The Fathers tell us that awareness of sinfulness is a great gift from God, greater than the sight of sublime visions. When we become aware of our inner darkness and see the infernal and repulsive form of sin, which leaves us feeling revolted, then divine Grace will bring us its own consolation.
The Orthodox Approach It is natural that the theological approach to contemporary problems should be measured against perfection, which is the measure of Christ. But this measure, which Christians should always have before them, should not be converted into a sword to overcome those who are weak in the faith. Certainly Christian perfection is for everyone and should not be concealed from any of the faithful. But human weakness is common to all and we are not allowed to condemn anyone because of it. The Church has unlimited respect for human freedom and exhausts all its stock of lenient understanding in order to preserve it. The explicit opposition of the Church begins from the moment that people’s freedom is ignored and ...
Artistic tradition on Mt Athos is usually connected to icons and religious murals. There is however another artistic practice, usually underrated and in general unknown to the majority, that is the art of printmaking mainly woodcuts and copper engravings. It is an art that flourished from the 17th c. until the end of the 19th, quite important for Athonite history, but also for contemporary Greek art history. Let us only mention that the first teacher of engraving in the school of Fine Arts (1843-1865), was an Athonite engraver, the monk Agathaggelos Triantafyllou. This tradition came gradually to an end with the introduction of lithography. Later on modern offset printing gave the final blow to the engraving tradition on Mt Athos. Part of ...
Saint Gregory Palamas, speaking in general about the prophets, as also the Fathers of the Church, notes: “God raised up the Prophets and the Fathers unto our guidance and He showed signs and wonders to us through them, so that He could correctly lead us up to faith.” Prophet Elijah, mosaic from San Marco Cathedral, Venezia, 12th Century The Prophets, as also the Fathers of the church, are essentially God’s gift to men, because they lead us to true faith and furthermore through the miracles they do, they experientially certify God’s presence among us. One such gift of God to man was also the Prophet Elijah the Tishsbite who was called thus, because he hailed from the city Tishbe of the area ...
I have never been a particularly patient person. In grocery stores, I do mental math trying to determine which checkout line is the fastest. I’d like to be done *now*. When approaching a red light, I aim for the lane with fewer cars. I want to be at my destination *now*. I’ve never done particularly well with anticipation either. I confess that as a child, I often sought and found Christmas presents which my parents had attempted to hide in dark guestroom closets. I wanted to know what I was getting *now*. It wasn’t until my wife’s pregnancy with our firstborn son that I was able to long for anything. By God’s grace, I waited nine months plus two weeks to know that ...
They haven’t read, they haven’t heard that those who distance themselves from God are lost. If the nation is to recover, it needs a spiritual rebirth. It should put a stop to corruption and moral turpitude. It should end immorality, sin, injustice, greed, impiety and blasphemy. Look at the history of the Church and you’ll see that, since the creation of the world, every transgression and disobedience has been justly punished.
One of God's greatest Prophet in the Old Testament is the Prophet Elijah. He lived and prophesied, according to the Books of Kings (III Kings 17:1 - IV Kings 2:18), during the days of Achaab (873-854 B.C.) and Ochozia (854-853 B.C.). His zeal for the true faith in the one and only God of Israel led him to resist against the evil queen Jezabel, who abandoned the true God and ordered the Israelites to worship the false god Baal (III Kings 16:29-33). Prophet Elijah, Egyptian relief, 6th Century, Dumbarton Oaks Collection King Achaab and the wicked Queen Jezabel persecuted the prophets and the priests of God, and many of them were inprisoned and put to death. God foretold Elijah, that Jezabel ...
Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania addressed the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches which met in September 2012 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, in Hania, Crete. As always, he spoke with a clear message, on this occasion undertaking a pointed examination of the causes and results of the economic crisis. Speaking of “the freedom of the individual has given way to emphasis on the freedom of the market”, His Beatitude Anastasios, did not pull any punches even as regards the Church and its members, accusing them of “an attitude which is inconsistent with the Gospel principles, for their participation, to a great or lesser extent, in injustice and social corruption”. Later, when he had concluded ...
