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Metropolitan Ioïl (Frangkakos) of Edessa, Pella, and Almopia ‘He called them’ In the Gospel reading for the 2nd Sunday of Matthew, Jesus invites the first four disciples to follow him. These were Peter, Andrew and the brothers, James and John. In the Gospels, it appears that Christ called these disciples Read more…
Saint Luke the Physician, Archbishop of the Crimea ‘When we examine modern science, as this has been created by scientists such as Lamarque and Darwin, we see the contrast and, I would say, the absolute dissonance which exists between science and religion in matters pertaining to the most basic Read more…
Archimandrite Varnavas Lambropoulos When the pagan Avtolykos once asked Saint Theofilos of Antioch to show him the god he believed in, the latter replied: ‘Show me a person and I’ll show you my God’. The saint’s answer reminds us that in the history of human civilization, theology and anthropology Read more…
Sotirios Theologou The Sunday after Pentecost and the time of the Pentikostario has run its course. On the first Sunday after the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Church focuses on a very large group of people: the choir of the saints. We celebrate all the saints from all Read more…
Kleopatra Hatzilia, Cultural Historian Many scholars and historians consider ethnophyletism to be a phenomenon dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, a product of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the political theory of the self-determination of peoples. It was in this spirit that many nation states were created throughout Europe and the Balkans, Read more…
Saint Luke the Doctor The Holy Spirit descended in a visible manner and came to rest on each of the apostles in the form of a tongue of fire. Why was this necessary? Precisely so that the world would learn that the Holy Spirit comes down to people. In Read more…
Metropolitan Nectarios of Argolis It was also in the ’20s that the “correction” facilities were set up, the forced labour camps known as gulags. Within a few years they had spread throughout the vast country. It all began with a monastery, the Solovetstky, which was built in the 14th Read more…
Metropolitan Nectarios of Argolis If you ever find yourself on the Holy Mountain or in other old churches, you will notice that many of them are painted red. If you ask the monks, they will tell you that the colour symbolizes the blood of Christ and His saints. It Read more…
Lambros Skontzos, Theologian The feast of the Holy Spirit represents a special stage in the annual cycle of feasts in the Orthodox Church. On this holy day, we honor and venerate the Holy Spirit, who, the day before, had descended on the upper room in Jerusalem as ‘tongues of Read more…
Saint John Chrysostom We should leave church as if we’re coming from the holiest inner sanctum, as if we’re descending from the very heavens. Teach those who don’t go to church that you sang with the seraphim, that you belong to the heavenly estate, that you encountered Christ and Read more…
Elder Moisis the Athonite † Sanctity isn’t isolation and it isn’t loneliness. Sanctity’s a beautiful and sacred relationship. A relationship with God, the source of sanctity, who sanctifies people and makes them images of meekness, divine persons. There’s no sanctity other than that bestowed by God himself on his Read more…
Apostolos Nikolaïdis Professor Emeritus, University of Athens, President of the ‘Saint Maxim the Greek’ Institute In this secularized environment for politics, and perhaps also for the institutionalized Church, protest movements are constantly arising whenever the State is considered to be denigrating Orthodox religious sentiments and ethos through its decisions; Read more…