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Saint Paul We are powerless to change those bad habits that dominate our lives without help from God. However we may attempt to change behavior, we can not do battle with the passions unless we surrender ourselves in humility to God, for such change can only come about by God's grace. Struggle as we may, our flesh will resist until that moment we seek help from the Lord of Mercy, Who is quick to hear our plea for help. Many years ago, while teaching, I worked with another instructor who was arrogant, and condescending to anyone whom he felt was beneath him. There was a wonderful black woman who served as the head cook in the school's cafeteria, a woman of ...

The whole series can be read here: The Theology of Gender The return to the original state of humanity, as it was created from the beginning, is accomplished through the process of catharsis. Although some believe that catharsis is mainly to abstain from external physical sin, this view can lead to a mere moralistic or pietistic understanding of the Christian life. According to patristic theology, catharsis is the first stage of the process of spiritual life that finally leads to theosis, and refers to three essential elements: the turn of the powers of the soul towards God; the release from the captivity of pleasures and grief; and the cleansing of the heart from thoughts. The canons serve the purpose of keeping ...

Because without the eternal Father, people’s love and, indeed, they themselves are equivalent to time and therefore to death. Time makes death the content of desire (love) and thus, the content of us people, who are nourished only by it. It’s no coincidence that this truth regarding the organic relationship between love and death was felt more intensely in modern times, by a Jew, Sigmund Freud. It was only on the basis of the Jewish subconscious, shaped by the notion of dread Yahweh and a yearning for the forbidden fruit, which begets death (Gen. 2, 17; 3, 6) that it was possible for the Oedipus myth to assume such enormous dimensions in Freudianism. At bottom, Freudianism is, once again, a modern ...

With the gifts which we’ve received from God, we’re in a position to distinguish good from evil. And the most important thing is that, through this, we can choose good and avoid evil. Through this gift, we can understand that, although we sin and estrange ourselves from what is good, God calls us back to Him, having first freed us from our shameful enslavement to the devil, through the Blood of His Only-Begotten Son.

The Patriarchate of Romania recently separated their Archdiocese of America and Canada, creating the episcopal sees of the Archdiocese of Chicago and Metropolis of America, along with the Diocese of Canada. Archbishop Nicolae was elevated to Metropolitan, while Assistant Bishop Ioan Casian was elevated to Bishop of Canada. The enthronement of Archbishop of Chicago and Metropolitan of America Nicolae took place in Chicago on Sunday, April 31st, while the enthronement of His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada occurred on Sunday, May 7th at the Cathedral of St. George in St. Hubert (Montreal), Quebec. As the representative of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae celebrated the Divine Liturgy and ...

  Is missionary work an Orthodox practice? Should our Faith be earned to all peoples of the globe? Can all Orthodox Christians participate in mission work? The answer to each of these questions is a resounding, "Yes!" In this article we will explore the history, methods, and motivation behind Orthodox missions, arriving at the conclusion that not only can we participate in missionary work, but as children of God, the spreading of His love is a part of our very nature! Is "Orthodox Missions" an Oxymoron? Early on in my experience as a missionary to Albania, I had an encounter with a Protestant missionary which was soon to become commonplace. We had been having a pleasant conversation when the topic turned to our ...

Remember, remember, my beloved child, that everything that happens in life is part of the utterly unknown dispensation of God. Now we don’t understand why something’s important, but later we will. Now we feel hard done by and derided. Later, we’ll realize that we can derive great benefit from all of this: a humble way of thinking.

Children should be given the opportunity to grieve as they wish, without any pressure upon them. It’s important for them to understand that these feelings are natural, both for them and those around them. This is why the other members of the family shouldn’t avoid grieving for the deceased in front of children in an effort not to burden them emotionally. Such behavior may have the opposite effect, since the children may conclude that the others cared little for the deceased. It’s also important for children to realize early on the importance of tears and to feel comfortable with these feelings of sorrow, so that they don’t see them as a sign of weakness. Very often, for the first few hours ...

It’s early February. The nights are long, but daylight is beginning to lengthen—slowly, steadily.  During this part of the year, our parish priests are on the move, and have been, since January, blessing homes from one end of town to the other. And tonight it’s our night. I’ve been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, for as one friend told me long ago, “Why not have your house physically and spiritually cleansed all in one fell swoop?!” I thought her advice sound, so our family takes pains to scrub and scour, and ready both our home and our hearts for our annual house blessing. There may be a few rituals in the Orthodox Church that we struggle to explain to a young ...

