The essence of the church is synodicity (synergy). The biggest problem of mankind today is that they have forgotten the Jesus which is God-Man, and therefore our heavenly purpose.
Today, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate officially included in the calendar of the Church the Saints Joseph the Hesychast (Elder Joseph), Ephraim of Katounakia and Daniil of Katounakia.
The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday of Great Lent. The dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 has been that of the victory of the icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged on and off since 726, was finally laid to rest, and icons and their veneration were restored on the first Sunday in Lent. Ever since, this Sunday has been commemorated as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy.”
Pay attention carefully. After the sin comes the shame; courage follows repentance. Did you pay attention to what I said? Satan upsets the order; he gives the courage to sin and the shame to repentance.
Koliva: Definition Koliva is a dish, consisting of boiled wheat that is used liturgically in the Eastern Orthodox Church for commemorations of the dead.
True fasting lies in rejecting evil, holding one’s tongue, suppressing one’s hatred and banishing one’s lust, evil words, lying and betrayal of vows.
In any society there are richer people and poorer people. People who find a job, people who can’t find a job for a variety of reasons. All of this God has left on earth in order to need each other and to learn to love one another and not to judge too much why. In any case, Jesus does not want the sinner’s death but to return and be alive.
The mind (νους) is the finest attention, the human focus, the eye of the soul. If someone is focused on God and His rays – that is on God’s uncreated energy called grace, then the human mind has the property to receive light, to be enlightened like a pure parabolic mirror on which these rays fall.
Greater than baptism itself is the fountain of tears after baptism, even though it is somewhat audacious to say so. For baptism is the washing away of evils that were in us before, but sins committed after baptism are washed away by tears. As baptism is received in infancy, we have all defiled it, but we cleanse it anew with tears. And if God in His love for mankind had not given us tears, few indeed and hard to find would be those in a state of grace.
Many wonder why Great Lent holds forty days. To be very accurate, Great Lent does not last forty days but thirty-six days. However, people generally think it holds forty days.
A nation without faith in God does not become free, neither advances further as a civilization. Only in this way we can assure for our children the heavenly inheritance, the only one true inheritance which truly remains even after death.
One should not think about the doings of God when one’s stomach is full; on a full stomach there can be no vision of the Divine mysteries.
The disciple’s question Father, I suffer terribly from rheumatism, and I am afraid that it is from demons. Tell me if this is so. What is it, then, that I see in dreams, on the wall, some wild beasts? I am very upset because I cannot fast and I am forced to eat a lot. What should I do? The answer of the Elder
The state leadership called the greatest doctor in China and asked, “Are you the greatest doctor in China?“
The man who has come to hate the world has escaped sorrow. But he who has an attachment to anything visible is not yet delivered from grief. For how is it possible not to be sad at the loss of something we love?
The parable of the Last Judgment begins by saying that Jesus will separate us “as the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.” Okay, but what is the connection between sheep and goats with the Fearful Judgment?
Outside of Church services, an Orthodox Bishop is recognizable by his wearing a traditional necklace-chain and medallion depicting a small, circular icon of the Saviour or of the Theotokos (the Mother of our Lord). This necklace and medallion is called an Engolpion, worn over the Bishop’s heart as a reminder that the Bishop must always bear in his heart our Lord and His mother, and to keep his heart pure.
The nous (mind, intellect) which has rebelled against God becomes either bestial or demonic and, after having rebelled against the laws of nature, lusts after what belongs to others.
You ask, will the others be saved… Why do you worry about them? They have a Savior Who desires the salvation of every human being. He will take care of them. You and I should not be burdened with such a concern. Study yourself and your own sins and not so much how to preach to others.
One of the most delicate—yet important—issues in the Church is the distinction between the essence of God and His energies.
A complete guide on how to resist the devil, especially if you are under demonic attacks and there is a danger of demonization is outlined below. We must be always aware of this danger and must take the precautionary measures, especially if we have grave sins or we are targets of concentrated demonic attacks because of Spells or curses cast against us.
Often, husbands come and ask us how to behave toward their wives. Of course, this topic is, in the last analysis, a personal theme between you and your spiritual father (priest) but some general problems can be explained which, if resolved, we could avoid a lot of quarrels. The wife must know that she is loved The wife needs to be assured by first hand that she is loved dearly and for this she needs concrete evidence. When was the last time you told her you loved her? No, it is not enough for her to “guess”. You have to […]
There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So, the father divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and, there, squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So, he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. […]
In 340 BC the Byzantines and their allies the Athenians were under siege by the troops of Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. On a particularly dark and wet night Philip attempted a surprise attack but was thwarted by the appearance of a bright light in the sky in the middle of the crescent. To commemorate the event the Byzantines took as their emblem the sky and the crescent. When St. Constantine the Great moved the seat of the Empire from Rome to Byzantium, he changed the name of the city to Constantinople and took out […]
Etymology The orthodox priest is the presbyter from the Bible. Presbyter is, in the Bible, a synonym for bishop (episkopos), referring to a leader in local Church congregations. In modern usage, it is distinct from bishop and synonymous with priest. Its literal meaning in Greek (presbyteros) is “elder.”
Those who have not yet obtained true prayer of the heart, can find help in violence in bodily prayer—I mean stretching out the hands, beating the breast, sincere raising of the eyes to heaven, deep sighing, and frequent prostrations. But often they cannot do this owing to the presence of other people, and so the demons especially choose to attack them just at this very time.
We must never forget that reality is our game. Do not say: ‘I do not know what is right, therefore I am not to blame when I fail to do it.’ For if you did all the good about which you do know, what you should do next would then become clear to you, as if you were passing through a house from one room to another. It is not helpful to know what comes later before you have done what comes first. For knowledge without action ‘puffs up’, but ‘love edifies’, because it ‘patiently accepts all things’ (1 Cor. […]
Asceticism is the branch of medicine that aims at healing the human soul which is eternal and reaching eternal personal perfection.
It was in the parish of perpetually-depressed Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a number of decades ago. The colors of the land were washed out. The sky was drab with winter, even in spring, and the view from the parish rectory grimy, looking over the grey mountain-range and a tired horizon. Much of the area’s industries were shuttered and moved. Alternating houses sat with their eyes boarded-up.
Know that there are eight evil thoughts that bring about all that is vile: those of sensuality, lechery, love of money, anger, inappropriate grief, despondency, vainglory and pride. All these wage warfare against every person.