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Feast of St. John Cassian the Roman is on February 29, and for non-leap years on February 28. St. Cassian (360-435) was a monk, known for his mystical writings. He visited many Fathers in desert and wrote about their life and teachings. Because of his disagreement with St. Augustine’s teachings and Roman Church’s accusation for semi-pelagianism (although he also disagreed with Pelagius’ teachings), he was dismissed by Western Church. “If we had to beg a Lord, not to save our lives, but simply make us a little "kindness" – wouldn’t we fix Him our eyes and our hearts? Wouldn’t we literally "cream" from the front of his staff, with strong attention to receive his consent even with a nod? Wouldn’t we ...

We have become accustomed to thinking about ourselves and our dignity in terms of people after the fall, basing this on separation, self-alienation, individualization, self-reliance, fragmentation and narcissism. But the divine love revealed in the Only-Begotten Son and in His wholeness, finds its fulfilment and perfection in the Other, it increases infinitely through Him, since He’s consubstantial, or rather, one and the same as regards the Love of the Father, because He was begotten from it and emerged into the world through it. 5. In this fatherhood and childship there lies the joyous and eternal mystery of our human existence. Given that this relationship is an integral part of the mystery of the Divine Existence, it’s natural that we should seek ...

It’s well known that, in this period, we have two fasts. There are seven weeks of strict fasting, preceded by Cheese-fare week, making eight weeks in all. For many, this is a pleasant and desirable time, for others it’s difficult and for others again it’s not at all pleasant. We’ll try to offer a few thoughts on this period, as the fathers of the Church have described it. Let’s first recall Saint John the Damascan, who makes a general observation concerning holy Lent. He says to all of us: ‘Do not weaken the fast; for it contains the imitation of the way of life of Christ’. This is an important observation. Christ doesn’t weaken, that is, take the power away from ...

24. ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him’ (Matth. 25, 31), the Gospel says. Look and see before what a multitude we’ll be judged. The whole of humanity will be there. Just think how numerous the race of the Romans is, how the barbarian nations are made up of so many tribes and how many of all of them have died in the last hundred years. Reckon up how many of these tribes have been buried over the last thousand years. Count how many people have lived on the earth from Adam until now. Infinite hosts, and yet, a very few compared to the numbers of angels, who are certainly very many ...

Science has made great strides and has remarkable achievements to its name. But let’s not get carried away. It doesn’t explain natural phenomena; it simply describes them. It can’t get into their very essence. This is why our knowledge is superficial.

Great Lent might be a time of increase in spiritual reading. We present a day-by-day Patristic Reading Plan for every of the forty days of Great Lent. It should be helpful in immersing in the writings of the Early Fathers during the Great Fast. Day Reading 1 Epistle to Diognetus, 1-6 2 Epistle to Diognetus, 7-12 3 St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle To the Ephesians, 1-7 4 St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle To the Ephesians, 8-14 5 St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle To the Ephesians, 15-21 6 St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle To the Magnesians, 1-5 7 St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle To the Magnesians, 6-10 8 St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle To the Magnesians, 11-15 9 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 1-7 10 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 8-14 11 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 15-21 12 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 22-29 13 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 30-37 14 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 38-45 15 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 46-53 16 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 54-60 17 St Justin Martyr, First Apology, 61-68 18 St Cyprian of Carthage, On the Unity of the Church (Treatise I), 1-9 19 St Cyprian of Carthage, On ...

Proud people feel embarrassed when they’re asked to humble themselves before others. So do envious or vindictive people if they’re asked to wish their enemies well. But they have to defeat their passions, rein in their feelings and do what other people want or what the Gospel demands. Otherwise, if they unrepentantly cling to their passions, they’ll suffer eternal damnation.

By Metropolitan Panteleimon of Antinoes Today, is Cheese-fare Sunday, which sees the closing of the period of Triodion. Tomorrow, with God’s blessing and help, we embark upon the forty day Fast of Great Lent. Great Lent is a time of spiritual struggle for Orthodox Christians. The aim of this struggle is our spiritual upliftment. The practice of fasting was established by God Himself, when He first created man. ''And the Lord God commanded the man saying, yου may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die" (Gen. 2:l6-l7). Βy this commandment God wished to try the virtue ...

Now because God was about to fashion people from the visible and invisible creation in His own image and likeness to reign as monarchs and rulers over all the earth and everything that therein is, He first made for them, as it were, a realm in which they should live a blessed and blissful life. And this is the divine paradise, planted in Eden by God’s own hands, a veritable treasury of every joy and gladness. For the word “Eden” means enjoyment. Lying in the East and higher than all the earth, it had a temperate climate and basked in a breeze that was the purest and most gentle, with evergreen plants redolent with scent, inundated with light, surpassing every ...

