By Metropolitan of Gortyn and Megalopolis, Ieremias † [Having shown what God is and that He is incomprehensible] Saint John goes on to prove that He is One, not many. This is clear to those who are convinced by the Holy Scriptures. The Lord says as much at the beginning of the Law: ‘I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods but
By Father Stephen Freeman, February 22, 2018 Your judgments are like the great deep, O Lord, You will save men and beasts. (Psalm 36:6) The notion of justice in Scripture is rather straightforward. It has to do with proper order and balance. The one who has much should not exploit his advantage and oppress the one who has little. In all things, there will be an accounting. And in the accounting, things will be “set
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 28, 2015 There is a unanimous witness in the Christian gospels concerning the place of St. John the Baptist. In the Orthodox world he is generally referred to as the Forerunner. All of the gospels agree that he plays a key role in the coming of the Messiah. It is a role that is largely ignored by most of the Christian world. The gospels make reference to two Scriptures when they
By Father Lawrence Farley Saint Stephen is usually hailed as the first Christian martyr, but he is more than that. His death was also a boundary, and the blood which flowed from his body as the stones hit him became a river, one which separated the faith of the Christians from the religion of Judaism. For unlike the martyrs who followed him, Stephen was not killed by the pagan Romans, executed under a law which
By Fr. Steven Kostoff Within the Orthodox Church, the Sunday between December 11-17 is called, simply enough, the “Second Sunday Before the Nativity of the Lord,” and more specifically, the “Sunday of the Forefathers.” This liturgical preparation for the Feast of our Lord’s Nativity—something of a build-up—is a conscious echo of the lengthy time of preparation, determined by God and embodied in the history of Israel, before the sending of His only-begotten Son into the
The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, was also named Levi (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27); he was one of the Twelve Apostles (Mark 3:18; Luke 6:45; Acts 1:13), and was brother of the Apostle James Alphaeus (Mark 2:14). He was a publican, or tax-collector for Rome, in a time when the Jews were under the rule of the Roman Empire. He lived in the Galilean city of Capernaum. When Matthew heard the voice of Jesus Christ:
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 29, 2015 One of the most interesting stories in the Old Testament is found in Genesis 32. There we hear the story of Jacob wrestling with God. Or is it the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel? Jacob had to face his brother Esau the next day. His anxiety comes through even in that ancient account. The text says that Jacob wrestled “with a Man.” But this is not
UNION BETWEEN CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS Carl G. Jung in his book: Answer to Job discusses the importance of Mary as the archetypal symbol of the feminine in all human beings. “But if the individuation process is made conscious, consciousness must confront the unconscious and a balance between the opposites must be found. As this is not possible through logic, one is dependent on symbols which make the irrational union of opposites possible. They are
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 12, 2021 We know that Jesus used parables in his teaching. It is important to remember what a parable is. Parables are extended metaphors that use concrete examples to form a brief, coherent story. Parables are not history and their meaning is not immediately accessible. They are meant to draw us in and provoke us to “subvert conventional ways of seeing and living and to invite hearers
By Fr. Stephen Freedman, January 12, 2018 The imagery of a cosmic battle with chaos…is properly the foundation for the Christian life. “Chaos” is a metaphor for so much that threatens God’s good creation and makes war against His saints. It is also an understanding that is almost completely lost in the modern world. We generally fail to notice that modernity is a phenomenon of the “first world.” It is an understanding that presumes the
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