The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

Fr. Stephen Freeman

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Homilies and Spiritual Instruction

Rating: 6,8|Votes: 8

The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The path of modernity carries no humility. It breeds pride, and frequently contempt. Failure is its nemesis. We blame ourselves for laziness and sloth, certain that a little more effort will make the difference.

Orthodoxy is a Way of Life

A talk with Marilyn Swezey, the secretary of Bishop Basil (Rodzianko)

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Orthodoxy Today

Rating: 9,5|Votes: 11

Orthodoxy is a Way of Life

A talk with Marilyn Swezey, the secretary of Bishop Basil (Rodzianko)

My interviewee has had an extremely interesting and unusual life for an American woman. Charming, intelligent, she looks some 15 years younger than she really is. And behind her there is a long life full of the hard labors of a noble, self-sacrificing person who seeks to see Divine providence in every turn of her life. Here she is: secretary of Bishop Basil (Vasily) Rodzianko, assistant to Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), an expert in the Russian literature and arts, honorable parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey.

Sunday of St. John of the Ladder

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

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Homilies and Spiritual Instruction

Rating: 10|Votes: 1

Sunday of St. John of the Ladder

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Lent is a time of renewal when like spring, everything become new again; when our life that had gone into a twilight becomes alive with all the intensity that God can communicate to us, humans, by making us partakers of His Holy Spirit, by making us partakers, through the Holy Sacraments and the direct gift of God, of the Divine nature.

On the Remembrance of Death: the Sixth Step of the Ladder of Divine Ascent

Jesse Dominick

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Theology

Rating: 7,7|Votes: 3

On the Remembrance of Death: the Sixth Step of the Ladder of Divine Ascent

Jesse Dominick

The sixth step of St. John Climacus’s The Ladder of Divine Ascent is dedicated to the spiritual discipline of the remembrance of death, which is to have in mind the hour of one’s repose and the following judgment before God, in order to deter oneself from sin. St. John tells us that the remembrance of death is the highest work for one who is spiritually minded (6:4), and that “He who has mounted [this sixth step] will never sin again” (6:24).

Do We Believe in God?

Fr. Stephen Freeman

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Homilies and Spiritual Instruction

Rating: 5|Votes: 1

Do We Believe in God?

Fr. Stephen Freeman

As a young priest, I fancied myself to be a “problem solver.” A good parish, I thought, was a happy parish. Conflict and crisis were things to be managed. I even took a number of courses in seminary that were focused on “management.” And this, I believe, was the secular option, the breeding ground of despair and unbelief.