#Fr. Stephen Freeman

[dramoor]

"The question of forgiveness is not a moral issue. We do not forgive because it is the 'correct' thing to do. We forgive because it is the true nature of the life in Christ. As Dostoevsky described it: it is Paradise. In the same manner, the refusal to forgive, the continuation of blame, recrimination, bitterness, etc., are not moral failings. They are existential crises - drawing us away from the life of Christ and Paradise, and ever deeper into an abyss of non-being.

We who expect to receive such great mercy at the time of our own death - should we not extend the same mercy to all while we are yet among them?"

~Fr. Stephen Freeman, Forgive Everyone for Everything

(Art: "Crucifix," by Eric Gill 1917)

#Christian art #Fr. Stephen Freeman #Orthodox Christian #Crucifix #Forgive everyone for everything #mercy #life #Paradise #forgiveness is ontological

[adventism-atheism-orthodoxy-me]

I had thoughts like this in my 30's, likely much earlier; maybe before I was married, certainly before I had kids. It was kind of an existential crisis, and was part of my Christian deconstruction.

What exactly does it mean to "be saved"?

What about me is saved?

I had a friend die in a car accident while I was in fourth grade. He and his family were close enough that I participated as a pallbearer at the funeral. My Grandma faced a long period of decline before her death when, in her nursing home she called her caregivers nuns, and kept saying she had to break out. She was reliving her past as a resident in a Latin Catholic reform school - where she went after her elopement, and where she gave birth to her first child.

Her world was fluid, and not one I could share. I was me, my father, and my grandfather, all at the same time. My dad was never me, but he frequently did double duty as his father in her mind.

Now my own parents are in a memory care facility of their own. Much nicer than my Grandma's, but their experiences are no less their own. The way they experience the world are, if they were younger, I would say are chemically derived. But in their case, I know are not.

Age.

What part of me is truly me? What constitutes my soul? These questions haven't diminished since I looked into the dead face of my friend in fourth grade.

Some would say that Salvation has something to do with a, "someday" destination. I would argue that it has more to do with finding a way to live with yourself, live well, here, now. And without fear of the eventual end - whatever that might be.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. A lot of Christians build castles in the sky. They have theories and speculations that they are certain about. They are confident that the world works a certain way that they can divine.

Life is a mystery. The stages. I'm a living "Ship of Theseus", as are my parents, as was my grandma, as was my friend. What of me will be saved?

I have no clue.

But I don't want to live a life I regret - with pain and destruction in it's wake.

Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy upon me, A sinner.

#Fr. Stephen Freeman #Reflections

[taerias]

Follow to the question I received - this is a good article to read for everyone.

#orthodoxy #fr stephen freeman does it again #and not just cause he repeats blog posts lol

[orthodoxsoul]

So, science news says that gravitational waves create a "constant hum" across the universe. Apparently, they do not understand that it's an ison. The universe does Byzantine chant.

Fr. Stephen Freeman

#orthodox #orthodox christianity #byzantine chant #the creation reveals the creator

[icy-book]

Now, Coach Darnell just wanted a fun little hiking trip for the school. Give the kids some exercise, let the parents be involved. It's free, they get to be in nature, and it's a perfectly lovely laid-back afternoon. Unfortunately for him, the entire Close-Foster-Freeman-Swift-Stephen-Stampler-Marlowe-Swallows-Oak-Garcia-Wilson-Actually-Likely-dear-god-how-many-last-names-do-these-people-have family decided to chaperone.

 Henry: We should go to [fairly far away trail] it's a prefect one for the kids

Carol: How are we going to get there though? The school doesn't have enough minibuses

Darryl: Well, Odessey-san could probably fit about a class and some parents and teachers

Mercedes: And the journey is less than an hour so we can use our no-emission fuel source

Glenn: Guess that means I'm riding with you guys, huh

Darnell, who only knows the Odessey as Darryl's rundown car the kiddads got kidnapped in that one time: Hold on, are you seriously suggesting that we try and fit 30+ people into a 30-something year old minivan that runs on a weird fuel source that you never name and has to be changed every hour, that for some reason only Glenn use?

TJ, completely missing the multiple problems: ... she's bigger on the inside

TJ: She can fit a class

 Sparrow will not stop picking up squirrels. No one knows how he's even able to get that close to them or why they don't freak out when he picks them up (the answer is druid powers). There's a picture of him holding twenty and surrounded by more on the school's socials.

 Grant: This hike will be a great opportunity to spend time with Lincoln's new friends and see what they're like

*Sees Link with a terrifying goth girl who acts just like Terry Jr as a teen (including hating her new stepdad), a weeb who has the exact same vocal mannerisms as Glenn and cool guy energy as Nicky, and clearly Normal Oak*

Grant: You know what, never mind, maybe we should go back to homeschooling him

 (Grant: *he's just like me fr meme /negative*)

 Darnell: I don't want a repeat of soccer camp '22, Terry Jr

TJ: I did absolutely nothing wrong

Darnell: You stuck Lark on top of the flat mast saying, and I quote, "Naughty children go on the pole"

TJ: And it got him to stop setting fire to the goal posts, didn't it?

