Sin and Sickness: An Orthodox View (2)
Dr. Nikolaos Koios, Content Coach of Pemptousia We have another instance where the righteous suffer without guilt, as in Job and Tobias. In these cases the answer is provided by Scripture itself: the aim is to manifest the loyalty of the believer and to glorify God’s name: ‘May the...
Sin and Sickness: An Orthodox View
Dr. Nikolaos Koios, Content Coach of Pemptousia In one of the most beautiful modern examples of our ecclesiastical education, Sister Magdalen of the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Baptist at, Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, says that we can’t speak drily about this sensitive subject, and not feel involved. And...
Can sins be forgiven through vows?
Dr. Nikolaos Koios, Content Coach of Pemptousia The age we live in is full of contradictions. On the one hand, people are stubbornly indifferent towards their Relationship with God, but on the other, references to superstitions, zodiac charts and para-religious phenomena abound. You’ve got people who consider those who...
Indifference to those who are sinning is itself a sin
Christos Karadimos Should we be indifferent to those who are sinning? Not according to Saint Basil the Great, who bases this opinion on Scripture. According to Saint Basil, the Lord gave explicit instructions, in both the Old and New Testaments, regarding this matter. In Leviticus, the Lord orders: ‘Rebuke...
Sin Is a Form of Love: Julian atte Norwich
James W. Lillie In continuation of the article* by Professor Ilias Voulgarakis on Sin and Love, it might be worth looking at what the English mystic and recluse “Julian atte Norwich” (ca. 8 November 1342 – ca. 1416) had to say on much the same subject in the Revelations...
Sin Is a Form of Love (Part 2)
Ilias Voulgarakis Everything starts with the meaning that each person gives to sin. If it is the breaking of a commandment, then people enter a legalistic relationship with God, in which, in the end, Hell is the natural concomitant for the transgressor. But if sin is a feature in...
Sin Is a Form of Love (Part 1)
Ilias Voulgarakis Love is the reason why things exist and the criterion for their behaviour. As regards the criterion for behaviour, we would recall the teaching of Saint Paul in his famous hymn to love (I Cor. 13, 1-13). But love as a criterion for behaviour is not concerned...
The Greatest Form of Knowledge
Archimandrite Theofilos Lemontzis, D. Th. The ability to forgive others depends on how honest we are with ourselves. ‘The greatest form of knowledge to which you can attain’, says Saint Clement the Alexandrian, ‘is to know yourself’. If you know yourself, you know nature, the limits and the possibilities...
Hospital for the Sinners
In the Sunday sermon of Zacchaios, Fr. Lazarakis speaks of redemption. Saint John Chrysostom says that “the church is not a museum for the saints but a hospital for sinners.” Like Zacchaios, a thief and traitor, all of the saints were sinners. No one’s sins are so bad that they cannot be overpowered...
Daily Devotion, January 29: A Challenge is Coming Next Week: Do You Fit God around Your Life, or Your Life Around God?
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:1-2 Good morning Prayer Team! For those who have been reading my...
