In English

So, all those who wish to cleanse themselves of the sins of the whole year should first guard against treating food lightly. Because the fathers say that inattention to food begets all kinds of evil for us. Equally, we must guard against breaking the fast without due cause, against seeking out particularly tasty food and against eating and drinking to satiety. There are two kinds of gluttony. One is not about eating too much, but being very particular about the food being tasty. People like this eat what pleases them and are defeated by the pleasure involved in doing so. They keep the food in their mouth and savor it for pleasure, rather than swallow it. This is called being a connoisseur. Others ...

People today typically wear hateful masks. It takes an enormous amount of effort get rid of this mask, to move on from the persona to the person. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos

The distillation of the Christian life is love. This is why, in discussions being held during the coronavirus outbreak, particularly by people who don’t take part in the life of the Church, they urge us to demonstrate our love and to stay at home, not go to church, not take Communion, so that we don’t unwittingly spread the disease to other people. Indeed, if they see believers going to church or asking to take Communion, they lose no time in informing the police, so that these ‘dangerous people’ can be cleared from the streets. ‘If you’re a Christian, show your love in this way’, they exhort us. They make us feel guilty. They point out that it’s selfish behavior to want ...

Having strengthened by the power of the cross my mind weakened by wicked attacks, direct me to your will, Lord. Raise me, Christ, who am sleeping on the bed of pleasures, slumbering in sloth, and show me to be a venerator of your Passion. Having burnished our souls with fasting, let us, now cleansed, hasten to Jerusalem to meet Christ, who is coming in the flesh. (Matins, ode 1 ). This first ode of the canon for the day (again written by Saint Iosif the Hymnographer) continues the contrast which is almost always present in the hymns of our Church: on the one hand, awareness of human weakness, which is due both to the evil one, who never ceases to wage war against ...

During this period of Holy and Great Lent, the struggle (prayer and fasting) against evil for Orthodox Christians is particularly intense. At Great Compline we pray: “Lord … redeem us from all turmoil and cowardice of the one who is approached by the devil” (Prayer of St. Basil the Great). Or we can look at the conclusion of the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy: “provide and bless the good, crush the heads of the invisible dragons” (The last Prayer in front of the Icon of Christ). From these prayers alone it is obvious that Satan, the oldest enemy of mankind, is quite real. He is not only powerful, but also very devious. He uses every possible tactic to try and deceive or manipulate ...

Temptations exist and will always be there in our lives. We have to protect ourselves from the innumerable traps the wily devil sets for us. It’s only with humility and prayer that we can avoid them and guard ourselves. People who are careful and judicious benefit greatly from temptations. Saint Iakovos Tsalikis

In our struggle, we have to be bold. The Lord loves a bold and circumspect soul. If we don’t have boldness and circumspection, we have to ask God that we may submit to our spiritual guides, because the grace of the Holy Spirit dwells in them. Saint Silouan the Athonite

(Homily on the 5th Sunday in Great Lent) Prayer! What is prayer? It’s the great virtue that raises you and raises me. Have you perhaps got up to pray, have you cried aloud to the Lord to save your soul from sins, from every evil, every passion?  Then your tombs and my tombs open and the dead arise. Whatever’s sinful flees, whatever drags us into wickedness disappears. Holy prayer raises each of us when it’s sincere, when it takes the whole of the soul up into heaven, when, with fear and trembling you say to the Lord: ‘Look, see my tombs, they’re innumerable. This is my soul, dead, far from you, Lord. Say the word and raise all my dead’. Because you, ...

It’s such a common question, so powerful in its expression, so difficult to answer.  It’s such a true question, so human, so demanding but one which, by its very nature, can’t endure utterance, isn’t expressed by the mouth, can’t be contained in words, can’t be made public to an audience and, even more, isn’t open to easy answers, from those who are supposedly knowledgeable to others who are certainly in pain. It may well be the one subject on which no speeches can or should be made. It’s too profound to rise to the surface of consciousness. It’s too painful to fit into the limits of our endurance. It’s too personal to be found in the arena of public discourse. ...

(Homily on the 5th Sunday in Great Lent)  The fifth Sunday in Lent, the Sunday of long vigils and great ascetic efforts, the week of profound lamentation and sighing, the Sunday of the greatest of all the women saints, our blessed mother, Saint Mary the Egyptian. She spent forty-seven years in the wilderness and the Lord gave her something he rarely grants to any of the saints: for years on end she tasted neither bread nor water. When questioned by Abbas Zosimas, she replied: ‘People shall not live by bread alone’ (Matth. 4, 4). The Lord nourished her in a special way and guided her in the hermitic life, in her ascetic struggles. And what was the result? The saint turned ...

