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The Forgiveness of Children
Read more: The Forgiveness of ChildrenI was sitting during our service of Forgiveness Vespers. I’m getting older and I was tired. The senior priest was leading the service and I was sitting quietly, steeling myself for the “Rite of Forgiveness” (where everyone forgives everyone) that was to follow. It takes time to do this when there are hundreds of people […]
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A Modern Lent
Read more: A Modern LentFew things are as difficult in the modern world as fasting. It is not simply the action of changing our eating habits that we find problematic – it’s the whole concept of fasting and what it truly entails. It comes from another world. We understand dieting – changing how we eat in order to improve […]
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Adam’s Sin and the Sin of All
Read more: Adam’s Sin and the Sin of AllI saw this quote from St. Sophrony of Essex posted on Facebook yesterday. It speaks to the heart of our life and the mystery of sin and forgiveness. It is a theme that is common in the Fathers: “Many of us cannot, or do not want to, accept and suffer of our own free will […]
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Words as Icons
Read more: Words as IconsCreation has a sacramental purpose: it reveals God. For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made (Rom. 1:20) This […]
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Taking My Mental Shoes Off
Read more: Taking My Mental Shoes OffI approach spirituality as a social scientist who believes that whether or not God exists, spirituality is a deep part of human nature, shaped by natural selection and cultural evolution, and central to human flourishing and self-transcendence. – Jon Haidt The above quote is a sentiment that I see more and more often these days. It […]
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Rest for Your Soul
Read more: Rest for Your SoulIf…then… Among the most alluring ideas in our lives are the notions of cause and effect, performance and award. Nothing seems more soothing than the simple promise that doing one thing leads to the reward of the other. It is predictable, subject to control, clearly delineates the rules of reward and punishment and makes obvious […]
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The Good That Lies Within
Read more: The Good That Lies WithinThere is this famous quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn: The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by […]
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A Law for All Seasons
Read more: A Law for All SeasonsFrom the screenplay of A Man for all Seasons: William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law! Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that! Sir […]
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Screwtape and the Wisdom of a Four-Year-Old Boy
Read more: Screwtape and the Wisdom of a Four-Year-Old BoyWhen my son was four, he wrote a prayer to St. Michael. We had placed a small statue of St. Michael on his chest-of-drawers. It was classic: St. Michael in Roman soldier’s outfit with a drawn sword, and the devil beneath his foot. It seemed to have made a strong impression on my son. His […]
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Father, I just wanted to thank you so much for your prayers, because I have been living in such peace…
This was beautiful, Fr. Stephen, and something I have been thinking about daily. Having a non-stop moving four year old…
Fr Freeman PLEASE make this into a book!!!
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Jenny, Some of the services of the Church use the simple phrase: “St. _______, pray to God for us!” Or,…