On Not Despairing
Saint Amfilokhios Bishop of Iconium Saint Amfilokhios’ feast day is the 23rd November There was another brother who, after sinning, repented and then withdraw into solitude. It happened, though, that he struck his foot on a rock and injured it so badly that blood came pouring out of the wound....
The Foolish Rich Man
Metropolitan of Gortyn and Megalopolis, Ieremias 1. I mentioned to you on another occasion, my Christian friends, that our Church, like the caring mother it is, uses this period of winter- when living conditions have always been difficult- to present us with Sunday Gospel readings that sharpen our awareness...
Address on the Feast of Our Most Holy Lady – 2
Archbishop Theofylaktos of Ochrid This is today’s feast, the event we’re celebrating today, the escorting of the maiden to the Temple and her introduction into the Holy of Holies. What a strange event! What an astonishing thing it is that we hear! A little girl living in the fathomless...
Address on the Feast of Our Most Holy Lady – 1
Archbishop Theofylaktos of Ochrid Address on the Feast of Our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God, when she was taken by her Parents to the Temple All too often the “remembrance of the righteous which is accompanied by encomia” is an opportunity to censure the person praising if...
The Fear of God is Reverence for and Love of Him
Metropolitan Athanasios of Lemessos The Church is not opposed to the human body. This is why the Fathers were so careful not to damage their body with their ascetic efforts. They tried to submit it to the Holy Spirit and to God’s commandments, so as not to seek the...
The Sanctification of the Human Body
Metropolitan Athanasios of Lemessos The human person is the temple of the living God. This is an Apostolic teaching of our Church, which means that, just as the grace of God, the grace of the Holy Spirit, resides in a church, the same is true of the human body...
Why we should not judge our neighbour
Abba Dorotheos Sunday’s Gospel of the Good Samaritan has as its core message ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself’. But the story is a reply to a specific question and obviously doesn’t exhaust all facets of the issue. For example, in this particular case, the ‘neighbourly’ thing to...
LIVE- ENGLISH INTERPRETATION – 1st e-Meeting with Elder Ephraim and the friends of the “Libraria Bizantina” Bookstore in Bucharest
Watch now live the 1st e-Meeting with Elder Ephraim and the friends of the “Libraria Bizantina” Bookstore in Bucharest.
The Good Samaritan: Love above Divisions
Varnavas, Metropolitan of Neapolis and Stavroupolis In the text of the Old Testament, we read that, when Cain killed Abel, God asked him where his brother was. Still angry, he retorted: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”. This question, so full of hate and indifference, is answered...
The Road to the Interior
Vasileios Tatakis Gregory of Nyssa has this to say about human nature: ‘But because we are poor in the good, our nature always impels us towards the deficiency, and the appetitive disposition of our nature is to seek what is lacking’ (PG, On the...
The Prayer of the Holy Mountain Yesterday and Today
Elder Aimilianos Simonopetritis † None of us would doubt that prayer is, indeed, a fundamental necessity for any soul. It is the tree of life which nourishes people and renders them incorruptible, because it allows them to enter into communion with the eternal and incorruptible God. Just as there...
The fear of God
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios In the petition which we address to God, “For this Holy House” (which we heard about in the previous Homily), the following words are also said: “and for those who enter it with faith, reverence, and fear of God, let us pray to the Lord.”...