It’s usually degenerate and immoral people who say: ‘There’s no God’. There’s never been anyone who’s moral, restrained, virtuous and so on, who says so easily: ‘There’s no God’. Nor will there ever be.

To hear Mother Victoria of the St. Barbara’s Monastery tell it, growing up in the Ukranian Orthodox Church was a rich and memorable experience at special times of year. On Christmas Eve, for instance, she remembers looking for the first star in the sky, which would signal the start of the Nativity meal. Before eating, she and her family always fed the animals first, in honor of their role on the night of Christ’s birth. Then the family would go to the table, where the meal consisted of twelve dishes ranging from appetizers to desserts, all honoring the Twelve Apostles. Under the tablecloth, her mother would place straw or hay as a reminder of the manger, and they would interrupt ...

The whole series can be read here: The Theology of Gender Anything that takes place in the Church aims at the salvation of the people and thus, involves a pastoral element. In the same way, the canons of the Church are primarily pastoral texts and have as their objective the guidance of Christians in the spiritual life and the instruction of the community of the faithful concerning particular needs. The canons by no means should be seen as restricting spiritual life in a legalistic perspective. In the conscience of the Church canons articulate the Church’s pastoral care for its members and, according to Fr. Kapsanis, this is obvious for the following reasons. Firstly, the number of canons issued by the Ecumenical Councils ...

Our life and death depends on our neighbour. If we win over our brother or sister, we win over God. If we scandalize our neighbour, we sin before Christ.

A. The Greek Sermon Tradition 1. The Preaching of Christ and the Apostles The Greek sermon tradition is based on the fundamental principle of interpreting Scripture through Scripture. Sermonizing in the synagogue is mentioned in particular Biblical readings, which are explained with a series of other, related passages . Jesus followed the same method, as can be seen from the Gospel narratives. We are well aware that a complete picture of one of His sermons hasn’t been preserved, but from the extracts recorded by the Evangelists, the dominant feature is clearly the appeal to Biblical passages in support of His teaching. Photograph: Dimitris Iliopoulos For example: Jesus’ first sermon in Nazareth (Luke, 4, 16-23), an interpretation of a passage in Isaiah (61, 1), ...

O Lord, I Have Loved The Beauty of Thy House (Psalms 25:8 (LXX)) I once overheard a Russian American layman having a talk with some altar boys after a service. This man had spent his life in the Church, had obviously done his own tour of duty in the altar, and his comments have stayed with me ever since. He pointed out to them that they should remember that when they were serving, they were images of the angels, and that when the people looked at them they should be spiritually uplifted. He then went on to speak in very practical terms about how they should be thoughtful in their service, should pay attention, look straight ahead, stand still, etc. Anyone who ...

People who are angry with us are ill. You have to behave well towards them and speak calmly and with love. If their animus towards us hasn’t taken too deep a hold, you’ll see that their heart will soften and their badness will disappear because of your kindness and love.

Khufu ship In researching a little history today, I came across the ancient Egyptian phenomenon known as ‘sun boats.’  Probably the most famous, and by far most interesting, is the solar barge known as the Khufu ship, a wooden ritual vessel found sealed into a pit at the base of one of the pyramids. The Khufu ship served to carry the ‘resurrected’ King Cheops through the afterlife and is constructed from Lebanon cedar planking using tenons of Jerusalem thorn. Another name for the Jerusalem thorn is paliurus spina-christi, or Christ’s thorn and I find this intriguing and very beautiful. Christ and His Church are the ‘sun boat’ of man, calming the storms of our passions, guiding us from the shores of this ...

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Today's Gospel of the healing of the paralytic raises a number of questions. The first perhaps is: Where does illness come from? The answer to this question is contained within the selfsame Gospel, in the words of Our Lord to the healed paralytic: 'Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee'. In other words, the origin of illness is in sin. We can see this very clearly in the cases of those who destroy their organisms through the taking of drugs, such as tobacco, alcohol or heroin. But most illnesses are not voluntary, they are involuntary. Thus anyone can catch a cold. And we all know people who ...

Accept temptation and don’t look here and there for what caused it. Just be patient, so that God will see your good intentions and will ease your burden.

King Uzziah of Judahis, I think, most famous for his death, or the year of his death.  The Prophet Isaiah in the year of King Uzziah’s death had his famous vision of the Lord, highly exalted and sitting on a throne surrounded by cherubim with six wings (“with two they cover their feet, and with two they cover their face, and with two they fly”), who cried out ceaselessly, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” King Uzziah was a good king of Judah, one who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.”  A particularly intriguing verse in the story of his early life says that “he loved the soil.”  King Uzziah devoted many public works to improving the land: digging wells ...