“The Prayer Team” is a daily devotion written by Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis, written every day since February 2015. Fr. Stavros is the Parish Priest at St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Tampa, Florida. It began in February 2015 as an opportunity to write more on the subject of prayer and now has branched into other subjects.
“When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place Read more…
And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God; and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Nehemiah 8:6 One of the hallmarks of Orthodox worship is that we use all of our senses to worship. We see Read more…
Wisdom builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down Proverbs 14:1 There is a popular saying amongst kids at preschool: Hands are for helping, not for hitting. Two things are reinforced in this saying. First, we can use our hands for destructive things or for helpful things. And Read more…
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not Read more…
Thy hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments. Psalm 119:73 As we continue our Lenten journey, our focus moves this week to the words “their hands.” While the genesis of this year’s Lenten series coincides with a capital campaign we are doing 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…
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in Read more…
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 No matter how strong we are, or even how strong we think we are, Read more…
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 Our experience of worship is helps us grow in Read more…
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Isaiah 40:29 When we reflect on our lives, we can probably each identify a time when we didn’t think we had the strength to take one more step, or one more setback, or one Read more…
After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she hid herself, saying, “Thus the Lord has done to me in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.” In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a Read more…
For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, “I will proclaim Thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee.” And again, “I will put My trust Read more…