2016

          St John Climax, the guiding light and the crown of monasticism whose memory we are celebrating today, was renowned for his humility in addition to the other virtues beautifying his blessed soul. One of the spirit bearing- holy fathers coming into ecstasy during the Saint’s tonsure told his elder, Martyrios: ‘Wow! Abba, did you know that today you have tonsured the Abbot of Sinai?’ In his absolute humility, the Saint never revealed anything about himself. The only thing we know about him is that he was sixteen years old when he entered monasticism. He stayed with his Elder some eighteen years and then he withdrew into deep desert for another forty years. He stayed there alone with his disciple Moses or ...

Today the Church honours and celebrates the sacred memory of Saint Kyriakos the Anchorite. Saint Kyriakos was born in Corinth in 408. His father was called Ioannis and was a priest, while his mother was called Evdoxia. The then Bishop of Corinth, Petros, who was Kyriakos’ uncle on his father’s side, made him a reader. Kyriakos wasn’t at ease in Corinth, however, and so at the age of eighteen he left for Jerusalem. At that time there were a lot of monasteries, as well as great ascetics, and it was Kyriakos’ wish to live with them. By God’s grace, he was drawn to the life of a hermit. On his way to Jerusalem, Saint Kyriakos encountered Saint Efthymios, who made him ...

Many readers have never before heard that there is no such thing as moral progress – so I am not surprised that I have been asked to write in more depth on the topic. I will start by focusing on the question of sin itself. If we rightly understand the nature of sin and its true character, the notion of moral progress will be seen more clearly. I will begin by clarifying the difference between the notion of morality and the theological understanding of sin. They are two very different worlds. Morality (as I use the word) is a broad term that generally describes the adherence (or lack of adherence) to a set of standards or norms for behavior. In that ...

Declaration of Saints today Nowadays, the process of declaring saints seems to be the same. (Papadopoulos, Chr., 1934). More specifically, the principles that have to be followed in order that a Saint be recognized are the following; 1. The recognition of his/ her saintliness traits by the Synod. 2. The process above does not have to be applied for those who have already been declared as Saints. 3. During the declaration a relevant ecclesiastical act has to take place. The action of declaring a saint is signed solemnly in Church, during a suitable ecclesiastical ceremony. The entire Synod arrives in Church, and during the reading of the Gospel, the chorus chants “Blessed you are, Christ, our God…”, “when descending the languages He confused” etc. Afterwards ...

Last night found me yelling at the television once again over a panel discussion about “science and religion.” Both sides thought that rational processes can only take us so far in the journey to faith (agreed). After that, people turn to some other resource in order to connect with God (so far so good). What they use is their emotions. Around my house, that’s when the sputtering starts. Only in the realm of religion is it assumed that every experience is a subjective experience, which means it’s an emotional projection—which means: Look, dear, a lunatic. But in the real world, experience is just that: an experience. A few months ago I spent two weeks in Turkey. I experienced being in Turkey. When ...

The contemplation of God does not belong to the realm of emotions, neither to the visual sense, but it is the existential unity and contact of the created creature with the uncreated “Being”- not with His essence or His substance but with His divine energies, in accordance to the measure of the person who “participates” in the contemplation. When Moses requested to see God as he imagined he could, he heard from Him that this was impossible and would only admire His “back view”, which means His divine energies or attributes. Whoever finds himself in the contemplation of God, testifies that there is no similarity between the created world and the uncreated Being and that “it is impossible to interpret ...