The Lord’s uncreated Grace supports us like a mother and not only saves us from every calamity, but also comforts our spirit with the sweetness of its presence inspiring us with courage for new defences and attacks. In sufferings and trials in general, our sprit grows and our spiritual knowledge expands. ‘In my sorrow you have saved me, giving respite to my soul’. (Ps.4, 1).
1. At the turn of the 19th century, German poet and mystical philosopher Novalis wrote his famous essay Christendom or Europe. Already the title of it was stating clearly the identity of the two historical phenomena; and though Novalis described the process through which Europe was gradually losing “the beautiful chief characteristics of these truly Christian times,” he was convinced that the original identity could not be lost. Europe and the Western World, could be Christianity, better or worse, but they could not be anything else at their core, since there is not (and there cannot be) another ultimate meaning of their historical existence. “Ultimate meaning cannot be annihilated, it can be just clouded, weakened, superseded by other meanings.” And we ...
‘They Brought a Paralytic to Him’ Today, our Lord performs a sign and a miracle in the Gospel reading. The miracle is that He forgave the sins of the paralytic and the sign is that He also cured him in the body. The miracle has to do with the soul, the sign with the body. Together they form the complete cure of the paralytic. The person of the paralytic The paralytic wasn’t some neurotic person who’d sinned deeply and was consumed by guilt to the point of paralysis, as a psychiatrist might tell us. The man wasn’t neurotic, but certainly a sinner and his illness was, indeed, the result and consequence of a particular sin. Efthymios Zigavinos says that many illnesses are the ...
If you wish to be governed by God, don’t wish to sin. Because if you sin, how will you be governed by God?
Three things are needful: to keep our mind in heaven; our heart as the throne of God; and our mouth as the Church.
Let us contemplate God as He is, not as our mind wants Him to be.
Like Christ’s love, His sufferings were so great that we can’t understand them, since we love the Lord so little. But those who love more can understand the Lord’s sufferings more deeply. There’s little love, average love and perfect love. The more perfect the love, the more perfect the knowledge.
The world wants to add the profits of death to the goods of life. Paul Valery Today a philosopher could say about his subject what prince Hamlet said about his time: Philosophy is out of joint. Philosophical discourse has lost its unity and integrity, it is fragmented and disconnected, and philosophy is now an archipelago, all the islands of which live by their own rules and laws. Political philosophy, linguistic philosophy, ethics, epistemology… there are many islands. May be, another anatomical metaphor is even more adequate here: Philosophy has no backbone. Trying to express the reasons of this, our philosopher might complement Shakespeare with Thomas Eliot: The centre does not hold. In the past all philosophical domains went back to their ...
Our handmade jam is made of whole, hand-cut and gently processed fruit, following the invaluable Monastic Heritage. Without added pectin,...
Most of the miracles performed by Jesus were the result of a request by people who needed the miracle, and only occurred after He had previously examined their faith. There were, however, miracles which he Himself wished to perform. We heard of one such today. The reason why Jesus wished to perform a miracle in this particular case, with the two possessed men, is because the latter were abandoned, marginalized by others, even their relatives, and this is why the Lord was interested in redeeming these men from the power of the evil spirits. In today’s Gospel reading, Saint Matthew the Evangelist narrates the story of the cure of two men who were possessed, and who lived among the tombs outside ...
The Elder was asked: ‘When will Cyprus be liberated?’ He answered: ‘Cyprus will be liberated when the Cypriotes repent. Make some religious bases to get rid of the Turkish, English and American bases’. In other words, he saw Cyprus as a spiritual problem, not a political or national one, and that its resolution would come through the repentance and prayers of the people.
Today we shall speak about the great spiritual sickness known as egotism. Egotism is an absurd passion and is literally a scourge of the human race; we all suffer from this great sickness. Egotism makes fools and a spectacle of those who suffer from it. God calls upon us to struggle against this egotism and defeat it, to make ourselves free of it. The ‘old person’ is the passionate state of the soul and is literally egotism. All the passions, all sins, all falls, have their origin, their starting point in egotism. It’s a great evil. It won’t leave us alone, but tyrannizes us day and night. In general, everybody suffers from this evil, me more than anyone, sinner that I am. *** When I ...
Don’t be troubled in sorrows and temptations, but, with the love of Jesus, lighten your mood and your listlessness.
Do you pray with faith? You’re heard! Do you repent with faith? You’re granted mercy! Do you confess with faith? You’re forgiven. Are you patient with faith? You’re sanctified!
When God sees good intent on our part, He’ll help us. And He’ll make this small intent so great, that the wondrous salvation of our souls will be achieved.
‘The voice of the Lord is upon many waters… the Lord is upon many waters… the Lord will bless His people in peace (Ps. 28, 3, 11). The extreme western point of the azure waters of the Cretan Sea, under the protection and care of the Lady of the Angels, devotion to whom is unfailing in this craggy outcrop of Crete, the birth-place of saints and heroes, was chosen to host the second international conference on digital media and Orthodox pastoral care. Gathered under the aegis of His All-Holiness Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch, through the unstinting love of the local shepherd, His Eminence Amphilochios, and the paternal blessing and care of the Very Reverend Abbot of the Holy and Great Monastery of ...
The Church cures our deformation through its teaching, through the Gospel message, through asceticism, through its holy sacraments and through the pastoral care of its bishops.
Here’s a mystery: in His omnipotence and His omniscience, He knows everything, including what’s going to happen in the future, but He’s not the cause of any evil. God has precognition, but doesn’t preordain.
