Holy Unction during pandemic is one of the most necessary services, however it seems that it is performed much less than it should. Below you will read some miracles tied to the mystery of Holy Unction.
Saint Mary of Egypt struggled in desert for forty-seven years without receiving Holy Communion. As it is known, the saint retired to the wilderness to repent of her very desolate life.
Apart from its usual dedication to the Menaion (the commemoration of the lives of the Saints) and the early custom to celebrate Kontakia (a type of hymn) during the Pannychis (festive night vigil celebrated at the Blachernae chapel), the Akathist had also the function to celebrate military victories or to ask, during wars, for divine protection intermediated by prayers of the Mother of God, the Invincible General.
In times of trial, people draw closer to God, which is why God also has to allow such trials, in times when mankind settles onto the wrong path.
“…… I learned from the internet that the journalist Angel Bonchev was preparing a book about the unknown for us Saint Nikephoros the Leper, at a critical moment when the world was covered by the coronavirus pandemic and thousands died, killed by this new plague.
The night vigil to the glory of the Mother of God, our Lady Theotokos and the Saint hieromartyr miracle worker Charalambos of Magnesia, for healing and protection against the COVID-19 pandemic will be served this Friday, 27th March (Gregorian Calendar), starting with 21:00 (Athos, Constantinopole, Jerusalem, Alexandria, time). The whole of Mount Athos community will hold similar services.
The vigil will continue until 1:00 a.m. The Holy and Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in synaxis at 6:00 a.m. A procession for the healing and protection of all will follow.
The Great Holy Vatopedi Monastery will begin the Great Compline and the Akathist Hymn service to at 17:30.
The Archangel Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you amongst women.” Hidden meanings in the words of the Mother of God
Holy Communion does not make people sick because the Holy Communion is truly the real Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the giver of life. Let us not forget that this teaching is basic in the Church which has passed through the history of pandemics much harsher than the one which we pass today.
There was a child who was somewhat illiterate and could not learn his lessons and keep up with his classmates.
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.”
Koliva: Definition Koliva is a dish, consisting of boiled wheat that is used liturgically in the Eastern Orthodox Church for commemorations of the dead.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
The Orthodox Deacon is the third and lowest degree of the major orders of clergy in the Orthodox Church, following the Bishop (1st) and the Presbyter (2nd). The word deacon (in Greek διάκονος) means “servant,” “waiting-man,” “minister,” or even “messenger”: originally, it referred mostly to a person who waited on tables.
The tradition tells us that on the icon of Paramythia, the original expression on the faces of the figures and the position of the bodies of Christ and the Blessed Virgin changed when the following strange miracle occurred, January 21, 1321 in front of the Abbot – Saint Ghennadios of Vatopedi – which went there to take the keys of the Monastery’s main gate which were at the icon in order to give them to the monk which was responsible in opening the gates:
While praying to Christ, I felt a certain difficulty. The Mother of God – She was just like my own Mother to me. The same was with St. Euphemia. “My dear Saint Euphemia”, I addressed to her… But it was difficult to pray to Christ. I venerated His icons with fear. When during the Jesus Prayer my mind began to distract from prayer, I did not upset me at all. “Who am I to constantly keep Christ in my poor mind?” – I said to myself. And then something happened what I want to tell you about.
Generally speaking, the ranks in the Church are difficult to distinguish, especially if the members of these ranks do not serve the Divine Liturgy or other services. However, the higher ranks in the Church can be distinguished by certain objects that they carry even outside the ministry.
From the last words of Metropolitan Paul (Yazigi) of Aleppo on the Holy Mountain: Love is not measured among virtues. Love does not count together with fasting, prayer, etc. Love is the purpose and the driving force of all virtues. The virtues build a new person, radiating love to the world. So, as Saint John Chrysostom says, you do not have to be among people to be the true friend of people. True friendship is love—not spatial or temporal closeness. Look at the monks: everybody looks for them, and the pilgrims come from far away to see them, because they […]
Many believe that the Philokalia is a book written by Saint Nicodemus the Athonite. In fact, this book—as that understand of the book—does not actually exist.
The town of Karyes is the administrative center for the monastic republic of Mount Athos. The town is located in the middle of the peninsula at an elevation of a little over 1,000 feet (370 meters). The town is the seat of the governing body of Mount Athos and of the protos (primate) of the monastic community.
First of all, if you want to come to Mount Athos and become a monk, you must be sure that you are free of legal bindings. One of the most common bindings, is of one’s debts in this world, which you must to pay yourself. Another binding is that of marriage.
Generally speaking, by “apocalypse” (ἀποκάλυψις) the people understand “revelation” or, more literally, “uncovering”. The term is tied, mainly, with Saint John Theologian’s work – Book of Revelation – from the New Testament which describes using pseudonymity and symbolic imagery for the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life in a messianic kingdom.
In a metropolis in Northern Greece, there’d been no rain for some time. It was a terrible drought and, due to the situation, the local metropolitan and clergy began to pray for rain.