against All!

07/20/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on July 20, 2021 † Dionysios, Metropolitan of Servia and Kozani In the ranks of the Old Testament prophets, a special position is occupied by the Prophet Elijah, whose sacred memory the Church honours and celebrates today. In the New Testament, the name of the Prophet Elijah is frequently mentioned by Christ Himself. Zacharias, the father of the Forerunner, said that John would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah”, that is, that he

The Perfectionist

07/19/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on December 16, 2021 Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos ‘Don’t, out of vanity or sycophancy, insist on having your own way, quarrelling with and tormenting yourselves and your neighbor, just so that, afterwards, you can hear people saying that nobody can beat you’ (Abba Dorotheos) There are two ways of carrying out a task: with diligence which borders on perfectionism or with casualness, the ‘whatever’ approach. This is also true in human relationships. There are those

The Great Fire (Astonishing to God)

07/18/2023

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 5, 2020 I search for inspiration everywhere and find it everywhere. All we have to do to see it is to be open and receptive. The wind of the Spirit is always blowing. We just have to raise our sails. I remember my homiletics teacher who taught us one significant thing that I have never forgotten: to develop what he called “homiletical eyes.” Simply put that

Great Martyr Marina (Margaret) of Antioch in Pisidia

07/17/2023

Commemorated on July 17 The Holy Great Martyr Marina was born in Asia Minor, in the city of Antioch of Pisidia (southern Asia Minor), into the family of a pagan priest. In infancy she lost her mother, and her father gave her into the care of a nursemaid, who raised Marina in the Orthodox Faith. Upon learning that his daughter had become a Christian, the father angrily disowned her. During the time of the persecution against

Martyr Cyricus (Quiricus) and his mother, Julita, of Tarsus

07/15/2023

Commemorated on July 15 The Holy Martyrs Cyricus and Julita lived in the city of Iconium in the province of Lykaoneia in Asia Minor. Saint Julita was descended from an illustrious family and was a Christian. Widowed early on, she raised her three-year old-son Cyricus (Quiricus). During the emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians, Saint Julita departed the city with her son and two trustworthy servants, leaving behind her home, property, and servants. Concealing her noble rank,

God Within Us

07/14/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 13, 2020 Popular New Age thought postulates that everyone has a “god within.” It’s a pleasant way of saying that we’re all special while making “god” to be rather banal. But there is a clear teaching of classical Christianity regarding Christ-within-us, and it is essential to the Orthodox way of life. We should not understand our relationship with God to be an “external” matter, as if we were one individual and God