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John was 20 years old when the judge told him that he would spend the next 5 years in prison as a result of the felony for which he had just been convicted.  From that day forward, John was branded a FELON.  Though the “F” was not physically branded on his forehead, he knew it was there and his family knew it was there.  His life would never be the same nor would his family’s life for they seemed to carry the same “F” with them. John came from a great family who were all very active in their Orthodox Church.  John had served in the altar until he was 16.  He was a good boy who had made a couple ...

1st of January, first of the month, New Year’s day. First day of the new civil year. On this day our holy Church, celebrates three important events: a) the circumcision of Jesus Christ, that is the event which took place eight days after the celebration of His divine incarnation. This was a custom, a rite that Jews performed on all new-born boys eight days after their birth; b) The memory of the Great Father of the Church Saint Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia; and c) the beginning of the new civil year, a new period of time. Source:users.sch.gr/aiasgr Time and its measurement exists for people while they are alive on this earth; that is, after death there is no time, ...

(c) 2016 || www.studiomathewes.com In church and in home prayer, my children get very easily distracted. This is understandable, given their young age, and I work with where they are. But by far the most infuriating thing to me is when they distract each other. Sometimes it’s unintentional, but many times it’s that they’re choosing to focus on what the other person is doing rather than on the prayer or the liturgy. “Moooooooooooooom, he won’t stop making that face at me.” “Don’t look at him. Turn your head and look at the icons.” “But he’s dooooooooing it.” “Ignore it. Turn your head and you won’t see him.” “But–” “Look at the icons.” I should listen to my own advice. So-and-so made an offhand comment that I found irritating. Look at the ...

The evolution and renaissance of music for Greek church choirs which occurred in the 19th century is an incontestable fact, which is clearly confirmed by the compositions of Iakovos the Protopsaltis. The Byzantine age has, of course, left us with sublime examples of the art of Church music by such composers as Saint Ioannis Koukouzelis, Manouil Chrsysafis and others, but more recently others such as Petros Peloponissios and Iakovos the Protopsaltis have also contributed beautiful settings. It’s worth mentioning that in the Athonite tradition of Church singing, the settings of Iakovos the Protopsaltis are very popular and familiar and are still sung to this day. The recording which follows includes the slow Pasapnoaria by Iakovos the Protopsaltis in tone 1 and ...

Birds are very clever and wise creatures. They’re not easy to catch. As soon as they see someone coming to catch them, they fly away and so escape their enemies. Christians should be as astute and careful as this, so that the bodiless hunters can’t snatch their soul.

We also said that those who are born of the spirit have a heart in which dwells Christ ‘through faith’. According to biblical anthropology and orthodox tradition, the heart of man is the centre of his personhood. It is there that choices occur and decisions are made. There, God is revealed and there He dwells. There, man meets with God and through God he feels united with all the generations of men. God makes his heart ‘His footstool’ and enlarges it with His grace, so that it can embrace heaven and earth. A man that bears this divine enlargement within him will always accept his brother as his own life and will never reject him because that would cause his ...

A saintly hermit told the brothers the following story: One day, as I was sitting in the desert, I began to feel worried and sad. A thought came to me: “Get up and go for a walk in the desert”. So I walked and came to a water-course and gazing into the distance in the moonlight- night had fallen already- I saw something hirsute sitting on a rock. At first I thought it was a lion and stopped walking in that direction. But then I thought it over and realized that, even if it were a lion, I shouldn’t be afraid, but rather should take courage and believe in the grace of Christ. So I started off again, heading towards the ...

St. Theophan the Recluse You’ve got to get out of your head and into your heart. Right now your thoughts are in your head, and God seems to be outside you. Your prayer and all your spiritual exercises also remain exterior. As long as you are in your head, you will never master your thoughts, which continue to whirl around your head like snow in a winter’s storm or like mosquitoes in the summer’s heat. If you descend into your heart, you will have no more difficulty. Your mind will empty out and your thoughts will dissipate. Thoughts are always in your mind chasing one another about, and you will never manage to get them under control. But if you enter ...