Sorrow is pleasing to God so long as it doesn’t detract from our will to struggle. We should leave all matters in the hands of God. If we want anything, we should ask our Father for it, as children do.
Our family discussed this question after attending liturgy one Sunday. The reason? The parish leadership chose to hire an armed security detail in response to the threats of a mentally ill person. A tense feeling was evident as uniformed guards patrolled the church property openly carrying their guns while a security tower monitored the movements of all of us. The parish hall featured a photograph of the person who made the threats for all to see. Official e-mails over the previous week added to the fear by discussing the person’s medical treatment and the new security measures to be taken going forward. We wondered if this was the new normal. And if so, what does it mean? Mind you that this was ...
As we all know, Saint Gregory Palamas is a great luminary of the Orthodox Church, who with the whole of his theology- the fruit of his life in Christ- managed, in his day, to revive Orthodox theology in all its profundity. It is said on the Holy Mountain that Saint Gregory Palamas’ theology covered all the gaps from the past and the future. The Athonite saint began his life on the Mountain at the monastery of his “repentance”, i.e. where he was tonsured, the Great Monastery of Vatopaidi, being taught the tasks of the spirit and the ascetic life by Saint Nikodimos the Hesychast the Vatopaidan. Illumined by the uncreated energies of the Holy Spirit, Saint Gregory acquired spiritual wisdom and ...
Any donation of body tissue or an organ is a kind of self-sacrifice. Despite this, it would be untheological to consider such an action to be in imitation of the sacrifice of Christ. Christ offers His Body and Blood to give people, not some transitory existence, but real life, which might, in fact, involve the sacrifice of this temporary existence. This fleeting existence should not be separated from real life and become independent. But adherence to this transitory existence extinguishes the desire for eternal life. ‘For those who want to save their soul will lose it, and those who lose their soul for my sake will find it’ose who love their soul will lose it, and those who hate their ...
Christians today can be real Christians only if they’re guided day by day by God’s saints.
Too much to learn? Too little time? A solution for busy orthodox Why read Scripture? Certainly important reasons are as numerous as readers; however, the simplest answer comes from Christ, Himself. Almost all of His words come from ancient Jewish scriptures. To look more like Him, we have to do as He did. Understood in this way, embracing Scripture makes us more Christlike. Still, isn’t it true that the Bible has been hyped, interpreted, reinterpreted, and misused many times so much so that it seems to cause more confusion than it solves? Is there something a little dangerous about it? This is also true. So Reading God’s word should be intimidating for us, or more accurately, utterly awesome. In fact, the Church continuously participates ...
In Athens, Fr. Ioakeim used to stay at the dependency of the Holy Sepulchre. One woman, who kept losing children, after the last time, had despaired, even of the doctors. She heard of the elder, went to find him and fell at his feet, begging him to pray. The elder went at once to the church of the Holy Unmercenaries, which is at the dependency of the Holy Sepulchre, and gave her the relics of the Unmercenary Doctors, saying: “Hold them over yourself”. Then he read various prayers, prayed and said to her: “Don’t worry, you’ll have a child”. And, indeed, she did. The woman was overjoyed and asked for a photograph of the elder to have at home as ...
Among other things, I asked the Elder what I could do to love Christ? I thought that he’d tell me all sorts of things involving unceasing prayer, many prostrations, fasting and so on, but he simply said: ‘Love Christ’s Cross’. Indeed, looking upon the Saviour’s Cross you learn to gratefully accept all the so-called ‘misfortunes’, the sorrows and so on that befall us, and to view them as absolutely nothing compared to what Christ the Saviour endured for us. It stops you from becoming arrogant, and gradually gets you used to praying with gratitude. But even if we don’t attain heartfelt prayer quickly, which is difficult, the imprint of Christ’s Cross is permanently engraved on our memory, and this results ...