 Every single one of the s1 parents made homemade snacks. Every. Single. One.

 Henry, ranting about nature and rocks: and you know the chasm we're walking by is actually made by a waterfall slowly eroding its own overhang and slowly moving backwards along the valley

Darryl: Henry, we do this trail once a month and you mention this every single time. I did take high school geography. I know how oxbow lakes are formed

Glenn in the background: the chasm we're walking by is also where I fucked your mom WOO

Samantha: I'm pretty sure Autumn was more likely to make love here with Ronnie than you, Glenn

Glenn: Damn, Sam, still bringing out the decade-old burns

 At one point, Nicky hurts his ankle (plus his asthma is acting up) so Terry just starts giving him a piggy back unprompted.

Lark: Hey Teej, can you carry me as well for a bit

TJ: no <3

Nicky absolutely did not need to be carried the entire rest of the trail, but what was he supposed to do? Tell Terry to put him down? Obviously not an option

(Terry also could easily have carried Lark too, he was just being petty. He also knew he could have stopped carrying Nicky after like, 10 minutes, but hey, Nicky wasn’t complaining, and maybe he liked being able to be this close to him again, sue him)

 They go to a milkshake diner place after the hike (which has vegan options to appease the Swallows-Oak-Garcias). Glenn and Morgan get those couples straws and you know this meme?

They both do the thing in the bottom picture, but they share the glasses that they put the bottom end of the straws into so it still ends up looking like the top picture. Alternatively, they only share one glass, and the other straw is in an individual glass. Which of course means they get into a whole Freddie-esque tangent/rant about why the middle glass needs to be twice as big because it's being consumed at double the rate of the other two

Jodie is not jealous at all as he watches this. Nope. Nuh-uh.

Scam and Mark somehow snuck onto the trip. No one knows how. Terry spends the entire diner celebration shooting the paper coverings that come with straws at takeout places at Mark because he still hasn't forgiven her for upsetting Ron

Poor Darnell just has to keep dealing with this weird-ass blend of 4, maybe 5, different families that just keep on happening. Unfortunate downsides of being Carol’s best friend

#Awkward Reunions and Teaching Tomfoolery #ARTT #Terry Jr #terrick #terry stampler #dndads terry jr #terry jr stampler #terrick dndads #dndads terrick #nick close #nicky freeman #nicholas foster #nicky close foster #darnell #coach darnell #darnell dndads #honestly everyone is here but how many are worth tagging #henry oak #sparrow oak #lark oak #glenn close #dndads s2 #dndads #dndaddies #dndads glenn close #morgan freeman #dndads morgan freeman #Darryl Wilson #grant wilson #mark likely

[gods-blade]

Job has no problems within his head -for after each terrible misfortune he says, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” But he is not blessed in the counsel of his wife. She is disgusted with how Job’s life is turning out and says, “Curse God and die!” His friends offer misguided counsel as well. Few things can be as irritating as a theologizing friend when you have suffered terrible loss. The platitudes of the “comforters” are often little more than salt in fresh wounds.

Fr. Stephen Freeman

[cassianus]

The Dormition Fast approaches and so it is a good time to begin preparing for it.

August 1, begins the Dormition Fast in the Byzantine Catholic Church. This particular fasting season is only 2 weeks long (ending on the Feast of the Dormition, August 15) but is a wonderful time for us to prepare ourselves to celebrate the Feast of the Dormition through prayer, fasting, and the reception of the Holy Mystery of Repentance. This feast is very important for Catholics because it shows us that we, like the Theotokos, are given the opportunity after death to be resurrected, body and soul, and live forever in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity. The Church encourages you to participate this year in the Dormition Fast to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

*****

The Dormition of the Theotokos has often been called “pascha in the summer.” It celebrates the victory of life over death—or of death as a translation into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Dormition Fast is our spiritually vigilant preparation leading up to that glorious celebration. “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

*****

“Pray. Fasting without praying is called ‘the Fast of Demons,’ because demons never eat, but they never pray. We fast as a means of drawing closer to God. Your fasting and your prayer should be balanced as much as possible.”

Fr. Stephen Freeman, Glory to God for All Things

[orthodoxwords]

A gate to heaven or hell

“If we love another – it (they) are a gate to paradise. If, however, we hate another, they become a gate to hell (Hades). I’m not thinking in this case of eternal hell-fire (that’s another matter, I think). But hatred (anger, bitterness, envy, etc.) distort how we see and relate to someone else. We turn them into our tormenters (whether they know it or not). So, Christ commands us to love and forgive even our enemies. Of course, the soul often needs lots of healing before it can actually do that – so we pray, ‘Lord, have mercy.’ ”

– Fr. Stephen Freeman

[wrathofgnon]

“The practices of suburban life are not productive of Christian virtue. They were designed to serve a different God.” — Fr. Stephen Freeman

#Fr. Stephen Freeman

[hope-and-fire]

We are not saved by our gifts and talents. We are saved through our weakness, our brokenness, through our shame and our sin. The gospel is not that Christ united Himself with our wonderfulness: For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21) Our union with Christ is precisely in our brokenness and shame – and we fear to go there. We pity those who are broken and work hard (and even pretend) not to be among their number. True repentance is the acknowledgment of weakness and sin, not the promise to do better.

