In English

A round white mound, frosted with powdered sugar and decorated with candied almonds, sits on top of a silver platter with a thin lit candle in the center of it. Is it someone’s birthday? No, it’s the anniversary of someone’s death. It’s the almost weekly macabre reminder of our eventual demise, decay, and doom. Likely the strangest ritual a convert to Orthodoxy witnesses is the memorial service (a mnemosynon or panikhida) following the Divine Liturgy. Other than perhaps a vicar offering a brief petition at a grave side funeral for the departed —that the deceased may “rest in peace”—prayers for the dead are absent from Protestant practice. They tend to believe once someone passes from this life then it’s too late ...

THE REALLY GOOD NEWS When people are out of sorts, the last thing they usually want to hear is bad news. On the contrary, they want some good news, to give them a lift, to give them the courage to get on with life. Incontrovertible proof of this truth is the recent change of circumstance of many of our fellow citizens . You hear lots of people saying, for example: ‘I just don’t want to watch the news any more… it’s all so depressing’. Or, on the other hand, they shout: ‘At last, some good news… That’s made my day… It’s put me in a good mood’. And while we’re on the lookout for some joyful news, along come the holidays. People ...

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy upon me. Be a fountain for my thirsting soul.

In the text by Saint Nil Sorskij which we published recently on the passions of avarice, anger, sorrow and sloth, we read: “In order to defeat the spirit of ingratitude and blasphemy we say: ‘Get behind me, Satan. I worship my Lord and God and I serve Him alone’”. This is a familiar theme from as far back as the earliest revelations of God to the people of Israel in the Old Testament (e.g. Exodus and Deuteronomy: “You shall have no other gods before me”, and, ibid: “for I am a jealous God”), and continuing through the New Testament. When this teaching came into conflict with the state religion of imperial Rome, thousands of Christians- and Jews- were martyred because ...

Jesus Praying While getting to know someone you might ask, “Do you go to church?” It is increasingly common to hear the response, “Oh, I’m not religious, but I am spiritual.” Your acquaintance may go on to explain he finds religion to be too hypocritical, legalistic, and full of strife. “Look at all the wars that have been due to religion!” he exclaims, “And I don’t want some preacher telling me how to live my life when he can’t follow his own rules!” When asked what he means by being spiritual, the answer is something like, “I believe there is a life-force, I meditate, and occasionally I read books about spirituality; so I don’t need religion.” Has religion become passe? Is ...

Those who don’t confess their sins always feel the burden of guilt. They’re far from God and their soul grieves and hurts. The abnormal moral state of sinners, the constant chastisement, is caused by the awareness of the soul that recognizes its sin and desires relief. The soul desires confession because it knows the divine commandment, because it understands that this is the only means of achieving reconciliation and harmony with God.

Christmas is before us. How will we choose to celebrate it? And what, by the way, are we actually celebrating? For Christians, Christmas is the Great Feast of the Nativity according to the flesh of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. With inspiring eloquence, St. John the Theologian writes: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1). The Word Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and the door to the mystery of His Incarnation is opened by the Church's beautiful hymnology. St. Joseph the Hymnographer chants: "The Son of the Father...has appeared to us...to give light to those in darkness and to gather the dispersed. Therefore, the far-famed Theotokos do ...

Many believe that “love conquers all” and they erroneously attribute the Holy Bible as teaching this. However, the saying is from the Roman poet Virgil (“omnia vincit amor,” Eclogue X) rather than from Scripture. Although love is able to cover wrongs and a multitude of sins (Proverbs 10:13; 1 Peter 4:8), to state “love conquers all” is to make love irresistible. Unfortunately, we know there are people who refuse to submit to the love of God (John 5:42-43). Love may be unyielding, and unquenchable in the one who has love (Song of Songs 8:6-7), but that doesn’t mean love can win over those who don’t want to receive it. Another myth is the idea if we love someone then we should ...

My recent bout with my heart brought the subject of mortality to the forefront for perhaps the first time in my life. At sixty-five I am no spring chicken, as the saying goes, but facing a possible bypass made me realize I needed to be prepared for my own inevitable demise. The clock is ticking for all of us, but once you have an illness you hear it for the first time. A doctor friend made the observation that the greatest hazard to your life is conception, because it is a death sentence. From the moment we are born we begin to die. The best way to approach the inevitability of your own death is to face it head on. Our ...

