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Millennial doctrines also came to light from the books of the Apocalyptic literature of Judaism. Such books were Esdras, Enoch, Baruch, Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, the Book of Daniel, the Revelation of Peter and so on, which are linked to the expression of later Jewish Messianism. This referred to the expectation among Jews that the Messiah would rule on earth for a thousand years, his residence being in Jerusalem, to which all the peoples of the earth would be subject. In the Old Testament, the predominant term is ‘the Lord’s Anointed’, either related to the person who would sit upon the throne or to the future kingdom of Israel. In Jewish tradition, the expected king is linked to the ...

Slander is condemnation, defamation. Slanderers defame and condemn their neighbours and deprive them of their honour just as murderers deprive them of life. Both groups are equally guilty of homicide.

II) Ontological effects of the Jesus Prayer The act of repeatedly invoking the Name has a double effect: it makes our prayer more unified and at the same time more inward. 1. Unification The repeated Invocation of the Name can bring us, by God’s grace, from dividedness to unity, from dispersion and multiplicity to singleness. ‘To stop the continual jostling of your thoughts,’ says Bishop Theophan, ‘you must bind the mind with one thought, or the thought of One only.’’ To oppose our thoughts, we look upwards to the Lord Jesus and entrust ourselves into his hands invoking his Name; and the grace that acts through his Name overcomes the thoughts which we cannot obliterate by our own strength. This is a positive spiritual ...

Nothing’s difficult if we want it enough and nothing’s easy if we don’t. We manifest our confession in Christ not only in words but also with deeds. We mustn’t shame the dogmas with offensive works, but in all things we should contribute to the glorification of our Lord.

C. Death- the rupture of the psychosomatic coalescence. a. The notion of death The notion of death, apart from its biological dimension, is also metaphysical. For Orthodox theology and tradition, death is the rupture of the coalescence of body and soul, the loosening of the bond, the separation . But for the empirical sciences, this definition is without significance. The soul is not visible. Any attempt to approach death from the viewpoint of changes to the soul, particularly when we’re referring to what is happening to the body, runs the risk of scholasticism and arbitrariness. This is why it is safer to define death as necrosis of the body, subjection to the laws of nature, by which the soul, because of its own ...

On August 5-6, 2017, His Eminence Metropolitan Sotirios presided over Great Vespers and the Divine Liturgy for the Great Feast of the Transfiguration (Metamorphosis) of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. Before the Vespers service, His Eminence chaired a Clergy Synaxis; almost 30 priests from southern Ontario participated. Many items were on the agenda, which were discussed with excellent brotherly relations for the progress of our Metropolis as we soon begin a new Ecclesiastical Year. The celebrating parish of Metamorphosis was standing room only, with many faithful parishioners downstairs in the parish hall watching on large screens, as well as outside during the holy service. During his homily, the Metropolitan spoke about the light and the Uncreated Light of Christ; he ...

The way we live here on this earth, we’re continually subservient to material things. This isn’t true of the angels. This life was given to us so that we can learn about eternal life, how we can become free, how we should progress freely, with a clear conscience and pure thoughts. When we’re free, there’s no more spiritual warfare. Victory’s ours because we’ve abandoned ourselves to God. It’s He Who determines our lives and we accept whatever befalls us as if he were giving us His own hand.

I open a small bottle, plug the top with my thumb, tilt it back, just a bit, until mercy runs down my hand. And I trace a fragrant cross of blessed oil on a brow burning fever. Shut my eyes and whisper Martha-Mary words, “The one You love is sick.” Little boy weeps sleepy, points to the wall. And I take down an icon, the one of God clothed in this broken body. And He and I, we keep an all-night vigil at a child’s bedside. The clock counts this late hour and I measure medicine, pour it into a small cup, sign it with a cross. I place it in his hands, young eyes looking up at me, all bloodshot and ...