1 January 1946 “Behold, I and the children God has given me”. I didn’t want to have children in the world by the flesh and God gave me you to have as my spiritual children. That saying comforts me and I imagine it brings you joy, too. I’ve got you as my children and you think of me as your spiritual father.   The spiritual father is superior to the father after the flesh. Because if I see you dashing your foot against a rock, I’ll be worried; I’ll run and help. If I see you being dragged to court over some debt that you owe, I hurry along and pay it on your behalf. If I see people condemning you, swearing at ...

What a fine image the faithful make. How wonderful their joy is. Its beauty wins you over and expresses their faith in God. And the serenity which permeates them expresses the peace in their soul.

Recently I was asked about a supposed contradiction in the writings of St. Paul. In Romans 2:13 St. Paul says "for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified..." However, in Galatians 2:16 he says "knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." So is there a contradiction here? No. A doer of the Law is one who actually fulfills the law. But ...

Just as so-called diagnostic physicians not only know how to treat external and visible wounds of the body, but also, by measuring the pulse, they learn the internal and invisible maladies of the heart, of the bowels, and the other unseen workings of the human body, and are therefore able to treat them. Likewise, Spiritual Father, it is not enough for you only to know how to treat the external passions of the soul, those acts and deeds and effects of sin, but it is also necessary to know through the confession of the penitent the internal wounds of his soul, which are the hidden passions in his heart and the passionate and evil thoughts, and so treat them with ...

Feeding the poor As our nation's congress faces critical decisions that will in all likelihood impact the lives of countless elderly and poor, it is right that we consider the teachings of the Orthodox Church concerning our duties to those who have less then we. Saint John Chrysostom taught that, "the poor are not the spectacle of human misery and suffering that evokes compassion or disgust, but they are the icons of Christ, the presence of Christ in the broken world." The compassionate sharing of our resources with those in need is a primal teaching of our Church and a virtue that must be practiced if we are to be true to the teachings of Our Lord. The communal nature of ...

During the period of relentless warfare, we must arm ourselves against the spirit of ingratitude and blasphemy, because it’s with those weapons that the enemy attacks us at that moment. Satan defeats people with doubt and fear and directs wicked thoughts at them like arrows: that God won’t have mercy on them; that they’ll never be forgiven; never be redeemed and saved from the tortures of eternal perdition. Indeed, they’re also under fire from other thoughts which I can’t write about, and aren’t able to work or read because the temptation won’t let them. This is why, at moments like this, we should forcefully cast despair away from us, and shouldn’t be indifferent to our prayer life. We should fall down ...

For Elder Sophrony, the quest for truth through the exclusive use of human reason is doomed to eternal confusion. This is so because people turn to the search for the truth as if it were some sort of theoretical model or abstract idea. Because they assume that, if they come to know the desired truth they will somehow acquire a magic power and will make themselves the free authority over their being. So, enchanted by the role of reason, humanity is living in a state of ‘sedation’. And the greatest problem is that this misleading approach is apparent not only in the natural sciences and philosophy, but in the religious life as well, with the inevitable result that people fall ...

We should be aware of our limitations. A lot of people suffer from this. They see some ascetic who’s undertaken a very onerous and harsh struggle. ‘I’ll do that, as well’. But is such an ascetic struggle really within your capabilities? Or is the devil attacking you ‘from the right’. Talk to your spiritual guide about whether you should attempt such a great struggle. You may be being deceived.

Holy Love may we then be pardoned through you and may we enter into the enjoyment of the good things of our Master, since no-one will taste their sweetness except through you. Those who don’t love you as they ought and are not, as they should be, the object of your love, may well run, but haven’t yet reached the goal. It’s far from certain that somebody who is running will actually complete the race. But for those who have laid hold on you, or on whom you have laid hold, is certain, since you are the end of the Law. It is you who surround me and inflame me, you who, by the pangs of my heart, kindle ...

The regenerated man has another mind, ‘the mind of Christ’, another understanding, ‘that which is in Christ Jesus’, another heart, in which ‘dwells Christ by faith’. He becomes like unto Christ and fulfills his purpose. Man acquires the ‘mind of Christ’, which means that he knows the plan of God that He has for every soul and he has an inspired longing to become a co-worker with God in the grandiose work of divine regeneration. He feels honoured and benefited because his Creator visits him from the evening until the morning and from the morning until the evening. From this perspective he sees the purpose of every man and for this reason he does not dare ever to harm ‘one of ...