Saint Theophan the Recluse At one time or another, everyone has doubts about the faith. These can easily be dismissed, however, by opposing thoughts which reveal the truth about the divine revelation regarding both the cosmos and humankind: the order and harmony of the universe, the miracle of life, Read more…
Fr. Andreas Agathokleous The problems, sins and mistakes we have in our lives are many and various. At times a sense of disappointment weighs upon our hearts. We wonder whether this is how life’s going to continue. Is there any prospect of improvement? Will we ever see better days? Read more…
Welcome to “The Children’s Word,” a weekly ministry of the Orthodox Christian Network. Each week, Presvytera Alexandra Houck writes this little newsletter for young parishioners! You will find age-appropriate articles, stories, and activities in every edition. The newsletter is provided in PDF format so that you can easily download and Read more…
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou Hesychasm is a spiritual phenomenon, the quintessence of the ascetical tradition in the Orthodox Church. Through the practice of hesychasm, the soul of man is ‘fattened’ by the grace of God, it receives a hypostasis. The martyrs offer their life to God and enter Paradise in Read more…
Sotirios Theologou Today, Saint John the Evangelist describes for us a very interesting encounter. Before we see the meeting, let’s look at the person who was to meet Christ. The woman whom the Evangelist mentions was someone who took no thought for the morrow. She wasn’t interested in what Read more…
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou This Gospel reading is exceptional, loaded with great and sublime truths which the Lord condescended to impart to a dissolute woman, a heretic who had led a reckless life and hailed from Samaria, an abomination for the Jews. The reconciliatory way that Christ relates with this Read more…
James W. Lillie At Eastertide, at some undetermined place and year, the Emperor Constantine I made his Oration to the Assembly of the Saints, either in Latin (Oratio ad sanctorum coetum) or Greek (Λόγος τῷ τῶν ἁγίων συλλόγῳ). It is a lengthy and not terribly interesting text, but given Read more…
Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopolis † On the evening of Great Friday, we begin the service with a rather strange tropario. It’s a hymn which is joyful rather than mournful. Not a lament, but a hymn of praise: ‘God is the Lord and has appeared to us…’. The one and Read more…
George Mantzarides, Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki God doesn’t impose himself on people in a high-handed manner. The kingdom of God isn’t a kingdom of imperious authority but of interactive love and freedom. It’s a communion which offers boundless love and freedom. Read more…
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou ‘I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely’[1]. During Great Lent, to a certain degree, we taste of Christ’s death. In the middle of this period, the Church institutes the Veneration of the Precious Cross, to quicken Read more…
Ioannis Karavidopoulos, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Hermeneutics, A. U. Th. The subject of the narrative in the Gospel of Saint John (5, 1) concerning the complaint of the man who’d been paralyzed for 38 years, is genuinely moving: ‘I have no-one to put me into the pool when Read more…
Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos ‘Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the waters to be moved’. One of the factors of human existence, which often constitutes a trap Read more…