Pascha Archives - Page 19 of 31

The Eighteenth Day of Great Lent. A Lenten Meditation, by Saint Leo the Great

03/28/2019

Dear friends, at every moment the earth is full of the mercy of God, and nature itself is a lesson for all the faithful in the worship of God. The heavens, the sea and all that is in them bear witness to the goodness and omnipotence of their Creator, and the marvelous beauty of the elements as they obey him demands from the intelligent creation a fitting expression of its gratitude. But with the return

The First Day (Pure Monday) of Great Lent: The Journey to Pascha

03/11/2019

By Alexander Schmemann When a man leaves on a journey, he must know where he is going. Thus with Lent. Above all, Lent is a spiritual journey and its destination is Pascha, “the Feast of Feasts.” It is the preparation for the “fulfillment of Pascha, the true Revelation.” We must begin, therefore, by trying to understand this connection between Lent and Pascha, for it reveals something very essential, very crucial about our Christian faith and

Miracle of Saint Nektarios: The Healing of Fr. Nektarios Vitalis of Cancer

11/09/2018

Fr. Nektarios Vitalis, well-known in Lavrio [a city in Attika, Greece] for his deeds and his sympathy to the poor and those written-off by the world in these difficult times, retells the following incident from when he was dying from cancer. What is said below has been told elsewhere, repeatedly, including in the book I talked to Saint Nektarios (Athens 1997, by the renowned writer Mr. Manolis Melinos). Fr. Nektarios Vitalis recalls: “I was suffering

Abraham at the End of the World

07/20/2018

By Father Stephen Freeman, January 24, 2015 This is an exercise in the Orthodox reading of the Scriptures. My thoughts frequently return to this story and this line of thought. This article is greatly expanded from an earlier version. The habits of modern Christians run towards history: it is a lens through which we see the world. We see a world of cause and effect, and, because the past is older than the present, we look

The Feast of Holy Pentecost

05/27/2018

The Feast of Holy Pentecost is celebrated each year on the fiftieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter) and ten days after the Feast of the Ascension of Christ. The Feast is always celebrated on a Sunday. The Feast commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, a feast of the Jewish tradition. It also celebrates the establishment of the Church through the preaching

Of Course We Are Called to be Moral—A Response to My Critics

05/18/2018

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 19, 2014 Well, the firestorm has moved even to my host, Ancient Faith Blogs. There, you can find a response and a critique of my last article, The Unmoral Christian. I find nothing in the response with which I disagree. The author argues that externals are often important, certainly for beginners, and suggests that I have overplayed my hand in overemphasized the inner nature of our lives. That is perhaps true. Every child

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Pascha. Ascended in Glory (Part I)

05/16/2018

THE FEAST OF CHRIST’S Ascension is seldom given its due in the cycle of liturgical services, even within the Orthodox tradition. This is in part because it falls awkwardly on a Thursday, when most of our parishioners are at work. More significant is the fact that the theology, the deeply spiritual meaning of the feast, is not well understood. The Ascension is difficult for us to grasp because the image it evokes seems so improbable.

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Pascha. Divine Light.

05/15/2018

Only divine light, when it shines in us, allows us to see our sins. It is by prayer that our heart begins, little by little, to understand the influences of the spirits which fill the cosmos. Instead of making progress, we see with an ever greater acuteness the passions which possess us. Paradoxically, this feeling that there is no progress is itself progress. Even if we have not yet seen the uncreated light of God,

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Monday of the Sixth Week of Pascha. The Christification of the Universe.

05/14/2018

The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. —John 6:51 Jesus the Christ did not talk in this truly shocking way (see John 6:60) so we could worship bread and wine. He came so that we would recognize his presence in all things, not just in the human body of Jesus, not just in the human body of God’s people (1 Corinthians 12:12ff), but even in the nurturing

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Friday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. The Unmoral Christian.

05/11/2018

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 17, 2014 In recent articles I have challenged the place of contemporary morality in the Christian life. Some have had difficulty with this, wondering how we should then think about the commandments that are directed towards our behavior. Others have suggested that my challenge is merely semantic. There are certainly semantic distinctions being made here – but the reason for them is important and goes beyond mere words. But if it

Tags

The Eighteenth Day of Great Lent. A Lenten Meditation, by Saint Leo the Great

The First Day (Pure Monday) of Great Lent: The Journey to Pascha

Miracle of Saint Nektarios: The Healing of Fr. Nektarios Vitalis of Cancer

Abraham at the End of the World

The Feast of Holy Pentecost

Of Course We Are Called to be Moral—A Response to My Critics

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Pascha. Ascended in Glory (Part I)

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Pascha. Divine Light.

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Monday of the Sixth Week of Pascha. The Christification of the Universe.

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Friday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. The Unmoral Christian.

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