May the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Thessalonians 5:23 In September 2019, I began writing a series of reflections on “The Heart of Encouragement.” This was disrupted […]
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 […]
Answers to questions surrounding the Christian faith. Email us yours at: info@myocn.net Question: Can God Forgive the Same Sin Over and Over? Answer: As a parish priest, I can say that yes, God forgives the same sin over and over as many times as we confess the same sin […]
Mihail Tritos No other hymnological text expresses the redemptive, existential and metaphysical dimension of the Resurrection with such completeness and power as does the incomparable canon by Saint John the Damascan. It’s a masterpiece of Byzantine poetry and one of the most beautiful texts in world literature. Full of sublime […]
Fr. Alexander Schmemann In the center of our liturgical life, in the very center of that time which we measure as year, we find the feast of Christ’s Resurrection. What is Resurrection? Resurrection is the appearance in this world, completely dominated by time and therefore by death, of a life […]
St. Philothei lived in the Turkish-occupied, sixteenth-century Athens. Her spiritual and social work was groundbreaking, especially for a woman of that era. It was accomplished within the Church and dedicated to the service of the Greek people as a continuation and consequence of Orthodoxy and Romanity. On 19 February 1589, […]
Metropolitan Ieronymos of Larisa and Tyrnavos One of the greatest problems of Orthodox spirituality in recent years has been the distortion applied to Orthodox eschatology, that is the prophetic discourse concerning the last times. It’s common for spiritually inexperienced people, without any real knowledge of what Orthodoxy means or […]
Saint Anthimos was from Sofia, Bulgaria, where he was a married, parish-priest. In 1841, after his wife reposed, he went to Mount Athos and was tonsured as a monk at Simonopetra Monastery. He began to act like a fool for Christ in order to hide his spirituality and closeness to […]
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 [i. e. ‘what we desire’] is to seek what is lacking’ (PG, On the […]
Metropolitan Christoforos, former Archbishop of the Czech and Slovak Republics The name of Saint Nikodimos is closely associated with the Kollyvades movement on Athos in the late 18th century. The representatives of this movement insisted on a renaissance of the Patristic understanding of Orthodox theology and spirituality. This was […]
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did […]
These are not classes on high theology that are intimidating or difficult to understand. We focus on the “down to earth” and practical ways we should understand and live our faith. In His parables to the masses, Christ always used practical examples from everyday life to help people understand and […]