In English

Sharing, Silence, Suffering If the Mother of God at the moment of the Annunciation is a true icon of human freedom, of authentic liberty and liberation, then her actions and reactions in the events that follow shortly afterwards in St. Luke’s Gospel illustrate three basic consequences of what it means to be free. Freedom involves sharing, silence, and suffering. Freedom involves sharing. Mary’s first action after the Annunciation is to share the good news with someone else: she goes with haste to the hill country, to the house of Zechariah, and greets her cousin Elizabeth.8 Here is an essential element in freedom: you cannot be free alone. Freedom is not solitary but social. It implies relationship, a “thou” as well as an ...

The Orthodox Patristic tradition and modern pastoral psychology consider self-absorption to be a source of many psychological and spiritual problems. Elder Sophrony, at Essex, called the internal and event he external state of egocentric people demonized spirituality which engenders all the passions and sins. The same saintly Elder, who lived in our own times, considered pride to be the root of all evil, as did the ancient Church Fathers. This ontological truth has practical consequences in our everyday lives, if we think that we’re the centre of other people’s attention. Saint Païsios the Athonite was asked: ‘Elder, if you have the feeling that everybody’s interested in you and your doings, how can you get rid of it?’ He answered: ‘That’s from the temptation ...

“UNBIND HIM” John was coming home after being away for the past five years.  You might think the family would be planning a great party and feast to celebrate the return of their son.  Instead the family was in turmoil about how to handle his return.  You see John had been branded with a capital “F” on his forehead for he had become a Felon.  This wasn’t a literal “F” but the family knew that everyone would see it.  These past five years of his life had been spent in the deep darkness of prison.  Some of the family wished he were moving to another town so they wouldn’t be embarrassed by him.  Other family members wanted him home, but didn’t ...

In continuation of the article by Professor Ilias Voulgarakis on Sin and Love, it might be worth looking at what the English mystic and recluse “Julian atte Norwich” (ca. 8 November 1342 - ca. 1416) had to say on much the same subject in the Revelations of Divine Love: “A constantly recurring feature of all the revelations which filled my soul with wonder as I diligently observed it, was that our Lord God, as far as he himself is concerned, does not have to forgive, because it is impossible for him to be angry. It was shown that the whole of life is grounded and rooted in love, and that without love we cannot live. So to the soul, privileged by ...

It’s an interesting point that, just as the Hydra of the Ancient Greeks had seven heads, so sin can be described in terms of the seven deadly ones: pride, avarice, gluttony, lust, sloth, wrath and envy. All of them poison people’s souls. But the most destructive of all is envy. Because the sole aim of envious people is to harm their neighbor.

I recall my first classes in Moral Theology some 35 or so years ago. The subject is an essential part of Western thought (particularly in the Catholic and Anglican traditions). In many ways the topic was like a journey into Law School. We learned various methods and principles on whose basis moral questions – questions of right and wrong – could be discussed and decided. These classes were also the introduction of certain strains of doubt for me. The great problem with most moral thinking – is found in its fundamental questions: What does it mean to act morally? Why is moral better than immoral? Why is right better than wrong? Such questions have classically had some form of law to undergird ...

As Christ descended first to the nethermost parts of the earth and then ascended above the heavens, so humble love raises up a ladder in the heart of man. The same ladder which Christ used to descend to man, man uses to ascend to God, for ‘in his heart he has purposed to go up.’ Man then led by the Spirit of God, curtails sinful practices, eradicates desires and evil thoughts which are enmity against God. He is healed from the pestilence of sin, cultivating the longing for heavenly goods, performing God-pleasing works, entering into the heavenly enlargement of holy love of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. He proceeds ‘from strength to strength’ becoming the son ...

Am I not free? (1 Corinthians 9:1) God persuades, He does not compel; for violence is foreign to Him. (Epistle to Diognetus VII, 4) What Shall We Offer? In an Orthodox hymn used at Vespers on Christmas Eve, the Virgin Mary is seen as the highest and fullest offering that our humanity can make to the Creator: What shall we offer You, O Christ, Who for our sakes have appeared on earth as human? Every creature made by You offers You thanks: The angels offer You a hymn, The heavens a star, The Magi gifts, The shepherds their wonder, The earth its cave, The wilderness the manger; And we offer You a Virgin Mother. As our supreme human offering, the Mother of God is a model — next to Christ Himself, and through God’s grace — of what ...

