On the eighth day after His Nativity, our Lord Jesus Christ was circumcised, in accordance with Old Testament Law. All male infants underwent circumcision as a sign of God’s Covenant with the holy Forefather Abraham and his descendants.
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” I stop, struck with admiration at this thought. What shall I say first? Shall I demonstrate the vanity of the Gentiles? Shall I praise the truth of our faith?
The monastic settlements on Mount Athos can be separated into the following categories: the twenty monasteries and their dependencies – that is sketes, kellia, kalyves, hermitages and dwellings.
We wish to thank you for being with us during 2019. Your support was invaluable for us and it was an incredible year and the top read ascetic posts this year show once again your love for God and his saints. Below are the top 10 ascetic posts for 2020 based on the most read ascetic articles in 2019. We wish you a new blessed year 2020 full of realizations and grace of God. Before leaving you in the companion of the list, what is humbling for us is that the most visited page (aside of general pages like Home […]
Slander is a great evil. Just as the little rudder steers the whole ship wherever it wants, likewise the tongue leads a person either to good or to evil.
I’m going to tell you the mystery of the cat now:
The law of death, which followed from the Transgression, prevailed upon us, and from it there was no escape.
Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary in order to save our souls. He came as our life giver but we embraced Him as His death givers.
Some say that Christmas was put on purpose on December 25th because Roman Emperor Aurelian established in 274 the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” (Sol Invictus) on the same day. Also in the same period were the Saturnalia (in the honor of roman god Saturn) held on 17 December, later expanded till 23 December.
The cell of Burazeri, also Belozyorka, is a dependency of the Monastery of Chilandari on Mount Athos. It is located in Karyes, south of the Skete of Saint Andrew (Sarai).
In former times, God, who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see.
The Resurrection of Christ is the most significant event to take place in History. It is the event that differentiates Christianity from every other religion. Other religions have mortal leaders, whereas the Head of the Church is the Resurrected Christ. “Resurrection of Christ” implies the deification and the resurrection of human nature, and the hope for deification and resurrection of our own hypostasis. Since the medicine has been discovered, there is hope for life.
O, Holy Spirit that made all races, look kindly at the whole human family and take away the arrogance and hatred which separates us from our brothers.
The greatest gift God has made to people is the possibility of union with Him. This gift has become concrete through the incarnation of God, through the birth of Jesus Christ.
The only strategy that succeeds today is prayer, counsel and attention. Through these three we come into full harmony with the universe.
Like most things, it’s not the outward actions and situation that matter most, it’s our inner state.
The skete Bogoroditsa belongs to the Holy Monastery of Saint Panteleimon. It is situated in a forested area, between the monasteries of Vatopedi and Pantokrator.
Byzantine Chant is not just another form of music. It is a tool on which we can pray better. It is, in fact, a form of melodic prayer. If the music in general is composed to be listened to, the psaltic music is made to pray to the fullest and therefore it sounds best in the Church and not so much in the concerts.
If you wish to explore the Holy Scripture, and you overcome your laziness and apply yourself, thirsting for the knowledge, then every good thing will be yours. You will fill your mind with the divine light. Then, when you apply that light to the doctrines of the Church, you will very easily recognize everything that is true and unadulterated, and lay it up in the hidden treasures of your soul.
My child, always be careful, both when you are happy and when you are sad. When you are happy you should not lose control through vivacity and laughter, nor when you are sad should you be so gloomy that it shows.
When we think of Christmas, we think about what we have to offer to others, seen as a kind of social obligation or at most an expression of everyday love.
All vice is caused by self-esteem and sensual pleasure; you cannot overcome passion without hating them.
Elder Archimandrite Ephraim (Ioannis Moraitis – June 24, 1927) was an archimandrite and former abbot of Philotheou Monastery on Mount Athos, spiritual guide of four monasteries on Mount Athos and of eight women’s convents in Greece, as well as the founder of 19 monasteries in the United States and Canada. He resided in Arizona at St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery until his repose (December 7, 2019).
The Skete belongs to the Holy Monastery of Great Lavra and took its name from Saint Maximus the Kafsokalyvi who lived there in the fourteenth century and used to build improvised shacks. When realizing that there was the fear of him loving the shacks, he immediately started burning them. He wanted to give all his love to God alone. The name „kafsokalyvi” (Greek) means „shack-burner”.
We learnt enough in order to have confidence in what we think we know but we did not learnt enough in order to accept something else which might contradict our narrow views.
Do you fast? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, do not forget the imprisoned, have pity on the tortured, comfort those who grieve and who weep, be merciful, humble, kind, calm, patient, sympathetic, forgiving, reverent, truthful and pious, so that God might accept your fasting and might plentifully grant you the fruits of repentance.
My dear spiritual Children, While I’m still în charge of my faculties, I’d like to give you some advice.
Someone asked me if he could use a gun to protect his house. Well… I don’t know about guns. But I know about locks to protect the houses: A very old hermit monk here had a kelli dedicated to Saint Nicholas. Even though he was alone in the wilderness, he not only didn’t have a lock at his cell, but he left the door largely open even if he went some distance away (Karyes, a monastery etc.). In the many years he behaved like this, no unfortunate accident occurred. This went on for years till once a group of pilgrims […]
The delicacy and the knowledge of the saints is above anything we can concieve. In fact, without God’s grace, we are just barbarians—without God’s grace, we humans are wolves among other humans.
The love of husband and wife is the force that welds society together. Men will take up arms and even sacrifice their lives for the sake of this love. St. Paul would not speak so earnestly about this subject without serious reason; why else would he say, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord?”