In English

The synergy of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge functioning together is set forth many times in both the Old and New Testaments. Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, implicit in all three of these words in their root meanings are the connotations of right and wrong, character, and discernment between good and evil. The thread of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge runs through both the Old and New Testaments “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.” (Ex 31:3) In the words of Exodus, the artist is invested with wisdom, understanding and knowledge. What is the significance of these three attributes? They are the basis of the creative process, of how ...

How does the Church present this fatherhood to people and how does it teach them about it in such a way that it once again projects the sanctity of a life which has not been destroyed by egotism, and also so that people can be reborn through spiritual birth into eternal life? Its whole being speaks of it, as does the whole of its methodology and its theanthropic attitude to people and to the world. Fatherhood in the Church, whether it’s the paternity of God, the charismatic paternity of the Prophets, the Apostles, the holy Fathers or the spiritual father, isn’t a fatherhood of authority, tyranny or domination of the human conscience and soul, but fatherhood in the pangs of ...

The Orthodox Church will celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy tomorrow and commemorate the restoration of the holy icons as decreed by the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787. In 2014, a Synaxis of Primates convened and chaired by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Phanar during the first week of Great Lent concluded on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. It was then that a final unanimous decision was taken by the heads of the autocephalous Orthodox churches to convene a Holy and Great Council in 2016 (and reaffirmed by all local churches in January last year). Following the 2014 Synaxis, I wrote an article, “The Sunday of Orthodoxy at the Great Church of Christ,” in which I described the historic ...

People who are ambitious, who love the flesh and money, can’t bear any threat, any ridicule, any disdain on the part of other people, any deprivation or financial loss. This is why they betray the heavenly and the eternal for the earthly and the temporary. For the sake of the passing, they lose the enduring. For things that are worth nothing, they lose their salvation.

On the first Sunday of Great Lent, our Church celebrates the triumph of Orthodoxy, of the true faith, which has overcome all heresies and has been established once and for all. This is why it’s called the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The word ‘Orthodoxy’ doesn’t refer to any particular system, or any folk tradition or art. Orthodoxy is ‘right thinking’*, the right faith in God. It’s the Church, the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. It’s the body of Our Lord. The definition of the Church was given to us by its Founder Himself, the Lord, through the voice of Saint Paul, who, in his letter to the Ephesians reveals that: ‘… And he has made him the head over all things ...

When John the Forerunner was in jail, he sent two of his disciples to ask Christ: “Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else? Jesus replied: Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor” (Matthew 11, 4-5). Historically these cures have been performed to those who were ailing, but they also have acquired a different meaning in the wider context of the Scriptures. The ailments of our nature symbolize the passions of the soul, where the law of corruption resides.  There are ...

(On the feast day of Saint Paul of Thebes and John Kalyvitis)           Our Church honours the two great saints, Paul of Thebes and John Kalyvitis. Their life stories are a little strange but quite fitting for us, monks. The former was among the first people to become monks, since he had truly forsaken the world and went to the desert all alone. Both lived alone with the Lord, something which was unheard of those days and rare. In a sense they were the pioneers of this way of life. The latter, (John Kalyvitis) lived later than Paul. He was a young child when he left home to become a monk, burning with zeal. A few years later, he left his ...

The first step towards pride is vainglory, that is the feeling that I’m something. The second is self-importance, that is the feeling than not only am I something, but something important before God and other people. From vainglory and self-importance arise a whole host of proud thoughts, which are an abomination to God. Self-awareness and the experience of our insignificance can help us here. We should often recall errors we’ve made in the past and rebuke ourselves for them.

The response to our 40 Day Challenge has been excellent … and encouraging. We are heartened that this initiative has been received so well -- Glory be to God! Last week, the focus was on Fasting and Almsgiving. For Week 2 of our Challenge, we are drawing the attention of the faithful to the Church and Icons. Today, the First Sunday of Lent, all Orthodox Christians -- from Canada to Korea, Belgium to Burundi -- commemorated the Triumph of our Holy Faith. This is the faith of the Apostles. This is the faith of the Fathers. This is the faith of the Orthodox. This is the faith on which the world is established (Synodikon of the Seventh Ecumenical Council). As we celebrate the Sunday ...

The devil tries in every possible way to harm priests, because thousands can benefit and be saved by one holy priest, just as thousands can be harmed and destroyed by one who doesn’t struggle.