She finished her story here and invited to me to eat some of the beans she had in her basket, because she’d been told “from the outside”, that I was very hungry. We ate and drank until I was full. But I saw that both the basket and the pitcher were still full, so I gave glory to God. When it was time for me to go, I wanted to leave her my outer raso , but she wouldn’t take it and said: “Bring me new clothes when you next come”. I was filled with joy when she said this and begged her to wait for me and to welcome me again. We prayed again, I bade her farewell and left, imprinting ...

Far from discouraging the faithful from seeking the aid of medical science, the Fathers of the Church actually encourage us to visit specialists for whatever ails us. It is true, however, that Basil the Great rejects excessive respect for the art of medicine and points out the spiritual danger involved in ‘officiously keeping alive’. Let us examine medical science from the point of view of Christian Patristic Ethics. In his work Όροι κατά Πλάτος (The Greater Rule) Basil the Great a Father and Doctor of the Church sets out the relationship which we have with medical science, which is the anthropological principle that ‘God made us to be all of a piece’. He believes that the restoration of the health ...

If a doctor puts us on a diet for the sake of our health, we follow it religiously. What’s a diet? It’s fasting and, in fact, abstention from many forms of food. But we don’t follow the fasting imposed by God. We listen to the doctor but don’t listen to Christ. For us, the doctor’s word is more important than Christ’s.

Rev. Patrick H. Reardon The universal claims of the Christian revelation rest on the assumption that the God revealed in his Son and his Holy Spirit is the only true God. There is only one God, the Father with his Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore, we Christians are deeply persuaded that God has no relations with this world except through his Son and in his Holy Spirit. In the creation of the world and in all his dealings with it, God has never once acted except through his Son and in his Holy Spirit. The created order and the order of history are related to God only through his Son and in his Holy Spirit. Man has no other access to ...

Brueghel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus Believers are often challenged with this question: How can you believe that God cares more for human beings than for other creatures, or any other part of creation? We have answered too confidently sometimes, almost as if we could know the mind of God. We know that God does love human beings, and the Cross and Resurrection show the extent and depth of that love. But we do not know that God does not love the rest of creation in ways we cannot fathom. I remember a poem by Jorge Luis Borges in which the Word becomes flesh for every part of creation-a tiger for the sake of tigers, and so forth. While the ...

John was 20 years old when the judge told him that he would spend the next 5 years in prison as a result of the felony for which he had just been convicted.  From that day forward, John was branded a FELON.  Though the “F” was not physically branded on his forehead, he knew it was there and his family knew it was there.  His life would never be the same nor would his family’s life for they seemed to carry the same “F” with them. John came from a great family who were all very active in their Orthodox Church.  John had served in the altar until he was 16.  He was a good boy who had made a couple ...

1st of January, first of the month, New Year’s day. First day of the new civil year. On this day our holy Church, celebrates three important events: a) the circumcision of Jesus Christ, that is the event which took place eight days after the celebration of His divine incarnation. This was a custom, a rite that Jews performed on all new-born boys eight days after their birth; b) The memory of the Great Father of the Church Saint Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia; and c) the beginning of the new civil year, a new period of time. Source:users.sch.gr/aiasgr Time and its measurement exists for people while they are alive on this earth; that is, after death there is no time, ...

(c) 2016 || www.studiomathewes.com In church and in home prayer, my children get very easily distracted. This is understandable, given their young age, and I work with where they are. But by far the most infuriating thing to me is when they distract each other. Sometimes it’s unintentional, but many times it’s that they’re choosing to focus on what the other person is doing rather than on the prayer or the liturgy. “Moooooooooooooom, he won’t stop making that face at me.” “Don’t look at him. Turn your head and look at the icons.” “But he’s dooooooooing it.” “Ignore it. Turn your head and you won’t see him.” “But–” “Look at the icons.” I should listen to my own advice. So-and-so made an offhand comment that I found irritating. Look at the ...

The evolution and renaissance of music for Greek church choirs which occurred in the 19th century is an incontestable fact, which is clearly confirmed by the compositions of Iakovos the Protopsaltis. The Byzantine age has, of course, left us with sublime examples of the art of Church music by such composers as Saint Ioannis Koukouzelis, Manouil Chrsysafis and others, but more recently others such as Petros Peloponissios and Iakovos the Protopsaltis have also contributed beautiful settings. It’s worth mentioning that in the Athonite tradition of Church singing, the settings of Iakovos the Protopsaltis are very popular and familiar and are still sung to this day. The recording which follows includes the slow Pasapnoaria by Iakovos the Protopsaltis in tone 1 and ...

Birds are very clever and wise creatures. They’re not easy to catch. As soon as they see someone coming to catch them, they fly away and so escape their enemies. Christians should be as astute and careful as this, so that the bodiless hunters can’t snatch their soul.