Daily Meditations Archives - Page 72 of 347

Feast Day of Agia Kyriaki the Great Martyr

07/07/2022

On July 7 the Greek Orthodox Church commemorates the Feast Day of Agia Kyriaki the Great Martyr. Agia Kyriaki was the only child of Dorotheus and Eusebia. Since she was born on a Sunday (Kyriaki, in Greek), she was named Kyriaki. One day a wealthy magistrate wished to betroth Kyriaki to his son. Not only was she young and beautiful, but her parents were wealthy, and the magistrate wished to control that wealth. The magistrate

Deicide is the Equivalent of Patricide

07/06/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, January 14, 2017 According to the Biblical concept, ‘patricide’ is essentially the same as the sin of Adam and Eve. Their effort to become gods through the forbidden fruit and not through the alignment of their will and their actions to the commandment and will of God is the first attempt to remove God from the world and from our life. It’s the first attempt to expel God from the human

The Patricidal Society

07/05/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, December 9, 2016 The times in which we live are distinguished by a rebellion, unprecedented in history, against any kind of authority or ‘guardianship’. All authority, religious or moral, social or familial is being called into question and is being shaken by a profound crisis. This general crisis also involves education, its values and its aims. Here, too, everything is being doubted, according to the well-known educator Paul Lagran, who said

God and the Fourth of July

07/04/2022

By Meir Soloveichik, July 1, 2016 5:18 pm ET On July 4, 1776, after voting to approve the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress advanced the following resolution: “That Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, be a committee, to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America.” Of these three founders, two suggested seals that incorporated profoundly biblical images. Franklin, according to his own notes, proposed the following as

Feast Day of Agios Kosmas and Agios Damianos

07/01/2022

On July 1 the Greek Orthodox Church commemorates Agios Kosmas and Agios Damianos the Holy Martyrs, Wonderworkers and Unmercenary Physicians. They suffered at Rome in the reign of the emperor Carinus (283-284). Brought up by their parents in the rules of piety, they led strict and chaste lives, and they were granted by God the gift of healing the sick. By their generosity and exceptional kindness to all, the brothers converted many to Christ. The

Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Apostles

06/30/2022

TODAY’S SYNAXARION: On June 30th Our Holy Orthodox Christian Church commemorates, honors and celebrates the feast day of the Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Twelve Apostles. Even though each of the Twelve Great Apostles has his own particular feast day during the year, the Church has set aside this day as a general feast of all the holy Apostles together, and St. Paul with them. The following are the names and the separate feast

Feast of the Holy, Glorious, and All-Praiseworthy Chiefs of the Apostles, Peter and Paul

06/29/2022

The divinely-blessed Peter was from Bethsaida of Galilee. He was the son of Jonas and the brother of Andrew the First-called. He was a fisherman by trade, unlearned and poor, and was called Simon; later he was renamed Peter by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who looked at him and said, “Thou art Simon the son of Jonas; thou shalt be called Cephas (which is by interpretation, Peter)” (John 1:42). On being raised by the

Lest We Forget: Keeping Traditions

06/28/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 13, 2016 By Virginia Nieuwsma To hear Mother Victoria of the St. Barbara’s Monastery tell it, growing up in the Ukranian Orthodox Church was a rich and memorable experience at special times of year. On Christmas Eve, for instance, she remembers looking for the first star in the sky, which would signal the start of the Nativity meal. Before eating, she and her family always fed the animals first, in

The Hand in the Gospel

06/27/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 18, 2016 My desk sits looking out of a wall of windows. My small backyard is shaded by a lush green this time of year. At any time of day or night, nature sounds mark the movement of the sun as much as the shifting shadows: birds in the early morning give way to katydids as the sun moves up the sky, succeeded by the drone of frogs as night

[Nativity of] John the Baptist and Forerunner of the Lord

06/24/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 22, 2007 [Today is] the feast of the Nativity of the Forerunner of Christ – a feast noted around my household for also being the birthday of my wife (and of her brother). Thus we celebrate and are sometimes slightly distracted from the ecclesiastical meaning of the day. But a family cannot be faulted for the joy it takes in its mother, nor I in my spouse. But I want