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Father Sofian Boghiu (7 October  1912 – 14 September 2002) Blessed are the blameless in the way who walk in the law of the Lord (Psalm 118:1). Father Sofian Bogiu was chosen by God from an early age to serve His Church with a triple blessing of gifts: the gift of singing, the gift of icon painting, and the gift of speaking. Using his talents with humility during his luminous ninety-year sojourn on earth, he fulfilled the sacramental words of the Divine Liturgy, “Let us commend ourselves and each other, and all our life unto Christ our God.” Born in Bessarabia and entering the monastic life as a child, Serghie (his baptismal name) eagerly learned church singing at the Dobruşa Monastery’s school. Later ...

Passions are contagious in our spiritual organism. Wickedness, for example. Even if it’s not expressed with words or deeds but is concealed in the heart and can barely be discerned- perhaps only in the face or the eye- it’s transmitted to the soul against whom we harbour it.

Feast day: 28 September Not much can be stated with certainty about the life of Saint Isaak. He is believed to have been born in Beth Qatrye (‘region of the Qatars’) in the Arab peninsula, near the Persian Gulf. He entered a monastery as a young man, was consecrated Bishop of Nineveh, didn’t enjoy being an administrator, so resigned after five months and withdrew to the wilderness, where he lived a very austere ascetic life. Eventually, blindness and old age forced him to retire to the Monastery of Shabar in Mesopotamia, where he fell asleep in the Lord. Much has been made, also of Isaak’s supposedly Nestorian leanings, but recent research suggests that the Church of Persia, while aware of Nestorius’ ...

(Paper delivered at the Lateranum University, 5 Dec 2007) I.                    Some preliminary remarks a. Word of God and Church. The relationship between the “word of God” and the “Church” is an issue that became central in the academic and wider theological discussions as a result of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation dialectics “Bible and/or, even over, Tradition”. Strictly speaking, there has never been a Bible in the undivided Church, at least not as we commonly think of the Bible as an one volume book we can hold in our hand. Since the beginning of the Church, and more precisely since the beginning of the Church’s liturgical tradition, there has never been a single book we could point to as the Bible. And ...

If anything’s troubling you psychologically, put it behind you. Our days should pass in peace and meekness. Don’t worry, don’t let it get to you and upset you. Worries eat away at people. Worries ate away at me and I fell ill with my heart and other things.

Mr. Dobri Dobrev is a 98 year old man who lost his hearing in the second world war. He walks 10 kilometers from his village in his homemade clothes to the city of Sofya, where he spends the day begging for money. Though a well known fixture around several of the city’s churches, known for his prostrations of thanks to all donors, it was only recently discovered that he has donated every penny he has collected — over 40,000 euros — towards the restoration of decaying bulgarian monasteries and churches and the utility bills of orphanages, living instead off his monthly state pension of 80 euros. Τhis surely reminds us the story of that hermit who had a great life in prayer and ...

Some days ago we had uploaded an article about a modern spiritual personality who lives by offering. Let's see now a personal witness for him, from a person who had the joy to meet him. Maran Ata has more to say about Dobri Dobrev (from site "Mystagogy" http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/) : "This is one part of the film "Mite" produced by the Pokrov Foundation in the year 2000, showing the Bulgarian Elder Dobri, who is considered a holy man of God. Four years ago, I had the pleasure to meet him and directly delight in his innocent kindness and simplicity. People from Sofia know him as Elder Dobri Dobrev from the village Baylovo. He is a 96 year old elder who could often be ...

a) The boundless love of the Triune Trinity for the whole of humankind is always revealed, even if it’s doubted and not easy to see. The Fathers teach that God’s creative, providential and cohesive energy radiates throughout the whole world and all creation. And His sanctifying and deifying energy is poured out bountifully in the Church through the sacraments. b) These days, despite the upsurge in social evil and increased alienation, new saints have been recognized, charismatic Elders have emerged and there’s an opportunity for re-evangelization and for revival of God’s gifts. Many saints were canonized in the Orthodox Church in the 20th century and, through their example and writings, they contributed to the renaissance of ecclesiastical life. Among these was ...

Those who haven’t achieved perfection continue to fight an inner war. For a while they find relief in prayer, but at another time they’re battling away in sorrow.

