Ξένες γλώσσες

Somebody steals two hens from the priest’s henhouse and after a while decides to go and confess. ‘Father, I stole two hens’. ‘Take them back’. ‘Would you like them?’ ‘Me? No. Give them back to the man you stole them from’. ‘He doesn’t want them’. ‘In that case, keep them’. Very often, our own intention’s the same: to prevaricate, that is to avoid telling the whole truth. This is why I thought, given the time of year, that I might make a couple of clarifications on this enormous subject and the many confusions it usually gives rise to. We think that going to confession means being taken to court.  In fact, lots of people even say, when they come for confession: ‘How will you judge me now, ...

In keeping with the two thousand year continuity of the Faith, contemporary hierarchs and theologians have been equally outspoken about the doctrines of Orthodoxy with regard to abortion. Archpriest John Meyendorff, theologian and later Dean of St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary spoke to New York State’s liberal abortion laws in 1972, 1,281 years after the Quinisext Council and one year before Roe vs. Wade:14 The fact that this interruption takes place at an initial stage in the human life process makes, of course, a psychological difference, but does not change the nature of the act of abortion being killing, and as such a very grave sin, because killing is evil....The hundreds of thousands of legal abortions performed in New York hospitals are ...

Let's suppose that you can't be merciful through your speech. What you can do, however, if somebody gets angry with you, is to have mercy on them and show them patience at the time when they're upset, because you can see that they're being bothered by the common enemy, the devil. Instead of saying something and upsetting them even more, hold your peace and have mercy on their soul, rescuing them from the hands of the enemy. And again, if somebody sins against you, you can always have mercy on them and forgive the sin, and in this way you'll also gain forgiveness from God.

People who seek Christian perfection renounce all their possessions. And those who wish to be saved give alms, in accordance with their means.  They avoid misuse of their wealth

Fr. Georgios Metallinos Despite the fact that calendars and the measurement of time are purely conventional in the Christian conscience, temporal definition has sometimes affected Christian society on important theological issues, such as the celebration of Easter. Christian Easter, typologically linked to the Jewish Pesakh (Passover) (Paschal lamb / “slaughtered lamb / Christ”; cf. Rev. 5, 12) was established by the Apostles as a “remembrance” of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. But the content of the feast and the day on which it was to be celebrated caused serious problems. The Judaizing Christians, the Quartodecimans of Asia Minor, stressed the event of the Crucifixion and celebrated on the 14th day of the month of Nisan, together with the Jews. Gentile Christians, ...

Pascha service It is impossible to describe the profound, almost visceral shock I received when, as a new convert, I came face to face with my first Good Friday in the Greek parish in London, Ontario. Only weeks before, I had been received into the Orthodox Church by chrismation in that very ethnic community. My whole first Pascha as an Orthodox Christian was therefore, understandably, somewhat overwhelming. Though now incongruously "one of them," I was still very much an extremely self-conscious anglophone outsider. My visceral shock on that Good Friday did not come about, however, from not having previously experienced an Orthodox Good Friday. Ten years before, while a graduate student in Paris, I had lived through an entire Orthodox Holy ...

Those who want their words to have an effect on their audience shouldn't stop giving encouragement and advice on the same things, nor should they change the subject until they've seen that a previous exhortation has taken root properly in their souls. That's what teachers do; they don't go on to reading with the children until they've learned the letters properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeskW7dmOMI

On Holy Saturday the Church directs and concentrates our attention on our Lord’s tomb. In the whole liturgical year, there is no day with a more complex character than Holy Saturday, for this day shares both in the sorrow of the Passion and in the joy of the Resurrection. The celebration of Easter, which has been more and more advanced, has ended by annexing the greater part of the day of Holy Saturday. It is possible to distinguish in Holy Saturday two consecutive parts, one of which still belongs to the time of the Passion, and the other already to the time of Easter… Source:athirma.gr As we have indicated, Holy Saturday already ‘pierces’ into the rite of Christ’s burial which is ...

When Christians talk about death, they don’t do so with pessimism, they aren’t resigned to it, they don’t think it natural. They see it principally as an enemy which must be defeated through Christ. ‘The last enemy to be destroyed is death, (I Cor. 15, 26); ‘The Word became flesh’ (Jn. 1, 14); ‘that he might destroy him who holds the dominion of death, that is, the devil’ (Heb. 2, 14). God became a human person in order to destroy death and sin and to defeat the devil. Christ assumed a mortal body, one that was subject to suffering, in order to overcome death in His own body. Through His crucifixion and resurrection, He defeated death and gave us the opportunity ...

The fourth evil-doer was Pilate, Caesar’s representative in Jerusalem, who in a sense stood for the whole of the pagan world at the trial of Christ. Pilate looked down on the Jews, and the Jews returned the favour. At first he wasn’t of a mind to become involved in Christ’s condemnation: ‘You take him and judge him in accordance with your law’ (John 18, 31), he said to those who brought the charges. Later he adopted a position in Christ’s favour and after a trial of sorts said to the Jews: ‘I find no fault in him’. (ibid, 38). In the end, in the face of threats such as ‘if you free him you’re no friend of Caesar’s’, Pilate agreed ...

I say this because, in poetic thought we find revealed the kernel of a culture of incarnation, of a Church of incarnation, of a spiritual theater of incarnation, where the Other is not like our self, is not as we are, but actually is our self. This is stated in a different, but equally exceptional manner in the Doxastikon of Mattins on Great Saturday, which is what I would call a manifesto of Orthodox theology which, with the powerful lightning of the last days, transforms the important but imperfect «Give to the stranger» into the absolutely radical and extremely ontological «Give me this stranger». I therefore considered that tonight, in a place such as America, a place of such powerful migration, in ...

The Mother of hell is vainglory, which makes a fierce flame and feeds the poisonous snake. Whereas everything else ends with death, it continues to squabble even after death, to show off its nature over the dead body.

I mentioned the overwhelming feeling of liberation that we experience on Easter night, and I want to draw your attention to two texts which are good examples of this. The first is the Sermon of St John Chrysostom, which is read towards the end of the midnight vigil: Have any wearied themselves with fasting, let them now enjoy their payment. Has anyone laboured since the first hour, let them today receive their due. Did any come after the third hour, let them feast with gratitude. Did any arrive after the sixth hour, let them not hesitate: for there is no penalty. Did any delay until after the ninth hour, let them approach without hesitating. Did any arrive only for the eleventh ...

Virtue is a really good, really beautiful thing. Virtuous people are at peace with themselves, pleasing to God and accepted by others. Even without wishing to, virtuous people attract the attention of others. Why is this so? Because they're like a pure fragrance which people want to smell.