In English

On 9 December we celebrate the conception by Saint Ann, that is the day when she became pregnant with the Mother of the whole world, Our Most Holy Lady. Although there’s no reference to the person of Saint Ann, the mother of the Mother of God, in any of the books of the New Testament, she nevertheless occupies a prominent place in the religious devotion of the Church. The name ‘Ann’ (Anne, Anna) comes from the Hebrew ‘Hannah’ and means ‘favor, grace’. A woman in whom the grace and benevolence of God has been shown. She belonged to the tribe of Levi . Her father was Matthan, a priest who served at the time of Cleopatra and Shapur, king of the ...

The demons usually withdraw, cunningly, for a time, so that we become lax, think we’ve overcome the passions and stop being careful. Then they suddenly pounce on our soul and snatch it away like a sparrow. And if they defeat it, they mercilessly incite it to commit all sorts of sins, even worse than the ones for which it earlier asked forgiveness. Saint Isaiah the Hermit

Saint Anthimos was from Sofia, Bulgaria, where he was a married, parish-priest. In 1841, after his wife reposed, he went to Mount Athos and was tonsured as a monk at Simonopetra Monastery. He began to act like a fool for Christ in order to hide his spirituality and closeness to God. He moved in the desert places of Mount Athos and stayed in caves and in trees. For the first five years of his hermitage he wore an old raso which later he replaced with a sack with three holes in it, for his head and arms. People would call him ‘Sacky’. Every two or three months, Father Anthimos would visit Saint Panteleimon Monastery (the Russikon) for a few days because there ...

While we’re in this life, we have the power and authority from God to break by ourselves the chains of the desires of the enemy, to cast off the burden of our sins through repentance and to be saved, thereby gaining the kingdom of heaven. Saint Efraim the Syrian

When I love another person with all my soul, it means that I pray for them. Those who have this experience are in Paradise. Abbess Gavriilia Papayianni

The yard of the Monastery of Saint Patapios at Loutraki, Greece Today the Church celebrates and honours the memory of the blessed Patapios the Desert-Dweller. This is the title accorded to the saint who lived in isolation in the desert, leaving behind the turmoil and joys of the secular life. He was born in Thebes, in Egypt, of devout Christian parents, by whom he was brought up with great care and concern and from whom he learned the Scriptures. What Saint Paul wrote to Timothy applies very well to Saint Patapios: “from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”. Faith in Christ and in the ...

Once again we’ve been given the opportunity to devote a little time to the study of Christ’s Nativity in our life, as we approach Christmas, the great feast of the Lord. We’re given the opportunity to look at how we experience the personal advent of Christ, in our homes, in our monasteries, and wherever else we may be, but particularly in our soul. There are so many aspects of Christ’s incarnation that deserve comment and study. For example, we might look carefully at the icon of the Nativity where we will see a number of people and a variety of attitudes. And just as, in order to help a child to understand its own nativity we might call on it to ...

In the icon of the Holy Monastery of Stavronikita, there is a mosaic icon of Saint Nicholas, the patron of the monastery, which has an eight-centimeter long vertical split on the forehead. This is from a large mollusk which had embedded itself there during the period when the icon had lain at the bottom of the sea. So the icon gained the appellation ‘Saint Nicholas the Oysterman’. *** Tradition tells us that ‘it was drawn from the sea by the fishermen of the monastery at the time when it was being re-founded’. This occurred by chance when the nets revealed the shellfish in the forehead of Saint Nicholas. The fishermen attempted carefully to remove the oyster from the saint’s forehead. No sooner ...

God knows when there’s room in your heart. If you haven’t received something yet, it means that your heart’s not big enough for it. Your heart’s packed tightly, as when you force lots of things into a container and press them down so that there’s no room for air. There’s no room in your heart even for air and yet you want to make room for God, whom all the heavens can’t contain? Elder Aimilianos Simonopetritis

Saint Nicholas was born at the south-east corner of Asia Minor, in the town of Patara, in the 3rd century (at the time of the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian) of devout and rich parents, who had been childless for many years. From an early age it appears that God had destined him for a life of sanctity and of dedication to Himself. The fact he became a “teacher of abstinence” is demonstrated by the fact that, on Wednesdays and Fridays, he took his mother’s milk only once a day. His parents brought him up as an observant and reverent Christian and taught him the Scriptures. Very early on, the Christians of the town of Patara decided he would make ...

