SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Our Duties for Holy and Great Week This very day is clothed with the bright robes of the first-fruits of the Lord’s passion. Come, then, all feast lovers, let us welcome it with songs.  (Kathisma, Great Monday) We have just arrived, my beloved, at the saving Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, at Great Week. This week is called Great, because

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Are Our Efforts for Crowns That Decay or Eternal Crowns? “…We, as Orthodox Christians, are athletes and participate, as ancient Olympians, in a spiritual contest.  We are competing with the evil one to win by overcoming his evil snares and temptations. The reward is the crown “of honor and glory” bestowed by the Lord our God….” Excerpted from THE SPIRITUAL CROWN OF LIFE Adult/Family:   “Blessed

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: “May It Be Blessed” “…What is the meaning of and when do we say the well-known expression – I won’t call it magical, but so rich in content – “May it be blessed”? We hear this expression frequently; monastics say it, and now more and more people around the world, including laypersons, have become accustomed to saying it: “May it be blessed….” From the

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Are We Vessels of the Holy Spirit, or Filled With Worldly Thinking? “…faith is not renounced overnight. Renunciation can happen bit by bit every day, and then a straw will be enough to break a camel’s back. Sometimes it is enough to remain silent so as not to stand out and be “like everyone else”, finding convincing excuses for your cowardice—and this will be a small

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week:  The Real Reasons for War: “There’s a war on today, a holy war… “ “But we are responsible for not letting the enemies of the Church corrupt everything. Though I’ve even heard priests say: ‘Don’t get involved in that. It’s none of your business!’ If they had reached such a non-striving condition through prayer I would kiss their feet. But no! They’re indifferent because

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week: Saint Dimitry of Rostov: Where God is, There is All Good “…. [in this work Saint Dimitry] addresses how to abide with God and conversely how a person separates himself from God.  The reader will note that St. Dimitry makes it very clear that where God is not allowed to work, there begins the work of the demons.  I believe that this passage

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week:  Are You On the Fringe… Or Not? “…We must remember this, brothers and sisters—the martyrs are always at the fringe…. They are the definition of a fringe group. This is where every Orthodox Christian should expect to be. It is really our natural place…. Whether it is the throwing to the lions of martyrs in Rome, or a bribe to deny Christ in

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – The Triodion   “…If there exists in us even a faint inclination towards things spiritual, then, however deeply we are engrossed in a distracted and busy life, we await with hope and trepidation the approach of the great days of repentance, and each time we hope to step a little higher on that mysterious ladder which lifts our hearts toward heaven.

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – What Place Does Social Justice Have in Orthodox Christianity?   “The Christian gospel, beloved, is not a social gospel,  aiming to solve the various social problems (to procure social justice.)    Christianity’s primary purpose is the salvation of the human existence.    Based on this, it cannot be said that Christianity has not fulfilled its purpose  because it failed to solve the problem

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – Thoughts on Spiritual Reading “…When you read a worldly magazine or newspaper, it is light and agreeable reading, you easily believe in everything in it.    But if you take up a religious publication or book to read, especially one relating to church matters, or sometimes when you begin reading prayers–you feel a weight upon your heart, you are tormented by doubt and unbelief, and experience a sort of darkness and