An ever-flowing torrent
Saint John Maximovich If we turn our attention to our mind, we’ll see a torrent of successive thoughts and ideas. This torrent is unrelenting, it tumbles quickly in every direction and at every moment- at home, in church, at work, when we’re reading, when we’re talking. Saint Theophan the...
A Church Service, a Hymn to Human Need
Dr. Nikolaos Koios, Content Coach of Pemptousia Hymnography is the jewel in the crown of Church Literature in Orthodoxy. A variety of metres, a combination of poetry and prose, all invested with the musical riches of the eight tones, narrate the drama of the human person in our effort...
Saints Celebrated on December 5th
Martyr Anastasius A Saint of this name is commemorated on December 5, in the Martyrologies, but neither the place nor the time of his passion is discoverable. When he saw the torments that the Martyrs gloriously endured, he ran into the arena and confessed his faith in Christ. He was...
The Consequences of Rationalism in our Life
Archimandrite Athanasios (Anastasiou), Former Abbot of the Holy Monastery of the Great Meteora We might define rationalism as excessive dependence on our reason, its elevation to the supreme authority and absolute value. It’s a culpable attitude of mind and outlook on life rather than a simple sin. Essentially, it’s...
The Spiritual Meadow
Ioannis Moskhos When we went to the island of Samos, we visited the monastery called Harixenou. The abbot was Abba Isidoros, a virtuous man with great love for others and adorned with simplicity and immeasurable obedience. He later became bishop of the town of Sabia and it was...
Unveil my Eyes
Archimandrite Varnavas Lambropoulos The cure of the blind man in Jericho is the last miracle Saint Luke relates before Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and His path towards His Passion. And it may be no coincidence that on Great Friday the hymnographer puts into Christ’s mouth the bitter complaint which...
14th Sunday of Luke: Physical or Spiritual Blindness?
Protopresbyter Nikolaos Patsalos 14th Sunday of Saint Luke today, and we’ve now entered the month of Christmas. Jesus enters Jericho and comes across a suffering person whose affliction is blindness. It’s a terrible cross for him not to enjoy the first and greatest of God’s goods: perceptible light. Apart...
Andrew the First-Called. The Life of a Blessed Martyr
Fotis Kondoglou 30 November is the feast-day of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. All the Apostles died martyr’s deaths , preaching the Gospel in various countries. Only one was martyred in Greece, Saint Andrew the First-Called, that is, the first who went to be with Christ. He was...
Repentance and Prayer according to Saint Païsios
Alexandros Christodoulou, Theologian In general terms, Saint Païsios set the greatest store in the spiritual struggle on repentance and unceasing prayer. It was through repentance that he received revelations from heaven. He used to say that the life of a monk was one of repentance and prayer. The monks...
The Aim of Christ’s Redemptive Work
Alexandros Christodoulou, Theologian In his First Epistle, Saint John the Evangelist tells us that the aim of Christ’s redemptive work was the abolition of the devil’s dominion over human nature: ‘The Son of God appeared so that He might destroy the works of the devil’ (1 Jn. 3, 8)....
The lesser good
Saint John Maximovich The lesser good is necessary: As a matter of fact, the lesser good is more necessary for mankind than the greater. People can get along with their lives without the greater good; without the lesser they cannot exist. Mankind perishes not from a lack of the...
Declaration of Independence
Archimandrite Varnavas Lambropoulos In 1919, after the end of World War I, the cream of the intellectuals of that age (including Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Stefan Zweig and many others) added their names to a declaration called the ‘Declaration of the Independence of the Spirit’*. Among other things it...