Previous post: http://bit.ly/2lOoijG> 22. But what will be the sign of this second coming? Let no opposing force dare to imitate it. Matthew (24, 30) tells us that then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. And the real, distinctive sign of Christ is the Cross. The sign of the Cross in the form of light will precede the King and declare that it is He Who, in former times, was crucified. This is so that the Jews may see Him Whose side they pierced and Whom they conspired to murder and so that the whole nation and all the tribes separately (cf. Zach. 12, 10, 12) will mourn, saying: ‘This is He Whom we scourged; this ...

In his Letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul teaches that God has given His people salvation through the gift of faith in His Son Jesus. He speaks of how he experienced this by referring to “how the mystery was made known to me by revelation”. Paul believes and unequivocally states that his ministry is supernatural. It is not of earthly intent, essence, or means. This supernatural nature of his ministry is from where he attributes his authority as an apostle. Consequently, he exhorts that we as God’s people are called to express this new life we have in Christ by holy living and self-sacrificial love. It is precisely this diakonia (service) of love to one another rooted in worship that ...

Those who patiently bear sorrows, persecutions and the trials of this life, with the aim of pleasing God, buy themselves heavenly goods and everlasting bliss. With the death of the body, they pay for their eternal and immortal life with our Eternal and Immortal God.

Let us look to ourselves, brethren, and be sober. Who will give us this time, if we waste it? The time will come when we seek these days and will not find them… Let us make a start, let us, in the meantime, desire good. For even though we are not yet in perfection, our desire for it is the beginning of our salvation. From desiring we enter into combat, with God’s help, and through fighting will be assisted in the acquisition of the virtues. This is why one of the Fathers says: “Give blood and receive the Spirit”… For virtues are to be found in the middle. This is the King’s highway of which the holy  Elder said: ...

How easily we Orthodox indiscriminately adopt the language of Western theology! It is always a great temptation for those who have converted to Orthodoxy from Western Christian denominations to bring the baggage of their former allegiances with them rather than embrace Orthodoxy as something which is entirely different from the Christianity they left behind. While they may see the Western Christendom of today as alien to the Church of the Fathers, they are sometimes reluctant to accept that not everything from the pre-schism West is part and parcel of Orthodoxy. And yet, the influence of Western theology is to be found not only amongst Orthodox converts in the West, but also among those who have been brought up in the ...

When you’re around other people and looking after your livelihood, try, at the same time, to think of God, to feel that He’s close to you and guiding you in accordance with His holy will. In this way you won’t be distracted from your inner task. Distraction is the first achievement of the devil. Try to free yourself from all bonds in your heart and from any distractions to your inner work. There’s only one way to do this. Don’t turn your attention away from the Lord and from the feeling of His presence.

Most people today have grown up in this atmosphere and, as a result, bring up their own children in a similar manner. The majority prefer to hide death from children and to keep quiet about it, since they naively believe that it’s an event which is ‘foreign’ to them. Foreign either because it doesn’t directly concern them since they’re ‘at the dawn of their life’, or because they can’t conceive of death at such a young age, or because they’re thought to be too young to be able to mourn the death of someone they loved, or, finally, because death is considered to be a process which should in no way be experienced by the soul of a child. And ...

Saint Nikolaos died on 6th December 330 A.D. After his assumption he was renounced “Myrrh” as his relics started gushing myrrh. His memory is celebrated on 6th December by both the Orthodox and the Romeo Catholic Church. It is also very important that St Nikolaos was gifted with the charisma of miracle- working, and he saved a lot of people during his life and after death. Some of his numerous miracles are the following ones; • First of all he saved the city of Myra, by miraculously appearing in front of a ship’s captain, making him to bring the wheat his ship was caring to the inhabitants of the hungry city. • He appeared in the dream of emperor Konstantinos and revealed to ...

5. Beware lest anyone should lead you astray. ‘For many will come in my name, saying, “I am Christ” and they will lead many astray (Matth. 24, 5). In part, this has already happened. Simon the Magician and Menander already said something of the sort, as did other leading heretics. Others will say so in our own age, and no doubt, others again after us . 6. A second sign: ‘You will hear wars and rumours of wars’ (Matth. 24, 6). But don’t we now have a war between the Romans and the Persians over Mesopotamia? Will one nation rise up against another and one kingdom against another (Matth. 24, 7) or not? And there will be famines, epidemics and earthquakes ...

I think that we will not deviate from our subject if we give here a more detailed account of this demonic calamity which torments mankind. Delusion is the devil substantially and existentially. Through wrongful and selfish thoughts and judgements he has severed himself from the truth, God, from whom he had been receiving his participation in the “well being” and the entire normal performance of his personality. Thus he became The delusion, because he has not been truly and correctly thinking and acting. Having then been subjected to a total reversal, he first revolted against his own self and then he passed on to his victims his own corruption.             According to our Fathers, only good has a real existence.The non ...