In English

To hear Mother Victoria of the St. Barbara’s Monastery tell it, growing up in the Ukranian Orthodox Church was a rich and memorable experience at special times of year. On Christmas Eve, for instance, she remembers looking for the first star in the sky, which would signal the start of the Nativity meal. Before eating, she and her family always fed the animals first, in honor of their role on the night of Christ’s birth. Then the family would go to the table, where the meal consisted of twelve dishes ranging from appetizers to desserts, all honoring the Twelve Apostles. Under the tablecloth, her mother would place straw or hay as a reminder of the manger, and they would interrupt ...

The whole series can be read here: The Theology of Gender Anything that takes place in the Church aims at the salvation of the people and thus, involves a pastoral element. In the same way, the canons of the Church are primarily pastoral texts and have as their objective the guidance of Christians in the spiritual life and the instruction of the community of the faithful concerning particular needs. The canons by no means should be seen as restricting spiritual life in a legalistic perspective. In the conscience of the Church canons articulate the Church’s pastoral care for its members and, according to Fr. Kapsanis, this is obvious for the following reasons. Firstly, the number of canons issued by the Ecumenical Councils ...

Our life and death depends on our neighbour. If we win over our brother or sister, we win over God. If we scandalize our neighbour, we sin before Christ.

A. The Greek Sermon Tradition 1. The Preaching of Christ and the Apostles The Greek sermon tradition is based on the fundamental principle of interpreting Scripture through Scripture. Sermonizing in the synagogue is mentioned in particular Biblical readings, which are explained with a series of other, related passages . Jesus followed the same method, as can be seen from the Gospel narratives. We are well aware that a complete picture of one of His sermons hasn’t been preserved, but from the extracts recorded by the Evangelists, the dominant feature is clearly the appeal to Biblical passages in support of His teaching. Photograph: Dimitris Iliopoulos For example: Jesus’ first sermon in Nazareth (Luke, 4, 16-23), an interpretation of a passage in Isaiah (61, 1), ...

O Lord, I Have Loved The Beauty of Thy House (Psalms 25:8 (LXX)) I once overheard a Russian American layman having a talk with some altar boys after a service. This man had spent his life in the Church, had obviously done his own tour of duty in the altar, and his comments have stayed with me ever since. He pointed out to them that they should remember that when they were serving, they were images of the angels, and that when the people looked at them they should be spiritually uplifted. He then went on to speak in very practical terms about how they should be thoughtful in their service, should pay attention, look straight ahead, stand still, etc. Anyone who ...

People who are angry with us are ill. You have to behave well towards them and speak calmly and with love. If their animus towards us hasn’t taken too deep a hold, you’ll see that their heart will soften and their badness will disappear because of your kindness and love.

Khufu ship In researching a little history today, I came across the ancient Egyptian phenomenon known as ‘sun boats.’  Probably the most famous, and by far most interesting, is the solar barge known as the Khufu ship, a wooden ritual vessel found sealed into a pit at the base of one of the pyramids. The Khufu ship served to carry the ‘resurrected’ King Cheops through the afterlife and is constructed from Lebanon cedar planking using tenons of Jerusalem thorn. Another name for the Jerusalem thorn is paliurus spina-christi, or Christ’s thorn and I find this intriguing and very beautiful. Christ and His Church are the ‘sun boat’ of man, calming the storms of our passions, guiding us from the shores of this ...

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Today's Gospel of the healing of the paralytic raises a number of questions. The first perhaps is: Where does illness come from? The answer to this question is contained within the selfsame Gospel, in the words of Our Lord to the healed paralytic: 'Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee'. In other words, the origin of illness is in sin. We can see this very clearly in the cases of those who destroy their organisms through the taking of drugs, such as tobacco, alcohol or heroin. But most illnesses are not voluntary, they are involuntary. Thus anyone can catch a cold. And we all know people who ...

Accept temptation and don’t look here and there for what caused it. Just be patient, so that God will see your good intentions and will ease your burden.

King Uzziah of Judahis, I think, most famous for his death, or the year of his death.  The Prophet Isaiah in the year of King Uzziah’s death had his famous vision of the Lord, highly exalted and sitting on a throne surrounded by cherubim with six wings (“with two they cover their feet, and with two they cover their face, and with two they fly”), who cried out ceaselessly, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” King Uzziah was a good king of Judah, one who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.”  A particularly intriguing verse in the story of his early life says that “he loved the soil.”  King Uzziah devoted many public works to improving the land: digging wells ...

