In English

A) The Main Features of his Sermon He preached 4-5 times a week at Wittenberg and it wasn’t unusual for him to give 4 sermons in one day, following in the steps of Augustine and Ambrose of Milan. He followed the lectio continua (continuous reading of Scripture) and it’s estimated that he preached about 4,000 sermons, of which some 2,300 have survived . In the pulpit, he had with him a brief outline (known as the Konzepten ), which he followed in his oral sermon. These notes haven’t been preserved. All we have are the sermons which were taken down in shorthand by his friends, although often enough they didn’t agree among themselves, even though they’d attended the same sermon. He ...

Moving on now to more theological issues, one day I asked the Elder whether God Himself really had to be crucified in order for us to be saved. Wasn’t there another way? ‘Of course’, he said, ‘only the Lord knows these things. However it seems as if there was no other way’. So not only is God truly related to the world (because some people ask ‘is God going to do anything for us?’), but He also abandoned His heavenly glory and came to Earth to endure blows at our hands and to be crucified. And the Elder in fact clarified that we shouldn’t just say that ‘Christ died on the cross for us’, which is perfectly true, of course, ...

Try to overcome your irascible nature. This passion acts against your real will, desire or command. But as long as pride resides within you, you won’t achieve anything. That’s what governs everything. If you can, kick it out your front door and tell it not to come back.

Josiah and Julia love to go to church. They love to venerate the icons, light candles, and eat the blessed bread. Sometimes they behave very well—but sometimes they make mistakes. Little ones can follow Josiah and Julia through the Liturgy and learn how even the youngest child can honor God by behaving properly in church.  Product description A new illustrated book entitled “Josiah and Julia Go to Church", written by Kelly Ramke Lardin and illustrated by Sheena Hisiro, has been released in 2011. The illustrator Sheena Hisiro exlains that «the book is a playful story for children, teaching them what they should (and shouldn’t) do in church». Beyond any doubt, many parents are discouraged and disappointed when their child diplays disruptive behavior in ...

Become humble in spirit, so that you don’t lose any of the good that you’ve done. But if you cast off humility, you’ll be numbered among those who’ve laboured in vain.

St. Panteleimon, the Great Doctor and Martyr, was born at the end of the 3rd century AD. His father, Eustrogios, was not only very rich but was well known for his zeal in idol worship; whereas his mother St. Euboule was a faithful Orthodox Christian full of Holy Spirit, love and kindness. Her only interest was to guide her only begotten son in the true faith and virtuous life. St. Panteleimon's first name was Pantoleon. When he was very young, his mother, St. Euboule, passed away and his father taught him to worship the false gods of their ancestors. Pantoleon studied medicine under the guidance of the wise doctor Euphrosynos, and shortly differentiated from all his other classmates in wisdom and ...

And when the woman of Samaria would again and again change the subject, he would again and again bring her back to it, until he finally told her bluntly that it was he speaking unto her who was the Christ who should come into the world. And when Martha would change the subject by wandering off into some general cosmological expectation of the resurrection, he would bring her back to it by telling her, "I am the resurrection and the life." And when Thomas would change the subject by asking him to show them the Father, he would bring him back to it by telling him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And when Philip would change the subject by ...

Pride of the intellect sent Satan to Hell. Pride of the intellect separated Adam and Eve from God, and impelled the Scribes and Pharisees to kill Christ. Pride of the intellect is the most fertile ground for the cultivation of sin that we’ve ever known. Unless our intellect kneels before Christ, we’ll never physically get down on our knees. If you’ve begun to calm your intellect through repentance, you’ve already begun to cure your deeper wounds as well.

A Saint who passed through fire and iron* This saint lived at the time of Emperor Antoninus, about the year 140. She came from a village near Old Rome and was the daughter of Christian parents, called Agathon and Politeia. They were meticulous in their observance of the Lord’s commandments, but were childless and constantly entreated the Lord to give them a child. And God, Who grants the wishes of those who worship Him, gave them a daughter, who, at baptism, they named Paraskevi, since she was born on a Friday, which in Greek is called Paraskevi, the day of preparation . From the time when she was still young, the girl devoted herself to God. She was taught and ...

