In English

The Resurrection is forgotten in this day and age. Even the immortality of the soul is ignored. It’s typical that scientists who concern themselves with the human soul don’t usually treat it as an ontological feature of a person, but more as a biological function. People today live and die without any particular prospect beyond their biological existence and their biographical activity. Within this context, it’s not difficult to understand the widespread pessimism, no matter how much we want and try to abandon the hope that will be the last to die. Death is the greatest and most permanent threat to humankind. And this threat doesn’t merely affect us, directly, when it comes, but also indirectly. It affects us in every ...

Evil has no natural existence and no-one is evil by nature. Because God did not make anything evil. If people desire evil, then what's not actually there is called into existence, because that's what they want. So, by the remembrance of God, we have to disregard the habit of evil. Because the nature of good is more powerful than the habit of evil. That's because good exists, whereas evil doesn't, except when we do it.

In one of its hymns, our Church calls the unbelief of Thomas "good". Understandably one would wonder - is there good and bad unbelief? There seems to be, because humans are not purely good or evil. In one who has a clean conscience, good heart and humble thought, everything is clear. In one infected with the virus of unbelief, all is dark and troubled. If only we had the good unbelief of the Apostle Thomas! We would say that doubt, hesitation and little faith, it is normal to a man who seeks God with the mind. The Apostles of Christ begged Him to add faith to their existing faith. Unbelief, however, is a serious spiritual illness. Faith is beyond reason and unbelief ...

The Holy Metropolis of Germany held a Church service at the Nazi Concentration Camp in the Bavarian town of Hersbruck It is well known that, at the Nazi Concentration Camp at the town of Hersbruck, near Nürnberg, some of the prisoners were Greeks, who underwent torture and, in many cases, breathed their last there. The Mayor, Herr Ilk, the Vice-President of the Bavarian Parliament, Herr Meier, Fr. Apostolos, the Prefect, Herr Kronter, the General Consul, Mr. Konstantinopoulos, the Curator fo the Bavarian Remembrance Museum, Herr Fröller,, the Member of the Bavarian Parliament, Herr Dinkel, Archimandrite Titos Yannoulis, the President of the Greek Community of Nürnberg, Mr. Konstantatos and the Chairman of the Victim’s Association, Herr Vrens. The Holy Metropolis of Germany held ...

Misguided zeal is the turbulence of a malicious soul and reveals itself as jealousy, envy and hatred towards anybody who has something special. It's motivated by loathing and wickedness and puts a blight on anything good. People who have misguided zeal want to sully everything that's bright in people and envies those who have it. It hates people who are happy and desires their unhappiness, it rejoices if they fall and is pleased if disasters come upon them.

The Very Reverend John M. Reeves graduated from the University of Texas, Austin in 1971 with a B.A. in comparative studies. He graduated from the School of Theology, the University of the South, Sewanee, TN, with an M.Div. in 1975 and was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in January of 1976. In the fall of that same year, the Episcopal Church voted to ordain women to the priesthood. He subsequently converted to Orthodoxy under Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas in 1977. Father John was ordained to the priesthood of the Orthodox Church in 1981 and has served his entire priestly ministry as founder and pastor of St. George-the-Great-Martyr Orthodox Church, Pharr-McAllen, TX. He serves his own Diocese of the South as director of its ...

A sign of the soul that's indifferent is that it doesn't listen gladly to Holy Scripture, whereas the soul that's watchful accepts the divine words in the same way as thirsty land welcomes rain.

Today, it’s more necessary than ever to remind people that the final source of evil is in the spiritual life. Spirituality isn’t simply purity and moral stature. In the most hidden-away region of the spirit, there are always two sides: one light and one dark, as the Russian theologian Vassili Zenkovski so clearly set out (The Problems of Education in the Light of Christian Anthropology, Paris 1934, p. 110). This dualism in the essence of the spirit isn’t immediately obvious to those who aren’t completely familiar with the spiritual life, to those who are still concerned with the external, superficial life. But the more you progress in the spiritual life, liberated from submission to the external life, the more the ...

Some people erroneously think that the memento mori, the remembrance of death, poisons life. It doesn't. Quite the opposite. It teaches us to be attentive and to distance ourselves from everything that actually does poison our life, our real life.

The question of evil has not been examined much in the Orthodox Church. In comparison to other Christian dogmas, its solution remains as expressed in a form which reveals the truth, of course, but one clouded in the making. Evil has its origin and its support in the free will of created spirits, be these spirits part of the angels or human beings. This is the Christian position. But there’s a long way to go if we’re to understand it. The Church was once, at the time of the Gnostics, under considerable pressure to develop a theory concerning the source of evil. All schools of Gnostic thought were tormented by the problem of the question of the origin of evil. And ...

Your Eminence Ioustinos, Metropolitan of this God-preserved see, Venerable Fathers, and my beloved children, I would like to begin by saying that I’m not used to speaking at such gatherings, because my abilities to do so are limited. But, out of obedience and at the invitation of my greatly respected and beloved Chief Shepherd, I’ve summoned the courage to be with you today to say a few words which will, I hope, be constructive. To be honest, when His Eminence suggested this, I was surprised and tried to back out, justifying my reluctance by saying that there’s no lack of more able speakers and preachers. But with the blessing and good wishes of my venerable Elder and Abbot, Parthenios, I accepted the invitation, ...

The heavy, soul-destroying burden of the heart will flee quickly. You'll feel relief and you'll be convinced that there are evil spirits flying around us and ever seeking our downfall. They besmirch our hearts with the poison of dark and evil thoughts.

Somebody steals two hens from the priest’s henhouse and after a while decides to go and confess. ‘Father, I stole two hens’. ‘Take them back’. ‘Would you like them?’ ‘Me? No. Give them back to the man you stole them from’. ‘He doesn’t want them’. ‘In that case, keep them’. Very often, our own intention’s the same: to prevaricate, that is to avoid telling the whole truth. This is why I thought, given the time of year, that I might make a couple of clarifications on this enormous subject and the many confusions it usually gives rise to. We think that going to confession means being taken to court.  In fact, lots of people even say, when they come for confession: ‘How will you judge me now, ...

In keeping with the two thousand year continuity of the Faith, contemporary hierarchs and theologians have been equally outspoken about the doctrines of Orthodoxy with regard to abortion. Archpriest John Meyendorff, theologian and later Dean of St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary spoke to New York State’s liberal abortion laws in 1972, 1,281 years after the Quinisext Council and one year before Roe vs. Wade:14 The fact that this interruption takes place at an initial stage in the human life process makes, of course, a psychological difference, but does not change the nature of the act of abortion being killing, and as such a very grave sin, because killing is evil....The hundreds of thousands of legal abortions performed in New York hospitals are ...

Let's suppose that you can't be merciful through your speech. What you can do, however, if somebody gets angry with you, is to have mercy on them and show them patience at the time when they're upset, because you can see that they're being bothered by the common enemy, the devil. Instead of saying something and upsetting them even more, hold your peace and have mercy on their soul, rescuing them from the hands of the enemy. And again, if somebody sins against you, you can always have mercy on them and forgive the sin, and in this way you'll also gain forgiveness from God.