Daily Meditations Archives - Page 59 of 361

Does God Punish?

06/28/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on January 13, 2022 Fr. Andreas Agathokleous The notion that God punishes those who sin, recalling a strict father who punishes his naughty children seems to be one which is difficult to banish from people’s hearts. Besides, the Church does, indeed, speak of punishment, ‘the outer fire’ and a number of Fathers urge us keep hell in mind, so that we’ll be less susceptible to evil. Though this is true, it’s not the whole

No More Secrets

06/27/2023

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 27, 2020 In every Gospel there are multitudes of meanings obvious and hidden. You couldn’t possible uncover them all in a sermon or series of sermons. There is something infinite and ineffable about Holy Scripture. The more we look and the more we allow them to speak to us in the quiet temple of our hearts, not projecting our own meanings on them, the more they

The Erotic Language of Prayer

06/26/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 4, 2018 The very heart of true prayer is desire, love. In the language of the Fathers this desire is called eros. Modern usage has corrupted the meaning of “erotic” to only mean sexual desire – but it is a profound word, without substitute in the language of the Church. I offer a quote from Dr. Timothy Patitsas of Holy Cross in Brookline: By eros we mean the love that makes us forget

The Power in Thought – It’s Not What You Think

06/23/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 16, 2018 Among the dark little corners of the Orthodox world, particularly in its ethnic homelands, is a left-over trace of witchcraft (I don’t know what else to call it). It consists of a collection of superstitions, often mixed with semi-Orthodox notions. There are concerns about the “evil-eye,” “curses,” “spells,” and such. These things are “left-overs” in that they likely predate Christianity, having never disappeared from Europe’s earlier pagan past.

No Favorites

06/22/2023

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 4, 2020 I have a beautiful little story to tell you. It comes from a teacher of English as a Second Language in Illinois who happens to be the niece of my dear friend Dr. Anthony Bashir. It seemed like a great day for it given the Gospel reading from Luke. Nicole’s class has many Chinese students some of whom are not Christian even though the

What is ‘remembrance of death’ and what does it mean for us?

06/21/2023

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on January 14, 2022 Archimandrite Georgios Kapsanis, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou † Remembrance of death (memento mori) helps us to overcome our former self because it brings humility into our soul. When we forget death, we suffer from the illusion that we’re going to be on earth forever, and this increases our arrogance, our greed, our carnality and our propensity for exploiting other people. Remembrance of death gives us a sense

A New Framework

06/20/2023

Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, January 17, 2021 Every person, every organization, every religion, every community, every parish has a framing story. That story is the glue that holds the group together, and gives it meaning and purpose. The Gospel gives us an example of that on a small scale. The 10 Lepers formed a cohesive group bound by their disease and the social stigma that came with it. The framing story,

Thaddeus (Jude) the Apostle & Brother of Our Lord

06/19/2023

The holy, glorious and all-laudable Apostle Jude was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ and his brother, along with St. James, by virtue of being the son of St. Joseph the Betrothed. He is also called Levi or Thaddeus and sometimes the name Jude is rendered as Judas, but he is not to be confused with Judas Iscariot, the Apostle Matthew (also called “Levi”), or the Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy. He is

Are You Like Him?

06/16/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 27, 2017 Years ago when I was in seminary, I served a small mission in Chicago. The priest was something of a mentor for me during that time. There was a young girl in the congregation, between two and three years-old. She was convinced that the priest was Jesus. (Well, he was wearing a white robe and he did have a beard.) One Sunday, during his sermon (delivered from the nave

Full Circle

06/15/2023

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, June 6, 2021. I thought this would be a short sermon. It got a little bigger as I wrote it. Jesus spits on the ground and makes a paste and anoints the blind man’s eyes. As we know, scripture is metaphorical. It points to truths that are hidden deep behind the words. Fr. John Behr points us to St. Irenaeus’ interpretation of the healing of the blind