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Today our Church celebrates the memory of Saint John the Charitable , Patriarch of Alexandria. Saint John came from Cyprus, and was the son of rich and devout parents. Even though he was brought up in comfort, he concentrated his mind and attention on his devotions. Seeing that his pure soul would produce great spiritual fruit in the future, Divine Grace destined him for and exalted him to the throne of Alexandria, which was at its height at the time. In his Life, mention is made of a symbol which Grace sent as an indication of his future way of life. In a dream, he saw a beautiful maiden crowned with an olive wreath, who said to him: ‘I’m the ...

There’s absolutely no justification for Christiasn to be proud of doing something righteous. They’re saved from the snares of the evil one only by the faith through which they perform these acts of righteousness. Nobody should feel proud, for whatever reason.

Saint Minas lived at the time of the Emperor Maximian and was born in Egypt of pagan parents. According to Coptic sources, Minas was born in Egypt in 285 A.D., in the city of Niceous, naear Memphis. His parents were  Christians but did not have any children for a long time. His father’s name was Evdoxios and his mother’s Eufimia. On a  feast of the Mother of God, Evfimia was praying in front of an icon of the Virgin with tears that God would give her a son. A sound came from the icon saying “Amen”. A few months later, Eufimia gave birth to a boy and named him Minas. When he came of age, he enlisted in the ranks of the soldiery. He served in the ...

Not unlike Evagrius and other Fathers, John also uses the antirheticos genre, e.g. in 23.46. In 22.35, a monk and a demon are even portrayed in their struggle, both using passages of Scripture. I would like finally to present another striking figure of style used most often by John. Scripture has totally become his, and he feels confident to adapt it as it comes to his mind, to fit his point. Very often, and perhaps with a stronger occurrence as one climbs up the Ladder, if I may say so, he glosses a quotation, by adding a detail which gives it a sudden change of meaning or again adapts it to a particular context, mostly an ascetic one. He ...

Those who’ve departed with virtue are assured of a fine welcome in heaven.

The most Blessed Father Arsenios was born around 1840 in Pharasa or Varasio, the most important of the six Christian villages in the Pharasa region of Cappadocia. The now emptied village of Pharasa His parents were rich in virtues, and rather mod­est in material possessions. His father was a teacher whose name was Eleftherios (or Hadjilefteris). His sur­name was Annitsalichos and his nick-name Artzidis. His mother was called Varvara, her maiden name was Frangou or Frangopoulou and the nick-name of her family was Tsaparis. They had two sons, Vlasios and Theodoros (Fath­er Arsenios), who were left orphans at an early age when both of their parents passed away, first the fath­er and shortly thereafter the mother. The orphans were then cared for ...

From the time we’re created, each individual has a particular mode of existence, which is not extinguished when we die. Saint John the Damascan says that the union of soul and body occurs at the beginning of our formation. ‘Body and soul are formed at the same time’. This specific persona of each individual is not dismantled even on our death. The soul may indeed be separated from the body at death, but the personhood remains the same. Each person is a unique and inimitable personality. This special individuality, this specific persona, never ceases to exist. This is why, in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, the Lord says that the rich man saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, not ...

This week’s icon has a very special distinction compared to most of the icons we have previously spotlighted: this icon was not written (that is, made) by human hands. Tradition tells us that when the Apostles Peter and John were preaching in the city of Lydda, near Jerusalem, they built a church in honor of the Theotokos. When they returned to Jerusalem and asked the Most Holy Mother to come sanctify the church, she told them to go before her, and that she would be there with them. Theotokos of Lydda, or “The Roman” When the Apostles returned to the church in Lydda they were amazed to see that an icon of Mary with the Christ Child was imprinted onto the wall ...

The prayers at a wedding make reference to providing children with a good upbringing and to ‘the enjoyment of procreation’. It may be that the Fathers of the Church, by and large, praise the superiority of virginity over marriage, but at the same time they consider parents to be co-creators with God. Procreation is in line with the will of God and is an obstacle to death . In his desire to support women who were accused of being responsible for their lack of children, Saint John Chrysostom teaches that the birth of children depends on the providential action of God. He writes: ‘… since everything is from the creator of nature, neither intercourse nor anything else is able to contribute ...

