Glory to God for All Things

Reflections on Florovsky

April 16, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 4

The following is from my earlier post of Florovsky on Ecumenism: The entire western experience of temptation and fall must be creatively examined and transformed; all that “European melancholy” (as Dostoevsky termed it) and all those long centuries of creative history must be borne. Only such a compassionate co-experience provides a reliable path toward the reunification of the fractured Christian world and the embrace and recovery of departed brothers. It is not…

With Apologies to my Readers

April 16, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 6

There really are no shortcuts – even in something as trivial as a blog. My last two posts have been pulled – one a small quote from Fr. Sophrony, added last night before bedtime (because you have to add something), the other written today when I was not entirely certain of what I wanted to write. But both of those are part of the stuff of life. Comments were on target and…

The Ecumenical Vision of Fr. Georges Florovsky

April 14, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 15

Fr. Georges Florovsky remains, in my mind, one of the most neglected of modern Orthodox scholars. His vision of the place of Orthodox theology in relation to the West was instrumental in the birth of the ecumenical movement – which has sadly lost that vision. The cruciform nature of his ecumenical vision exonerate him from charges of “ecumenism” in the negative sense of the word. He saw a mission for Orthodoxy within…

Cleansing the Temple in John

April 13, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 8

A rather oddly placed story – always a problem for those who need to harmonize the gospels (and many of the Fathers tended to desire this themselves) – is the story of the “cleansing of the temple” found in the second chapter. In other gospel accounts it is always part of the story of Holy Week. But here in John it follows immediately after the miracle at the wedding in Cana (another…

You Must Be Born From Above – John 3

April 12, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 14

Absolutely one of the strangest conversations to occur anywhere in the gospels takes place between Jesus and the inquiring Nicodemus in the third chapter of John. Of course, at least one of its verses (or at least its Stephanus Pagination verse number) has become nationally famous as an attendee at almost all televised American sporting events (3:16). The language of being “born again” has passed into American Evangelical popular parlance for probably…

Mystagogical Catechesis and the Gospel of John

April 11, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 7

I promise to get “off topic” from time to time – but I would like to do a bit of a “series” here in the post Pascha period – doing what has been done in the history of the Church – and look at the Gospel of John and what it means for us as believing Christians. I’m not suggesting a straightforward Bible study – but to look at a number of…

Knowing God – After Pascha

April 10, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 15

We approach things so differently in our modern world (as opposed to the ancient world). All of us have access to a great deal of information, although the information that comes to us when we are in the passive mode is less than useless (here I mean television and popular media). Thus I would paraphrase Our Lord and say, “How hard it is for a couch potato to enter the Kingdom of…

And Into the Brightness

April 9, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 4

Bright Week – such a marvelous phrase – descriptive theologically and in many other ways of the time after Pascha. If we only knew, we all live in Bright Week – despite the fasting that we take up from season to season – despite the disasters that plague our earthly sojourn – still, we are all living in Bright Week. In Bright Week, the Bridegroom has come, and the friends of the…

Which Way Does Time Work?

April 7, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 19

I have a 19 year-old son, who would probably rather watch episodes of almost any science fiction show than eat pizza (almost). He particularly loves shows about time travel. In a town like Oak Ridge, it’s possible to have serious discussions with serious people about things that I thought only young boys took seriously (we have some particle physicists in the parish (Russians) and, as I say, Oak Ridge is a town…

Lament Me Not

April 7, 2007 · Fr. Stephen Freeman 1

Do not lament me, O Mother, seeing me in the tomb, for I shall arise and be eternally glorified as God. I shall exalt all who magnify you in faith and in love. From the Paschal Service I stand by the tomb with chills each Pascha, listening to the choir, and for that major chord, “For I shall arise.” The priest then lifts the “Winding Sheet” (Plachinitsa) and carries it into the…