By Father Stephen Freeman, January 21, 2015 We are not saved by our talents and gifts nor by our excellence – we are saved by our weakness and our failure. I have made this point in several ways in several articles over the recent past – and the question comes up – but what does that look like? How do I live like that? The question can be somewhat urgent for some because the message
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! Godly Meditations from America’s Founding Fathers: “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.” –George Washington “I have so much faith in the general government of the world by
Just as there are Fathers of the Church, there are also what we might call Fathers of the modern world, revered and studied by the intelligentsia, who hope to combine them in a sort of grand synopsis of atheism. We may never have read Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzche or Freud, but our outlook, the spirit of the age, is formed by their ideas. The Marxist theory of social alienation and the reification of humanity the creator
In St. Panteleimon’s Monastery, it happened that once I had up to fourteen functions at the same time. I spoke about it to my spiritual father. I told him: ‘I don’t manage to carry out my work; I have fourteen jobs!’ He answered me: ‘You are wrong; you’ve only got one job’. ‘But no, Father’, I replied, ‘I have fourteen!’ Again he said, ‘No, you are only doing one thing at a time. So, do
What the Fathers sought most of all was their own true self, in Christ. And in order to do this, they had to reject completely the false, formal self, fabricated under social compulsion in “the world.” They sought a way to God that was uncharted and freely chosen, not inherited from others who had mapped it out beforehand. They sought a God whom they alone could find, not one who was “given” in a set,
Do Not Judge The Fathers teach us that nothing is more serious than judging your neighbour. Despite this, such a serious evil is committed even for things, let’s say, of little seriousness. It all begins with vague suspicions and thoughts like this: ‘What does it matter if I hear what so-and-so is saying? What harm is there in going to see what that person is up to?’ The mind quickly forgets its own sins and
Loving your Neighbour in Need A brother asked an aged monk: ‘There are two brothers: one of them leads a life of solitude six days a week and does much penance, while the other is dedicated to the service of the sick. Which of the two is behaving in the way that is more acceptable to God?’ The old man answered him: ‘The brother who is always making a retreat would never attain the heights
By Father Stephen Freeman The story in the gospel of Christ’s visits to the Temple in his childhood – the first at 40 days of age (marked by the Feast of the Presentation and the occasion of prophecy by the Elder Simeon and Hannah the Prophetess) and at age 12 when He is lost and later found giving instruction to the teachers and scribes, is a reminder of the importance of children in the Temple
By Father Stephen Freeman Why do people in the modern world find belief so difficult? Obviously, many find ways to believe in God and do so with great zeal, but others, even those who describe themselves as believers, admit either to doubts about God or about many traditional teachings of the faith. The more “miraculous” teachings, the Divinity of Christ, the Virgin Birth, Walking on the Water, Rising from the Dead, etc. present difficulties for most
By Stephen Freeman This week, the Church moves from the feast of Christmas to the feast of Theophany – the celebration of the Baptism of Christ. The intent of this feast is not to celebrate a succession of historical events (the Baptism of Christ is at least 30 years later than His birth). Rather this feast takes us into the depths of the mystery of Christ and His salvation of the world. Many Christians, reading the gospel accounts of
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