forgiveness Archives - Saint Sophia

Why We Forgive

10/21/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 14, 2016 There are many ways to think about forgiveness, not all of them true or helpful. It is easily the most emotionally and psychologically difficult aspect of the Christian life revealing both the power of trauma as well as the tenacity of lingering memories. The directness of Christ’s commandments (“forgive your enemies”) and the consequences of ignoring them (“if you do not forgive others neither will your heavenly Father

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Third Friday of Pascha: Can You Forgive Someone Else’s Enemies?

05/24/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 25, 2020 I have written from time to time about the concept expressed in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, “Forgive everyone for everything.” It is a quote taken from the fictional Elder Zosima, but it is certainly a sentiment well within the bounds of Orthodox Christian thought. I have been challenged from time to time by people arguing that we cannot forgive those who have not sinned against us – that this right

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: The Poor, Debts & Your Enemies: Learning to Forgive

04/08/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 12, 2017 He who has pity on the poor makes a debtor of God. (Prov. 19:17) Jesus told a story about a man with a huge debt. He owed it to his master and was unable to pay. When he was dragged before his master, he begged for mercy. Strangely, the master was so moved by the man’s begging that he forgave him the entire debt. This same man, Jesus

The Second Tuesday of Great Lent: Faith Lets Go

03/26/2024

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 31, 2016 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (9:1-8) Often in the Gospel stories, when Jesus brings hope, comfort and healing, detractors often show up. Like the scribes in today’s story. See them as representing the know-it-alls and the self-righteous. We all know people like that and sometimes they may even be us. We must be careful not to be like that.

The First Wednesday of Great Lent: How Elder Iosif Resolved the Issue of a Priest-Monk Who Mocked Him

03/20/2024

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on August 18, 2021 Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of the Vatopaidi Monastery The humility, goodness and love which Elder Iosif [Vatopaidinos, (1921-2009)] bore in his soul moved God and were the solace of our brotherhood, who looked to him as our guide. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol tells of an event which shows the extent to which God was well-pleased with the spiritual labours of the Elder and also reveals the careful attention required in a

Return to Paradise (The Friday of Cheese-Fare)

03/15/2024

By Metropolitan Anthony Bloom 6 March 2022 In the person of the old Adam, the human race fell, when it sinned against love; and God’s dread judgement will be a crisis (i.e. judgement) for human love. Humankind was called to total unity of the whole of our lives with God, through love, but fell because it wanted to learn the secret of being through cold logic and the blind perception of the flesh. And it

The Danger and Shame of Forgiveness

10/30/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 20, 2021 Forgiveness is so terribly hard. On a psychological level, it feels dangerous. The shame engendered by any insult or injury is our experience of vulnerability, and we instinctively react to protect ourselves. That, we must understand, is not a sin, it is an instinct that is a gift from God. The example of Christ, who did not “turn His face from the spitting and the shame,” is also

The Great and Holy Wednesday: The Bridegroom and Judgment

04/12/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2021 Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through the Theotokos, have

The Fifth Friday of Great Lent: Forgiveness – Give an Enemy a Cup of Cold Water

03/31/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 10, 2021 There is a story related in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov about an old woman who was quite wicked. She dies and goes to hell to the great distress of her guardian angel. The angel searches for any possible good deed to plead on her behalf and finds a rotten onion – something the old woman had given to a beggar. The angel takes the onion and, with it, begins to

The Fifth Thursday of Great Lent: Forgiveness

03/30/2023

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 18, 2018 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! “It is a lie, any talk of God that does not comfort you.” That is one of my favorite quotations from the great Western mystic Meister Eckhart. Growing up as a Southern Baptist kid in Tennessee, I heard many things said about

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Why We Forgive

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Third Friday of Pascha: Can You Forgive Someone Else’s Enemies?

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: The Poor, Debts & Your Enemies: Learning to Forgive

The Second Tuesday of Great Lent: Faith Lets Go

The First Wednesday of Great Lent: How Elder Iosif Resolved the Issue of a Priest-Monk Who Mocked Him

Return to Paradise (The Friday of Cheese-Fare)

The Danger and Shame of Forgiveness

The Great and Holy Wednesday: The Bridegroom and Judgment

The Fifth Friday of Great Lent: Forgiveness – Give an Enemy a Cup of Cold Water

The Fifth Thursday of Great Lent: Forgiveness

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