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Thoughts on the Events of the Nativity • Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to be counted in a census and were unable to find an inn in which to stay. Really, who has time and space for God today? How necessary is God for us in our life. Back then, people had filled all the inns and there was no lodging for the divine Infant. I think this demonstrates that people fill their lives with natural and human things and leave no margin for the supernatural, the divine. This continues to be so today: humanity is so locked into its own restrictions that it’s unwilling to accept God. Of course, the amazing thing is that, in any case, the divine ...

Knowledge of the wickedness of other people, that is the evil they do, great or small, diminishes our powers, because it’s not aligned with God.

Dear Readers, The feast of Christmas has come round again, and, according to Alexandros Papadiamantis, ‘if Easter is the brightest of the Christian feasts, Christmas is the most moving’. In both the Vigil for 25 December and in the Divine Liturgy on that day, we’ll hymn and recreate this great event of the Nativity and Incarnation of God the Word, Who, for our sakes became like us and mingled with us. Christmas has, in fact, become a source of inspiration in all areas of the spirit and of culture. The prophets in the Old Testament foretold the event, the New Testament describes it in terms of unsurpassed conciseness, the holy fathers and theologians delve into its content in incomparable fashion, ...

I see a strange and wondrous mystery. Shepherds’ music reaches my ears: not the piping of a plaintive melody, but the singing of a heavenly hymn. The angels are singing. The archangels join in. The cherubim hymn, the seraphim glorify. They all rejoice at the sight of God on earth and humankind in heaven. He Who is above, is now here below through His dispensation; and we who were below are now above through His mercy. Today, Bethlehem resembles heaven. In the place of stars, it has received the angels singing; and in place of the sun, it welcomes the Sun of Righteousness. And do not ask how, for where God so wills, the order of nature is overcome. For He willed; ...

In every facet of your life, have the humility of the Lord, His holiness, His meekness and His example as a model for yourself.

Do you know how great a sin it is to judge your neighbour? Really, what can be worse than that? What else does God hate as much and what revolts Him as passing judgement does? Yet it’s from small things that we eventually end up committing this great evil.

Beloved Fathers and brothers, today we celebrate the greatest event of all time and all ages: the birth of Christ, the ‘capital of all feasts’, according Saint John Chrysostom. God enters our life, in time, in history as ‘Jesus Christ the man’ (I Tim. 2, 5). ‘Christ appeared in the flesh’ (I Tim. 3, 16). God empties Himself, is humbled, belittles Himself, diminishes in an inconceivable manner and becomes an infant. An infant divine and human. He becomes a human person, like us, with flesh and blood, with soul and body, mind and will. Christ, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, is perfect Man and perfect God. The entry of the eternal, the inaccessible, but merciful God without beginning into our ...

My beloved, The redemptive message of the great and joyful Feast of Christmas, which we have been deemed worthy to celebrate again this year, through God’s ineffable love and benevolence, could be summed up in a simple phrase: "God loves you personally." John, the Evangelist of love, has told us: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). Because of God's great love for each human person "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory ...” (Jn 1: 14) God’s redeeming descent onto earth as a perfect human being is the greatest proof of His personal love for every human being. This ...

As the ‘capital of feasts’, Christmas is honoured on the Holy Mountain with a vigil, during the course of which the monks sing hymns and troparia of exceptional poetic and musical beauty. At the Divine Liturgy on the day itself, ‘Those who have been baptized in Christ’ is sung in tone one. This hymn is a reminder of the practice in the ancient Church of holding the sacrament of baptism for catechumens at Christmas, a custom mentioned by Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Cyril of Jerusalem in their Catechisms. ‘Those who have been baptized in Christ’ %audio1% ‘Christ is born, glorify him’ and ode one of the canon. %audio2%

When people aren’t feeling at their best, what they least want to hear is bad news. On the other hand, what they’re always wanting to hear is a good bit of news that’ll give them a boost and the courage to get on with life. Incontrovertible testimony to this truth is the recent change in habits of some of our fellow-citizens. For example, you hear a lot of people saying: ‘I don’t want to watch the news any more… it’s all so miserable’. Or, on the other hand, somebody will exclaim: ‘At last, some good news… you’ve made my day…You’ve put me in a good mood’. And right in the middle of this quest for some joyful news, we have the ...

The heart’s unstable. It can change many times in a moment. It can turn towards good or evil, faith or unbelief, simplicity or complications, love or hate, kindness or envy, generosity or meanness, chastity or adultery. How much inconsistency there is, how many dangers surround us. How careful and self-restrained we have to be.

Chapter 3: On the Incarnation of the Word and the way in which He became flesh for us. At the creation of our foremother Eve, God took the animate rib from Adam’s side and formed it into a woman. This is why He didn’t breathe into her, as He had done with Adam, but instead, the flesh that had been taken was made into the whole body of a woman. And the first-fruit of the spirit, which was taken at the same time as the animate flesh, was perfected into a living soul, so that another person was made from these two parts together. In precisely the same way, God the Creator and Maker took flesh from the holy Mother of ...

To the faithful people of our Holy Metropolis across Canada, Christmas is upon us. We will soon celebrate the Nativity of Christ. Let us think about our Lord, Who is the Light of the World, and recall His teachings. Christ said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). In recent days, we have heard about the lies and malicious accusations targeted against Greek people across Canada, the Church, your Metropolitan, and many of our Reverend Fathers. I know that as proud Greek Orthodox faithful, this has hurt you, because it has hurt me too. Greeks have much to be proud of; as a Church and a community we have made significant contributions to ...

Our first encounter with Him is through faith. Faith opens the door of the soul, so that Christ can enter. Faith receives Him, subjects our hearts to Him and engenders within us a fervent interest and powerful desire to approach Him. This is the initial requirement for Christ to dwell in our hearts, as Saint Paul says (Eph. 3, 17). But it takes love in order for the Lord to stay with us and make us His temple and altar. Jesus declares “Whoever loves me will keep my word and my father will love them and we shall come to them and make our dwelling in them” (Jn. 14, 23). The word of God helps us as regards the confirmation ...

Our guardian angels stay closer to those who’ve been cleansed by fasting.

1. Rebirth             The third birth of Christ is in the life of people who believe in Him and accept Him as their own, personal God. Because even though Christ became incarnate in order to save everyone, not everyone will be saved.             Of course, the Lord “wants all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth”, (I Tim. 2, 4), and is certainly all-powerful. Nevertheless, He respects people’s freedom as well and has no desire to save us against our will.               Thus, in the Revelation, He is presented as a wandering beggar, going from door to door, from soul to soul, knocking for us to open to Him: “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if ...

We have to forgive everyone, as God does. The Gospel tells us that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Because we’re all sinners and we all deserve to be condemned for our sins, however few or many they may be. This is why we must forgive and pray to God that He’ll forgive us sinners likewise, given that we don’t even understand that we sin frequently, nor even what we’re doing and not doing.

Athens Greece, 21 December 2017   2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care “The Living Water”  DMOPC 18 Orthodox Academy of Crete, Kolymbari 18-21 June 2018   2018 Conference Theme: The Digital World as a Sphere for the Reiteration of Pentecost and the “living word” of Saint Paul the Apostle    In May 2015, in Athens, Pemptousia (www.pemptousia.gr) in conjunction with the Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) in America and Bogoslov in Russia, hosted the 1st International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care “DMOPC15” (www.dmopc15.com). 75 Orthodox speakers from 21 countries all over the world ‘gathered together in that place’. The aim was for them to express their concerns, their witness and their thoughts regarding a dimension of human life which now involves almost everyone: The ...