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Andrew the Apostle was one of Christ’s twelve disciples. He came from Bethsaida, a town located on the western bank of Lake Tiberias. He worked in the family business run by his father, Jonah, which was based on the rich fishing to be had in the lake. From their occupation, we can deduce that they were a prosperous and well-to-do family. Some people have the impression that the disciples were poor and illiterate fishermen. But being fishermen did not prevent them from receiving some education, which, in those days, was not a profession. People could do manual work and still be educated. Fisherman was not necessarily equivalent to illiterate. Saint Paul was highly educated, but was still a tent-maker. Saint Apostel ...

To love somebody with all your soul means to pray for them. If you have this experience, you’re in paradise.

It’s a profound conviction of the Orthodox Church that every epoch has its own saints and there’s not a single age without them. In every era, the saints are proof and demonstration of the grace of Christ, the love of the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit, in place and time, among us. When saints leave this earth for their celestial abode, they leave to the generation which knew them the privilege of Saint John the Theologian (I Jn. 1,2) to declare ‘what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands’. Our own generation knew three Elders, Iakovos, Porfyrios and Païsios, who have now been entered officially ...

Relations between in Christianity and Hinduism Hinduism appeared in 600 BC and continues to exist until today. However, its roots are detected since 1,500 BC. Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world and the third most populous, after Christianity and Islam. Furthermore, it is a polytheistic pagan religion with no founder and with many Gods of various attributes. Therefore, there are 33 major Gods and 330 million minor deities. Nowadays, within Hinduism some accept Vishnu as the supreme God while others think that Siva is the supreme God. The greatest goal of Hindus is the liberation (moksha) from the cycle of incarnations which is achieved by the unification with God. The major Hindu communities are spotted in Nepal, Sri Lanka, ...

There are times when people despair and lose heart, which, in its own way, is a kind of pride. If people love the things of this world, they’re sure to be brought to disappointment, because they aren’t going to find God in them. All people feel alone at some time or another, even when they’re with other people, until they become free of the things of this world. At that point, God comes and comforts them.

It has been announced that today, 27 November 2017, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has canonized the late Elder Iakovos Tsalikis. The petition for his canonization was submitted by the Holy Metropolis of Khalkida and 22 November has been appointed as his feast day. Father IakovosTsalikis was born on 5/11/1920 in Levisi, Asia Minor, opposite Rhodes and a few miles inland from the coast. His parents were Stavros Tsalikis, a construction worker by trade and his mother was called Theodora. In 1922, following the Asia Minor catastrophe, the Greeks living there were expelled by the Turks and Fr. Iakovos’ family was broken up. His father was held prisoner in Asia Minor, while his mother and grandmother, together with ...

A thick rope consists of fine hemp fibres. One delicate fibre can’t bind you, nor strangle you. Because you can easily beak free from it. But if you’re tied with a thick rope, you’re held prisoner and you might even be strangled by it. You can’t break free easily. Just as that thick rope is made up of many delicate, weak fibres, so our passions consist of what start out as small transgressions. We can break free and escape at the first stages of small transgressions. But when one sin is repeated after another then their weave is increasingly reinforced until, in the end, a passion’s formed. This turns people into something like monsters, to the extent that they don’t know ...

This is why I’m telling you, don’t be quick to condemn, and to examine the actions of others. We’ve all seen people who’ve fallen into fornication, but we haven’t seen their repentance. Or we’ve seen someone who’s stolen something, but we don’t know what sighs and tears they’ve offered to the Lord”. Finally, there is an account in the Ochrid Prologue , there is a reference, on March 30, to the: “Commemoration of an Uncondemning Monk. The monk died joyfully because he had never in his life condemned anyone. He was lazy, careless, disinclined to prayer, but throughout his entire life he had never judged anyone. And when he lay dying, he was full of joy. The brethren asked him how he ...

Those who wish to be free of the bitter enslavement to our enemy, the devil, should stand up to him and his will and declare open warfare against him.