Several people in Holy Nativity have seen the movie Agora and have been disturbed by it and asked me to see the movie so that they can talk to me about it. So last night I watched it. Let me begin by saying that I cannot recommend this movie, not because of its themes, but because of the graphic violence. Agora is set in Alexandria during the fourth and fifth centuries, a time in which a power struggle was taking place among Jews, Pagans, various Christian groups and the Roman government. The story centers around the life of Hypatia, an influential woman philosopher--who is portrayed in the film as a woman with the face and body a movie star and the ...

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures… (1 Cor. 15:3-4) No statement is more central to the Christian faith than St. Paul’s rehearsal of the Apostolic Tradition – for his words “delivered…received…” are specifically the words that describe the handing over of Tradition. His words represent what is already the received teaching of the faith – the Apostolic deposit. The Christian faith is not just that Christ died and was raised from the dead, but that He “died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” The death of Christ is somehow “for our sins.” ...

Observation of the commandments and patience in trials are typical of the meaning of the Cross and blessed are they who willingly agree to shoulder it. Those who accept this meaning of the Cross as faithful Christians are patient in a different way. They accept it as a call from their heavenly Father. The Christian mission is completed in the Cross and that is where the encounter between the created and the uncreated divine Being takes place.

You can’t prevent malicious thoughts from coming, but it’s up to you to resist them.

A. Far from Christ. From today’s Gospel reading : ‘We’ve worked all night long and haven’t caught anything’, says Peter to Christ when the latter tells him to let the nets out again*. So, away from Christ, it was ‘night’ for them. They worked the whole night long and caught nothing, meaning a lot of effort to no avail. Away from Christ there’s night, labour and unproductiveness. Indeed! We have two eyes through which we receive the light of the sun and there are two things which sink our soul into the depths of night: lack of faith and sin. It follows that people are always benighted if they don’t believe in Christ. Or if they do believe but live in ...

If God sees us accepting our present distress with gratitude, He’ll either remove the causes or He’ll reward us with the great crowns of patience.

C. Providence No matter how many turbulences we face in life, we ought to remain steadfast and peaceful. The more these difficulties go beyond our strength the more the Lord’s providence overcomes them on our behalf. Nietzsche declared that ‘if couples lived apart, more marriages would remain intact’. Yet Psalm 133 says: “how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity”. In the original language, Hebrew, the word ‘together’ does not just mean ‘one with the other’ but ‘each for the other’. In other words, we ought to work in unity and peace for a common future. Contrary to Nietzsche, the Christians believe that “if we live for each other and we remain united, there is no discord or disagreement or disparity ...

What is the root of disbelief? In the first place, we should say that this matter is primarily one for parents, for fathers and mothers. If the parents approach the act of giving birth to a new person seriously, aware that the child to be born can truly be ‘a son of man’, in the image of the Son of God, that is Christ, then they’ll prepare for the act in a way that’s different from the usual. If mothers and fathers are fully conscious of the extreme importance of what they’re doing when they bring children into the world, these children will be full of the Holy Spirit, even in their mother’s womb. Faith in God, the Creator of ...

As the universities became more and more powerful, ecclesiastical authorities sought to limit their scope — particularly the authority of the scholars. The Latin Church eventually condemned many of the leading scholars in the universities for their "vain search for knowledge simply for the sake of knowledge," and this condemnation rings down to us in words we still hear from neo-Scholastics and fundamentalists. Moreover, in the "school" not only clearly religious ideas which varied from legally defined doctrine were considered heresy, but the idea was conceived that authorities could judge heresy in all fields and establish "correct belief" in art, science, law, religious philosophy, and thought in general. This prerogative was eventually taken over by the hierarchy when they struggled ...

A sinful soul, a prisoner of the passions, can’t have peace and joy in the Lord, even if it has all the riches of the earth.

Vsevolod Krivoshein, as he was in the world, was born in Saint Petersburg 1900. His father served as a minister and vice-president of the Russian government. Vsevolod studied philology at the universities of Petrograd and Moscow. During his military service he suffered frostbite. He left Russia to go abroad in 1920, visiting Egypt, Constantinople and Paris. He continued his philosophical studies at the Sorbonne and in Munich. He learned excellent Greek and dedicated himself to the study of the Fathers of the Church. In the autumn of 1925, he went to the Holy Mountain, to the Holy Monastery of Saint Panteleïmon, where he was tonsured in 1927. He became spiritually attached to Saint Silouan († 1938) and the ...