In English

If you want to pray, you have to become a charitable person. Charitable in every sense of the word… When you say a good word to somebody else or you offer something or give alms, then this action moves your soul to prayer. It’s well-established that when charitable people stands in prayer, their prayer goes up to God and is accepted. » Bishop Athanasios of Limassol

Watch Fr John Parker’s speech at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2018 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

For all Christians, the Lord’s precious Cross is a manifestation of God’s unfailing love for His creation, (Jn. 3, 14-15; 12, 32-33; Col. 1, 20). It is the boast of Christ’s ordeal (Gal. 6, 4) and the invincible weapon against diabolical attacks. With his characteristic clarity, Saint John the Damascan declares that: ‘Every act and miraculous enterprise of Christ is mighty, and divine and wonderful, but the most wonderful of all is His Precious Cross’ (Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4, 11, PG, 94, 1128D). And Fotios the Great adds: ‘Christ’s Cross is a trophy raised against the devil; and is the most glorious of all trophies’ (Amfilochia, Question 24, 9, PG 101, 185 D). But the enemies of Christ’s Cross ...

Parents should teach their children absolute obedience before they’re five years old. When a parent says something, the answer should be: ‘Yes, of course’. Unfortunately, parents today don’t know this. They teach their children exactly the opposite and, so, bring them up like that.

Why is so much written and said about the sufferings and tribulations of holy men and women? Because only the saints are considered to be victorious. Can you be victorious without a struggle, without pain and without misfortunes?

Watch Fr Antoine Melki’s speech at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2018 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Believers who have loosed the bonds of egotism, which strangle their love and prevent them from acting and from seeing beyond their limited horizon, are blown far away and are liberated from the tyrannical yoke of slavery to egotism, thus abolishing the wretched worship of the self.

Trials and sorrow are necessary, because they constrain the sinful disposition of the heart. When the heart’s been restricted and restrained in this way, tears flow more easily.

Watch Nicole Roccas’ speech at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2018 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Watch the second part of Fr Jonah’s from Taiwan sermon on the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross.

When your heart is free of all resentment, then you’re close to love. And when your heart acquires blessed peace towards all other people, then you’re at the gates of love. But these gate are opened only by the Holy Spirit.

Parents blame their children for the slightest reason. It’s as though they don’t know how to talk to them calmly and gently. When it’s necessary for a parent to set boundaries for a child to obey, the child should feel that there’s love behind the strictness. It’s a great mistake to punish children at the moment they’re doing something wrong, because you won’t achieve anything by it.

Watch Daria Zhdanova-Kosintseva’s speech at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2018 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

You should always call Christ to mind, with love. We might be holding a photograph of someone but, because we don’t know them well, we don’t love them, it doesn’t move us. When you hold a photograph of your mother, though, your soul immediately leaps and cries out of love.

Watch Richard Barret’s speech at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2018 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.