In English

A good analysis of these efforts on the part of the emperors is presented graphically by Gerard Walter in his book La vie quotidienne a Byzance au siècle des Comnènes (1081-1180) . Writing about the privileged classes, among whom were the nobility, he says that the rich in Byzantium were called the magnates and were prominent among the military leaders and the administrative class. The administrators were also land-holders who ran the Empire and would often buy parcels of land in their provinces. The rich land-holders also aspired to an administrative position in order to enjoy the title associated with it. So civil servants were also land-holders, that is they ran the administration and also owned stretches of land. At the ...

‘I don’t know with what method and in what way I’ll ever bind this friend of mine (i.e. the body) and bring it to judgement. Because before I bind it, it’s loose again and before I can judge it, I’m reconciled to it. Before I punish it, I feel sorry and relent. How can I defeat it, when, by nature, I love it? How can I be free of it, when I’m joined to it eternally? How can I condemn it, when it’ll be raised with me? (Ladder 15, 83).

Ambition is the intense desire of those who love glory to acquire it and a good reputation. Ambitious people chase after glory, which is the aim of every one of their works and actions. They pursue it by every available means, fair or foul, and do whatever it takes to achieve it.

Any serious observer of the creation of the world, no matter from which side they approach it, the material or the spiritual, will feel the presence of an inexpressible mystery in all phenomena. But only a healthy spirit will be able to orientate itself properly and provide a proper interpretation to the enigmatic mystery of the cosmos. The experience which a healthy human spirit acquires through contact with perceptible and notional things leads directly to a longing for the infinite, the eternal, the absolute and deduces that the basis and purpose of everything is ‘eternal life’. In its proclivity for the absolute, the human spirit focuses all its efforts on taming the finite, the mortal, the perishable and, in general, on ...

SACRED AND SECULAR IN LIFE AND ART A WORKSHOP DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF PHILIP SHERRARD OXFORD, 14-17 JULY 2016 All sessions to be held at ST GREGORY’S HOUSE - 1 Canterbury Road, OX2 6LU, except Saturday afternoon session which will be held at the Ioannou Centre, 66 St Giles, OX1 3LU Organized by the Ainos Cultural Society in cooperation with the University of Winchester, the Orthodox Theological Research Forum, the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius and the House of St Gregory and St Macrina   This event, dedicated to the memory of Philip Sherrard, on the occasion of the twenty years from his death, will focus on various aspects of the always interesting topic of the sacred in life and art. The workshop ...

You’ll be a spiritual person when you can see that making money and spending it freely is no more than a short-lived fantasy, when you know that the virtuous and God-pleasing way of life is very different from wealth. When you consider this carefully and retain it in your memory, you won’t sigh, you won’t mourn, you won’t speak badly about other people, but rather you’ll thank God for everything, seeing those worse than you depending on words and money. That’s the worst passion of the soul, together with desire, glory and ignorance.

The consumer society and capitalism are associated with the effort to accumulate wealth and material goods and with personal prosperity. But when some people manage to concentrate in their hands a great deal of material wealth, this means that some others are deprived of it. In this way, social injustice is created and people are divided into the rich and the poor. Of course, the ‘spirit of capitalism’, as desire, ostentation and enjoyment is associated with all social classes. We shall look below at how the Christian Roman Empire (‘Byzantium’) addressed the problems which arose from social injustice. With its headquarters in Constantinople, so-called Byzantium, the Christian Roman Empire was distinguished for its charity, which is how it survived for a ...

During the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, a devout and wealthy Christian couple, Dorotheos and Evsevia, being childless, asked God to give them a child, and promised to dedicate any such offspring to Him. Their prayer was heard and, one Sunday, they had a daughter, whom they named Kyriaki, for that reason . They baptised her and brought her up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord”, according to Saint Paul (Eph. 6, 4) and, true to their promise, kept their daughter unmarried, in order to offer her to the service of the Lord. One day, a rich idolater who happened to be staying in the city, heard tell of the beauty and character of the young maiden and decided ...

You can’t reach the spiritual heights all at once or even very easily. You have to have labored and striven over many years, with trials and various temptations before you reach the perfection of defeating the passions. Once you’ve been tested with pains and labors and have courageously endured all the temptations occasioned by wickedness, you’re deemed worthy to receive the great honors and gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as the divine riches. You then become an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven. By the Grace of the Holy Spirit, each of us gains the salvation of our soul. But we have to contribute as well, through our own efforts.

Gian Giudice, is the new Head of CERN's Theory Department. Following his inspiring talk during the FCC Week 16 we discuss with him about the LHC results and the present global landscape in particle physics as well as his view on the future developments in the field.  Following the LHC discoveries, how would you describe the present situation in the field of particle physics? Today the situation in particle physics is largely dominated by uncertainty. It is too early to draw definitive conclusions, as the LHC Run 2 has just started. However, we cannot deny that most of our pre-LHC theoretical expectations have not been confirmed by the first data. As a result, the field is dominated by a sense of uncertainty. The uncertainty of ...

There’s no doubt that, after God, humans are the most mysterious and enigmatic beings. From the beginning of our history, it can be seen that within us co-exist two opposing forces which attempt to gain domination and win us over to their side: good and evil, life and death, God and the devil. Each in a different way and by different means. But what’s the factor by which we feel and discern not only these circumstances, but all the realities which are in the perceptible world around us? No sooner do we acquire our senses in this world than we see and feel with them and we describe all the material things around us. But though dumb beasts see, with their ...

Grace doesn’t begin to act within us unless we want it and seek it. God doesn’t want to trespass on the freedom He’s given us. Otherwise we’d all become saints in the blink of an eye at God’s divine command.

Having lost the understanding of the redemptive nature of suffering, society today believes that to endure suffering is the evidence of mental aberration. This reflects the secular and humanist understanding of earthly life as being the totality of existence. If there is no God and if there is no Eternal Life, no Heaven, no Hell, then suffering is futile and foolish. Those who are Christian however, have the promise that earthly sufferings are but as jewels in the Crown of Salvation. Like gold refined in the fire, we will be made more beautiful through suffering in Imitation of Christ. To counter the culture, the Church must strongly teach that avoidance at all costs of humiliation and suffering is not the Christian ...