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...
![The Grandeur of the Mother of God [3]](https://myocn.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/theotokos-OCN.jpg)
The Grandeur of the Mother of God [3]
Monk Arsenios of the Skete of Koutloumousiou, the Holy Mountain If we see that some saints enjoy greater glory than others, this is due to the fact they have even a little bit more of Christ’s humility within them, nothing else. There are saints who have astonishing ascetic achievements...
![The Grandeur of the Mother of God [2]](https://myocn.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/theotokos2-OCN.jpg)
The Grandeur of the Mother of God [2]
Monk Arsenios of the Skete of Koutloumousiou, the Holy Mountain So humility which comes as a natural result after we sin, especially when these are mortal sins, is one thing, and the humility of Christ is another. For sinful people, humility’s absolutely necessary for them to stay alive, so...
The Grandeur of the Mother of God
Monk Arsenios of the Skete of Koutloumousiou, the Holy Mountain When the most glorious and richest kings on earth have in mind to build their throne and their royal palace as a whole, they don’t leave a stone unturned until they find the most precious material that nature is...
An Icon of Human Freedom (part 2)
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia Sharing, Silence, Suffering If the Mother of God at the moment of the Annunciation is a true icon of human freedom, of authentic liberty and liberation, then her actions and reactions in the events that follow shortly afterwards in St. Luke’s Gospel illustrate three basic...
An Icon of Human Freedom (part 1)
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia Am I not free? (1 Corinthians 9:1) God persuades, He does not compel; for violence is foreign to Him. (Epistle to Diognetus VII, 4) What Shall We Offer? In an Orthodox hymn used at Vespers on Christmas Eve, the Virgin Mary is seen as the...
The Elevation of the Bread in Honour of the Most Holy Mother of God
Saint Maximos the Greek The Only-Begotten Son and Word of God, who became a human person for us (though He was sinless), voluntarily underwent the crucifixion, death and burial so that our human nature, which the father of evil had caused to be cast out of paradise in olden...
The Holy Dormition of our Most Pure Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary
Saint Gregory Palamas If ‘the death of the saints is precious and the memory of the righteous is blessed’, with how much greater praise should we keep the memory of the ‘saint of the saints’ through whom the whole of sanctity came to them, that is the memory of...
