In English

On the afternoon of Great Wednesday, a great missionary figure of our time, Archimandrite Gavrilo Vučković, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Lepavina, in Croatia, rendered his soul to the Lord, at the age of 73. The funeral service was conducted on Monday of Bright Week, April 17, the main clergymen in attendance being His Eminence Porfirije, Metropolitan of Zagreb and Bishop Jovan of Pakrac. A large crowd of believers accompanied their departed spiritual guide to the cemetery in Lepaniva, to the north of the monastery, singing ‘Christ has risen’, the hymn of joy and of the victory over death. The late archimandrite was widely known for his profound spirituality and also for his missionary activity, which, apart from anything else, he ...

Ignorance is really terrible and is the cause of much of the evil among us.

It’s hardly surprising that the message of the Resurrection of Christ has raised a whole host of doubts and questions. Objections were registered immediately after the occurrence of the supernatural event on which the whole structure of the Christian Church is founded. For the Jews of Biblical Jerusalem, it was a blasphemy of the apostate Christians to claim that a crucified criminal could ever be the Messiah. For the cultured Greeks, who already believed in the immortality of the soul, the very thought of a resurrected body was repulsive. Even for the Gnostic Christians of the 2nd century, the preferred view was that Christ was an immortal spirit who shuffled off his mortal coil. It’s true that Jesus’ Resurrection is a ...

Jesus again sets the Law of the Old Testament in its true interpretational framework and at the same time urges us to emerge from the shadow of the Law into the Light of the Grace of God, which is love. By transcending the law of retaliation, Christianity promotes the principle of love towards one’s neighbour, of pardon, of returning good for evil, of forgiveness. As Saint Mark the Ascetic says: ‘those who believe in Christ, Who speaks of responding, suffer all injustice willingly, depending on their faith’. And let’s not forget what Alexander Pope wrote in the 18th century: ‘To err is human, to forgive divine’. Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness and love isn’t merely some moral theory, but is realized and ...

I say that fasting is of benefit to both soul and body. You have to keep the fasts, insofar as you can, with the permission of the doctor and the instructions of your spiritual guide. Everything should be done with discrimination and prayer. But especially, pray; fight the good fight. Because the devil goes about like a roaring lion.

“If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold new things have come.” We come to the Holy Gospel at last and to the Christian way of life! The fullness of time has come and God has sent forth His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. How everything has changed! No aspect of human life remains as it was before Christ came. Everything has died with Him, and everything has been raised and transfigured in Him. All for us has been redeemed, transformed, deified, elevated, and, in a word, made Christian. When Jesus came to earth He found us with lame limbs, weak and failing, and He perfected our bodies and restored them ...

Whosoever is a devout lover of God, let him enjoy this beautiful bright Festival. And whosoever is a grateful servant, let him joyously enter into the joy of his Lord. And if any be weary with fasting, let him now receive his reward. If any has toiled from the first hour, let him receive his just debt. If any came after the third, let him gratefully celebrate. If any arrived after the sixth, let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss. If any have delayed to the ninth, let him come without hesitation. If any arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be afraid by reason of his delay; for the Master is gracious and ...

Repentance is never-ending. By the grace of God we can perfect all the virtues. But no-one can perfect repentance, because we need it to our last breath, since we sin ‘in the blink of an eye’. So repentance remains unconquered.

The whole series can be read here: The Theology of Gender In order to evaluate Saint Basil’s contribution to the canonical tradition and spiritual conscience of the Orthodox Church, we have to consider the following presuppositions: First, the canonical writings of Saint Basil are pastoral works that deal primarily with transgressions and aim at restoring the fallen Christian into communion with the body of the Church. The ultimate goal of the legislator is the salvation of the persons committing the transgression and their discipline in such a way as to lead them to repentance while preventing others from entering similar situations. The penances were warning lessons for the whole Christian community and for society in general. The way that we ought ...

The death of Jesus was no mere appearance; he really died. His soul and body were truly rent asunder. “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice,” wrote Matthew, “and yielded up his spirit” (28:50). It is proper to say, moreover, that Jesus’ body and his soul went in different directions. Indeed, the Church marvels in this mystery. In a Troparion appointed during Bright Week we address the Savior: “In the tomb with the body, in Hades with the soul, in Paradise with the thief, and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit, wast Thou, O boundless Christ filling all things.” The soul of Jesus departs, leaving his body—in Mark’s language—a “cadaver,” ptoma. Although Jesus’ soul is no longer present in his ...

Wise people seek calm, inactivity and leisure in order to steep themselves in quietude and think of God.

