In English

In Abbas Dorotheos, Ascetic Works, Teaching XVI is An Interpretation of certain sayings of Saint Gregory sung in hymns at Easter. These hymns are no longer sung at Easter, since they have been superseded by the famous canon by Saint John the Damascene, though he may have used them for inspiration. Abbas Dorotheos seems to be basing his remarks on a tropario which was, indeed, sung at Easter when he was alive and elements of which are to be found in a homily preached by Saint Gregory on Easter day, 383 A.D. (S.C. vol. 92, p. 458). The tropario was published by S. Petrides in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 1904, 421-3). (WJL). 166. I’m very happy to say a few words to you ...

The most important thing is for you yourself to struggle, rather than prepare other people as to how to deal with disasters. It’s hard for people who would be hard put to turn to evil to guess at what it’s like.

We shall try here to point out the main features of the Orthodox icon which is entitled “The Descent into Hell”. The first thing to note is that it is entirely different from the Western-style depiction, which shows Christ emerging triumphantly from the tomb, holding a little flag. The astonished guards have fallen to the ground.   The Western-style icon presents a scene that no-one ever saw. The moment of the Resurrection is a concealed secret. The Orthodox approach is entirely different. It depicts the results of the event of the Resurrection for people and for the world.   Christ, in the centre, is wearing shining white garments and is within a mandorla. He is holding the hands of Adam and Eve and raising ...

          a)  The Cross leads to the Resurrection, Great Friday bears fruit on the bright Sunday of Easter. Sorrow, listlessness and despair make way for the joy and peace of the Resurrection. Without the Cross, the Resurrection is inconceivable and without the Resurrection the Cross has no point. It might be better to say that the Resurrection is concealed within the Cross. This is why orthodox Easter is both the Cross and the Resurrection. And we all take part, body and soul, in the great feast of faith and the encounter with the Risen Lord. Proceeding beside Him and being crucified with Him makes us participants in the divine light and brings us into real communion ...

In the Orthodox Church, the Resurrection is not merely the ‘feast of feasts’, but the all-embracing feast, which is the soul of all the others and is always present in them. In it we find all the divine and theanthropic powers of the Saviour, which crush every sin, every death, every devil. Unceasing Resurrection, that is continuous Resurrection, is precisely what the life of all Orthodox Christians in the Church of the Saviour is: it is my life, your life and that of each of us. What is the Orthodox Church? It is the risen Christ Who lives forever. So we who live in it continually overcome sin, death and the devil through the Risen Lord. In this way, we ...

“Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry aloud; neither shall any one hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles hope” (Matthew 12: 18-21) This prophecy summarizes the life of this “servant” whom God “chose” and in whom His “soul is well pleased.” He is the chosen vessel of His “Spirit,” His Word “to the nations” revealing His love and His will, the Icon per excellence of faithfulness to the ...

After our fall, we’ve become ill. And our sickness is in direct relationship to our sinfulness. And this sick person,, this sinful person, with so many mistakes, is the one whom Christ comes to take, to complete and to glorify.

This is an iconographical type , which represents Christ as a young child, recumbent on a cradle or cot, and symbolizes the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy in verses 9-12 of chapter 49 of the book of Genesis. In these, the patriarch Jacob pronounces the prophecy which has to do with the tribe of Judah, from which will come the Messiah, and in this way foretells His advent, passion and resurrection. Christ Anapeson. Fresco by Emmanuel Panselinos, 14th Century, Mount Athos According to this narrative, as Jacob was nearing the end of his life, in Egypt, where he had gone to find his lost son, Joseph, (Gen. 46, 28-34), he sensed that death was at hand and so he called his ...

There can hardly be any Christian believer who doesn’t know that an angel descended from heaven and rolled away the stone from the entry to the tomb where the Creator of life lay dead, without breath. Very few, however really know why the stone was rolled away. Most people confuse two things which are independent of each other: the Lord’s exit from the tomb and the rolling away of the stone. In other words, they think that the angel came down and rolled away the stone so that the Lord could emerge, that when He did so there was an earthquake which terrified the guards to such an extent that they ‘became as if dead’. This is not only what ...

