In English

Before daybreak, at night, in the innards, in the belly of the grave, the Risen Lord sprang up. ‘From the belly, before the morning-star’, the heavenly Father raised Him and since then He has been our eternal High Priest. Christ’s resurrection is a special gift, the last gift on earth of the Lord Who welled like myrrh from that tomb. There has never been a more beautiful treasure-chamber than the Lord’s tomb. There has never been a more beautiful opening than the opening of Christ’s tomb. The Father agreed to His Son being cast into the tomb by the transgressors precisely because He intended light to rise from the grave. The Father would have remained unknown, inaccessible, but for the coming of ...

In a few hours, we’ll stand before the Lord, the naked Servant, Who is crucified but Whose mien, nevertheless, is one of majestic triumph, regal glory and serenity. If we are to understand the love we should have towards other people, or our love towards God, or His towards us, we have to understand the love shared by the Father and the Son. Otherwise, we’ll never understand what’s meant by the word ‘love’ and it’ll simply be something that calls to mind certain feelings, certain acts of tenderness and something human. Everything starts with the Father. There’s a monocracy in the Holy Trinity. It’s not possible that this great moment in the divine dispensation could occur except through the Father. In the first ...

So is it to be wondered at that we don’t know how to love our enemies, when we don’t love even our friends? Is it odd for a child not to be able to read a book if they haven’t learned the alphabet? How can you love a distant stranger when you can’t love your neighbour?

What you sow in this life, you’ll reap on the day of judgement.

Most people don’t merely bear willingly the weight of Satan in their heart, but gradually become so accustomed to it that they don’t notice it any more and even increase it. And sometimes the evil one increases the load ten times.

At the Matins service of Holy Friday the following hymn is sung: Today is suspended on a tree He who suspended the earth upon the waters. The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns. He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery. He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face. The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the Cross with nails. The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a spear. We worship Thy passion, O Christ. We worship Thy passion, O Christ. We worship Thy passion, O Christ. Show us also Thy glorious resurrection. This version (below) is being sung by the late Archbishop Job of Chicago (OCA). In the service, the 12 Passion Gospels ...

Real life is like a battleship that ploughs on through thick and thin. Storms come and you hardly notice them. The opposite happens, however, when you don’t struggle. If we could just see how much God loves us, how good God is, we’d be over the moon.

‘Humbled by Your loving-kindness, You washed the feet of Your disciples, directing them to the path divine’. This sentence encapsulates one of the most prominent scenes of humility in the life of Christ, an extraordinarily strange image for a teacher, a leader, someone with authority over heaven and earth. Christ kneels and washes the feet of His disciples and, moreover, rejects any discussion of the propriety of the act. If Peter doesn’t agree to having his feet washed, he will have no relationship with the Lord, will be cut off, because, by refusing the gift and the humility, he would be allowing himself to be ruled by his own egotism. It’s unusual for leaders in any era to behave with simplicity. ...

Have nothing to do with the sins of others. As long as you remain unaffected by their badness, you are helping them. But as soon as they say something bad to you, they’re diminished in your eyes and your love dwindles, no matter how much you think you’re helping them.

‘Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins…fulfilled the task of a myrrh-bearer and, lamenting, brought you sweet-smelling oil before your burial’. The Tropario (Hymn) of Kassiani dominates the service of matins for Great Wednesday. A sinful woman, a harlot in her body, realizes the state she’s in, undertakes the role of a myrrh-bearer and brings myrrh to Christ before His entombment. In a most moving gesture of love, she silently anoints the Lord’s feet, washes them with her tears and dries them with her hair, thus demonstrating the reality of her repentance, which the Lord accepts. A myrrh-bearing harlot of a woman, whose soul remained sensitive and aware of her sinfulness. Tears, myrrh, humility are all mixed with feelings ...

Burning love is the trade mark of our times. Wherever you are, wherever you go, this is what people talk about. Songs, films, plays, literature, advertisements, young, old, painting and cooking, all praise erotic love, describe the sufferings of this kind of love, the mysterious power that attracts people and makes it so that one person can’t live without the other. So much so that you wonder whether we can really exist, can continue in any other mode of life. Because erotic love is promoted as the only way of life. The other is that special element that’s missing, the complement, the other half. Without that other half, you can’t feel whole and fulfilled through experience. This is why most people ...

