Saint Joasaph of Meteora
Georgios Martzelos St Joasaph was the son of the pious ruler of Epirus and Thessaly Symeon Sinisi, who was descended from the royal house of Nemanja and was proclaimed “tsar of the Greeks, the Serbs and the Albanians” under the name of “Symeon Uros Palaeologus”. His mother, Thomaïs, was the...
The appropriate organs to receive the divine gifts
Saint Maximos the Confessor The intellect is the organ of wisdom, whereas the reason is that of knowledge. The natural, internal certainty of the intellect and of the reason is the organ of faith, which is a product of wisdom and knowledge. Natural charity is the organ of the gift...
On Love
Georgios Koios This period of Great Lent through which we’re passing, and also the worrying social phenomena we see on a global scale, challenge and invite us as people to reflect on and weigh up why it is that almost the whole of mankind is in turmoil. Tension between ourselves...
Saint Mary of Egypt
Metropolitan Anthony Bloom † 16 April 1989 In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. We keep today the memory of Saint Mary of Egypt in the gradual progression from glory to glory which Lent is, and which must lead us step by step to facing...
The Memory of the Blessed Mary the Egyptian
Nektarios Thanos “… her many sins have been remitted, because she loved greatly” Luke 7, 47. On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, the Church honours the memory of a “street-walker”, a woman who led such a dissolute life that the word “prostitute” is more of a euphemism rather than an...
‘What fruit has your zeal born?’
Protopresbyter Stefanos Anagnostopoulos A very active priest had a dream once, which he described to us as follows: ‘I was sitting in an armchair, drained and exhausted from all my work. My whole body ached from weariness. A lot of people in my parish were seeking the ‘Pearl of great...
Miracles of Saint Theosevios (3)
Saint Neofytos Recluse The blind monkThere was a blind monk in Cyprus who, when he heard that the saint had the grace of healing those with impaired vision, came to him and begged him for a cure. He promised: ‘If you have mercy on me, saint of God, and give...
A message to Japanese
Watch now At the last part of his interview to Pemptousia, Nobuyuki-Gheoghe Nukina, Japanese karate fighter, is sending a message to Japanese people about orthodoxy. Source: pemptousia.com ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN NETWORK Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) is a 501(c)3 and an official agency of the Assembly of Canonical Bishops of the United...
Suffering unjustly
Saint Arsenie Boca It’s better for you to suffer evil than to become the cause of evil. The sorrow of someone who’s suffering unjustly is preferable to the joy of someone who’s working with injustice. Source: pemptousia.com ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN NETWORK Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) is...
Miracles of Saint Theosevios (2)
Saint Neofytos Recluse The crows One time, when the same monk was busy elsewhere, a couple of crows came and ate all his pulses and everything else he had to eat. When the monk returned and saw the damage to his foodstuffs, he began, in his simplicity, to chide...
The Ascetic Life (4th Sunday of Great Lent)
Bishop Agathangelos of Fanari For the secular people of today, focusing on an ascetic saint represents a problem. How can the ascetic figure of Saint John, the author of the Ladder, speak to us, when he acquired and preserved the Grace of God through tears, prayers, and spiritual asceticism? In...
4th Sunday in Lent
Protopresbyter Nikolaos Patsalos After the middle of this period , then, the Church provides appropriate additional help in our ascetic efforts, which differ in accordance with the capacities of each one of us, by presenting the perfect figure of asceticism, Saint John of the Ladder, that great asceticwho really...
