Κατηγορία

In English

Getting nowhere (Saint Maximos the Greek)

Κατηγορίες: In English

We should realize that, as long as we’re in sin, that is, transgressing against Christ’s divine commandments, we can be as pious as we like, read all the prayers of the saints, the various hymns and the canons all day every day, it will get us nowhere. Since the Lord Himself said, as a reproof and complaint: ‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord” but not do as I say?’ In other words: ‘As long as you live in breach of my commandments, there’s no point in directing lots of long prayers towards me’. Only one prayer is pleasing to Him: that is the practical prayer which consists in abandoning, with all our soul and forever, every breach of His holy commandments ...

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The Time, Location and Purpose of Christ’s Descent into Hades, according to Biblical and Patristic Tradition (Alexandros Christodoulou, Theologian)

Κατηγορίες: In English

The time of the descent. As regards the time of the descent, we can see that Christ’s divine soul descended into Hades immediately after His exclamation on the Cross ‘It is finished’, when His soul was separated from His all-pure body. He remained there three days, until the Resurrection, a period during which His body lay without breath or decay in the tomb. This was from the evening of Friday to the morning of Sunday (See Matth., 12, 40; Acts 2, 31 and 13, 37; Ps. 15, 10; Luke 23, 43; John 20, 17; I Peter, 3, 19 etc.). This is why the Orthodox Church declared that the descent was to be celebrated on Great Saturday. The synaxari for the day ...

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