Fr. Stephen Freeman

#fr stephen freeman #fr stephen freeman quotes #catholic #catholic quotes #catholic quote #catholicism #being catholic #roman catholic #catholic church #the catholic church #quote #quotes #2 corinthians 5 #2 corinthians #2 corinthians 5:21

[apenitentialprayer]

The strange act of Communion is that we discover in the particular something that unites us with That which is beyond it.

Fr. Stephen Freeman

#sacrament #Christianity #Stephen Freeman #Orthodox Christianity

[dramoor]

"Much of the modern world sees beauty as a luxury (which it so rarely affords). I grieve deeply when I hear the modern sentiment directed towards a beautiful Church 'that money should have been given to the poor.' These are the words of Judas. And those who say such things rarely give anything themselves. Beauty is not a contradiction of generosity."

~Fr. Stephen Freeman

(Photo © dramoor 2014 Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg, Russia)

#Fr. Stephen Freeman #Orthodox Christian #churches #Christian art #architecture #photography #photographers on tumblr #beauty is not a luxury it is a necessity #words of Judas #money #Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood #travel #St. Petersburg Russia #beauty is not a contradiction of generosity

[adventism-atheism-orthodoxy-me]

Posting so as to remember, for awhile.

These kinds of cautions, I feel, are more sobering then the "hellfire and brimstone", messages that so many people like to give.

This sliding backwards is the real danger of someone who acknowledges that they're on a path, they have purpose, and direction, but that "wants to take a break".

As father Freeman might remind me - people don't take breaks from their marriages.

Lord have mercy upon me. A sinner.

#Fr. Basil #Fr. Stephen Freeman

[jo526]

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” Rom 7:18-20

“Sin is a word that describes a state of being – or, more properly, a state or process of non-being. It is a movement away from our proper existence – God’s gift to His creation. God alone has True Being – He alone is self-existing. Everything else that exists is contingent – it is utterly dependent at every moment upon God for is existence. When God created us, according to the Fathers, He gave us existence. As we grow in communion with Him we move towards well-being. His final gift for us, and that union towards which we properly move, is eternal being.

But there is an opposite to this life of grace. This is a movement towards non-existence, a movement away from God and a rejection of well-being. It is this movement that is called “sin.” We can be in bondage to it, like a leaf trapped in an eddy of water. Sin is not anything itself (for non-being has no existence). But it is described in Scripture by words such as “death” and “corruption.” Corruption or “rot” (φθορά) is an excellent word for describing sin. For it is the gradual dissolution (a dynamic movement or process) of a formerly living thing – its gradual decay into dust.

(...) 

And here is where some creative re-thinking becomes necessary. The habits of our culture are to think of sin in moral terms. It is simple, takes very little effort, and agrees with what everyone around you thinks. But it is theologically incorrect. That is not to say that you can’t find such moralistic treatments within the writings of the Church – particularly from writings over the past several centuries. But the capture of the Church’s theology by moralism is a true captivity and not an expression of the Orthodox mind.

(...)

Finding our salvation means turning away from the appearance of things. It requires a deep and fundamental inward re-orientation of our lives. It requires the inward work of repentance. The moral life is lived on the surface – even atheists behave in a moral manner. When we turn towards Christ-in-us, we move beneath the surface. We begin to see how ephemeral and confused our actions are.

These actions are mostly the work of a false self, an ego that is broken and shamed and struggles frantically “to be better.” But the heart of the Christian spiritual life is not through this path of an improved ego, but through the path of “death to self,” in which we lose an existence that is not our true self, and learn an existence that is ours in Christ. But what we see is often something else. For while we are finding the truth, the other still clings to its false existence – and this is primarily what we see and what others see. The hidden work of salvation remains unseen.

(...)

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. (Col 3:2-4)

This is, again, the apocalyptic character of the Christian life. We are dead and our true lives are hid with Christ in God – and they will appear when He appears.

So what do we see in this life? The simple answer is clear: Christ. It is not our own improvement we search for, but Christ. Our own improvement slowly ceases to matter as we find Christ. And the more we find Him, the more clearly the false nature of the ego seems clear to us, and we can say, “I am the worst of all sinners.”

Why Sin Is Not A Moral Problem

Fr. Stephen Freeman

#orthodoxy

[jkinak04]

Goodness, Truth and Beauty | Discussing with Fr. Stephen Freeman - YouTube

Goodness, Truth and Beauty | Discussing with Fr. Stephen Freeman – YouTube

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#Fr. Stephen Freeman #Goodness Truth and Beauty #Jonathan Pageau #Orthodox Christianity

[teenagealpacacherryblossom]

Fr Stephen Freeman On Orthodox blogging.

Fr Stephen Freeman On Orthodox blogging.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FEKZNnTL07A

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