In English

Christ is the gift of God to man and the gift of man to God, but Christ is also the perfect gift of each man to his fellow. In Paradise, God was presenting Himself before man as an example for imitation and man lived thereby. Through the fall, however, he lost this direct contemplation of God’s Face. He hid himself ‘from the presence of the Lord God’ and became afraid that he would die if he saw His Creator. In the Book of Judges, we read that Manoah said to his wife, ‘We shall surely die, because we have seen God.’ When Christ came and assumed the humble human nature from the Holy Virgin, He was able to approach men without ...

In Church hymnography, which in essence is a commentary on the Biblical message concerning the salvation of the world, the loveliness of creation is described in a clear and poetic manner, as is its participation in all the wondrous events of the divine incarnation. The natural environment exists for humankind and draws us to the Creator ‘The heavens declare the glory of the Lord; the firmament proclaims the works of his hands’ (Ps. 18, 1), writes the psalmist, while the Nobel Laureate Odysseas Elytis writes about ‘The Maker of the clouds and waves who sleeps within us’ (AxionEsti, The Passion, reading 2, 6). But for there to be a path from the perceptible beauty of created things to him who is ...

The incarnation of God is the most important event in human history. It was the second intervention by the divine Creator in the universe he made. The incarnation of the Word occurred for the re-creation of the world, its Christification  and, in the end, its deification. God created a world that was ‘very good’ (Gen. 1, 31) with humankind as the outstanding work, the crown and pinacle of his creatures. According to the Fathers of the Church, creation wasn’t the result of any need on the part of God, who is entirely dispassionate, but in order that he could share his bliss with other beings, in particular with the immaterial angels and with human beings. The created cosmos is the supreme ...

The essence of  Christmas is God’s love, the compliant nature of divine love, God’s sacrifice, the riches of God’s loving condescension towards us. ‘God’ does not mean some indifferent ruler sitting high up in the clouds, as some ancient people depicted him, but means him who comes to us, close to us, wraps us in his embrace, sets us on his shoulders. He comes to redeem lost people, to bring them close to him, to place them in a new life, to make for them a new state of grace, love and unity with himself. This is the great issue for us, not all the other things with which we concern ourselves. This is where the essence is, this is where everything ...

‘In your swaddling-clothes you have loosed the bonds of transgressions And by great poverty have filled everyone with riches, merciful one. Laid in the manger of dumb beasts, pre-eternal Word of God, You free mortals of irrational evil’. (Troparion Ode 9, Sunday of the Forefathers) The shackles fastened by the innumerable transgressions and crimes in which human history is swathed are loosed by a babe in swaddling-clothes. Real riches, which people generally look for in the wrong places and in the wrong way, are freely granted through extreme poverty. Absurd and destructive evil is not rooted out by rules of criminal justice, nor by seeking enemies in the faces of other people, but through the extreme humility of a manger, which prefigures the tomb of God the ...

I was once part of a group of pilgrims and we were talking to a great Elder, Saint Sophrony in Essex, who asked us which we thought was the greatest virtue. One said: ‘The virtue of love’. ‘No’, replied the Elder. ‘Although it’s the first and great commandment from God himself to us, it’s not the greatest virtue. Even love itself, which is rightly held to be the  crown, since God is love, is just a caricature of a kind of egotism unless we have what I asked about’. ‘Then perhaps faith’, the same person said. ‘Not that, either’, said the Elder, smiling kindly. ‘Because if you think about it, even faith can be an “attribute” of the devil. Scripture tells us ...

+ B A R T H O L O M E W BY GOD’S MERCY ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE-NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH TO ALL THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE FROM THE SAVIOR CHRIST BORN IN BETHLEHEM * * * Brother concelebrants and blessed children, Having once again arrived at the splendid feast of the Nativity in the flesh of our Savior Christ , who visited us from the heights, we glorify with psalms and hymns His all-heavenly name. The Incarnation of the pre-eternal Word of God is “the crowning of our salvation,” the “eternal mystery” of divine-human communion that transcends all reason. As St. Maximus the Confessor says so eloquently, “as a loving God, He truly became human assuming the essence of humankind, although ...

‘She will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins’ (Matth. 1, 21). With these words, the Angel of the Lord revealed to righteous Joseph the purpose of the Nativity in the flesh of the Son and Word of God which we’re preparing to celebrate again this year, within the spiritual climate of our holy Church. Christmas, then, is approaching. First. In his infinite love, God became a human person in order to save us from the destructive mission of the devil and to raise our fallen nature. Therefore, with his incarnate dispensation he makes us his children again by grace, siblings and coheirs in his heavenly kingdom. This is ...

. The Iambic Katavasia is difficult to understand*, because it is written in iambic meter and is a poetic text, with all the difficulties such a text, particularly an ecclesiastical one, presents. The term ‘iambic’ originated in Ancient Greece and reflected the way words were pronounced then. By the time of Byzantium, pronunciation had changed greatly and  had become much more like that of today, and this was reflected in the composition of hymns. In the Byzantine period, we have a line consisting of twelve syllables, which retained the ancient name of iambic trimeter. In general, only the hymns of the Iambic Canons are written as poetry, while the hymns of the Prose Canons are written as prose. Ode 1 Of old the ...

