“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.
O God, You have visited our lowliness in mercy and compassion. You have set us, Your lowly, sinful and unworthy servants, to serve at Your holy altar before Your holy glory. (Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, p. 12) — And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Read more
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring and offering, and come before Him! Worship the Lord in holy array. I Chronicles 16: 28-29 Saint Basil lived from the year 330 to Read more
Jesus said “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. “And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their Read more
Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of Read more
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. Acts 16:5 The word “community” is actually not found in the Bible. The word “church” is found over 100 hundred times. The word that we translate as “church” is the word “ekklesia.” However, the meaning of this word is Read more
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13 We are about to begin Great and Holy Lent. Clean Monday, or the first day of Great Lent is next Monday, February 27. If we are keeping the Orthodox Tradition correctly, yesterday was Read more
Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. Only take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if any one sees you, a man of knowledge, Read more
Each year during the last half of February and throughout the month of March, the majority of Major League Baseball teams hold their spring training in the state of Florida. Just in my immediate area, we have the Yankees (Tampa), the Phillies (Clearwater), the Tigers (Lakeland) and the White Sox Read more
And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but He Read more
These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer ten, performing their ritual duties; but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people. Read more
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand Read more
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant Read more