Supporters of rough justice often quote Mosaic Law, which is concerned with retaliation, with ‘an eye for an eye’ (Ex. 21, 23-25; Levit. 24, 20-21; Deut. 19, 18-21). But what is the meaning of these particular ordinances? Do they really impose retaliation and revenge? To answer this question we need to examine the judicial system and the social environment at the time when these rules were formulated. The law of retaliation, (Jus talionis), which was well-known in antiquity, can be found in any number of the ordinances in the code of Hammurabi, such as the following: ‘If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye. If one break a man's bone, they shall break his ...

We came into existence from nothing. We were created in accordance with the image of our Creator. We’ve been endowed with intellect and knowledge, which give us the possibility of knowing God. And with these gifts, which we received from God at the time of our creation, we can gaze upon the beauty of creation and read it as if it were written in letters. In this way, we can understand God’s wisdom and His providence towards all His creatures.

Dimensions of icon with inscription: 184 x 166 cm. The epitaphios is of the narrative type which became usual from the time of the Fall of Constantinople, following the introduction into the service of the short hymns called  encomia. It bears a depiction of the dead Christ lying in the larnax surrounded by the figures of the Epitaphios Threnos (Lamentation for the Dead Christ) and usually has these words inscribed on it. However, in the monastery workshops the litur­gical character of the ornament was not entirely discarded. The two types - liturgical and narrative - were amalgamated, as here, and in many cases the prophets were added on the border. These, together with the Evangelists, who appeared in the corners, symbolise ...

Through the Cross, Christ sanctified His body- the link with the world. He rejected the temptations sent to Him by the world, that is to taste the pleasures, to satisfy His needs unrestrained or to avoid pain and death. If we, in the same way, ward off the temptations of sin and patiently suffer the pain of death, sanctity can spread from His body to all bodies and throughout the world. The Orthodox Church doesn’t say that, through the Cross, Christ left the creation, but that He restored it to paradise- the paradise of virtue for those who, out of love for Him, accept His Cross. So the Cross is Christ’s power which, if we adopt it, can bring the world ...

Anger is the result of turbulence within the heart. When it’s directed by a wise mind and acts in accordance with it, when and how it should, it produces boldness, patience, and restraint. The anger of the wise is directed towards wickedness, injustice, falsehood, deceit, guile and, in general, everything that works towards evil.

Once people distanced themselves from God, inebriated by the mortal pleasure of Luciferian self-deification, and after Cain, motivated by envy and jealousy, murdered his brother Abel, down this day and age and until the end of the age ‘wickedness has accompanied human nature as rust does copper or filth the body’, as Saint Anthony the Great teaches. Human nature remains the same. We may have achieved some remarkable technological advances, but, ‘the darkness of hell is an integral part of the whole of human existence’, since ‘the earthly atmosphere emits the stench of blood. We’re all fed, on a daily basis, with news about murders or the torture of the defeated in internecine warfare. Dark clouds of hatred hide the ...

The symbol of the cross is ubiquitous in society. It is printed on bumper stickers and tattooed on forearms; it is spray painted on concrete walls and stitched onto denim jackets; it adorns the necks of gangsta rappers as well as scantily clad models. Is the cross merely a fashion statement, a cultural icon, a religious trademark, or is it something more? The cross is the third most celebrated subject in the Orthodox Church calender—the first two being the life of our Lord and the life of the Theotokos. The cross is commemorated on the feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September), on the feast day of the Veneration of the Holy Cross (the third Sunday in ...

I haven’t written a public review of "The Passion" because my feelings are so mixed. I am so glad for all the people who are having their faith strengthened and renewed, or even finding faith for the first time. I don’t want to puncture that. A friend at my church saw it once, wanted to see it a second time, then read a negative review ("the characters were flat", etc). She decided not to see it again. That’s sad. When people get disappointed with the film I think it has to do with what Coleridge called the "willing suspension of disbelief." What people are enthralled by is the Lord Jesus Christ. When their enthusiasm begins to dip is when the notice that ...

Kill off your passions, both internal and external and cultivate the good features of your soul, allowing them pride of place there. Prayer is the basic thing.