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.
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
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.”
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.”
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:
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.
Karyes has been the seat of the self-governing body of Mount Athos and the seat of the ‘protos’ since the 10th century. At that time the settlement comprised some small older monasteries and the residences of representatives of distant ones.
During the reign of Emperor Anastasios I (491-518), a young deacon moved to Constantinople. He led an ascetic life of prayer and fasting, but in his humility he thought of himself as being rather worldly.
The modern double-headed eagle flag for the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and of Mount Athos, features the eagle with an orb with a cross in the right claw symbolizing spiritual authority, and a sword in the left symbolizing secular authority.
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.
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 […]
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.