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  • Glory to God for All Things

    Travel Prayers

    January 10, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I am driving through rain today (just over past Nashville – 3 hours or so away). But I’m not fond of rain. If you think of me over the day (there and back) offer a prayer for safety. It’ll be good to get back home, and out of the wet. Glory to God for all things!

  • Glory to God for All Things

    'Til My Last Breath

    January 9, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Abba Antony told Abba Poemen, “We have one great work to accomplish. Before God, we must accept responsibility for our sins, expecting to be tempted until our last breath.” For myself, as wells as others that I know, the battle against sin and temptation is, as described by the Fathers, a battle ’til our last breath. Most of the battles we fight are entirely inward – not there for anyone else’s observation.…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Preaching the Gospel to All Nations

    January 8, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    One of the striking experiences of Theophany (Jan. 6) is the public Great Blessing of the Waters. I have done this service at several rivers, once in Columbia, S.C., where the ruins of one of the older, more infamous State Prisons, overlooked the site of the blessing. To pronounce the words of blessing over the waters in sight of those ruins could not help but conjure up thoughts of the ruined walls…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Holy Russia

    January 7, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Like the returning exiles of Israel from ancient Babylon, the Russian people have been returning to a Church that was frequently devastated and constantly persecuted under 70 years of Communism. When an Orthodox Church is consecrated it is set aside “until the end of the world.” Thus you do not simply walk away from a Church gutted by the godless, but it is restored.  By the same token, you do not walk…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Keeping Your Eyes Open

    January 7, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    A hermit said, “Cover a donkey’s eyes and it will walk in circles around the mill wheel. If you uncover its eyes, it will not continue to walk. The devil obscures our vision and leads us into all kinds of sins. If we keep our eyes open, we will more likely escape. Keeping your eyes open is perhaps one of the harder spritual feats of our present age. So much of the…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Theophany in Which We Live

    January 6, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    The liturgical life of the Church makes a very clear link between the Nativity of Christ, the Theophany at His Baptism, and Pascha. Elements of Pascha run throughout the texts for the services of all three feasts, and even the icons echo one another. There is a recognition that at Nativity, Christ enters the “Winter Pascha,” becoming man, taking on even the weakness of an infant, He has embraced the same weakness…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Scenes from Theophany in Russia

    January 5, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    On Theophany, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, the Church celebrates the manifestation of God as Holy Trinity: Christ, the Son of God, the Voice of the Father speaking, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” and the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Across the world, Orthodox Churches will complete this celebration with the Great blessing of waters, carrying the good…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    What's Beneath the Water? Crushed Dragons.

    January 3, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    This coming Sunday (New Calendar) marks one of the greatest feasts of the Orthodox year, the Feast of Theophany, Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan river. Across the world Orthodox Christians will gather after the Liturgy to bless the waters: the ocean, a river, a spring, etc.   Every feast day in Orthodoxy is connected to the Feast of Pascha, because Pascha is God’s great act of salvation. However, some feasts show this…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Words from St. Seraphim of Sarov

    January 2, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives. All condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other… Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Renouncing Iconoclasm

    January 1, 2008 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I have added a new quote to the sidebar of the blog – it is from an earlier posting: We have to renounce iconoclasm. In so doing, we inherently set ourselves against certain forces within modernity. The truth is eschatological, that is, it lies in the future, but we also believe that this eschatological reality was incarnate in Christ, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. We do not…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The New Year

    December 31, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Many thanks to all of my readers over this past year. I add a thank you to those who have also been supporting my podcast on Ancient Faith Radio. I commend that wonderful ministry to you. My podcast is among the least on that site. They are doing a wonderful ministry for the Church. I posted three articles today (it was a holiday). On New Year’s we will celebrate the Liturgy for…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Modern Man and Coldness of Heart

    December 31, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I have been listening to a tape of the talk, “The River of Fire,” given by Dr. Alexander Kalomiros in 1980. By now it has become a very frequently cited and discussed document within the modern Orthodox world. Despite the occasional stridency of its tone, I cannot mkae myself disagree with its conclusions. The following is from the opening remarks of the talk – and speak eloquently of the “Christian Atheism” I…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    St. John Chrysostom on the Jesus Prayer

    December 31, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

     St. John on the Jesus Prayer: The remembrance of the name of Jesus rouses the enemy to battle. For a soul that forces itself to pray the Prayer of Jesus can find anything by this prayer, both good and evil. First it can see evil in the recesses of its own heart, and afterwards good. This prayer can stir the snake to action, and this prayer can lay it low. This prayer…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Grace Given To Us

    December 30, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    From the writings of the Elder Sophrony: At Vespers during Lent at the Monastery of Old Russikon-on-the-Hill the Lord allowed a certain monk to see Father Abraham, a priest-monk of the strict rule, in the image of Christ. The old confessor, weaing his priestly stole, was standing hearing confessions. When the monk entered the confessional he saw that the grey-haired confessor’s face looked young like the face of a boy, and his…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Nature of Things and our Salvation

