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The Secular Mind Versus the Whole Heart

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 6, 2017  Thinking is among the most misleading things in the modern world, or, to be more precise, thinking about thinking is misleading. For a culture that puts such a great emphasis on materiality, our thinking about thought is decidedly spooky. The philosophy underlying our strangely-constructed modernity is called nominalism (of which there are many formal varieties). Its imaginary construct of the world consists of decidedly separate objects, united only by our thinking

Saving My Neighbor – Just How Connected Are We?

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 9, 2017  If you are in the “helping professions,” confronting problems in people’s lives, it doesn’t take long to realize that no one is purely and simply an individual. The problems we suffer may occasionally appear to be “of our own making,” but that is the exception rather than the rule. Whether we are thinking of economic or genetic inheritance, or the psychological and social environment, almost all the issues

The Sacrifice of Worship

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 30, 2017  When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac (Genesis 22), there was no questioning on Abraham’s part about what was intended. He understood precisely what was involved in such a thing. There was wood to be gathered, an altar of stones to be constructed, the victim to be bound, and then the slitting of its throat with the gushing forth of blood, all consummated in the burning

The Loneliness of Shame

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 13, 2017  …shame thoughts are quintessentially alone thoughts. They are produced by the felt impossibility of communion, and they produce realities that have no primary communion in them. Patricia DeYoung, Understanding and Treating Chronic Shame +++ What does it mean to be lonely? We could pool our collective experience and quickly generate our own Wikipedia entry on the topic. There is probably no one who is a complete stranger to loneliness.

On the Surface of the Deep

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 20, 2016 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (10:38-42; 11:27-28) Last week we spoke of action, this week let’s talk about contemplation, the “Mary and Martha” of life. Knowing about Jesus and knowing Him are not the same. Being a Christian and following Christ are not synonymous. Who is it we are actually following? One of my dearest spiritual sons just returned

Miracles of Our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God of the Holy Monastery of Choziba

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on September 22, 2021 In our narration of the miracles of our glorious Lady, full of grace, the Mother of God, we shall draw some drops from the boundless sea, to the honor of the all-praised Mother of God. No woman had ever entered the Monastery of Choziba. This is the reason why they were later allowed to do so. There was a certain noblewoman in Byzantium, who suffered from an incurable internal illness

The Communion of Friends

By Stephen Freeman, August 4, 2021  You meet someone and like them. You slowly get to know them. Conversation and sharing, listening and learning, a picture or a reality begin to emerge. You think about them when they’re away. You’re aware that you matter to them as well. The thought of anything hurting them is painful. This is friendship. We easily reduce friendship to a set of shared emotions. Why we like someone else, we can

Not a Single Individual Will Be Saved

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 24, 2018  Perhaps the most striking thing about human beings is that we don’t actually come into existence by ourselves. There are parents (two of them when the laws of biology are allowed to work). The parents themselves are points of contact to a much larger world of the family and the culture itself. Human beings do not come without cultures. In a relatively short time, we acquire language and

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Sixth Monday of Pascha: The Community We All Need

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 24, 2017  Communities are not built by pioneers. They are rooted in mutual need and brokenness. Stanley Hauerwas has observed: My hunch is that you don’t just make a community up. You discover that you need one another because you’re in danger. The need, created by various forms of weakness, must be acknowledged and accepted. The “shame” associated with it must be borne by the community as a whole. Without

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Third Wednesday of Pascha: We Weren’t Born to Die but to Live Eternally

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 17, 2021 George Mantzarides, Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki God is love (1 Jn. 4, 16). And we people are created ‘in the image and likeness’ of the God of love. But the God of love is also fair-minded. He respects our freedom and doesn’t set before us us his power but his even-handedness. In this way, we remain free to accept or reject communion with