The years between 1976-1985 were declared by the United Nations to be the “Decade of the Rights of Women”. Within the framework of the related activities which were undertaken at the time, it was claimed, among other things, that religions bore the responsibility for the suppression of women’s rights. In response to this challenge, the Christian world, through the World Council of Churches, (WCC) promoted its own, world-wide decade of “Churches in Solidarity with Women” (1988-1998). But even before then, in its General Conferences and its various distinct activities, the WCC had involved itself with this particular problem. Indeed, between the years 1978-81 a programme of study was arranged, entitled “The Community of Women and Men in the Church”. The ...

Science and faith so often are pitted against one another. The polarization does not come from one direction or the other alone, but rather often from both sides. Many scientists claim that faith is simply a blind exercise in futility in which the "believer" seeks to impose some unintended meaning on his life, or to console herself with unprovable prayer. Most of these folks fail to recognize that science can never quantify or prove "love," for example. On the other hand, numbers of "faithful" claim that science is a sham, especially with regard to the heated debates about creation. Most of these folks fail to understand, for example, that Genesis 1-11 is neither textbook science nor textbook history, and therefore have very little, ...

Forty days of Great Lent having been completed, along with Holy Week, and the Great Feast of Feasts, Pascha, having been marked in the Church, it is very easy to take a deep breath and say, “Now, that’s done!” And with the exhalation we take our leave of a liturgical feast and return to our daily routine and schedule. Just as the modern world has little understanding of the meaning of fasting, so, too, does it fail to understand the meaning of liturgy. Liturgy is not a means of marking time on a calendar – liturgy is a means (and mode) of existence.  Through baptism and chrismation we have entered into a new mode of existence. It is an existence of ...

In Abbas Dorotheos, Ascetic Works, Teaching XVI is An Interpretation of certain sayings of Saint Gregory sung in hymns at Easter. These hymns are no longer sung at Easter, since they have been superseded by the famous canon by Saint John the Damascene, though he may have used them for inspiration. Abbas Dorotheos seems to be basing his remarks on a tropario which was, indeed, sung at Easter when he was alive and elements of which are to be found in a homily preached by Saint Gregory on Easter day, 383 A.D. (S.C. vol. 92, p. 458). The tropario was published by S. Petrides in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 1904, 421-3). (WJL). 166. I’m very happy to say a few words to you ...

The most important thing is for you yourself to struggle, rather than prepare other people as to how to deal with disasters. It’s hard for people who would be hard put to turn to evil to guess at what it’s like.

We shall try here to point out the main features of the Orthodox icon which is entitled “The Descent into Hell”. The first thing to note is that it is entirely different from the Western-style depiction, which shows Christ emerging triumphantly from the tomb, holding a little flag. The astonished guards have fallen to the ground.   The Western-style icon presents a scene that no-one ever saw. The moment of the Resurrection is a concealed secret. The Orthodox approach is entirely different. It depicts the results of the event of the Resurrection for people and for the world.   Christ, in the centre, is wearing shining white garments and is within a mandorla. He is holding the hands of Adam and Eve and raising ...

          a)  The Cross leads to the Resurrection, Great Friday bears fruit on the bright Sunday of Easter. Sorrow, listlessness and despair make way for the joy and peace of the Resurrection. Without the Cross, the Resurrection is inconceivable and without the Resurrection the Cross has no point. It might be better to say that the Resurrection is concealed within the Cross. This is why orthodox Easter is both the Cross and the Resurrection. And we all take part, body and soul, in the great feast of faith and the encounter with the Risen Lord. Proceeding beside Him and being crucified with Him makes us participants in the divine light and brings us into real communion ...

In the Orthodox Church, the Resurrection is not merely the ‘feast of feasts’, but the all-embracing feast, which is the soul of all the others and is always present in them. In it we find all the divine and theanthropic powers of the Saviour, which crush every sin, every death, every devil. Unceasing Resurrection, that is continuous Resurrection, is precisely what the life of all Orthodox Christians in the Church of the Saviour is: it is my life, your life and that of each of us. What is the Orthodox Church? It is the risen Christ Who lives forever. So we who live in it continually overcome sin, death and the devil through the Risen Lord. In this way, we ...

“Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry aloud; neither shall any one hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles hope” (Matthew 12: 18-21) This prophecy summarizes the life of this “servant” whom God “chose” and in whom His “soul is well pleased.” He is the chosen vessel of His “Spirit,” His Word “to the nations” revealing His love and His will, the Icon per excellence of faithfulness to the ...