The Great Paraclitic Canon
Archbishop Stylianos of Australia † The time from August 1 to 15 is a period in the Church’s year during which the Orthodox soul turns to Our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God, with eyes full of contrition. For the two weeks before the feast of the Dormition,...
First Discourse on the Annunciation (part 3)
Saint Gregory the Wonder-Worker, Bishop of New Caesarea (ca. 213-270) Just as the pearl comes from two natures, from lightning and water, from the unfathomable parts of the sea, so also our Lord Jesus Christ proceeds, without confusion and without change, from the pure, chaste, undefiled and holy Virgin...
First Discourse on the Annunciation (part 2)
Saint Gregory the Wonder-Worker, Bishop of New Caesarea (ca. 213-270) : ‘You alone, All-Holy Virgin, now receive the mysteries unknown to all of these and learn their origin. For where the Holy Spirit is, everything is already well-ordered. Where there is Divine Grace, everything is possible for...
First Discourse on the Annunciation (part 1)
Saint Gregory the Wonder-Worker, Bishop of New Caesarea (ca. 213-270) Today, the ranks of the angels rejoice at the hymns being sung and the light of the presence of Christ shines brightly upon the faithful. Today, is glad spring-time for us, and Christ the Sun of Righteousness shines all...
The Incarnation of God, the Good News of the New Testament and the Mother of God
Alexandros Christodoulou With His incarnation, His humanization, God entered the innermost core of our lives in the most obvious way. He entered our circulatory system, our heart, the centre of everything, the centre of the universe. After He’d been expelled from our world, our body and our soul through our...
Our Most Holy Lady as the Temple of God
Miltiadis Konstantinou, Professor of the School of Theology of the University of Thessaloniki If one were to attempt to describe the role and purpose of the Church in a single phrase, one might say that: ‘The aim of the Church is to manifest God to people’. In order to...
Sermon on the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios On the 21st of November, the Church celebrates a special Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her going to the Temple of Jerusalem. As we know from Holy Tradition, her parents Sts. Joachim and Anna were elderly and beyond child bearing years. After many prayers,...
A Theological Approach to and Interpretation of the Icon of the Entry of the Mother of God
Hierodeacon Filaretos, Monastery of the Holy Lavra, Kalavryta When we look at the icon of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple, we’re conscious of the silence of the Holy Scriptures and listen instead to the augmentation of the Gospels by the sacred Tradition of the...
Sermon on the feast day of the protection of the all Holy Theotokos (Feast day October 1st 2019)
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios The feast of the Holy Protection of the All Holy Theotokos is known throughout the Orthodox world. It is celebrated on October 1st (October 14th on the Old Calendar), and in the Church of Greece on October 28th, to commemorate the protection of Greece during...
The Soprano and the Miracle of the Holy Belt
Gina Poulou, who is a soprano with the Greek National Opera, has had the most astonishing experience. When the Holy Belt, the relic of the Mother of God, was in Nea Ionia, Athens, in 2017, she reverenced it. A few days before, a small tumor had appeared on her neck...