Writing in his second epistle to the Corinthians, Saint Paul urges them- among other things- to contribute towards a fund-raising collection for the Christians of Jerusalem. This was the first time in the history of Christianity that this method of providing assistance to other Christians in need was used and established. And it’s worth noting that Paul isn’t content with just a couple of words of encouragement. In almost two whole chapters of the epistle he attempts to point out to the Corinthians the immense importance of this effort of charity. First he highlights for them the love of Christ, Who, for our sakes, abandoned His riches and became poor, so that we could become rich through His poverty. In ...

It is known that there are many and different religions in the world. Inevitably, it is raised the question of what unites and what separates these religions. Some among them are prevailing worldwide, such as Christianity and Buddhism. Our basic concern is the relations among all these religions and the way each one of them encounters the others. Our study concerns Christianity in Asia. Christianity, as the religion with the largest number of followers, has differences and similarities with the other religions. We are going to describe the relation of Christianity with Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Confucianism. We are going to study every religion separately; the god in who it believes, its viewpoints, its traditions and the reasons that make ...

Today’s Gospel reading of the young rich man presents us with a challenge. Christ’s words give us pause for thought: they seem so harsh because He asks him to overcome a powerful worldly addiction. ‘Sell everything you have and give to the poor…and come and follow me’. The quest for riches is a normal goal for many people. They claim it’s the foundation of their well-being. While this is relative, we certainly can’t conceive of life without money, since it’s the means we use to meet our basic human needs. But money, like so many other things and values in our daily lives, is doubled-edged, ambiguous and equivocal. It has a positive and a negative significance, depending on our attitude towards ...

Alas, many people distance themselves from God by using the very freedom which He gave them, as well as the possibility of choosing to become good or bad. And when they sin, they incline more readily to wickedness rather than good.

Saint Stylianos was born in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor, between 400 and 500. He was blessed even from his mother’s womb. As he grew up, by the grace of God he increasingly became a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. From childhood he displayed the rare qualities of his blessed life. When he was young and still an adolescent, although, of course, he was of the flesh, he never allowed desires to pollute his spirit and soul. He was very pure. Nor did he allow any earthly passion to dominate him. He would not permit riches and the love of wealth to permeate his soul and subject him to corruption and perdition. With the power and grace of God, he fought against all ...

At Matthew 7, 1-3, the Lord warns us about the danger of judging other people. “Do not judge, or you will be judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the mote that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam that is in your own eye?”. Saint Dorotheos of Gaza has a discourse on Refusal to Judge our Neighbour, in which he deals with this problem, saying that it is perhaps the most difficult sin to deal with. He points out that the Pharisee (at Luke 18, 9-14) was obviously not condemned for giving thanks to God, nor for the ...

The more profoundly we feel our sin as a mortal wound, the closer we fall before God in penitent prayer. This prayer sometimes releases us from the bonds of space and time, so that we feel ourselves to be completely different.

Sinai became widely known, particularly in Europe, with the spreading of the fame and cult of St. Catherine. Symeon Metaphrastes contributed greatly in making the life of the Saint known to the laity when, in the 10th century, he wrote on “the martyrdom of the great Martyr and in the name of Christ victorious Saint Catherine”. The high-born learned maiden had studied at the ethnic schools of that age philosophy, rhetorics poetry, music, physics, mathematics, astronomy and medicine. He beauty and amazing learning, her aristocratic birth and noble character did not prevent her form accepting Jesus Christ, “the heavenly spouse”, and she was baptized a Christian. When in the beginning of the 4th century the emperor Maximum persecuted the Christians, Catherine publicly ...

The task of prayer for the whole world is the most valuable service and gives a living dimension to the world. Monastics strive for things which have absolute, not fleeting value. The intercession of the righteous is an honour for the world.

It takes a great struggle, because the passions are very powerful. But by God’s grace those who are courageous and fight with all their strength will be victorious. Bodily effort and study of the holy Scriptures preserve the purity of the mind. And then it needs a lot of prayer, so that divine grace will shelter those who are struggling. If we’re to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit, it needs a great spiritual struggle, because we’re easily led astray into wickedness, and, in the blink of an eye, lose what we’ve gained through great striving. In our hearts there is good and evil. Which of the two will prevail depends on the effort we ourselves put in. If we give ...