If we’re to feel  pride in the magnitude of our love, let us leave here to go home in the same good order as befits those who have assembled to honour such a martyr. Because, unless we do, then not only have we not benefitted from the occasion, but we’ve actually crushed a great danger to our bosoms. I know that you are clear of such notions, but that’s not enough in your defence; we have to bring our erring bothers and sisters back to full order and a fitting life-style. Have you honoured the martyr with your presence? Honour her also by correcting your own members. If you see laughter, a strutting gait, and improper appearance, go up to these ...

According to Fr. Alexander Schmemann , the sanctity of the saints is no more than the discovery and implementation of the holiness which each of us received on the day of our baptism and which we’ve all been called upon to increase. The vision and aim of every Christian who loves God should be to achieve sanctity. This was the goal, the desire, which gave meaning to the life of the first Christians, who had a different outlook from our own. Nowadays, to justify any failing on our part we say: ‘Well, I’m no saint!’ and probably mean that we don’t much care, either. But Scripture calls upon us to be precisely that: ‘Become holy as I am holy’ (I Pet. ...

The whole series can be read here: The Theology of Gender The first commandment which was given to Adam and Eve is the original indication of the role of divine law in human life. “God gave them the commandment in order for them to be perfected gradually and, with time, to attain to immortality and theosis.” Theosis is the condition in which man is a partaker of the Grace of God through his cooperation with God’s Will and is completed in absolute freedom. Theosis is the aim of Christian life and sin interrupts its way. Detail from The Baptism of Jesus fresco, by hand of John Popa, Romania Throughout patristic theology and the canonical tradition of the Orthodox Church, sin is addressed ...

When a person’s at death’s door, the devil unleashes a great assault, in order to cast them into despair, in other words, to stop them from believing they’ll be saved through God’s mercy.

Every year after Pascha, the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox clergy of the Greater Toronto Area have an annual meeting at the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (Canada). The day begins with an Eastern Orthodox Paschal service attended by all clergy, followed by a keynote address. A discussion about the keynote address follows, along with a luncheon, and a final discussion on various topics. This year's keynote speaker was Fr. Maximus Rizkalla of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Fr. Rizkalla spoke on, "Helping our Orthodox youth deal with marijuana legalization and sex." The introduction of Fr. Maximus was excellent. He presented all the dangers that Orthodox youth face regarding these two items, especially sex education in schools, which begins in Grade 1 and does not ...

USS John C Stennis next to USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor There were two deaths in my world this week, one a beautiful elderly man who attended my church, the other a beautiful young woman who was the friend of my godbrother. During the homily this morning, our priest talked about how often in modern American culture, people shrink from death or try to make it smaller by disrespecting it. Many people, he said, replace the traditional funeral with a life celebration or some other form of memorial that feels more like a reunion and less like the commemoration of an actual, permanent death. This month in Navy Times, I read an article about the remains of a soldier who died in ...

Just think what a great thing it would have been for the judge to be sitting on his bench, the executioners at the ready, the torture chambers prepared, the crowd gathered, the soldiers waiting and all of them drunk with pleasure in the hope of seeing the prey. And then, the soldiers who’d gone to arrest her returning shamefacedly and relating the drama that had occurred. What shame and how much pain and mockery they naturally had inflicted on them by the unbelievers. How natural it was that they should leave with their heads bowed in shame, having learned through experience that their war was not against other people but against God. And of course, Joseph, when he was being ...

Really free people are true images of God, since they’re a moral image of Him. Their will is identical with that of God, which is written in their heart as the moral law and placed there as a desire for absolute good. They always think about what’s good, what’s pleasing to God and what’s perfect. Their desires are holy and their yearnings pure. Their heart loves God and their soul longs and yearns for Him.

Daniel and Nebouchodonosor “Then Nebouchodonosor was filled with anger, and the appearance of his face was distorted against Sedrach, Misah and Abdenago. And he said that the furnace should be stoked up sevenfold until it would be heated completely and told men, strong in strength, after they had bound Sedrach, Misah and Abdenago, to throw them in the fire... And they were walking around in the middle of the flames, singing hymns to God and blessing the Lord… But the angel of the Lord came down into the furnace… and shook the flame of the fire out of the furnace and made the inside of the furnace as though a moist breeze were whistling through. And the fire did not ...

Blessed be our God: because women, too, now mock death, and maidens laugh at it, as do virgins, and, indeed, very young girls who have not known marriage dance on the barbs of Hell without suffering in the least. All these good things have been granted to us because of Christ, Who was born of a Virgin. Because after those blessed, unbearable pangs and most frightful birth, the sinews of death were undone, the power of the devil was paralyzed, and not only among men any more, but even to women it became contemptible. And not only among women, but among maidens, too. Just as if an excellent shepherd who has caught a lion which was terrifying the sheep and ...