In English

The two preceding Sundays, of the Last Judgment and of Forgiveness, together constitute – albeit in reverse order – a recapitulation of the whole range of sacred history, from its beginning point, Adam in Paradise, to its end-point, the Second Coming of Christ, when all time and history are taken up into eternity. During the forty days that now follow, although this wider perspective is never forgotten, there is an increasing concentration upon the central moment in sacred history, upon the saving event of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, which makes possible man’s return to Paradise and inaugurates the End. Lent is, from this point of view, a journey with a precise direction; it is the journey to Pascha.+ The goal ...

My Beloved Clergymen, Monastics, Parish Council & Philoptochos Presidents and Members, and all the faithful of the Metropolis of Atlanta: This Sunday is a very important Sunday for all faithful Orthodox Christians, coming as it does before the beginning of Great Lent, and as part of the Church’s Triodion journey to help us achieve Theosis. Reviewing our progress, the first Sunday of Triodion taught us how to pray: with the humility of the Publican, recognizing our sinfulness and asking for the mercy of God. The second Sunday we are reminded that we have a patient and loving Father who always waits for His Prodigal Sons and Daughters to return to Him, no matter how we who separate ourselves through the Passions and ...

In this period, we have two fasts, as we all know. There are about seven weeks of strict fasting, eight if you include the Cheese-fare weekwhich precedes. For a lot of people this is an enjoyable and desirable time, for others it’s difficult and for others again not at all pleasant. We’ll try to convey some thoughts on this period, as it has been described by the Fathers of the Church. First of all, let’s recall Saint John the Damascan, who made a general observation concerning Lent. ‘Do not weaken Lent, for it is an imitation of Christ’s way of life’. This is important. Christ doesn’t debilitate, that is drain the power of Lent. More broadly, we might say that Saint ...

I have to renounce everything tawdry so that I can have as a friend a person whom I admire for the loftiness of their soul. I have to cast off egotism by loving an unselfish friend. And I have to abandon brutality by loving a gentle friend.

a) The dominant theme in the hymnology of Cheese-fare Sunday is ‘Adam’s Lament’ since ‘on this day we keep the memory of the expulsion of Adam the First-created from the paradise of delight’. In Paradise, Adam, the father of the whole world, knew the sweetness of divine love. So when he was expelled because of his sin, abandoned by God’s love, he mourned bitterly and heaved deep sighs, as Saint Silouan the Athonite tells us. b) Before the fall, according to Biblical and Patristic tradition, Adam had shared in God’s glory. He was endowed with the gift of prophetic insight. He contemplated the whole of creation prophetically. He named all things in accordance with their properties. He had a share in spiritual ...

The time of preparation for the Fast ends with the Sunday of Cheese-fare and so we pass into great and blessed Lent, which is full of mixed experiences and feelings transmitted to us in a mystical way by its penitential services. Today’s Gospel reading brings us to the introductory period of our preparation for the Passion and Resurrection and reminds us of the golden rule for our progress, which begins with the virtue of forgiveness. Hence the Vespers of Forgiveness. Our forgiveness of others is presented to us as a pre-condition for God’s forgiveness of us. Unless we break down the hardness of our heart by forgiving our neighbours for whatever they’ve done to us, then we can’t expect or seek ...

When life is full of troubles, people get the feeling that the curse and anger of God has come upon them. But when these trials have passed, they'll see that God’s wonderful providence protected them meticulously in all facets of their existence. Thousands of years of experience, transmitted from generation to generation, tells us that, when Good sees faith in the soul of people who are striving for His sake, as He did in the case of Job, He leads them into depths and heights that are inaccessible to others. The more complete and powerful people’s love and trust in God are, the greater will be the measure of their trial and the fulness of their experience, which can reach ...

Sermon preached by Elder Meliton (Hatzi), Metropolitan of Chalcedon (1913-1989) in the Cathedral Church of Athens   Cheese-fare Sunday, 8 March, 1970   My friends, There was nothing the Lord castigated so much as hypocrisy. And rightly so, since He saw in it the greatest deceptive danger, which is the satanic light that appears to be angelic. The power of hypocrisy is, indeed, dreadful. Both for those who experience it and practice it, as well as for those who suffer as a result of it. The reason why it’s so dangerous is that it corresponds to the deepest psychological demand we have within us. We want to appear to be people who we aren’t. Both to ourselves, as well as to God. And so we avoid the ...

