Great Lent Archives - Page 9 of 28

The Third Friday of Great Lent, the Annunciation: Announcing the Incarnation

03/25/2022

By Father Steven Kostoff On March 25, we celebrate the Great Feast of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos. This great feast always falls during Great Lent, and when it falls on a weekday, it is the only instance during that season for which the full Eucharistic Liturgy is served for its commemoration—clearly a sign of the feast’s significance. Thus, the Annunciation is something of a festal interlude that punctuates the Eucharistic austerity of

The Third Thursday of Great Lent: Who is Unaware of the Stream? One Heart that Seems Two

03/24/2022

Who is Unaware of the Stream? You would be a blasphemer if you were to say that every believer receives and possesses the Spirit without knowing or recognizing the fact. Yes, you would! You would be accusing Christ of lying when he said: ‘The water that I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ and again: ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ [John

The Third Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 3)

03/23/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, November 14, 2014 By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi With a variety of definitions, our Fathers lead us to humility, but the meaning is almost the same: the comprehensive labour of love that supports all the other virtues. We shall now note some of the sayings of the Fathers which refer to the qualities and fruits of the humble outlook and the manner in which those who have it behave. This will

The Third Tuesday of Great Lent: Growing in the Divine Likeness

03/22/2022

Today…more from Tilden Edwards as he emphasizes the importance of lowering the mind into the heart in order to grow in likeness to God. My interpretation of the early Christian desert elders’ over-encouragement of allowing the mind to sink into the heart is that the mind needs to bathe in the contemplative heart’s more naked availability to the gracious Presence, from whence the mind’s fundamental spiritual insights emerge. As our spiritual journey proceeds in grace,

The Third Monday of Great Lent: The Contradictions of Scripture

03/21/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 29, 2016 We can, however, only express the Truth if we foresee the extreme expression of all the contradictions inherent in it, from which it follows that Truth itself encompasses the ultimate projection of all its invalidations, is antonymic and cannot be otherwise. -Pavel Florensky I wrote in a previous article about the importance of contradictions in the knowledge of God. The Orthodox faith utterly delights in paradox and contradiction

The Second Friday of Great Lent: Reading by the Light of Christ

03/18/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 28, 2016 Let us suppose that you have heard the story of Jesus, in a fairly bare form, nothing like as complete as any of the gospels – just a general outline. And then let us suppose that the only Scriptures you have access to are the Old Testament. You have never seen a New Testament and do not have its phrases in your mind. And then let us suppose

The Second Thursday of Great Lent: St Patrick the Bishop of Armagh and Enlightener of Ireland

03/17/2022

Saint Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland was born around 385, the son of Calpurnius, a Roman decurion (an official responsible for collecting taxes). He lived in the village of Bannavem Taberniae, which may have been located at the mouth of the Severn River in Wales. The district was raided by pirates when Patrick was sixteen, and he was one of those taken captive. He was brought to Ireland and sold as a slave, and was

The Second Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 2)

03/16/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, November 4, 2014 By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi Βlessed and favoured people who are humble are meek, calm, serene, attached to virtue, opposed to evil, untroubled by any circumstance or threat. They live in the bosom of the faith, like infants in the maternal embrace of grace. They never live for themselves, because they’ve forgotten what that is. They’ve become one with the others; they become all things to everyone, in

The Second Monday of Great Lent: A Truly Rational Faith

03/14/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 20, 2016 St. Paul notes that “faith works through love” (Gal. 5:6). This describes the very heart of the ascetic life. Only love extends itself in the self-emptying struggle against the passions without becoming lost in the solipsism of asceticism for its own sake. It is love that endures the contradictions of reality without turning away or reducing them. And it is love that finally comprehends the reality hidden within

The First Friday of Great Lent: The Renunciation of Reason

03/11/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 14, 2016 I grew up in a house of contradictions. We loved each other and we fought. I had a brother who was five years my senior, and we somehow developed a style of contradiction. If he said white, I said black. If I said red, he said blue. Or after either of us made a perfectly reasonable statement, whatever exceptions might exist, the other was sure to note them.

Tags

The Third Friday of Great Lent, the Annunciation: Announcing the Incarnation

The Third Thursday of Great Lent: Who is Unaware of the Stream? One Heart that Seems Two

The Third Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 3)

The Third Tuesday of Great Lent: Growing in the Divine Likeness

The Third Monday of Great Lent: The Contradictions of Scripture

The Second Friday of Great Lent: Reading by the Light of Christ

The Second Thursday of Great Lent: St Patrick the Bishop of Armagh and Enlightener of Ireland

The Second Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 2)

The Second Monday of Great Lent: A Truly Rational Faith

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