Great Lent Archives - Page 17 of 28

The Thirty-Seventh Day of Great Lent. Holy Week Meditation and Study Guide (Part II)

04/16/2019

Holy Wednesday Afternoon and Evening Epistle readings: James 5:10-16, Romans 15:1-7, I Corinthians 12:27-31-13:1-8, II Corinthians 1:8-11. Galatians 5:22-6:2, I Thessalonians 5:14-23. Gospel readings: Luke 10:25-37, Luke 19:1-10, Matthew 10:1 & 10:5-8, Matthew 8:14-23, Matthew 25:1-13, Matthew 15:21-28, and Matthew 9:9-13. The primary theme of Holy Wednesday is our human need for the healing and forgiveness that comes into our lives when we establish a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are reminded that

The Thirty-Sixth Day of Great Lent. Holy Week Meditation and Study Guide (Part I)

04/15/2019

The services of Holy Week transform us into eyewitnesses and direct participants in the awesome events of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In readings taken from both Old and New Testaments, in hymns, processions, and liturgical commemoration, we see the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies, and the mighty acts by which God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, grants us forgiveness for our sins, and rescues us from the pain of eternal

The Thirty-Third Day of Great Lent. St. Mary of Egypt and Moral Progress

04/12/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, January 11, 2015 The suggestion has been made several times recently that my criticism of moral progress is not supported by the example of the saints. Surely, it is said, the transformations we read about in the lives of the saints are clear examples of moral progress. A noted such example, perhaps the greatest story of repentance and asceticism known in the Church, is that of St. Mary of Egypt. It is worth

The Twenty-Ninth Day of Great Lent. Love, Not Atonement

04/08/2019

All the great religions of the world talk a lot about death, so there must be an essential lesson to be learned here. But throughout much of religious history our emphasis has been on killing the wrong thing and avoiding the truth: it’s you who has to die, or rather, who you think you are—your false self. It’s never someone else! Historically we moved from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice to various modes of seeming self-sacrifice, usually

The Twenty-Sixth Day of Great Lent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

04/05/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 11, 2016 The Fourth Sunday of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church, is dedicated to St. John Climacus, the author of the ancient work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. It is a classic work describing “steps” within the life of the struggling ascetic. There is an icon associated with this work, picturing monastics climbing the rungs of a ladder to heaven, battling demons who are trying to pull them off. However,

The Twenty-Second Day of Great Lent. The Cross: Suffering Love

04/01/2019

Many people rightly question how there can be a good or just God in the presence of so much evil and suffering in the world—about which “God” appears to do nothing. Exactly how is God loving and sustaining what God created? That is our constant dilemma, and without some answer you can quite reasonably become an atheist or at least an agnostic. I believe—if I am to believe Jesus—that God is precisely suffering love. If Jesus is the living

The Nineteenth Day of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled

03/29/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2016 Recent conversations on the blog have bounced around the imagery of debt in the Scriptures. Contemporary Protestant thought often likes to express the notion of a “sin debt.” The idea runs that God’s righteousness and justice have proper demands. When we fail to keep the commandments, we create a debt for which God’s justice demands payment. Christ’s innocent self-offering on the Cross is seen as the payment for

The Sixteenth Day of Great Lent. Synaxis in Honor of the Archangel Gabriel

03/26/2019

On the Leavetaking of the Feast of the Annunciation, the Church commemorates the Archangel Gabriel, who announced the great mystery of the Incarnation of Christ to the Virgin Mary. Mindful of the manifold appearances of the holy Archangel Gabriel and of his zealous fulfilling of God’s will and confessing his intercession for Christians before the Lord, the Orthodox Church calls upon its children to pray to the great Archangel with faith and love. The Synaxis

The Fifteenth Day of Great Lent. The Annunciation of the Theotokos.

03/25/2019

THE ANNUNCIATION of the THEOTOKOS On the twenty-fifth day of this month we celebrate the Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. Verses The Angel announced to the Virgin the Great Son of the Father’s great Counsel. The Angel said, “Rejoice”, to Mary on the twenty-fifth. Synaxarion God, Who is merciful and loves mankind, is ever solicitous about the race of men. When, as a loving Father, He saw the work of

The Twenty-Second Day of Great Lent. The Death of Christ and the Life of Man

03/22/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 15, 2016 Several years ago, someone wrote and asked, “Why did Christ have to die on the Cross?” It is the question that prompted this article. Recently, we have been having a discussion regarding the atonement within the comments section of the blog. I have pointed out that the notion of Christ being punished by the wrath of God for our sakes is not, in fact, found in the Scriptures. Sin

Tags

The Thirty-Seventh Day of Great Lent. Holy Week Meditation and Study Guide (Part II)

The Thirty-Sixth Day of Great Lent. Holy Week Meditation and Study Guide (Part I)

The Thirty-Third Day of Great Lent. St. Mary of Egypt and Moral Progress

The Twenty-Ninth Day of Great Lent. Love, Not Atonement

The Twenty-Sixth Day of Great Lent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

The Twenty-Second Day of Great Lent. The Cross: Suffering Love

The Nineteenth Day of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled

The Sixteenth Day of Great Lent. Synaxis in Honor of the Archangel Gabriel

The Fifteenth Day of Great Lent. The Annunciation of the Theotokos.

The Twenty-Second Day of Great Lent. The Death of Christ and the Life of Man

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