Daily Meditations Archives - Page 64 of 351

The Twenty-Fourth Day of Christmas Advent: Saint Patapios of Thebes, the Wonderworker

12/08/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 8, 2017 † Dionysios, Metropolitan of Servia and Kozani Today the Church celebrates and honours the memory of the blessed Patapios the Desert-Dweller. This is the title accorded to the saint who lived in isolation in the desert, leaving behind the turmoil and joys of the secular life. He was born in Thebes, in Egypt, of devout Christian parents, by whom he was brought up with great care and concern

The Twenty-Third Day of Christmas Advent: The Eternal Mystery

12/07/2022

By Fr John Breck, December 2, 2004 I’m sorry this column can’t be accompanied by sound. One of the most precious components of Orthodox Christianity, perhaps especially in the Russian tradition, is its store of melodies to liturgical hymns that are heartbreakingly beautiful. I just came across a fine example, tucked away in the iTunes folder of this laptop. It’s a contemporary variant of a hymn sung normally at Annunciation, composed by Fr Paul Jannakos.

The Twenty-Second Day of Christmas Advent: The Real Santa Claus – Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra

12/06/2022

By Fr. Luke A. Veronis, December 19, 2021 Sinter Klaas, the Dutch name that we Americans transliterated into Santa Claus, obviously refers to Saint Nicholas, one of the most beloved of all saints throughout the world, and whose memory is actually celebrated today on December 6th/19th. Travel across Europe and you can literally find thousands of churches named in honor of St. Nicholas. Greece and Russia look upon St. Nicholas as the patron of their

The Twenty-First Day of Christmas Advent. Venerable Savvas the Sanctified

12/05/2022

Commemorated on December 5 Saint Savva the Sanctified was born in the fifth century at Cappadocia of pious Christian parents, John and Sophia, and his father was a military commander. Journeying to Alexandria on military matters, John and Sophia left their five-year-old son Savva in the care of an uncle. When the boy was eight years old, he entered the nearby Monastery of Saint Flavian. The gifted child quickly learned to read and became an

The Eighteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Blood Brothers of the Incarnation

12/02/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 8, 2016 My childhood in the 1950’s had the innocence of the time, fed by stories of our elders and the clumsy movies. We played soldiers (everyone’s father had been in the Second World War) and “Cowboys and Indians.” Despite the clear bias of the movies and the slanted propaganda that passed for history, almost everyone wanted to be an Indian. Cowboys never seemed terribly romantic, while the Indians clearly

The Seventeenth Day of Christmas Advent: Saint Filaretos the Charitable (1 December)

12/01/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 1, 2017 Saint Filaretos was a fine example of virtue, especially that of performing good works. He lived at the time of Emperor Konstantinos Porfyroyennitos (Constantine Porphyrogenitus) and his mother, Eirini of Attica (joint reign 780-797). Filaretos was born in the village of Amnia in Gangra, Paphlagonia of devout parents. He married a woman called Theosevo and the couple had three children. He was a farmer and from his income gave

The Sixteenth Day of Christmas Advent: St. Andrew—The First Called of the Apostles

11/30/2022

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, November 30, 2021 He Was the First to Be Called—We are Called as Well The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” And they said to him,

The Fifteenth Day of Christmas Advent: Metropolitan Athanasios of Lemessos: Christmas’ Deeper Meaning (Part I)

11/29/2022

Published by Pemptousia, December 6, 2014 By Metropolitan Athanasios of Lemessos Every time we stand before the Lord either in prayer or in celebration in Church of an event from the life of Christ, or we are in any other way experiencing the presence of the Lord, two basic things happen, which are attested by the Church and the experience of the Saints: Firstly, we are feeling joy because we are experiencing the Lord’s abundant

The Fourteenth Day of Christmas Advent. Eternal God: A Little Child

11/28/2022

By Fr John Breck, December 1, 2007 Thanksgiving is over and we are moving toward what one of our wise and dedicated priests refers to as “Getmas.” He is as frustrated and dismayed at what exuberant commercialism and American popular religion have done to Christmas as I am with the relentless efforts to transform our national feast of Thanksgiving into “Turkey Day.” These campaigns are insidious and they’ve been highly effective: God—the true God who

The Eleventh Day of Christmas Advent. Feast of the Holy Great Martyr and Most Wise Katherine of Alexandria

11/25/2022

November 25 Katherine was the daughter of Cestus, a wealthy patrician of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt and metropolis of the arts and sciences. She was widely admired not only for her noble birth but also for the exceeding beauty and intelligence that God had given her. Taught by the best masters and most illustrious philosophers, she learnt while still a girl to follow complex lines of argument and obtained a perfect understanding of the