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The day after Christmas is consecrated to the ‘synaxis of the Blessed Virgin Mary: all believers are invited to assemble in honour of her who made the Incarnation humanly possible. In the same way, the day after Epiphany (January 7) is consecrated to the ‘synaxis’ of John the Precursor, who baptized Jesus and, in a way, was the agent in presenting him to the world. In the chants for this feast, at vespers and matins, the Church multiplies the praises of the Precursor: ‘Thou who art Light in the flesh…filled with the Spirit…swallow of grace…who hast appeared as the last of the prophets… and the greatest among them…’. The very richness of these praises makes it a little difficult for ...

External prayer is often said to the detriment of internal prayer and vice versa. This means that when we pray with our lips, or read, many of the words don’t actually enter our heart, in which case we become a two-faced hypocrite.

A monk of the Eastern Church* Epiphany was the first public manifestation of Christ. At the time of His birth, our Lord was revealed to a few privileged people. Today, all those who surround John, that is to say his own disciples and the crowd that has come to the banks of the Jordan, witness a more solemn manifestation of Jesus Christ. What does this manifestation consist of? It is made up of two aspects. On the one hand there is the humility, represented by the baptism to which our Lord submits: on the other hand, there is the aspect of glory represented by the human witness that the Precursor bears to Jesus, and, on an infinitely higher plane, the divine ...

When we talk to people today about mourning, it seems strange to them, because they’re ashamed of crying. If we’re talking about vain, passing things, of course they’re not worth crying over. But that kind of mourning is only about social convention. Spiritual mourning has to do with our relationship with God and is the product, not so much of our own choice, but of the grace of the Holy Spirit. The sense of responsibility for our wicked deeds is such a weight in our heart that it brings about a state of deepest contrition.

In completing the Twelve Days of Christmas, that is the festal cycle of the Epiphany of the Incarnate Son and Word of God, Jesus Christ, we come to the feast of Theophany, at which we recall the Baptism of Christ, at the age of thirty, by Saint John the Forerunner, in the River Jordan. A particular feature of the Church festivities is the service of the Great and Royal Hours, on the eve. In fact, this service isn’t a unified whole, but rather four separate ones linked together. Since they’re celebrated together, without any obvious breaks between them, they’re thought of as one. They’re the services of the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours, which make up the familiar monastic rule ...

Temptations happen to people. To test them, so that their virtue shines through, as happened with Abraham, Job and many other righteous people. So that they can be cleansed of all the stigmas of their sins, as the Prophet Isaiah says. Purged of all the dross that God sees in the depths of the souls of His children (See Is. 1, 25), so that, on the day of judgment, they may appear before Him like pure gold. They’re ‘punished’ as part of their education, because of their sins, as we read in the Psalms: ‘Many are the scourges of the sinner’ (Ps. 31, 10).

By God’s Grace, 30 years have now passed since the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi returned to the coenobitic way of life. For many of Pemptousia’s readers, this anniversary will not be of any particular significance. And rightly so. Anniversaries usually affect us when we have some experience which links us to the event in question. We were fortunate enough to visit Vatopaidi in 1987, as pupils of the Athoniada Ecclesiastical Academy. As became apparent many years later, this blessing was all the greater because, a mere few months earlier, the brotherhood of Elder Iosif had settled in the monastery. We were received and welcomed by the hieromonks Efraim and Athanasios, who bore the title of Pro-Abbot, as was ...

DMOPC 18  Orthodox Academy of Crete, Kolymbari 18-21 June 2018   2018 Conference Theme: The Digital World as a Sphere for the Reiteration of Pentecost and the “living word” of Saint Paul the Apostle    In May 2015, in Athens, Pemptousia (www.pemptousia.gr) in conjunction with the Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) in America and Bogoslov in Russia, hosted the 1st International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care “DMOPC15” (www.dmopc15.com). 75 Orthodox speakers from 21 countries all over the world ‘gathered together in that place’. The aim was for them to express their concerns, their witness and their thoughts regarding a dimension of human life which now involves almost everyone: The Digital Ecosystem and the Digital Media which shape it. Specialist academics and everyday laborers working discreetly ...

