Ilias Voulgarakis Saint John Chrysostom is almost the only Father of the Church about whom his contemporaries and later generations wrote a significant number of biographies. So far, we have more than eight (Byzantine) biographies. Some of these represent a kind of reworking of an earlier version, though not, Read more
Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos ‘People beyond the passions are revolted with excessive hatred by evil; those who have progressed even further beyond the passions are voracious for the riches of the virtues’ (Saint John of the Ladder) These days we’ve identified wickedness only with whatever conflicts with secular laws. Anything that Read more
Saint Justin Popovich Who is Jesus Christ, who is both God and human? What in him is God and what is human? How do we recognize the God in him and the human? What did God grant us in the person of Jesus? All of this is revealed to Read more
Archimandrite Iakovos Kanakis The season after Easter is called ‘Pentikostario’. After the victory over death which was ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection, we go on to the great feast of Pentecost. Fifty days after Easter, we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit onto Christ’s disciples and, through them, Read more
Contents pg. 4 Director’s Message I believe God spoke to the hearts of many of us 26 years ago at the parish I was serving in Ft. Lauderdale to offer something more than just a weekly presence of our faith. I don’t think that I completely understood the meaning and Read more
Metropolitan Ieronymos of Larisa and Tyrnavos As we move from the feast of the Ascension to that of Pentecost, we’re essentially progressing from the feast of the glorification of human nature to that of our illumination. Between these feasts, the Church inserts the commemoration of the 1st Ecumenical Synod, Read more
Ascension For forty days after the Resurrection, the Lord Jesus was ‘being seen of His disciples’.[1] He was gladdening the hearts of His disciples with His Presence and initiating them into the mysteries of the Kingdom. Christ appeared to them and opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. At the same Read more
Fr. Andreas Agathokleous The feast of the Ascension seems not to present any particular interest, but rather a certain sadness in our hearts that the Lord is departing from us. Nevertheless, the following points emerge from the Gospels and from our lives as Christians: 1. Each of us, in Read more
Saint Peter the Damascan We shouldn’t despair when we’re not as we should be. Of course it’s bad to sin. But why do you disrespect God and, in your ignorance, think him weak? Is he who made this great world for you unable to save your soul? And if Read more
On another occasion, there was a monk from one of the neighboring ‘Wallachian’ [Romanian] kellia who had taken ill and had found some relief from eating little, slightly bitter cucumbers. Winter came and he began to feel the same pains, from the same illness, so he went down to Saint Read more
Is marriage a path to sanctity and holiness? Upon seeing an article with a title containing the word “holiness,” one would think that the article discusses monastery life, or a life devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ and the service of His Church. However, in the Orthodox Church, marital life Read more
Saint John Chrysostom (Epistle for the Sunday of the Blind Man) Acts, 16, 25-40 ‘And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, Read more