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Elder Averkios. A Young Boy Solved his Problem and Vanished Immediately

Κατηγορίες: In English

For a short time the Holy Mountain was calm . Then World War I began. The Central Powers had blockaded Greece and hunger was making itself felt on the Holy Mountain, particularly among those living in kellia and sketes. The monasteries were slightly better off because they had their dependencies. Then the committee representing the monks living in kellia elected Fathers Chrysostomos Lavriokelliotis and Averkios, provided them with money and official papers stamped by the police and sent them to Athens to buy wheat for the Holy Mountain. The blockade was tight and wheat was very hard to come by. The Powers allowed only one steam-boat to discharge its cargo for the whole of Greece. Through the Gounaris government, the monks weren’t ...

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‘Good Teacher what Good should I do to have Eternal Life?’ (Hierodeacon Rafael Misiaoulis, Theologian)

Κατηγορίες: In English

The rich young man in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 9, 16-26) begins with an important motive: he seeks an answer about eternal life from Him Who is Eternal, real Life. He seeks an answer to salvation from the Savior. ‘Good teacher, what should I do to have eternal life?’ . And the Lord answers him: ‘Keep the commandments’. He had such confidence in himself. Such certainty regarding his moral credit. Such conviction concerning his self-knowledge. But the poor man was being mightily deceived. His attitude to Christ after this demonstrated that he wasn’t in fact observing the commandments of God, as he claimed, but was actually breaking them. He thought he had self-knowledge, but, in reality, didn’t. Because self-knowledge ...

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Encomium on the Beheading of the Great Forerunner – 3 (Saint Theodore the Studite)

Κατηγορίες: In English

According to the Gospel, his disciples then came, took away his body and buried it (Matth. 14, 13). Those of you who love history, look at how the burial of this righteous man is depicted and gives the lie to those enemies of the holy icons, who are also enemies of the truth. Fix the story in your minds and draw useful conclusions. How they took the saint, bound in heavy chains, from the prison How the executioner, like a wild animal, raised the sword against the holy head. How, after the beheading, the myrrh-exuding head was offered to the raving Herodias. And also how the sacred body was buried by the hands of his disciples, who all stood there, ...

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Encomium on the Beheading of the Great Forerunner – 2 (Saint Theodore the Studite)

Κατηγορίες: In English

So what did he say to Herod? “You’re not allowed to live with her”. He reminded him of the divine law, as if saying to him: “Look and see what the Law orders you to do. If there are two brothers and one of them dies without issue, the widow is not allowed to marry a stranger. The brother of the deceased shall marry her and the child who is born will take the name of the deceased, and thus his name will not be lost in Israel (Deut. 15, 5). That’s what the law says. But you’ve taken the wife of your brother and she already has a child. Don’t transgress against the ordinance put in place by the ...

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They won’t find it difficult at all (Saint Makarios the Egyptian)

Κατηγορίες: In English

If we wish to bear easily every sorrow and temptation, let us keep our eyes trained always on death for the sake of Christ. The commandment we have is to take up our cross and follow Him, ready and willing to die. Because those who desire to die for Christ will have no difficulty at all with painful and sorrowful things. And those who wish to become heirs to Christ must zealously desire His sufferings. So we have to push ourselves to virtue, even if we don’t want to: to love, when we lack love; to meekness when this is missing; to having a caring and merciful heart; to prayer when we don’t have spiritual prayer. When God sees our ...

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