Those who follow the path of Christ’s commandments are reborn spiritually and are transfigured. It’s not the same for everyone to the same extent, but depends on their zeal. They’re crucified with Jesus Christ and divine Grace makes them resemble Him Whom they love. Herein lies the theology of the Cross, which Saint Paul hymns as the light of divine love.

Humility brings completion of the self. It doesn’t cut your head off. Humility completes us, gives us the discernment to know where we should stand and where not, where we should speak, so that we’re not idle. And where we should surrender entirely to other people, without conditions.

Friday, February 9: Metropolitan Sotirios presided at Great Vespers at the celebrating Church of St. Haralambos in Smithville, Ontario. Despite the bad weather, many pious faithful attended. Saturday, February 10: Metropolitan Sotirios celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. John the Theologian Church in Toronto, along with the Trisagion and Memorial Services of Wallace-Michael, late son of Mrs. Eugenia West, and for all the benefactors of our Holy Metropolis. The Divine Liturgy was very solemn; the Church was filled to capacity with pious faithful. That evening, the Greek Orthodox Community of Ottawa, Canada’s capital, celebrated the 25th Anniversary of their Parish Priest, Fr. A. Michalopulos. Many spoke at the event, including His Eminence Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey, and His Excellency D. Azemopoulos, ...

            Christ is the living truth. “I am the way, and the truth and the life” (John 14, 6). Therefore, He is life without beginning, unlimited (ἀπεριόριστος), unbound (ἀδέσμευτος), co-eternal with the Father, inseparable and undivided from him. “Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For, he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ...

Don’t make excuses and say that you don’t know what you should do and think you’re not responsible for what you haven’t done. Because if you’d done your best, the rest would have been revealed to you later, just as you go from one room to another and learn on the way. It’s not in your interest to learn the next things theoretically before you’ve mastered the first things practically.

One of the greatest problems of Orthodox spirituality in recent years has been the distortion applied to Orthodox eschatology, that is the prophetic discourse concerning the last times. It’s common for spiritually inexperienced people, without any real knowledge of what Orthodoxy means or what its magnificent content involves, to be quick to engage systematically with what’s been recorded regarding the end of world, either as the word of the Lord or that of an Apostle or Saint, even though they’re in no spiritual condition to do so. Indeed, the main characteristic of most people such as this is that they go straight to the Revelation of Saint John, without ever having studied the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles ...

In the end, we have one particular temptation which is constantly before us. This is why we shouldn’t want to know what other people are doing. If people come and talk to me about others, I’ll tell them to hold their tongues or I’ll get up and leave.

If God wants us to suffer, there’ll be some saving purpose behind it, which we mortals can’t foresee. But patience, forbearance and humility in the face of temptation will always, yes always, bring certain benefit.

Saint Neilos was born into a wealthy and illustrious family and was probably a pupil of St. John Chrysostom from as early as when the latter was preaching in Antioch. His birth and personal attributes were such that he was raised to the rank of prefect of the capital. The burdens of his office and the social life of the capital, however, conflicted with his desire for a more spiritual life. He therefore came to an agreement with his wife, by whom he already had two children, and both of them renounced the world. He and his son, Theodoulos, settled on Mount Sinai, while his wife and daughter entered a women’s monastery in Egypt. (This sounds strange to modern ears, ...

All believing Christians should be aware that Christ is in all other believers and we should have so much love for them that we’d be prepared to sacrifice our soul for their sake. We have no right to call other people bad, nor to think of them as such. Instead, we should think of them as good. If you see people troubled by the passions, don’t hate them, but hate the passions that are warring against them. If you see them suffering from wicked desires, feel even more kindly towards them, in case you yourself are tempted, since you’re vulnerable and prone to the entanglements of sin.

‘Since you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me’ In the parables which the Lord used, He said the phrase ‘the kingdom of heaven is like this’, that is, He compared the kingdom of heaven to ten virgins, to a precious pearl, to a field, to a lost coin and so on. In today’s Gospel, however, He didn’t speak in a parable, but revealed a real state and also His true Self, when He said ‘when the Son of Man comes in His glory’, which means that the reading fully expresses the truth concerning our final judgement. God’s mercy and our charity One of God’s properties is His mercy. His mercy pursues us all the ...