Category: Thankfulness

Hiding in Plain Sight and The False Accusation

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 31 Leave a Comment on %s
In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble. (Wisdom 3:7 RSV) ____ The story is told of St. Macarius that he was falsely accused of fathering a child by a young woman in the village. After being beaten and humiliated by the people there, he returned to his cell and gathered all of the mats and baskets he had made and gave…

A Virtuous Man

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 76 Leave a Comment on %s
Virtue is not a common word in our culture. It sounds somewhat “antique.” For some, it has very little meaning, or a meaning far removed from its original. Within the Christian tradition, however, there is a very long history of the study of virtue. Until the Protestant Reformation, thoughts about what was good and what it meant for a person to pursue the good, were almost exclusively thought of in terms of…

A Defining Moment

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 38 Leave a Comment on %s
What defines you? The answer to that question, to a large extent, is a commentary on who owns you. Frequently, discussions about major aspects of our humanity are little more than a rehearsal of scripts prepared by our owners. This makes it extremely difficult to have a fruitful conversation on many topics, and almost impossible to explore possibilities that have been marginalized by the owning forces of our culture. What do the…

You Don’t Mean a Thing

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 31 Leave a Comment on %s
I am having surgery this week (cataracts) and will be less able to work on the computer. I will post a few chosen posts from the past for readers. I find that I gain something myself by re-reading older material. I offer this meditation on a quote from Stanley Hauerwas that I have shared previously: The project of modernity was to produce people who believe they should have no story except the…

Living in the Real World

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 111 Leave a Comment on %s
Nothing exists in general. If something is beautiful or good, it is manifest in a particular way at a particular time such that we can know it. And this is our true life. A life lived in a “generalized” manner is no life at all, but only a fantasy. However, this fantasy is increasingly the character of what most people think of or describe as the “real world.” A monk lives in…

Say Yes

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 39 Leave a Comment on %s
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you … was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God …. (2Co 1:19-20) +++ It is very hard to say No, despite the fact that we say it all the time. The reason No is so hard is that it…

The Way of Shame and the Way of Thanksgiving

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 64 Leave a Comment on %s
The language of “self-emptying” can have a sort of Buddhist ring. It sounds as we are referencing a move towards becoming a vessel without content – the non-self. Given our multicultural world, such a reference is understandable. It is, however, unfortunate and requires that we visit the true nature of Christian self-emptying. Our self-emptying is deeply tied to shame and the Crucified Christ. As a touchstone, I cite the primary passage (Philippians…

Jesus Is Not Your Imaginary Friend

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 43 Leave a Comment on %s
At some point in our history, we began to attribute a merely mental reality to anything that was not an object and reduced the importance of objects to what they could contribute to our mental reality. We live in a sea of psychology. Things, we believe, are only what we think they are. My “relationship” with you means nothing more than the set of inner experiences and dispositions I have towards you. In…

Understanding Evil and Doing Good

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 64 Leave a Comment on %s
The Fathers commonly spoke of three things together: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. The three are related. And it is necessary to understand these three in order to understand the nature of evil – both why it is evil and how it behaves. The root of Truth, Beauty and Goodness in the Fathers is Being and Existence. God alone has true Being and all things exist and have their being as a gift…

The Priest’s Wife

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 40 Leave a Comment on %s
It is hard to explain to the non-Orthodox the position and role of a priest’s wife. As a priest with an Anglican background, my family life extends to both Protestant and Orthodox experience.  I have been married for 40 years and ordained for 35 of those years. I cannot imagine my life or my ministry without my wife.  Despite the experience of married priests, the canons of the Church in the West…