The Cross as a Means of Sanctification and Transformation of the World
Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae Through the Cross, Christ sanctified His body- the link with the world. He rejected the temptations sent to Him by the world, that is to taste the pleasures, to satisfy His needs unrestrained or to avoid pain and death. If we, in the same way, ward off...
What Great Thursday tells us
Petros Panayiotopoulos, Assistant Professor,Faculty of Theology Aristotle University of Thessaloniki As we progress towards the Passion, events unfurl with dramatic speed, rich in significance and with a breathtaking plot as they proceed towards their culmination. We’ve already seen two actions which are related to the person of Christ and which...
The Cross and the Resurrection
Protopresbyter Vasileios Kalliakmanis a) The Cross leads to the Resurrection, Great Friday bears fruit on the bright Sunday of Easter. Sorrow, listlessness and despair make way for the joy and peace of the Resurrection. Without the Cross, the Resurrection is inconceivable and without the Resurrection the Cross has no point....
Red eggs, traditional method
James W. Lillie On Lazarus Saturday, I realized I couldn’t find my copy of the services for Great Week, so, naturally, I went down to the local supermarket and bought another copy. This ease of access to Church supplies (charcoal, wicks, incense, televised services for the sick and so on)...
Sermon on the Apostolic Reading for Palm Sunday (Philippians 4:4-9)
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios In his Letter to the Philippians, the great Apostle to the Nations, St.Paul urges us to always be joyful. He stresses it repeatedly, that the Christian should always have joy. Along with this, he also tells us the ways a Christian can manage to do so,...
Lazarus Saturday
Fr. Lev Gillet Strictly speaking, Lent ends on the Friday which follows the fifth Sunday of Lent: the period of forty days is then over. The time of the Passion lasts from the end of Lent until the Resurrection, anticipated on Holy Saturday. It therefore comprises the Saturday which...
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...
