In English

You cannot attend an Orthodox service and not be aware of doors. There are the doors that form the center of the icon screen, opening directly upon the altar. There are the two doors that flank them, one on either side, known as the “Deacon Doors.” Someone always seems to be coming out of one and going into another. One visitor to my parish confessed that the service reminded her of a “cuckoo clock.” “The door opens. Someone comes out and says something and goes back in again.” I have to admit that I have never been able to rid my mind of her description. Doors are important things, even within the Scriptures. Their place in the liturgical life of the Church ...

Whatever else, we must convince our heart to pray, otherwise it’ll dry up completely. The recognizable features of prayer are love of God, directness and simplicity. The same is true for the prayers we make to the saints.

"When people honor you, humble yourself all the more at that moment, and say in your mind: 'If they truly knew who I were, they would show me no regard at all.' In this way, you will not cause injury to your soul," a wise elder said. ***  In the era that asceticism flowered in Egypt, there lived an orphan girl named Taisia. When her kind parents died, they left as an inheritance, first, above all other things, their piety and love for the poor and strangers; and, after that, a large home and a great deal of money to manage. The girl, out of great reverence for the hermits, made her home a guest-house, as a service to them, and, when ...

  On Sunday, 20 November, at 12:30, the EN PLȎ publishing house and the Internet magazine PEMPTOUSIA are presenting ΤΟ ΜΥΣΤΗΡΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΤΕΧΝΗΣ Η ΓΕΝΝΗΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΚΑΛΛΙΤΕΧΝΗ ΚΑΤ’ ΕΙΚΟΝΑ ΘΕΟΥ, The Greek translation of Jonathan Jackson’s book The Mystery of Art-Becoming an Artist in the Image of God. The event will take place as part of the 5th Orthodox Christian Book Exhibition at the Caravel Hotel, 2 Vas. Alexandrou St., Athens. Speaking about the book will be Elder Efraim Abbot of the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi, the Holy Mountain Ilias Liamis Theologian/Musician Jonathan Jackson Author of the book and prize-winning musician and Hollywood actor Excerpts from the book will be read by the actor Nikos Anadiotis The actress Dimitra Kokkori will present the event. We would bring to your attention the fact that ...

The Monastery is Noah’s Ark.

The media anticipation surrounding the Vatican Mass that took place on April 27 was almost without precedent, but then again so was the reason for the excitement—namely, two popes presiding over the canonization of two other popes.  In the two-hour ceremony, attended by more than 50 heads of state, 1,000 bishops, and witnessed by nearly a million onlookers, Pope Francis, joined by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, proclaimed sainthood for two pontifical predecessors, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. The global attention produced by the carefully managed rite of canonization of two Popes provided another surge for the soaring popularity of Francis.  This unprecedented action of a dual pontifical canonization also demonstrated Francis’ exceptional political and leadership skills.  Indeed, a key ...

Elder Ephraim of Arizona The Divine Liturgy, what a splendor indeed! Man has been honored by God in such a way that He Himself comes down to earth with His Angelic Orders every time there is a Liturgy, in order to nurture man with His Most Holy Body and His Most Precious Blood! For He has given us everything. Is there anything physical or spiritual, perishable or everlasting, that has not been offered to us? None! Is there anything superior to His Most Holy Body and Blood, which is given to us on a daily basis? There is certainly not. God has enabled man, who is full of soil and dirt, to serve the Divine Liturgy. So priceless is the ...

Don’t let your mind be idle and you won’t learn evil. Don’t look at the shortcomings of others, because otherwise, without realizing it, you’ll become a collaborator of the devil and you’ll make no progress in doing good.  Don’t, in your ignorance, work alongside the enemy of your soul. The more you cover up for other people, out of love, the more Grace protects you and guards you from the slanders of other people.

St. Athanasios the Great “Hey I’m in school... or I am working 50 hours a week... or I’m too old.... I can’t really be expected to keep any kind of fast can I?  Heard any of those before?  Me too... So are those legitimate excuses?  Maybe...because in Orthodoxy, no one forces you to fast.  It is truly a matter of your own heart before the Lord and what you are hoping to do with your spiritual life. Some of you readers may not be familiar with the Orthodox Faith or with our practice of fasting.  Jesus established fasting as a normal part of the life of those who would follow Him as He said:  “When you fast…” (Matthew 6:16-18).  He didn’t ...

