• Ancient Faith Ministries
  • Radio & Podcasts
  • Publishing
  • Store
  • Blogs:
  • Films
Skip to content
Ancient Faith Blogs
  • Glory to God for All Things

    Orthodoxy and the Christ-Haunted Culture of the South

    July 20, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    One of my favorite priests in the Diocese of the South is Fr. Paul Yerger who serves Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Clinton, Mississippi. His gentle demeanor and kind words are what I have always associated with the South, though it is rarely witnessed today. I had a chance to visit with him this week at the Diocesan Assembly in Miami. Three years ago he was our keynote speaker at our assembly…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Intercession of the Saints

    July 19, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Doubtless one of the less understood aspects of the Orthodox faith, particularly by Protestants, is the importance of the intercession of the saints. Orthodox doctrine and teaching is quite clear that we do not treat saints as objects of worship, nor as worthy of worship. This would be blasphemous to us. Nevertheless, it is a huge part of the “ethos” of Orthodoxy, probably only understood from the inside and then only after…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Boundary of Death

    July 19, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    This was posted originally last Spring. I have posted again for re-reading and for its assurance that Christ is the only guarantee of our dignity. Having spent two-and-a-half years as a Hospice Chaplain, I had opportunity to be present to over 200 deaths (that does not include the many I have witnessed in my years in ordained ministry. As you sit with someone who is dying, there finally arises a boundary beyond…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Christ the Only Assurance of the Dignity of Man

    July 17, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

      I am in Miami attending the annual Diocesan Assembly for the South. This first evening was primarily time with with our Archbishop DMITRI, and my brother clergy in the Diocese. I have known His Eminence since around 1994 and have, on occasion, spent a extended periods with him. I have heard him speak at least three to four times a year (and sometimes more). I add to that numerous private conversations.…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Can The World Be Changed?

    July 16, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    In a recent exchange on one of my postings I was congratulated for my advocacy of attention to small things, and told that thereby we will change the world. I wrote a light-hearted response in which I demurred from such a lofty goal – but have thought much of it since – and have decided to post on the present topic – why changing the world is not the agenda of the Christian…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Before the Feast

    July 12, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I will not likely get a chance to post until after the weekend – the wedding is coming soon upon us and it’s not local. Bags are being packed – last minute details that seem to be endless are all coming to an end that lack of time alone can bring. When it’s all said and done a wedding takes place. As I have written before, our family gathers from the four…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Unity of the Faith

    July 11, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    It is said proverbially in Orthodoxy that “one who prays is a theologian and a theologian is one who prays.” This intends fully to say that an unlettered peasant may be a greater theologian than someone who holds many degrees and can offer page after page of published articles. There is only one reason this is so: theology is about God as reality and not God as a concept. Subtlety was an…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    I'm Glad We Cleared That Up!

    July 10, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Pope Benedict XVI has just released a clarification on the documents of Vatican II where he explains what is meant by calling the Orthodox “Churches” while still maintaining that they are “defective.” In a major problem that exists between Orthodox understandings of the nature of the Church and Roman Catholic understandings of the nature of the Church – he reiterated that the recognition of the papacy as universal primate of the Church…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Fire of Pentecost in Orthodoxy

    July 9, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    No one, of course, can describe the fire that fell on the Apostles at Holy Pentecost. At most we are told that the Spirit appeared “like tongues of flame lighting upon the heads of the Apostles.” Not much a description. Other times in Scripture we are told of a Pillar of Fire and of the bush that burned but was not consumed. Again, this is very little information. To this day, there…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Some Things Have to Be Posted

    July 9, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    My house is quickly being swallowed up by impending nuptials. Tomorrow my oldest daughter and my second’s daughter’s husband arrive. News continues to reach us of family the will be joining us in S.C. for my son’s wedding. He is marrying an Orthodox girl who delights our heart. Indeed our hearts are very full. But I post a photo of my son from much earlier years. I treasure it because it speaks…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Charismatic Episcopal Church Congregation and Clergy to be Received into Holy Orthodoxy

    July 9, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    The following newsstory gives details of a congregation being received into the Antiochian Archdiocese from the Charismatic Episcopal Church, a Pentecostal denomination with many former Episcopalians, clergy and lay among their membership.

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Spirit, the Modern World, Pentecostalism and Orthodoxy

    July 8, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Part of the larger Christian context in which Orthodoxy lives today includes not only Catholics (of various sorts), Protestants (of even more sorts), but Pentecostals as well (of which there are quite a few sorts). Indeed, having come splashing onto the modern religious scene around 1900, Pentecostals have been by far the fastest growing of all Christian groups, and have had huge influences everywhere, with only the possible exception of the Orthodox.…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Life of the Spirit

    July 6, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    The following paragraphs are from the chapter on “The Life of the Spirit” in Fr. Sophrony’s We Shall See Him As He Is. St. Silouan’s method is to place us before the general principle and then leave us to work out and diagnose our own case. To give a few examples: ‘One should eat only so much as allows prayer and the feeling of the Divine presence to continue uninterrupted after food’;…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Losing My Religion