The feast of Christmas, which is approaching, invites us to experience the mystery of God’s coming to earth. This advent is a fundamental starting-point  which deepens the meaning of our life and existence and renews our faith and hope in the living presence of God in and around us. The Church triumphantly proclaims that God has become human so that we can become gods. This truth shines a light on all the dark places in our life. This faith becomes a source of joy that opens the door of our existence to the transcendent world of God. In understated colors, the Gospels describe the strange birth of Christ, the expectation of it and the fulfilment of the prophecies. The Fathers ...

Saint John says: ‘Don’t make such a mistake, my good friend. Because if you do, you’re harming yourself. We know that everyone has the right to make their prayer at home. That’s true. But nobody ever prays at home as they do in church. What is it that makes prayer in church better? In church there are our fathers, the priests. And a crowd of people. And with one heart and voice we talk to our heavenly Father all together. Don’t be taken in by the idea that, if you sit at home and make your prayer there, in your own way, God will hear you better. You’re making a mistake. A grave error. God wants all of us to make ...

You should know that you’ll often feel troubled and won’t experience that holy peace, sweet solitude and beloved freedom within you. And sometimes, the movement of your heart may raise dust that hinders you in the course you’re set on. God grants you this for your greater good. Remember that this is warfare, which brought the saints crowns as their great reward.  Every time something is upsetting you, you should say: ‘Lord, you see here your servant; may your will be done to me and in me. I know and confess  that the truth of your words remains always sound, that your promises are sure and I hope in them. I wait only for you’. Certainly, the soul which offers itself ...

Our religion is love, fervent love, enthusiasm, madness, divine longing. All of that’s within us. The acquisition of this is something demanded by the soul. For many people, though, religion’s a struggle, worry and anxiety. This is why so many ‘pious’ people seem so miserable, because they’re in such a sad state. That’s really how things stand. Because if we don’t realize the depth of religion and don’t experience it, religion degrades into a sickness and a terrible one at that. So bad that people lose control over their actions, become supine and weak, overcome with worry and stress and behave under the influence of the evil spirit. They do prostrations, weep, supposedly humble themselves, but all this humility is a Satanic action. ...

‘We need help, we need people who, after God, will supervise us’ (Abbas Dorotheos) Our culture provides us with those things which create the illusion that we’re self-governing. That we don’t need anyone else and that our own will is sufficient. Apart from anything else, we have unlimited access to so much information that we can form an opinion on anything at all. And there’s no need for any filtering, because we consider ourselves well able to shape our own view. We’re experiencing the debunking of everything. We have no inkling that we’re following an old philosophical principle: generalizing the particular. Philosophy says that such an effort is almost always far from the truth, since nothing can stand alone as a ...

Man has always had the temptation of novelty, for he is by nature a dynamic being. There is an inherent aspiration in the human soul that always seeks for something new. The spirit of man cannot remain static without falling into despondency: without the dynamics of life in God, he becomes bored and is drowned in despondency. Thus, he always needs to grow, to learn something new. Saint Paul says that we are destined for the increase of God (Col 2:19). Man acquires this increase of God when he makes continually a new beginning in his spiritual life. Man has this innate potential of being dynamic, but because he does not have the proper orientation to fulfil it, he suffers ...

When we hear about prayer, our thoughts usually turn to two things: what should I ask for, and what should I request for myself and the people I love. It appears that selfishness touches all aspects of life, defines and tarnishes them. But, according to the Lord’s words, entry into the Kingdom of God is open to anyone who has tried to apply the command: ‘Deny yourself’. That is to say, those whose love has overcome their egocentrism. All of Christ’s friends, aligning themselves with his teaching and his life, abandoned their self and opened up to the boundless extent of his love, which embraces everyone, wherever they may be in the world, and whole-heartedly shares their pains and troubles. This sharing is ...

Nowadays, human rights are safeguarded and protected all over the world. This undoubtedly constitutes progress and is an achievement for our civilization. Christian theology has played an important role in the defence of human rights, declaring that the human person is sacred and is made in the image of God. In this way, the concept of human dignity has entered public discourse and is not in question. On a personal level, however, because of the excessive emphasis on human rights, there is a lurking danger of spiritual disorientation, since individualism becomes highly developed. For the faithful in particular, the trend towards self-justification and the pursuit of one’s interests isn’t of benefit. On the contrary, self-condemnation and deference to one’s neighbor ...

Allow me not to return to the past, but to dwell rather on what may prove useful and beneficial in the future.According to the teachings of the holy Fathers, every impression, every image, every thought that comes into the region of our heart and fills it with great turbulence certainly comes from the realm of the passions. This is why we shouldn’t follow the impulses of our heart immediately, but only after careful self-examination and intense prayer. God preserve us from a blinded heart. Because it’s common knowledge that the passions blind the heart and darken the bright sun of the mind, the sun on which we should all fix our gaze earnestly, at all times. *** Finally, the endless night has ...