Why can't priests and deacons marry after ordination? Why shouldn't widowed priests be permitted to remarry? What happens if a priest gets divorced? Why doesn't the Church "restore" a married episcopate? Such questions have been asked repeatedly the last century. Though they do not appear on the present agenda of the long-anticipated Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church, they often have been cited as the kinds of questions that such a council could consider. Even if lesser authorities – autocephalous churches, diocesan bishops – cannot do so, surely a Great and Holy Council could legislate "reform" in this and other areas of church discipline if only it should choose to do so. Or so many people claim. And many people ...

Unless the truth is Christ, I don’t need it. It’s pure hell. So is justice, love, the beautiful and good, happiness, even God Himself. They’re all hell if they’re not Christ. I don’t want love without Christ; I don’t want truth without Christ; I don’t want justice without Christ; and I don’t want God without Christ.

And today, the heretics are telling us precisely the same thing. They have the nerve to call our icons idols and us idolaters. They have cheek for anything. Let me tell you about an incident that happened recently in a town in Siberia. During the liturgy, two Baptists walked into the church and started shouting that the Orthodox are idolaters and the icons idols. What nonsense! How dare they open their unclean mouths and utters such words, that drip poison, calling us idolaters and the icons idols? This demonstrates that they haven’t properly understood the second commandment of the Mosaic Law: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that ...

It has become a truism for many in the West that faith and science belong to two conflicting world views. An atheist will say that science is rational, based on empirical observation and self-correcting as new theories eventually modify or replace old out-dated ones. Faith, on the other hand, is held to be irrational, defined by static religious texts and immoveable religious authorities, which can be neither challenged nor revised.There is another view that regards this conflict as a needless clash of two Titans of similar breed: fundamentalism in religion and triumphalism in science.  Rather than a genuine standoff between two antagonists we have instead a phoney war based on a cartoon version of both disciplines and, therefore, a misunderstanding ...

Don’t be shocked when you hear what they say against the faith, because those who are doing the talking don’t understand what it really is. You just remember always the basic principle that the early Christians knew very well. They considered people sad if they knew all the sciences but didn’t know God. Equally, they thought those people were blessed who knew God but knew absolutely nothing at all about human affairs. Preserve this truth in your heart as the greatest treasure and continue on your way, looking neither right or left. Let’s not lose our way because of what other people say about religion.

          After the fall man has come under the yoke not only of sin (dispersed throughout his body) but also of the ‘spiritual changes’ and the many twists which co-exist with us as nasty neighbours. All these incite, delude and entice us so that we are unable to safeguard that which we most desire.           According to our Holy Fathers, it is not possible for man to remain without sin even if he lives for only one day. Therefore, we ought to be most preoccupied with our repentance.  Our Fathers say that the Lord is not upset -so to speak- because man had not been successful and fell. The Lord will not judge him for this.  What upsets divine Grace is ...

On the first Sunday of Great Lent, our Holy Church celebrates the triumph of Orthodoxy, the right belief, which trampled down all the heresies and has since become established for ever. This is why this Sunday is known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Heresies made their appearance from the very beginning of Christianity. Christ’s Apostles themselves warned their contemporaries- and us with them- about the dangers from false teachers. The Holy Apostle Peter, in his 2nd universal epistle writes the following: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their ...

Depending on children’s own experiences as they grow up, they form and adapt their own individual concept of death, until they arrive at a more realistic way of dealing with it at a later stage. The notion of death can be understood through five basic elements: its universality; its finality; the failure of the vital organs; its causality; and life after death. According to research, the age of a child can roughly determine the stage of development they’ve reached and how far they’re mature enough to understand the phenomenon of death in its entirety. To be more precise, until the age of two, children can’t understand death, though they are aware of absence, usually only that of people close to or ...

26. God’s Judgement certainly gives rise to fear in us, and what we’re told about how it will happen terrifies us. Even though the Kingdom of Heaven is the declared aim of our lives, the eternal fire of hell has also been prepared. It’s only natural that people will ask: ‘How can we avoid the fire of hell? And how will we enter the Kingdom?’. Christ said: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food’ (Matth. 25, 35). Learn the way, then. There’s no need for you to resort to any kind of allegory here. ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you ...

We’re all sinners. Just walking on earth, clad in the flesh, every step’s a sin. The world and its people are wallowing in sin and don’t realize it.