Those who wish to walk in the path of God’s commandments surrender their will to Christ. Once Christ has been granted our will as an entry, He’ll come in and direct our mind towards the truth.

‘Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they made a meal for him’. Martha was serving and Lazarus ate. This was a sign of Lazarus’ real resurrection: that many days later, he was alive and eating. It’s clear, then, that the meal took place in the home of Martha. They welcomed Jesus because they were friends and were loved by Him. ‘When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead’. And when they saw the miracle they all believed. Not satisfied with their own ...

Rachel was weeping for her children. These words were spoken by prophet Jeremiah The scripts have fulfilled . † Unbearable pain was spread in Ramah Ruthless soldiers surrounded innocent souls obeyed to a blind verdict death everywhere. Vindictive swords took their youth! took their breath! took their life! Oh! Devious Herod your hands are with blood Oh! hear the voices of despair Oh! hear the screams that drown me down to the valley of shadows. I followed my little angels with sorrow in my heart The sunlight faded to these blooming smiles. A heavy winter spread everywhere around the world. Their laughs were vanished Where are the white lilies? lying now.. in dark tombs? away from our blessing land. Where are you my son? Where are you my daughter? The angels guardians shed tears everywhere… Oh! Bloody Herod you wrote a black history in your wreckless kingdom. And now ...

On the days following His entry to Jerusalem, Christ spoke to His disciples in particular about the signs that will precede the Last Day (Matt. 24 and 25); and so this forms the theme of the first part of Holy Week. In Western worship, on the other hand, the ‘last things’ are commemorated mainly during the pre-Christmas season of Advent. The eschatological challenge of the first three days of Holy Week is summed up in the troparion and exapostilarion at Matins+, both of which are repeated three times to a slow and solemn melody. The troparion, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom comes in the middle of the night…,’ is based on the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt. 25:1-13); the exapostilarion, ‘I ...

The long and holy periods of spiritual reflection never pass without a barrage of temptations. The holy fast and the increase in prayer don’t escape the snares of Lucifer. When Christ Himself spent forty days in fasting, prayer and reflection, He, too, was subjected to the temptations of the devil. Given this- the fact that Christ Himself was tempted by the devil- it’s not at all strange that those who follow in His footsteps, in the path of the Gospel, will also be on the receiving end of a host of traps cunningly set by the devil. Indeed, the harder Christians try in this effort, the more the devil attempts to blow them off their course towards perfection in Christ. This ...

4 April 1993 In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Today, in the day of Palms we stand in awe and amazement before what is happening in a way in which the Jews of Jerusalem could not meet Christ because they met Him imagining that He was the glorious king who would now take over all power, conquer and reject the heathen, the Romans who were occupying their country, that He would re-establish a kingdom, an earthly kingdom of Israel. We know that He had not come for that, He had come to establish a Kingdom that will have no end, a Kingdom of eternity, and the Kingdom that was not open only to one nation but ...

Even though God knew of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in paradise, He didn’t prevent it. Had he done so, He’d have intervened and done away with our freedom, which He Himself had given us. If you take away freedom, then the way we live our lives, even our salvation, would be enforced. We’d have no personality and we’d exist as passive beings. God preferred to change His plans for us rather than deprive us of the main feature of our personality, our freedom.

Take up your cross and know that, whatever you suffer is known to God. As a loving Father, He tries in every way to shape Jesus Christ within us. He wants us to suffer because He knows what He’s prepared in heaven for His suffering children, But if He doesn’t send them sorrows, that’ll be unfair to them because they’ll be deprived of the ineffable good things of heaven. The more we suffer, the more beautiful is the garland of glory that’s woven for us.

If you want to be saved, your heart has to be in a state of repentance and contrition. When people try to have a humble heart and a peaceful mind, then none of the machinations of the enemy is set in motion. Because where there’s peace of mind, God Himself is at rest.