2017

Our treasure, our hope, what is it? The Church, which isn’t there just to give us material things, though it does that as well. It’s true that, in the difficult trial which the Greek people is undergoing, the Church has proved to be our mother and people have no hesitation in seeking the help of the clergy. This is why the parishes are always the refuge of the poor, the refuge of those in need. But it’s not just that. The Church of Christ also gives the treasure of the Grace of God.

It has become a commonplace to hear someone say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” Most people have a general understanding of what is meant. I usually assume that the person holds to a number of ideas that are considered “spiritual” in our culture, but that they are not particularly interested in “organized religion.” I understand this, because organized religion can often be the bane of spiritual existence. I am an Orthodox Christian – which is not the same thing as saying that I have an interest in “organized religion.” There is much about organized religion that I dislike in the extreme, and I occasionally see its shadow seep into my experience within Orthodoxy. But I repeat unashamedly that I am an Orthodox ...

Agathangelos Theokharoudis, as he was known before becoming a monk, was born in 1876 to his parents, Dimitrios and Anastasia, in Gomati, Halkidiki. In 1892, he arrived at the ancient and beautiful Vatopedan Kelli of the Great Martyr Prokopios, whose hand was kept there as a treasured relic. Agathangelos was given his monastic tonsure in 1899 by the Elder Neofytos the First. He was ordained deacon in 1907 and then priest in 1909.   He was an excellent and well-known spiritual father of great discernment. He was regularly invited to Halkidiki to confess the faithful. Indeed, no other spiritual father had so many people coming to him for confession.  Elder Gavriïl of Dionisiou wrote the following regarding him: “The well-disposed and devout ...