Daily Meditations Archives - Page 77 of 347

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Thursday: Pascha Today

04/28/2022

By Olivier Clément Olivier Clément is a world-renowned, contemporary French Orthodox theologian who taught for many years at the St Sergius Theological Institute in Paris. His lyrical contribution to the Festschrift >of his close friend, Father Boris Bobrinskoy, former Dean of St Sergius, ended with the following reflection on the meaning for us today of Christ’s Resurrection. [1] In our civilization, so rich in knowledge and in power, we can no longer offer any reply to the enigma

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Wednesday: Christ is the Resurrection and Eternal Life

04/27/2022

Published by Pemtousia Partnership, May 15, 2016 The author continues his thoughts on the Resurrection and notes that the Resurrection is of great significance for humankind as it is a command to follow Christ’s path, copying his works, following His commandments, and loving our fellow man. (Continued from The Resurrection of Christ is the Quintessence of the Divine Revelation) Christ’s new commandment isn’t simply a command to love in the general sense. That, in

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Tuesday: The Resurrection of Christ is the Quintessence of the Divine Revelation

04/26/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, May 12, 2016 The author offers thoughts on the Resurrection with a look at current and ancient views on faith, death, and belief in immortality. The Resurrection is forgotten in this day and age. Even the immortality of the soul is ignored. It’s typical that scientists who concern themselves with the human soul don’t usually treat it as an ontological feature of a person, but more as a biological function. People

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Monday: Relative to Pascha

04/25/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 20, 2009 If you have attended Pascha services, or served them, it is quite possible to suffer some of the “natural consequences,” which for me means that after a somewhat disordered sleep I am sitting, having coffee and writing at 3:30 in the morning, wide-awake. I have no complaints. I generally like to be up by around 5 or so, so I am only off by a couple of hours….

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad!

04/24/2022

Submitted by Fr. John Breck, May 2, 2009 Attributed by all of the extant manuscripts to St John Chrysostom, this little-known, pseudepigraphical homily from the fifth century focuses on “the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[1] It begins by summarizing various fruits of the resurrection in the lives of believers, then exhorts readers or listeners to assume conduct appropriate to the day of Holy Pascha. In the rhetorical style typical of the period, it stresses antitheses,

The Holy and Great Saturday: Knocking Down the Gates of Hell

04/23/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 1, 2021 The Swedish Lutheran theologian, Gustav Aulen, published a seminal work on the types of atonement theory in 1930 (Christus Victor). Though time and critical studies have suggested many subtler treatments of the question, no one has really improved on his insight. Especially valuable was his description of the “Classic View” of the atonement. This imagery, very dominant in the writings of the early Fathers and in the liturgical

The Holy and Great Friday: Unbelief and Good Friday

04/22/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 5, 2018 Christmas and Easter are often difficult days for those who do not believe in God. Christians are more public about their faith than at other times of the year and this brings with it an annoyance. Christmas bespeaks the birth of God as a human being. Easter bespeaks a resurrection from the dead. For those who do not believe, such miracles, spoken of so glowingly and with such

The Holy and Great Thursday: What Great Thursday Tells Us

04/21/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 27, 2016 On our journey to Pascha, we are reminded of the Lord’s desire for unity of his flock, that he wishes us to be as one. The importance of this wish is reflected in the Divine Eucharist because to be in communion with God, we must first be in communion with our fellow man. All of Jesus’ actions on earth teach us how to love our fellow man. As

The Holy and Great Wednesday: “If this is how you see Christ, then Holy Week won’t mean a thing to you…”

04/20/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 12, 2017 Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou Holy Week is the heart of the Christian Orthodox Faith and the centre of the yearly cycle of Christian Feasts. Every year our churches are packed at Holy Week and, come the last three days, they are bursting at the seams with both people who attend church every Sunday and people who attend only on special occasions. Holy Week brings the pious and the not

The Holy and Great Tuesday: The End of the Fast and the ‘Air’ of Asceticism

04/19/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 9, 2017 Having completed the forty days that bring profit to our soul, we beseech You, in Your love for us: May we behold the Holy Week of Your Passion that in it we may glorify Your majestic works and ineffable dispensation for us, singing with one mind, ‘Lord glory to You’. Great Lent has come to an end. It’s an event which cannot but move all consciously-striving Christians, whatever