Friendship is more necessary for the soul than for the body. When you’re sad, the thought of a friend brings a smile to your face. On your death-bed, the presence of a friend beautifies the face of death. Friendship is always the life-giving breath of the angel who accompanies us through life, who raises us when we fall and who inspires us when our strength fails.

Individualism lives and reigns, and deceit has become a ‘flair’. Whole generations have grown up learning how to swindle. And all of this in a set of established circumstances with absolutely no punishment… In fact, the more you swindle, the further you are from punishment. God sees this. These days He’s allowing us to be beaten about the head and ears a bit, in the hope that we’ll come to our senses, as is the case with people who are drunk.

Two thousand and seventeen years ago, our Lord chose to renew his covenant with the world and to penetrate deep into the innermost essence of human nature. In this way, we can say that God incarnate sought to be born in the ‘cave’ of men, both symbolically and literally. Unfortunately, the cave of men was impure at the time. And unsurprisingly, access to where foreigners usually stay when they travel abroad, the local inn, was closed to Him upon His Nativity. Instead, the God-Man was born in a manger, the lowliest of caves in the world, a place meant for livestock. Two thousand and seventeen years later, we may ask ourselves how the current state of ‘humanity’s cave’ has evolved? Because ...

If our tongue is as sharp as a sword, then we can use it to murder people. And we do so often enough, though we don’t think of ourselves as murderers. We wound the hearts of our neighbours with slander and lies, we insult their human dignity and aggravate their hearts with calumny. Is that not spiritual murder?

NEW YEAR’S ENCYCLICAL We were born and we will one day pass on from this life. This is certain. On this earth, there is no immortality. Immortality and the endless age exists only to life after death. At that point, we will live eternally, whether in Paradise or in Hell. For everyone born on earth, in the image and likeness of God, the earthly part of life is of great importance. It is so incredibly significant because the eternal joy or permanent desolation we will experience in the endless life after death depends on our conduct here on earth. The concept of time cannot be defined in a precise manner. However, we experience the passage of time from the moment we are born ...

‘The beginning of the Gospel of Christ’… The word ‘beginning’ in today’s Gospel reading is enough in itself to evoke the start of the new year, the threshold of which we reached a few daysago with the feast of Christmas. The Christian notion of time In the old days, people were in awe of the dark enigma of time. They tried to explain it through philosophy and science. But as life passes and time rolls by, we’re horrified when we realize the vanity of yesterday, the evanescence of today and the uncertainty of tomorrow. This is because yesterday’s lost, today’s being erased- since every moment escapes and becomes the past- and the future’s unknown. This concept of time, which is beyond the ...

Courage, courage. Keep gazing upwards and you’ll see the Lord, when you weep. When you seek with longing, when you bleed, you might see Him stretching out His loving and comforting hand and holding a crown out to you.

My beloved, We now enter another New Year, which is a precious gift from God to the world, and we wish and hope it will be a peaceful one. In particular, those who have suffered recently and are still suffering from local wars and terrorist attacks have only one desire: to live peacefully during the New Year. And in our country, with its unacceptable division into the North and the South, suffering has been the ongoing reality for 64 years—the consequence of the cold war. For this reason, it is inevitable that our thoughts and prayers have been and continue to be centered on a long-awaited peace. Nevertheless, we must also ask: How can political peace prevail among the peoples? Are international ...

Love for our enemies is not possible, except through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Dear beloved in Christ, The feast of Christmas is in sight once again to remind us of the love and philanthropy of the worshipped in Trinity God. The Only-begotten Word of God takes on flesh ‘through the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary’ and is bom in Bethlehem of Judea. The Magi from the East are led by the Star and visit the holy manger, in which the divine Child was wrapped in swaddling clothes, ‘because there was no guest room available for them’ (Luke 2.7). The Angels in heaven chant the hymn of joy, peace and that blessed Hope with which the God-man Christ enriched the world: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and goodwill to all men.’ (Luke 2.14). We ...