Nikolaos Georgantonis, Theologian In our spiritual life, fasting isn’t an end in itself, but a tool that helps to cleanse us and transform our passions so that we can reach the kingdom of God. Among the fasts instituted by the Church is that of the Holy Apostles, which, unfortunately, Read more…
Archimandrite Theofilos Lemontzis, D. Th. Moralism is a typical example of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy taints even virtuous actions and Saint John of the Ladder uses a playful incident in order to analyze this specious side of the spiritual life, one which we the faithful often cultivate. Sometimes, he says, when Read more…
Saint Nicholas Velimirovich ‘And his disciples asked him: “Teacher, who is to blame, him or his parents, that he was born blind’” (Jn. 9, 2). A short time before, the Lord had cured the paralytic at the pool of the Sheep’s Gate and had told him: ‘Go and sin Read more…
Fr. Andreas Agathokleous The problems, sins and mistakes we have in our lives are many and various. At times a sense of disappointment weighs upon our hearts. We wonder whether this is how life’s going to continue. Is there any prospect of improvement? Will we ever see better days? Read more…
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou This Gospel reading is exceptional, loaded with great and sublime truths which the Lord condescended to impart to a dissolute woman, a heretic who had led a reckless life and hailed from Samaria, an abomination for the Jews. The reconciliatory way that Christ relates with this Read more…
Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopolis † On the evening of Great Friday, we begin the service with a rather strange tropario. It’s a hymn which is joyful rather than mournful. Not a lament, but a hymn of praise: ‘God is the Lord and has appeared to us…’. The one and Read more…
George Mantzarides, Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki God doesn’t impose himself on people in a high-handed manner. The kingdom of God isn’t a kingdom of imperious authority but of interactive love and freedom. It’s a communion which offers boundless love and freedom. Read more…
Ioannis Karavidopoulos, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Hermeneutics, A. U. Th. The subject of the narrative in the Gospel of Saint John (5, 1) concerning the complaint of the man who’d been paralyzed for 38 years, is genuinely moving: ‘I have no-one to put me into the pool when Read more…
Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos ‘Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the waters to be moved’. One of the factors of human existence, which often constitutes a trap Read more…
George Mantzarides, Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki The resurrection and entry into the eternal life of the Kingdom of the Triune God are not abstract ideological matters. They are truths and circumstances which came into the world with the advent of Christ Read more…