The scene described in the Gospel reading for the 10th Sunday of Luke is both moving and revealing, as regards the intentions and sincerity of ordinary people and the attitude of our Lord towards them. Among the crowd, there was a woman of skin and bone. She was doubled over and in pain. She could hear the voice of Jesus, but wasn’t able actually to see him. Jesus made his way to this tormented woman. When he reached her, he said to her tenderly: ‘Woman, you are freed from your infirmity. Now you’re well’. Power surged through her limbs. Her body regained its strength. There was praise and gratitude in her heart. Wonder, joy and delight. The hypocrisy of the ruler of ...

Humility isn’t a matter of whether we’re prepared to dwell in a manger or in a stable. The essence lies elsewhere and it’s elsewhere that Christ wants us to be like him: by becoming meek and humble in heart. Not in what’s apparent, but in the depth of our heart. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

The aim of theanthropic education is the same as the goal of the Church, which is none other than our sanctification. Guardians and protectors of this education, which seeks our glorification not through ourselves but through Christ, are the Three Hierarchs, as luminaries of the Triune God and as glorious members of the Body of Christ. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos

You should come to Holy Communion in fear and trembling, with a clear conscience and having fasted and prayed. You shouldn’t make a noise, nor push or tread on other people. That is the greatest madness and the worst disrespect for the holy sacraments. Saint John Chrysostom

We should bombard people with our love. Elder Gavriil Tsafos

d) Immortality    The victory over death, the sense and assurance of immortality is an experience that is common to all the saints and Elder Porphyrios himself. In the recorded interview mentioned above he also says: ‘The man who belongs to Christ should love Christ, and when he loves Christ he will be freed from the devil, from Hell and from death’. These are not the words of someone who has thought of this truth himself. They are words drawn from real personal experience and therefore possess the value of an eye witness’s testimony. It makes no difference that Elder Porphyrios, out of humility and a profound sense of human weakness, tells us that he has not yet reached that state. Rather, ...

‘Just as the darkness doesn’t disperse unless there’s light, in the same way sickness of the soul can’t be avoided unless the healer of our ailments comes and we’re united to him’. (Saint Symeon the New Theologian). The great saint, Symeon the New Theologian (who is given the same title as Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Gregory the Theologian) writes about the healing of the soul, a subject which, particularly today, is the most pressing concern for a great many people. Recourse to psychologists, the development of psychological sciences, the ambition of many young people to study psychology (as well, unfortunately, as the resort to occult groups who promise to ‘cure’ the soul, but simply confuse people even more), ...

When we look askance at somebody, some wicked force comes out from us and is transferred to the other person, just as the voice is transmitted through sound waves, and they really do suffer some ill. It’s like the evil eye, when one person has wicked thoughts about another. It’s not God who causes the harm but the evil thoughts of us people. It isn’t God punishing us but our wicked intention being transmitted to the soul of the other person in a mysterious manner which causes damage. Christ never wants harm to come to anyone. Saint Porfyrios Kavsokalyvitis

On the one hand there is the secularization which is threatening the Church, external, moralistic  and Puritan paradigms which are making Orthodoxy a religion. One the other there are the cerebral models and flimsy intellectual constructs, as a phenomenon of our post-Modern era, or post-Christian, as many people would have it. These can be combatted only through empirical theology, through actual communion with the Uncreated, through the discovery of the real person. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos

Our Lord loves us as his children and his love is greater than that of a mother. Because a mother might forget her child, but the Lord will never forget us. And if the Lord himself hadn’t given the Holy Spirit and our great shepherds to the Orthodox people, we wouldn’t know how much he loves us. Saint Silouan the Athonite