Saint Nektarios (9 November) Saint Nektarios was born on 1 October 1846, in Silyvria, Thrace, to poor and devout parents. At his baptism he was given the name Anastasios. He learned his first letters, as well as the Christian teachings, from his mother. In Silyvria he finished Primary and Middle School, before going on to Constantinople to continue his studies, working, in the beginning, at a tobacconist’s in order to help with his family’s finances. He began to study and collect the sayings and axioms of the Holy Fathers and classical philosophers which formed the two-volume book ‘A treasury of holy and philosophical scholars’, which he published in 1895. Before he was even 20 years old, he was appointed to the ...

The more you live within your means, the happier you’ll be. Because you don’t have too much to care about: servants, farm-workers and getting more animals. Because once we become attached to those things and have experienced the miseries which follow, we start to blame God. Death is fostered by this arbitrary desire for riches on our part and so, deluded, we remain in the darkness of our sinful life and are unable to recognize ourselves.

St. Luke “You fool, this night your soul will be required of you” (Luke 12:20). Of the four Gospel writers, Luke seems to present the parables of Jesus in the harshest light. For example, Luke’s telling of the parable of the talents includes this grizzly note: the king has slain in his presence those who did not want him to rule over them.  Only Luke’s Gospel includes the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, in which we see the Rich Man tormented in flames. And only Luke has the parable of the Unjust Steward, in which Jesus praises a servant who cheats his master.  Similarly, only Luke includes the parable of the Prodigal Son.  When people speak of this ...

Pray with faith. Admonish them, but as far as you can, with love and in a good way. Don’t be too strict.

In the ninth century a man's concern for a biographical record of the saints of the Church up to his day led to a monumental work of scholar­ship and research to the degree that he himself was rewarded with sainthood. This most literate luminary of his time was St. Simeon the translator, so named for his in depth study of the Church and its saints, a prodigious labor of love which entailed a great deal more than a mere translation. Endowed with a tremendous intellect, St. Simeon rose to prominence as chief magistrate and advisor to Emperor Leo the Wise, who was indeed wise enough to heed the counsel of his magistrate. The talents of Simeon included those of tact and ...

The floors have just been shined, and the little white church dedicated to Archangel Michael in Tarpon Springs is about to get a new front door. Archangel Michael's Church in Tarpon Springs, FL. As preparations are being made for hundreds of visitors, Stavroula Pololos of Montreal is sitting in one of the pews, flipping through a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and handwritten accounts detailing miracles that have happened here. “My prayer is that I don't want to get sick again, I pray that he heals me and I don't get sick again,” she said, looking up at the icon of Archangel Michael. Pololos first learned of the shrine in September, after completing 18 rounds of chemotherapy to treat ovarian cancer that came back ...

A time to read and a time to embody: John’s creative use of Scripture in The Ladder of Divine Ascent According to Bishop Kallistos, “with the exception of the Bible and the service books, there is no work in Eastern Christianity that has been studied, copied and translated more often than The Ladder of Divine Ascent by Saint John Climacus”. However, the number of published monographs on The Ladder, at least outside the Greek language, is relatively small. John’s fundamental source is Holy Scripture. A first reading of The Ladder of Divine Ascent reveals the omnipresence of the Word, as well as John’s original use of it. Surprisingly, even fewer studies have been dedicated to that specific topic. John Chryssavgis, in his recent ...

Yet in Exodus 23:20-23, God tells the people of Israel that He is sending His angel ahead of them to guide and protect them, and says that His Name is in Him: “Behold, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and ...

And when I sometimes see people going to make a disaster of their lives, there’s nothing I can do. I show them a little, but they don’t understand. It’s not right for me to intervene too much. It’s not a simple matter.

This certainty of the vision of God was a constant in the tradition of the Church; all the spiritual struggles of the great ascetics and saints were directed towards making them able, from now, to see the light of divine glory, as the righteous will do in the last times. There was always an awareness that the light of the Transfiguration and that which shines upon the saints is the same as that which will dawn upon the righteous at the last judgement. And so  the spiritual life is not a suspended expectation, with no guarantees, of purely future and promised benefits, but the enjoyment of these good things in the here and now. This explains the strength and endurance ...