    July 5, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I could not resist using the title from the R.E.M. hit of a few years ago for this post, though it’s really not about losing one’s religion: it’s more about losing your soul. In one of my favorite C.S. Lewis novels, That Hideous Strength, Lewis tries his hand at the description of a soul in danger of being lost. His friend, Charles Williams, had, years before, masterfully done the same in his…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Wonder of Communion

    July 4, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Despite the title, this post is not directly, or at least not yet about the Mystery of Holy Communion. Instead it begins first with the mystery of communion that can only take place when other persons are about. For yet the third time in my family’s life, a child is soon to marry, though this time it is a manchild (to use the Biblical expression). On Sunday week my son will marry…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Struggle for Communion

    June 30, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    For many Protestants whose Church experience was largely shaped in the past few decades, one of the most disconcerting aspects of a first visit to an Orthodox Church is the fact that not everybody, not all Baptized Christians, are permitted to receive communion. Indeed, communion is restricted to Orthodox Christians who have made preparation to receive (that’s another topic). For some this is a surprise, for others, not, and for still some…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Kind Words and Wisdom

    June 29, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I have added to my blogroll (under the category of “Catholic”) Moretben’s Undercroft. I always find him to be a good read, and more than occasionally to be a very kind reader of Glory to God for All Things. His words of kindness are a reminder of our common human bond and of so much that we all share together in our hearts. In a very recent post, he included the following…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The God Who Is Beautiful

    June 28, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Everything is beautiful in a person when he turns toward God, and everything is ugly when is is turned away from God. Fr. Pavel Florensky I come to the end of a day that has been filled with other activity and little time for writing. But in my reading at bedtime I came across the above quote. It obviously contains a world of truth, indeed, from a certain perspective it contains the…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Things I Never Did for Summer Vacation

    June 28, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I am frequently impressed by the things done by youth these days  (yes, they do many positive things). When I was in high-school summer was job time. In college, summer was again, job time. Of course, I had no international connections at the time. One of the youth from our parish, Ryan Erickson, is a student at the University of Chicago, active in the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (the college organization). This summer…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Where the Heart Resides

    June 27, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    One of the questions that surrounds the knowledge of God, as spoken of by the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Eastern Church, is that of where the heart resides. By this, I do not mean where the heart is located (in the chest or wherever), but where the heart itself lives. Though the heart is by no means disconnected from our rationality, it is also resident in many other places of…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Many years! Fr. Al

    June 27, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I read with sadness that Fr. Al Kimel is ending his blog, Pontifications. I would not be writing here except for his gracious invitation several years ago to write occasional pieces on his blog. It was his suggestion as well that I try to do this on my own. These are only two of many kindnesses (and among the smallest) I have received from him over the years. His farewell note goes…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Ars Gratia Artis

    June 26, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    This is for my daughter – who is a young artist and in the Governor’s School for the Arts this summer. I say this is for her – though I’m not sure she reads the blog everyday – and, of course, I’m letting the rest of you thousand or two people read it, too, so I guess this is for all of us. The question: what is art? I watched a wonderful…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Fools for Christ - Remembering What Matters

    June 25, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I have been viewing the movie, Ostrov, which I reviewed here, simply because watching it feeds me where watching something else would not. I think I have been particularly fed by mediatating on the actions of the character of Fr. Anatoly, who is something of a “fool for Christ.” He is not the most learned (not learned at all particularly) but he knows what a man must know: God. In that, he…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    On a Birthday - Many Years!

    June 23, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Please indulge me in a personal post – I will be in Murfreesboro, TN, visiting with my youngest daughter who is in Governor’s School this summer on Saturday of this week, and on Sunday, my family and I will observe the birthday of my wife. My wish for “Many Years!” is for my wife for whom I give thanks to God constantly. I will be back to blogging regularly come Monday morning.…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    The Struggle in Prayer

    June 23, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    Prayer is infinite creation, the supreme art. Over and over again we experience an eager upsurge towards God, followed only by a falling away from His light. Time and again we are conscious of the mind’s inability to rise to Him. There are moments when we feel ourselves on the verge of insanity. ‘Thou didst give me Thy precept to love but there is no strength in me for love. Come and…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    John the Baptist and Forerunner of the Lord

    June 22, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    We approach the feast of the Nativity of the Forerunner of Christ – a feast noted around my household for also being the birthday of my wife (and of her brother). Thus we celebrate and are sometimes slightly distracted from the ecclesiatical meaning of the day. But a family cannot be faulted for the joy it takes in its mother, nor I in my spouse. But I want to turn my thoughts…

  • Glory to God for All Things

    Orthodoxy and Torture

    June 21, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman

    I generally try to respond to questions, when asked, though my main guidance in writing is to follow what seems good to me and that which I have some experience in. Therefore the limited range of topics… However in one of the comments recently, I was asked to consider a post on the Orthodox Church’s view on torture and “enhanced interrogation.” First, let me say that I have never served in the…

Page 379 of 391« First‹ Previous375376377378379380381382383Next ›Last »

© 2009-2023 Ancient Faith Ministries, Inc.
All Rights Reserved · Disclaimers