The Public Prosecutor, Vasiliki Krina, has recommended to the Three-Member Court of Criminal Appeal that all the accused in the case of Vatopaidi be found ‘Not Guilty’. According to the Prosecutor, on the basis of the evidence produced during the two-year proceedings none of the accused is guilty of punishable offences. Indeed, the charges of bad faith, conspiracy to deceive, perjury and money laundering for which they were arraigned, were not confirmed at any point of the investigation. In essence, the accused were simply executing government decisions, without duplicity, since they genuinely believed they were carrying out actions which were compatible with the law, said Mrs. Krina. On the crucial issue of ownership of Lake Vistonida and the lands along its shore, the Prosecutor ...

Don’t trust people. Be careful who you mix with. Don’t listen to what people say. Temptations come into it. We’re people. The devil’s got many plots and traps. Everything in marriage should be handled with love, meekness and patience. Have faith in God, pray and everything will go as He wishes it to.

People are rarely satisfied with having enough. Many say to themselves,“If a little is good, then surely more is better.” This belief appeals to our desire for greater freedom: we want a larger selection to choose from to appease whatever mood strikes us at the moment. And people laud freedom as if it is a virtue. Liberty is perceived as an essential human right along with life and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, freedom adds nothing to our character; rather, freedom places us in a position to be more vulnerable to temptation and so possibly lose our moral standing. In fact, virtue is more likely to arise when we limit our freedoms than expand them. Regardless, secular society is in ...

Imagine going into a fancy restaurant for a special meal. The dining room is beautifully decorated, only the best linens are used, and the glow of candlelight creates a warm ambience. Through the kitchen doors, you see the chef hard at work preparing a delectable dish. He then shouts from the kitchen, never moving from his cutting board, to sit yourself down and asks you what you want to order. You think this is odd, but then you notice there isn’t a single waiter or waitress in the entire establishment. What is wrong with this scene is analogous to what is presently amiss within the Orthodox Church – namely the significant lack of deacons within our parishes. A Model Of Service “Deacon” ...

Christmas is coming and, as has increasingly been the case in recent years, texts are published which decry the fact that the meaning of the feast has been lost and that excessive consumerism is now the order of the day. But if we strip these feast days of their folk traditions, the parties, the opportunity for a few days off and the family get-togethers which are a ‘must’, what will be left to remind most people that it’s Christmas? My question has nothing to do with the justified irritation behind this complaint. But we’d like to put forward the thought that perhaps we might find it in our heart to recognize that all of this is now part and parcel of the ...

It’s impossible not to succeed if you hope in God with all your heart and try your very hardest.

Communicating via the Internet The manner of expression of the Internet is, in the first place, that of presence: to communicate on the Internet you have to be on the Internet. You enter an open stadium where everyone is playing in the same way. If you open a web page, send a newsletter, run a forum, it means that you’re sending a message unaltered to the world. It’s obvious that this equates with a challenge to the identity and anonymity of individual sites. But there’s also a problem which is much more serious and profound, from what appears, for the champions of exclusive technology and functionality. Indeed, qualitative answers in the world of the Internet, unless they’re searchable within it, must be ...

(Discussion with Elder Iosif Vatopaidinos) Question: Why can’t we follow the path of sacrifice by ourselves, when Christ did it by Himself? Elder: He did it by Himself, because he was actually God, the incarnate Word of God. The person we saw was Jesus the man. But Jesus the man also had within Him Jesus the Word and God. Being God and man together, He had divine grace dwelling within him. He Who is the Lord of Life, is one of us, He’s the head of our body. Because we’re clad in Him. “As many as have been baptized into Christ have been clothed in Christ”. We’ve “been clothed” in Him with baptism and we bear Him within us by partaking of ...

  Inquirer: Father, earlier you spoke about our personal salvation. Can you tell me more about this? Elder Cleopa: Some religious confessions teach that personal salvation presupposes the action of Divine Grace alone, according to Calvin, or the grace of faith, i.e. of trust in God, according to Luther, by which the merits or virtues of our Lord Jesus Christ are conferred upon man. Therefore, to give a general outline, there are Protestant Christians who believe that salvation stems only from faith and that on the part of man himself there is placed no condition or requirement for his salvation. Our Church, however, teaches that our personal salvation is neither a gift, nor a simple work, but rather a process and an undertaking ...

How wonderful the sacrament of Tomorrow is!