5th e-Synaxis from Holy Mount Athos with Elder Ephraim and the faithful of Saint Nicholas and Saint John the Apostle Students Church in Cluj-Napoca, Romania Thursday, April 22, 2020, 07:30-09:30 PM Athens Time Dear brothers and sisters, You are invited to participate in the “5th e-Synaxis from Holy Mount Athos with Elder Ephraim and the faithful of Saint Nicholas and Saint John the Apostle Students Church in Cluj-Napoca, Romania“, which will take place Thursday April 22, 2020, 07:30-09:30 PM Athens Time.  In this particular e-Meeting, Elder Ephraim will be more than happy to have a dialogue with younger people and children as well (as requested by the organisers). Elder Ephraim will talk in Greek and we will offer real-time Romanian interpretation for the entire session including the homily ...

Those who love a little, give a little. Those who love more, give more. And those who love greatly, what can they give that’s worthy of their love? They give themselves. Saint Porfyrios Kavsokalyvitis

‘For the son of man did not come to be served but to serve’ On the 5th Sunday of Great Lent, our Church presents and honors the sacred memory of a holy woman, our blessed mother, Mary the Egyptian, who began from a life in the shadows and was made perfect in asceticism. Her life is an extreme story of sanctity, a tale of Adam’s nakedness, of physical and spiritual lack of passion, divestment of human properties, abandonment of personal ideas and will, recovery of the ancient health of the soul, a story of virginity of the body and of the spirit. It’s a tale of plunging into the infinite depths of the grace of God. Her memory is accentuated towards ...

Let’s acknowledge that not sinning at all is beyond human powers and is a characteristic of God alone. But if you remain untreated, that’s a characteristic of a wicked nature and of the forces that come from that nature, which is contrary to God. The return of those who have sinned is a characteristic of humankind, but of good people, who belong to the portion of those who are saved. Saint Gregory the Theologian

Words which aren’t the outcome of prayer are like dried mud. They don’t adhere to anything, no matter how much wisdom and sense they appear to show. Words that are the result of prayer, on the other hand, ‘stick’. They go straight into other people’s minds and so these people are helped. Dimitrios Panagopoulos, preacher

If, out of love for God and for the sake of a life of virtue, people don’t take undue care of themselves, believing rather that God will look after them, this trust in God’s providence is both practical and sensible. Saint Seraphim of Sarov

We stand on the threshold of Holy Week. The Lord Jesus Christ triumphally enters Jerusalem to raise us and save us through His Holy Crucifixion and Glorious Resurrection. The “hour” has come, and the Lord prays in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12: 27). In these days, we remember another “hour,” the hour of Metropolitan Paul Yazigi’s kidnapping in Aleppo. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon of April 22, 2013, when His Eminence courageously entered Aleppo, accompanied by Archbishop Youhanna Ibrahim, in order to free two innocent priests held as ...

Advance registration is required. Register HERE. Join myOCN Interactive Virtual Community will be offering 30 minute virtual crafting activities for children every day of Holy Week beginning with Palm Sunday, in partnership with Orthodox Pebbles learning materials. Join us for Holy Week Crafts for Kids, every day of Holy week (April 25-May 1) at 3:30 pm EST. These simple crafts will engage children around each day of Holy Week and prepare them for a joyful Pascha at home. Advance registration is required. IMPORTANT NOTES FOR PARTICIPATION:  Advance registration is required. Please register as early as possible, as participants will receive a list of suggested materials in advance of Holy Week. Materials will not be provided. We recommend purchasing materials in advance and following along with your children during the sessions. Crafts are ...

Avarice causes a diminution of love. It sows hatred within us against others for embezzling or stealing what’s ours. Heartfelt goodwill, on the other hand, makes us love those towards whom we’re generous. Forced generosity provokes antipathy. Avarice comes from the devil, whereas generosity is of God. Saint John Kronstadtskij

After those who came to be baptized in the ancient Church, the whole of their life was imbued with a godly passion for holy communion. Allegorical symbols of the heavenly food of the faithful filled places of worship, especially in the catacombs. Images of the true vine, of the panting hart which runs to ‘the springs of water’. In the crypt of Lucina there are depictions of fish and baskets with bread for holy communion. An epigraph in Latin states: ‘Love, pour me wine’. In the Greek chapel of the catacomb of Priscilla, a wall-painting from the 2nd century depicts the ‘breaking of the bread’. The priest is dividing the bread. Before him is a chalice and around him six ...