Archimandrite Varnavas Lambropoulos In the wonderful book The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Saint John the Sinaite speaks of the struggle against the passion of telling lies. And in presenting the disastrous consequences thereof he says: ‘Lying is the obliteration of love, and false testimony is the denial of God’. Read more…
As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he rose and followed Him. Matthew 9:9 (from the 7th Gospel) Many of us remember the story of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” The hare (a fast Read more…
Fr. Ioannis Sourlingas My soul, my soul arise. Why are you sleeping? The end draws nigh and soon you will be troubled. Take heed, then, that Christ your God may spare you. For he is everywhere present and fills all things. In parishes, the Great Canon is sung independently Read more…
And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is Read more…
Holy Week Crafts Group for Kids with Presvytera Mallory Kasapakis and Alyssa Kyritsis Advance registration is required. Register HERE. Join myOCN Interactive Virtual Community will be offering 30 minute virtual crafting activities for children every day of Holy Week beginning with Palm Sunday, in partnership with Orthodox Pebbles learning materials. Join Read more…
But the love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, upon those who fear Him, and His righteous to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments. Psalm 103: 17-18 For You are the Lord, Jesus Christ, Who in Your mercy and love Read more…
Elder Amvrosios Lazaris We miserable wretches, monks and lay people, are in the last times, but the struggle is the struggle. We won’t give in even for a moment. Fight to the end. Then the Lord, who crowns us and establishes us eternally, at the last moment will not Read more…
Fr. Andreas Agathokleous We’ve learned about a God who determines people’s fate, who decides what will happen to us without consulting us first, who’s revealed as the ruler over the whole world. In the face of such a God, who can doubt or deny Him without fear of the Read more…
“For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic—“Rise, take up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. Read more…
In today’s Epistle, Saint Paul calls hope ‘a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul’. A ship without an anchor runs the risk of being dashed against the rocks along a coast. When people without hope are faced with the adversities of life, they’ve got nothing to lean on. What Read more…
And one of the crowd answered Jesus, “Teacher, I brought my son to You, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked Your disciples to cast it out, and they Read more…
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? Read more…