In English

Any encounter with Christ astonishes people. If you’re not astonished, you should ask yourself whether you actually encountered Christ, if you really felt His presence. This astonishment isn’t inexplicable, nor absurd, but rather it’s understandable and rational. It’s something that occurs when the natural meets the supernatural, the relative meets the absolute and the transitory meets the eternal. When people who are overcome with the fear of death meet the Lord of Life, when the creature gazes upon its Creator, the relationship is incommensurate, unexpected surprises occur. And these surprises become all the more moving when the Lord humbles Himself before His creation, in order to serve it. Indeed, the surprises here aren’t restricted to the general nature of things, but ...

When you turn to Christ, pay no attention to what’s going on inside you. Keep your attention focused on the Lord and beg Him for help. There’s no room for malicious thoughts in a mind focused on the Lord.

Since you have learned to hear, Slavic people, Hear the Word, for it came from God, The Word nourishing human souls, The Word strengthening heart and mind.... (St Cyril and St Methodius, Prologue to the Gospels) During their famous mission to "Great Moravia, "the two brothers of Thessalonica, St Cyril (known also as Constantine "the Philosopher" before his tonsure as a monk) and St Methodius, were faced with strong opposition: the German clergy, who were competing for the souls of the Slavic converts, affirmed that scripture could be read only in three languages --Hebrew, Greek and Latin-- and that translation into Slavic was inadmissible. So, the two Byzantine missionaries became involved in a controversy that anticipated the great debates of the Reformation period on the ...

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The correct practice of the Jesus Prayer proceeds naturally from correct notions about God, about the most holy name of the Lord Jesus, and about man's relationship to God. God is an infinitely great and all-perfect being. God is the Creator and Renewer of men, Sovereign Master over men, angels, demons and all created things, both visible and invisible. Such a notion of God teaches us that we ought to stand prayerfully before Him in deepest reverence and in great fear and dread, directing toward Him all our attention, concentrating in our attention all the powers of the reason, heart, and soul, and rejecting distractions and vain imaginings, whereby we ...

This treatise was designed to help Orthodox Christians — and especially clergy — cope with those who demand that oikonomia be invoked to allow them to use abortion as a solution to various life crises. It was never the author’s intention to go into detail about abortion itself; such a study would require a book and perhaps several books. However, it may be necessary to point out at least a few facts about abortion that have been withheld from the American public by the pro-abortion media. For instance: 1> Abortion on demand for any or no reason is available up until the moment a child is delivered. The interest of the State in the unborn child after viability (the time when ...

On the occasion of the convocation of the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church, we are publishing a text by George Mantzaridis, Emeritus Professor of Theology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, which deals with the manner in which Orthodox Theology is produced. This text is a contribution to the more general dialogue which is preceding the discussions of the Pan-Orthodox Synod. Hesychasm is not merely a theological school or ecclesiastical system, but rather a phenomenon which transcends the various schools and systems. It is even more true that hesychasm is not restricted to a particular period in the history of monasticism, such as that of the fourteenth century, when the erudite monk, Barlaam the Calabrian, attacked the Athonite ...

God sees what each of us has in our soul, what our heart is attached to for most of the course of our life. If the Lord had given us the ability to read the depths of the human heart, then we’d certainly turn away our eyes in horror at the host of sins and iniquities we’d see there.

Today (May 29), the Orthodox Church remembers the Fall of Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, in 1453. Named after Saint Constantine the Great, Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire (330-1453). Although Byzantium’s vast power spanned 11 centuries, its story is often held hidden. In his 2006 book, “Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World,” Colin Wells describes it as: The successor of Greece and Rome, this magnificent empire bridged the ancient and modern worlds for more than a thousand years. Without Byzantium, the works of Homer and Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Aeschylus, would never have survived. Yet very few of us have any idea of the enormous debt we owe them. More than just the cultural, ...

Compunction is born of watchfulness and watchfulness is increased by compunction. The one begets and reinforces the other. Together they give depth to prayer and, gradually, life to the heart, which they cleanse.

We think we know a lot, but what we know is very little. Even those who work hard all their lives for the improvement of humankind, realize in the end that their knowledge is no more than a grain of sand by the sea. All our achievements aren't enough.

There's nothing more important than realizing your weakness and your lack of knowledge. The first step to wisdom is to recognize your mistakes. Knowledge of ourselves and of our errors is the beginning of our salvation. Those who know their sins are half-way to their justification.

Between 7 and 9 May 2015, the 1st International Conference of Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care (DMOPC15 – Living Water) was organized in Athens by Pemptousia, in collaboration with the Orthodox Internet portals ‘Orthodox Christian Network’ (www.myocn.net, Organ of the Synod of Canonical Bishops of the United States of America) and Bogoslov (www.bogoslov.ru, of the Department of Theological Training of the Moscow Patriarchate). 72 speakers from 21 countries and with a variety of specialities and ecclesiastical rank took part in the conference. The proceedings highlighted the advances, but also the concerns, which have arisen from the use of the Internet. The content of the proceedings is now available to anyone interested, so that all who wish to benefit from it can have ...

People who have a spiritual life see with the eyes of their soul how the evil one sets his traps, how the angels guide us. How the Almighty Lord allows temptations and how He comforts us

We’ll start by quoting some selected passages from the Scriptures, in order to cover as many aspects of the vine and wine as we can. Wine as a material good/Preservation of wine: The Wisdom of Sirach says (39, 26): ‘The principal things for the whole use of people’s lives are water, fire iron and salt, flour of wheat, honey, milk and the blood of the grape, and oil and clothing’. Corn, wine and oil are considered to be essentials (Ps. 4, 8). Wine is important in life because it’s a tonic, especially for those walking long distances. Saint Paul tells Timothy: ‘Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses’ (1 Tim. ...