Κατηγορία

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Love, unity, strength – Orthodox mission in India

Κατηγορίες: In English

In India, for a child to have an opportunity for success, they must go to an English Medium School. The need for the school strikes at the heart of serious issues facing India. World leaders are calling for governing officials to take action on the world-wide issues of poverty, illiteracy, and trafficking. In a small town on the outskirts of Kolkata, Sister Nektaria is working with local leaders to combat the serious effects of this global issue. No one is immune. No one is untouched. Sister Nektaria is a Greek Orthodox nun who is deeply committed to the education of these children. Her orphanage, located in the impoverished outskirts of Kolkata, is also the only affordable English Middle School in the entire ...

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Constantine the Great through Lactantius & Eusebius’ texts (Eirini Artemi)

Κατηγορίες: In English

This is an excerpt from Lactantius describing that “Constantine was advised in a dream to place the celestial sign of God on his shields… Having been armed with this sign, the army took up its weapons…”. After routing Maxentius’ forces in northern Italy, Constantine approached Rome in October. According to Eusebius and Lactantius, on October 27, the day before the two armies would battle outside of Rome near the Milvian Bridge, Constantine had a vision instructing him to fight in the name of Christ, with his soldiers’ shields bearing the symbol of Christ. The symbol was either a cross or the labarum, an intersection of the chi (X) and rho (P), the letters of Christ. Christian author Lactantius, writing several years after ...

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Evangelical Monasticism – Part 1 (Abbot Georgios Kapsanis of Gregoriou)

Κατηγορίες: In English

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is glad tidings , because it brings into the world not only a new teaching, but a new life to replace the old one. The old life was dominated by sin, passions, corruption and death, and ruled by the devil. Despite its ‘natural’ joys, it leaves a bitter taste, because it’s not the real life that people were made for, but a life corrupted and diseased, which is why it’s marked with the feeling of absurdity, emptiness and anxiety. The new life is offered to people by our theanthropic Christ as a gift and a potential for everyone. The faithful are united with Jesus Christ and so they partake in His divine and immortal ...

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The Life and Works of Our Holy and God-Bearing Father Neofytos the Recluse

Κατηγορίες: In English

Bless, Father. Saint Neofytos, ‘presbyter, monk and recluse’, as he calls himself, was born in the village of Lefkara, in the Larnaka region of Cyprus, in the middle of the year 1134 A. D., which is why he is praised as ‘the glory of Lefkara and the boast of Cyprus’. His father was called Athanasios and his mother was Evdoxia. She became a nun after the death of her husband. His family were poor farmers and there were a lot of children- eight in all- and they were also very devout. Their Christian upbringing is apparent from the fact that two of the boys followed the monastic life: Neofytos, at 18, and Ioannis, a little later. The latter became the Abbot ...

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They’ve opened the gates (Elder Arsenie Boca)

Κατηγορίες: In English

Parents will be punished not only for their sins, but also for their children. Parents who don’t raise their children to be Christians have borne them only for this transitory life, that of the flesh, and, as far as it depends on them, have opened up to their children the gates of eternal death, of hell.

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They show the way (Saint Paisios the Athonite)

Κατηγορίες: In English

Those people who give everything to God and give themselves completely to Him, are sheltered under God’s great vault and are protected by His divine providence. They then become children of God and can help unfortunate people more, through God, with their prayers and, again with God’s illumination, can provide others with proper directions on how to approach God, how to find their salvation, their happiness and the peace of their soul through God’s divine consolation. Because it’s only with God that our soul knows repose.

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Real, not feigned (Elder Filotheos Zervakos)

Κατηγορίες: In English

The devil has set his traps everywhere. He catches people and the only way to avoid these snares is through humility. Internal humility, not external, true not false modesty, real not pretend. Internal, real and true humility is when people feel, in the depths of their heart, the gifts and talents they’ve received from God. It’s the realization that everything we have- existence, life, health, wealth and wisdom- are all foreign to us and are gifts from God.

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Before the void (Simone Weil)

Κατηγορίες: In English

Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void. To love truth mean to endure the void and, as a result, to accept death… Whoever endures a moment of void either receives the supernatural bread or falls. It is a terrible risk but one that must run, even during the instant when hope fails. But we must not throw ourselves into it. » Simone Weil (Gravity and Grace)

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Sermon on the Apostolic Reading (Tit. 3: 8-15) of the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of Fourth Ecumenical Council (Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios)

Κατηγορίες: In English

Today we celebrate the “Synaxis of All the Saints of Pisidia, Side and Antalya, along with the “Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalkidon. This common celebration was approved by the Holy Synod of our Ecumenical Patriarchate for two reasons: Firstly, because among the Fathers who took part in the Fourth Ecumenical Council, there were also several Bishops of the Metropolises of Pisidia, Side and Antalya. Secondly, because today, just as in previous days and those that follow, we celebrate the memory of over 15,000 Martyrs and various other Saints of our Greater Metropolitan District. Our Church has established today’s reading to be taken from the last part of the Epistle sent by Apostle Paul to his Disciple Titus, whom ...

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Root out (Saint John Chrysostom)

Κατηγορίες: In English

When people want to root out some passion which has wormed its way into their hearts and become established there over time, it isn’t enough to give advice for one or two days in order to correct this passion. We have to talk lots of times over many days, provided, of course, we’re aiming at profit and benefit, rather than mere pleasantries and an outward show. >Saint John Chrysostom

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Wealthy and lacking God (Saint Paisios the Athonite)

Κατηγορίες: In English

When it’s not distributed to the poor for the good of our souls and the benefit of our departed ones, wealth is a total disaster. Riches choke the soul, through great anxiety and rapacity. When we see people who have got everything, who want for nothing, but yet are anxious, worried and sad, we should recognize that they’re lacking God… » Venerable Païsios the Athonite

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