Religious convictions concerning the end of the world, the final judgment, the justification of the righteous, the punishment of sinners by the Messiah, and His kingdom, have, for a thousand years, been at the centre of the heresy of millennialism (Chiliasm). This heresy is based on the book of the Revelation and, in particular, on chapter 20, verses 1-10. We shall attempt here to present the manner in which this teaching concerning the thousand-year kingdom of Christ arose and the repercussions it had on Christian communities at different times. We shall mention the Fathers who interpreted the text according to Orthodoxy and how the same passage has been seen erroneously by some contemporary ecclesiastical writers who have created heresies. We ...

Christ was transfigured on Mount Tabor. As the Holy Fathers point out, in this way He was telling us that those who wish to experience the mysteries of divine Grace, have to leave behind the cares of the world. The intellect must leave and separate itself from the things of this world and should bend itself to the things above. The Lord shows us how we can become by Grace what He Himself is in His essence.

The Jesus Prayer AIC - Ongoing Formation – July 2006 This talk was an adaptation of The Power of the Name, by Kallistos Ware (1974) with an addition from The Payer of JESUS, by A Monk of the Eastern Church (1967). Introduction No authentic relationship between persons can exist without mutual freedom and spontaneity, and this is true of prayer. There are no fixed rules for those who seek to pray; and there is no mechanical technique, whether physical or mental, which can compel God to manifest his presence. His grace is granted always as a free gift, and cannot be gained automatically by any method or technique. Nevertheless, the Jesus Prayer has become for many Eastern Christians over the centuries the standard path, and ...

Blessed poverty ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ But what benefit will we derive from this great gift of God unless we discover the deeper meaning hidden in the depths of these words? In medical science, for example, there are many expensive and rare remedies that are unused and are of no benefit to those who don’t realize their value until they learn from specialists what the application of each one is. Now what does poverty of the spirit mean? The thing which ensures that we enter the kingdom of heaven. From Holy Scripture we’ve learned to identify two kinds of riches. One is admirable and the other is to be condemned. The riches ...

People are divided in this world into good and evil, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, noble and ignoble, intelligent and fools. They do however all have one thing in common. And that is pain. Because all people, without exception, will experience pain during their lifetime. As the saying goes: ‘It’s a marvel, if someone finds happiness during their life’. Therefore, we all live in the realm of pain. We know that pain is something personal, which one has to deal with alone. It’s our cross, which we have a duty to carry, just as the Saviour of the world, Jesus, carried His Cross for our sakes. So find comfort and rest in the paternal hand, which at this time ...

The Liturgy as Pedagogical Tradition The Liturgy preserves Apostolic, Christian teaching that predates the writing of the canonical New Testament and parallels the foundational, binding, oral traditions that originated the New Testament. This teaching communicates real, historical knowledge about the Person, the deeds, and the teachings of Jesus. What is this teaching? The teaching is the kerygma: the proclamation of Jesus as crucified and risen Lord, who was, is, and is to come; the teaching and retention of the idea of monotheism, a tenet not contradicted by the proclamation of Jesus as Lord. Another object of teaching is about the nature of God and the anamnesis (a memorial in the sense of re-actualization) of His saving deeds contained in the berakah, ...

If you want people to understand you, then you must become like them. That’s the move which God made: He became human, He spoke our language, He communed with us on all human levels except sin, and that’s how He managed to truly communicate with us. So, not only did Christ, Who came and saved us, meet us where we were, but He did something else as well: He surrendered Himself for our life. In other words, He forsook everything which was His and gave Himself up for our sake.

A. Posing the Problem How else could I begin my talk except by expressing my genuine gratitude for the honour of being asked to speak at your conference? It may be that you, as intensive care specialists, have encountered the greatest ethical dilemmas and are confronted by the most intense medical challenges to the conscience, more so than your other colleagues. And we, as the Church, if we want a connection with our mission, are constantly involved in the tension created by the way each person is hovering between life and death- literally and metaphorically- unfailingly seeing death in life and constantly discerning the outline of real life in death. The workplace of doctors such as yourselves is called Intensive Care or ...