    December 28, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    The nature of things is an important question to ask – or should I say an a priori question. For once we are able to state what is the nature of things then the answers to many questions framed by the nature of things will also begin to be apparent. All of this is another way of saying that questions have a way of determining answers. So what is the nature of…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Being Formed in the Tradition

    December 27, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I watched a group of linguistic-psychologists (of varying sorts) in a panel discussion the other night (CSPAN). All of them are involved in advising political campaigns. What they know about the science of language and how people actually make decisions versus how we would like to think we make decisions was staggering. Among the most staggering of agreed pieces of data was that 98% of the process of so-called rational decisions are…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Reading the Nativity Story

    December 24, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I was right. I said in a sermon several days ago that my congregation should expect the usual presentations on various parts of the Christmas story, the thrust of the articles (and letters to the editor) being about how either they did not occur on a literal level or how they did occur. This goes on every year. Some scientist throws around the latest Christmas theory about the star, (comet, supernova, etc.),…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

    December 24, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, Has shown to the world the light of wisdom. For by it those who worshipped the stars, Were taught by a star to adore Thee, The Sun of Righteousness. And to know Thee the Orient from on high, O Lord, Glory to Thee! Troparion for Christmas Day

  • Glory to God for All Things

    On the Eve of the Nativity - We Sing the Royal Hours

    December 23, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Come, you faithful, let us arise and behold the divine condescension from above, made manifest for us in Bethlehem; and having cleansed our minds, let us by our lives offer virtues instead of myrrh, as we faithfully prepare the entry of the Nativity with treasures of the soul, crying, ‘In the highest, glory to God in Trinity, through whom his good pleasure has appeared among men to rescue Adam from the ancestral…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Continuing Problem of Vision

    December 22, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    One of the most striking features of the Gospels is the frequent response of the Disciples after the resurrection of Christ: doubt. I have always been sympathetic to the doubts and hesitations that accompanied their ministry during the ministry of Christ. They are almost endearing in their inability to grasp what Christ is all about. However, the same inability to grasp things after the resurrection seems to carry with it all kinds…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    You Can Never Be Too Kind

    December 22, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    When I was first assigned as lay pastor, and later, as priest for the fledgling mission in Knoxville, TN, I asked my Archbishop for advice. He had served and been a successful Orthodox missionary in the South for better than 30 years. His simple advice to me was, “I have made it a rule always to accept an invitation to speak.” His method generally followed that model. He practiced hospitality and kindness…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Icons Will Save the World

    December 20, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Standing before the icon of Christ in the front of St. John Orthodox Church, I prepare to offer my confession at the Sacrament of Forgiveness. The Holy image of the One Who Forgives comes forth to meet me, as the father comes forth to welcome home the prodigal son in the familiar gospel passage (Luke 15:11–32). The love of Jesus pours forth from his prototype (the icon), sees the offering of my…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Smallness of God - A Rewrite

    December 20, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Whom have we, Lord, like you – The Great One who became small, the Wakeful who slept, The Pure One who was baptized, the Living One who died, The King who abased himself to ensure honor for all. Blessed is your honor! St. Ephrem the Syrian We draw near to the Feast of our Lord’s Nativity, and I cannot fathom the smallness of God. Things in my life loom so large and…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    And Now For Something Completely Different - Music From the Ethiopian Orthodox

    December 20, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I am barely familiar with the Ethiopian Orthodox. They are in communion with the Oriental Orthodox Churches but have a very close relationship with the Eastern Orthodox. Among the most ancient of Orthodox Churches, they are also perhaps the most unique. Ethiopian and East African culture are seen clearly in this music, although this is not the music of the liturgy. It’s religious, but I’m not sure of its position to the…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    What Role Do the Fathers Play in the Reading of Scripture?

    December 19, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    It is easy from the outside to form an incorrect picture of the Orthodox interpretation of Scripture. There is actually quite a bit of variety among the Fathers when it comes to reading the Word of God. Even in the earliest centuries there were noted differences in the approach that obtained among those trained in Antioch and those trained in Alexandria, the two great centers of Christian exegesis. To a large extent,…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    How the Orthodox Read Scripture

    December 18, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    The following quote is from the Christian history website maintained by Christianity Today (an evangelical source).  It describes the crucial teaching role of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, an early Bishop of the Church and later a martyr, and perhaps the most articulate spokesman of Orthodox theology in the 2nd century. The article discusses Irenaeus’ refutation of the Gnostic heretics, particularly their misuse of Scripture. It sheds light on how the Church rightly divides the…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Traditional Byzantine Hymn of Christmas - In Arabic

    December 17, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

          

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