Daily Meditations Archives - Page 74 of 333

The Twenty-Second Day of Christmas Advent. Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia

12/06/2021

Saint Nicholas, the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia is famed as a great saint pleasing unto God. He was born in the city of Patara in the region of Lycia (on the south coast of the Asia Minor peninsula), and was the only son of pious parents Theophanes and Nonna, who had vowed to dedicate him to God. As the fruit of the prayer of his childless parents, the infant Nicholas from the very

The Nineteenth Day of Christmas Advent. Have a Dickens of a Christmas.

12/03/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 24, 2019 In the late 1600’s in colonial Boston, the celebration of Christmas was against the law. Indeed, anyone evidencing the “spirit of Christmas” could be fined five shillings. In the early 1800’s, Christmas was better known as a season for rioting in the streets and civil unrest.1 However, in the mid-1800’s some interesting things changed the cultural response to the feast and, in 1870, Christmas was declared a federal holiday

The Eighteenth Day of Christmas Advent. It’s a Wonderful Life.

12/02/2021

Let us be signposts pointing toward a bright and happy future By Abbot Tryphon, November 26, 2019 One of the most beloved movies ever made was Frank Capra’s, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Staring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the movie tells the story of an ever optimistic man, who, while facing life’s hardships, set aside his own dreams in order to help others, only to witness a run on his bank. Feeling he’d failed his

Seventeenth Day of Christmas Advent, Journey to Bethlehem

12/01/2021

By Father John Parker What shall we offer Thee, O Christ, Who for our sakes hast appeared on earth as man? Every creature made by Thee offers Thee thank. The angels offer a hymn; the heavens a star; the wisemen gifts; the shepherds, their wonder; the earth, its cave; the wilderness, a manger. And we offer Thee a virgin mother. O pre-eternal God, have mercy on us! According to the hymn I have shared above,

The Sixteenth Day of Christmas Advent. The Apostle Andrew: The First-Called of the Twelve

11/30/2021

At the very beginning of His ministry, Christ passed by two brother-fishermen casting their nets into the Sea of Galilee. He spoke very simple words to them: Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). They did just this, straightaway casting aside their entire former lives. These were Simon-Peter and Andrew. Why, then, has the Apostle Andrew – whose memory we celebrate today – received the title of the “first-called”? The brothers came

The Fifteenth Day of Christmas Advent. The Christmas When Everybody Was There.

11/29/2021

By Stephen Freeman, December 24, 2018 The soldiers were scattered across Europe with the loneliness of war. The world was caught up in a total struggle. Women had gone to the factories; children were collecting scrap metal. The “war effort” was universal. In many places, food was rationed. The madhouse of consumption belonged only to the war; everything else could wait. And there was Christmas. Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley were part of the effort

The Twelfth Day of Christmas Advent. A Secular Kingdom…Where Christmas Never Comes

11/26/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 27, 2017 Two people are working at a soup kitchen, feeding the poor. One of them is a Christian, the other an atheist. The Christian is doing what he does out of obedience to Christ, in order to serve Christ “in the least of these my brethren.” The atheist is doing what he does because he thinks that generosity is a good thing and that the world would be a

The Eleventh Day of Christmas Advent. Thanksgiving Day! Catherine the Great Martyr of Alexandria

11/25/2021

A day set aside for giving thanks to God By Abbot Tryphon, November 28, 2019 Thanksgiving has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when during the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving. The word Thanksgiving has its roots in the Greek word, eucharistia, where the Church gets the word Eucharist. For we Orthodox Christians the ultimate giving of thanks to God comes when we offer the Eucharistic sacrifice, and enter into

The Tenth Day of Christmas Advent. “Born of a Woman.”

11/24/2021

By stating that Jesus is “born of woman”—this Mary (as both St. Matthew and St. Luke attest)—St. Paul insists that Jesus is most emphatically human, the “firstborn of all creation.” That this Mary is at the same time a virgin prevents the birth of Jesus from being reduced to what we know or can reproduce from our own experience. Life that is unmistakably human life is before us here, a real baby from an actual

The Ninth Day of Christmas Advent. The Created and the Uncreated.

11/23/2021

By Abbot Tryphon, January 6, 2020 This season of the Nativity of Christ is the perfect time to look closely at what this pivotal moment in human history meant for this material world. That the Logos, the Word of God, joined Himself to our humanity was singularly the most important event in human history. That this was done by God in order to join His Divinity with our humanity, making it possible for us, His