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
Protopresbyter Nikolaos Patsalos After the middle of this period [Lent], then, the Church provides appropriate additional help in our ascetic efforts, which differ in accordance with the capacities of each one of us, by presenting the perfect figure of asceticism, Saint John of the Ladder, that great asceticwho really Read more
The times in which we live aren’t normal. It’s an era of great changes and realignments. We’re living in a world which is in a state of flux. Ideologies and religions are amalgamating and there’s certainly an overall atmosphere of confusion and questioning. So it would not be strange or Read more
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios Our Orthodox faith, my beloved friends, is called ‘symbolic’, because it’s expressed in symbols. In other words, it’s expressed in simple signs, though these actually have profound significance and meaning. One of these signs, the most important and most sacred, is the Cross. We shouldn’t Read more
Saint Theophan the Recluse Coldness May the grace of God be with you. You write: ‘My prayer is somewhat cold and weak’. The coldness and weakness aren’t in the prayer, but in the person praying. Try to pray as you should and your prayer will go better. If a Read more
Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos Freedom’s a gift from God. And since we’re made in God’s image, we can’t be deprived of it. Its use, of course, may follow two main paths. One leads to God and other people, that is, that we become bound together in love and become companions Read more
And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake Read more
George Mantzarides, Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki In the middle of the time of Great Lent, we have the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross. The rubrics for the day begin as follows: ‘Since we, too, are, in a sense, crucified Read more
Father Nikolaos Patsalos This year, the 5th Sunday in Lent coincided with the great feast of the Mother of God, her Annunciation. We’d left the middle of Lent the previous Sunday, that of John of the Ladder, and, instead of the 5th being centred on the great desert ascetic, Read more
Contents 3 Director’s Letter Sign up to receive Orthodoxy Now Magazine Updates. Click to Read the Full Issue 4 IOCC Sets $1 Million Goal for Ukraine The humanitarian and development agency International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is responding to needs created by the war in Ukraine. Given the enormity of Read more
Saint Gregory the Wonder-Worker, Bishop of New Caesarea (ca. 213-270) Just as the pearl comes from two natures, from lightning and water, from the unfathomable parts of the sea, so also our Lord Jesus Christ proceeds, without confusion and without change, from the pure, chaste, undefiled and holy Virgin Read more
Saint Gregory the Wonder-Worker, Bishop of New Caesarea (ca. 213-270) [The archangel continued]: ‘You alone, All-Holy Virgin, now receive the mysteries unknown to all of these and learn their origin. For where the Holy Spirit is, everything is already well-ordered. Where there is Divine Grace, everything is possible for Read more