Elder Moisis the Athonite † We’ve said before that God isn’t impassioned, punitive or vindictive. If he were so, he’d have to be evil. But there’s not a trace of wickedness in the divinity. Every trial’s a divine lesson and a form of asceticism, which we’ve otherwise voluntarily removed […]
Did you know that the Coronation of King Charles III, despite being a service primarily associated with the Church of England, featured several elements related to the Orthodox Church? King Charles, whose Coronation was held on Saturday (May 6th), holds a connection to the Greek Orthodox Church through his late father […]
Dr. Nikolaos Koios, Member of the Editorial Board, Pemptousia, Associate Professor of the University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki Orthodox theology maintains an attitude of respect towards animals, as it does towards the whole of creation, recognizing in it the words of God himself which he pronounced when forming it. […]
Saint Theofanis served as the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi, and was associated with Saint Maximos Kavsokalyvitis (†1365), whose biographer he was. Saint Nikodimos the Athonite translated this admirable and much-admired biography into a simpler form of Greek. In it, Saint Theofanis says: ‘As God is my witness, […]
After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and disciples; and there they stayed for a few days. The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and […]
What follows is an inspiring story about a woman named Stavrula who died on Holy Monday, 2004. I post this story every year on Holy Monday. In years past, I wrote that two people think about Stavrula each year, me and a woman named Mary Pappas, who figures prominently in […]
Fr. Andreas Agathokleous The Feast of the Annunciation lends a pre-Paschal feeling to Great Lent, during which it always falls. The atmosphere of compunction recedes and gives way to the joy of the great feast. This is why we have a dispensation to eat fish. The hymns, the celebrations […]
Fr. Christodoulos Papaïoannou On 28 February 2023, an appalling head-on collision occurred between two trains south of the Tempe Valley in Greece. The crash involved a passenger train and a freight train and killed at least 57 people, while many others were injured, some of them seriously. This funeral oration is by Fr. Christodoulos and is […]
And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and […]
From the Kyriakodromion of Monk Agapios All injustice, illegal seizure and greed is wicked and worthy of abhorrence on the part of those who love God and are of sound mind. Tax-collectors are the worst of all as regards injustice. Just as lions are worse and fiercer than any […]
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when He was circumcised, He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And […]
Protopresbyter Panteleïmon Krouskos For many people with a secular outlook, decorating the Christmas tree is the essence of Christmas. In Greece, this custom was imported from abroad and was introduced by the Bavarians*. The first time a Christmas tree was decorated was in Otto’s palace and thereafter it spread […]