Mme Elisabeth Behr Sigel was, perhaps, the most significant Orthodox woman of the 20th century who delivered the 2003 Florovsky Lecture at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary. She was born in Alsace, France in 1907. Her father was Protestant and her mother Jewish. She studied theology at the Protestant Faculty in Strasbourg and then began a pastoral ministry. But it lasted only a year. She then went to Paris to study theology. During her studies she came into contact with the Russian Orthodox diaspora and joined the Orthodox Church through her friends and colleagues of the Russian emigration. She was influenced by some of the most important theological figures of the era (Metropolitan Evlogy, Vladimir Lossky, Paul Evdokimov, Lev Gillet, Maria Skobtsova, etc.). ...

Let me now mention some other teachings and advice the Elder gave. Regarding the so-called ‘enlightened’ laywomen who supposedly see revealing visions, apparitions of Saints, talk all the time with Our Most Holy Lady and so on, the Elder, generally speaking, didn’t have a good opinion (unless it was an exception, such as the devout ladies who had a vision of Saint Raphael, or the abbess who found Saint Vlasios in Aitoloakarnania and so on, then the Church decides accordingly). In any case, the opinion of the Church takes precedence. Until it reaches a decision, we would do well to have our reservations in such cases. A very long time ago, when I was still a student in primary school, the ...

The Holy Martyr Silouan, the disciple and biographer of Saint Maximos the Confessor, known as ‘the Greek’, of the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi, was a saintly monk of the Lavra of Saint Sergius. He was imbued with the same spirit as his Elder and teacher and proved to be his rival in spiritual knowledge. Lavra of Saint Sergius, the place where the Holy Martyr Silouan was killed He himself considered his spiritual contact with Saint Maximos to be a godsend. In admiration of the Elder’s abilities, Saint Silouan rightly called him a treasury of wisdom, for his knowledge of three languages (Greek, Latin and Russian) and as the author of heroic, elegiac poems and because he stood out amongst his contemporaries ...

The fear of God is impassive. Because we don’t actually fear God Himself, but falling away from Him.

According to Saint Gregory, mourning is the most natural and spontaneous expression of the soul wounded by sin and coming to repentance. The saint uses a wonderful simile to prove that it is people’s wounds that cause the pain, not the fact of repentance itself, which brings only joy and comfort to the soul. Just as, if someone’s tongue has suffered damage, honey might seem tart to  them and they need to be cured in order to taste the sweetness, the same is true of the fear of God: in souls where it is engendered, on hearing the message of the Gospels, it causes sorrow, since these souls are still surrounded by the wounds of their sins; but as soon ...

It’s of vast importance that somebody in the family should really pray. Prayer draws the Grace of God, and all members of the family feel it, even those whose hearts have hardened. Always pray.

Definition – Characteristics The purpose of mysticism is an experiential, existential quest, direct relationship and spiritual union with God or the divine. This is sought with concentration, prayer, dispassion, contemplation and ecstasy. Mysticism is usually the intuitive element in the religious experience and manifests itself in almost all religions, from the primitive to the most highly-developed. Sometimes it springs up in the stony regions of external piety, giving fresh impetus to religious sentiment. Because of the variety of forms it has assumed in the history of religions and the contradictory features it has been imbued with, there is no generally accepted definition. As a rule, mysticism, which expresses people’s immediate relationship with and experience of the Numinous, differs from the arcane occult ...

But there are two forms of birth: one according to the flesh and the other in the spirit. Christ said to Nicodemus: ‘What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I told you that all of you must be born from above’ (Jn. 3, 6-7). Since women today have lost this noble awareness, they’ve begun to give birth mostly according to the flesh. Our children have become incapable of faith. Often it’s impossible for them to believe that they’re an image of the Eternal God. The greatest sin of our times lies in the fact that people have sunk into despair and no longer believe in ...