Why I Love Seasonal Employees (and Why You Should, Too)
I had a flashback tonight on my way home from the mall, where I was doing some Christmas shopping. I kept thinking about the sales clerk that rang up the multitude of hostess gifts I had to buy for all of the socials and parties that we attend this time...
The Custom of the Christmas Tree
Protopresbyter Panteleïmon Krouskos For many people with a secular outlook, decorating the Christmas tree is the essence of Christmas. In Greece, this custom was imported from abroad and was introduced by the Bavarians*. The first time a Christmas tree was decorated was in Otto’s palace and thereafter it spread...
Understanding and Living Our Faith: What Do You Mean Santa Isn’t Real?
Do you remember your childhood when you believed in Santa Claus? Do you remember that excitement you felt Christmas Eve in anticipation of what was to come the next day? I remember one Christmas Eve, when I was about 6 or 7, sitting in my bedroom with my brother and...
Distilling One’s Cave
Metropolitan of Toronto Sotirios Two thousand and seventeen years ago, our Lord chose to renew his covenant with the world and to penetrate deep into the innermost essence of human nature. In this way, we can say that God incarnate sought to be born in the ‘cave’ of men,...
Christmas in a Post-Christian Era
Hieromonk Eleftherios Balakos And while the messiahs are multiplying in this day and age, in the guise of persons, ideologies, policies or religions*, we see a world wallowing in the mud which it has created itself. And you ask yourself: ‘What can I believe?’ ‘Where can I place my...
On the Nativity of Our Saviour Jesus Christ
Saint John Chrysostom I see a strange and wondrous mystery. Shepherds’ music reaches my ears: not the piping of a plaintive melody, but the singing of a heavenly hymn. The angels are singing. The archangels join in. The cherubim hymn, the seraphim glorify. They all rejoice at the sight...
The Third Birth of Christ (Part II)
Stergios Sakkos Our first encounter with Him is through faith. Faith opens the door of the soul, so that Christ can enter. Faith receives Him, subjects our hearts to Him and engenders within us a fervent interest and powerful desire to approach Him. This is the initial requirement for...
The Third Birth of Christ (Part I)
Stergios Sakkos 1. Rebirth The third birth of Christ is in the life of people who believe in Him and accept Him as their own, personal God. Because even though Christ became incarnate in order to save everyone, not everyone will be saved. Of course, the Lord “wants all...
Recordings from the Christmas Vigil at the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi
As the ‘capital of feasts’, Christmas is honoured on the Holy Mountain with a vigil, during the course of which the monks sing hymns and troparia of exceptional poetic and musical beauty. At the Divine Liturgy on the day itself, ‘Those who have been baptized in Christ’ is sung in...
The Incarnation of God as the Opposite to Today’s Sinfulness
Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of the Vatopaidi Monastery Beloved Fathers and brothers, today we celebrate the greatest event of all time and all ages: the birth of Christ, the ‘capital of all feasts’, according Saint John Chrysostom. God enters our life, in time, in history as ‘Jesus Christ the man’...