When God made us, He gave us life and breathed His Spirit into us. That Spirit is love! When love deserts us, we become lifeless bodies. We’re dead then.

The devil’s managed to make himself disappear and to get people to use other names for him. They don’t accept that it’s the devil who’s behind egotism in people and who fosters it.

The prime feature of God is His simplicity. If God is not simple, but composed of different parts, then these parts must have existed before Him. Such a God would not be the Cause and Creator of all things, would not be a real God, the fons et origo of all things. Given that He is the origin of all things, He cannot be complex but must be simple. Moreover He is not merely simple but the ‘simplicity of the simplified and the unity of the unified’. Thus, without ever departing from His unconfused simplicity, He is completely present ‘unconfused and undivided in all things and in each of the creatures’. Saint Gregory Palamas says that God is not some ...

After the Thrice-Holy Hymn, we have the Readings: the Epistle, that is a portion of some Apostolic text (from the Acts of the Apostles or an Epistle by an Apostle) and the Gospel, that is an extract from one of the four Gospels. We stand while the Gospel is being read. The readings contain concepts which are not always easy to understand, which is why they’re followed by a sermon, that is a few words from the priest or another qualified person which help us to understand the will of God, His Word, and how we should apply this in our lives. The Liturgy of the Catechumens ends with the Litany of Fervent Supplication, that is a prayer first for the ...

If I benefit those who do me harm, this brings me peace. Because, in the end, everybody makes stumbling-blocks for us. With a word, a look, the way they walk, their joy, their sorrow, they interfere with our own progress. This is why it requires fear and trembling so as not to react to these stumbling-blocks which disturb the peace of our mind and heart, in case they become the cause of us being separated from God.

St Gregory Palamas  was one of the greatest patristic figures of the Church. In his teaching on the divination of man and his real participation in the uncreated energies of God, he expressed the essence of Orthodox spirituality, in contrast with the secularised theology of his age (14th century), which had taken shape under the influence of the Scholasticism of the Roman Catholic Church. Saint Gregory Palamas, fresco from Vatopedi Monastery, 1371 St Gregory Palamas was born in 1296 in Constantinople of devout parents. His father, Constantine, was a senator and was held in such high esteem by the Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus that the latter entrusted to him the education of his grandson, the future Emperor Andronicus II. When his father ...

It should be noted here that the Niptic Fathers, among whom were Saint Gregory Palamas and Saint Nikodimos the Athonite, used this last passage in Saint Basil in order to establish and interpret the cyclical method of the prayer of the heart. 2) Saint Basil goes on to say that another requirement is study of the Holy Scriptures. “The study of inspired Scripture is the principal way of finding our duty, because in Scripture we find both instruction about proper conduct and the lives of blessed people, transmitted in writing, like breathing images of godly living, so that we may imitate their good works. Thus, in whatever aspect people feel deficient, they can devote themselves to this imitation, and find the ...

Even though we’re in the season of winter, we had a fine day yesterday, with lots of sunshine. We felt the weather had taken a turn for the better, and then today it changed again and we’ve got turbulence. We can’t get out to do our work. We have to dig in until this situation passes, since we all know it’s temporary. This phenomenon of variations in the weather also occurs in our spiritual life. Changes and variations are a postlapsarian  phenomenon. After the fall, people unfortunately lost their personality and are now subject to alterations. Before the fall, they had the Grace of the Holy Spirit living with them. They lived in accordance with nature, they lived without needs ...

The light of true knowledge is to be able to tell the difference, without error, between good and evil. Then the path of virtue, leading the intellect to God, the Sun of Righteousness, brings it into the infinite light of knowledge, so that it now seeks love openly and boldly. So with vehemence, though not anger, we should snatch what’s right from those who dare to belittle it and trample on it. Because zeal for proper devotion fights and wins not through hatred but through rebuke.