Ξένες γλώσσες

Since a question was asked at our office concerning the propriety of bearing an icon of the Holy Trinity in a procession, the theological advisor to the Holy Metropolis of Mani, Georgios Filias, Professor of Liturgics at the University of Athens, was asked to respond and he did so in the following manner, with which we concur. Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani Depicting the Holy Trinity §1 The depiction of the Holy Trinity is an offshoot of the theology of the Church and records the relationship between the three Persons. It is well known that, in Orthodox iconography, it is admissible to depict only that which we have seen and which has happened historically, the visions of the prophets and the symbols of ...

Those who wish to be free of the bitter enslavement to our enemy the devil should resist his will and begin open warfare against him.

Alas, many people distance themselves from God by making use of the very freedom He Himself gave them, as well as the choice they can make to be good or bad people. And when they fall into sin, they tend more easily towards the bad rather than the good.

The more deeply we feel our sin as a mortal wound, the more fully we fall down before God in grief-stricken prayer. This prayer sometimes liberates us from the bonds of space and time, so that we feel ourselves to be different.

“A heart-breaking act of violence took place last night at the Greektown on the Danforth. Two innocent people lost their lives: a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman. We pray for the repose of their souls and extend our sincere condolences to their families and friends. The gunman himself also lost his life; we pray for him as well and mourn the tragedy that would lead someone to perform such an evil act. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the wounded and we humbly entreat our merciful and loving Lord Jesus Christ to completely restore their health. Faith in God and love for our neighbour can help us overcome such tragedies; love and forgiveness will always allow good to ...

Be very patient and don’t worry, because you’re human and so you have health problems. Make your heart a rock so you can withstand assualt. God won’t abandon you, He’ll bless you. I’m glad you’re thinking of your soul and are concerned about eternal life.

Saint Mary Magdalene is the most outstanding person in the circle of Christ’s women disciples, and, indeed, the most significant female figure in the Christian Church, after the Mother of God. Her importance for the Church is expressed in the lengthy references to her in the Lives of the Saints. We have very little information concerning her life. She was born in Magdala, a town to the west of the Lake of Gennesaret and south of the plain of Galilee, which is why she’s known as Magdalene. Her parents, Syros and Efharistia, were pious Jews, with a highly-developed sense of charity and compassion, which they transmitted to their daughter. Mary became associated with the Lord after he cured her of seven ...

Elijah the Zealot. ‘The angel incarnate and rampart of the prophets’. There’s not a location in Greece that doesn’t have a church, or at least a chapel, a shrine, in his honour. He’s also similarly honoured in all Orthodox countries and in the Christian world in general. The numbers of those who bear his name are equal to those of any of the other popular saints. Not even the patriarch Abraham, nor Moses, who saw God, nor the stentorian prophet Isaiah who foretold the good news, have touched the devotion of the people to the extent that Elijah has. Only Elijah has stirred such piety. Why should this be? To what is this special affection due? Is it the sense ...

Many people try to counter temptations by various spiritual means, but without prayer and the practice of repentance, you can’t escape the afflictions of the temptations, which, in accordance with God’s justice, are granted in order to bring us to our senses and purify us.

It’s not the case that God’s been described and that’s it, or that His attributes are able to be so described. When, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we enter into the bosom of Glorification, we’re aware of all these endless, intangible, undiscernible, boundless attributes. This is why I said that repentance has no limit.

A priest in Thessaloniki received a tormented young man whom he didn’t know, for confession. He listened carefully to what he had to say, saw the problems that were troubling him, sympathized, and gave him directions as to how he might free himself from his passions and problems. At the end, he gave him absolution. Afterwards, the priest felt the need to speak to the young man in a more graphic way. As a mother takes a child and shows it what’s going on in the world around, he took the young man into the church and cast his eyes around looking for an appropriate scene. He stopped at the icon of Christ saving Peter from the waves, the one ...

If we recall the words of the great Elders, if we study them, it’ll be hard for us to fall into sin, difficult for us to neglect ourselves. Because, if we act precisely as they advise us, and don’t ignore the little things and what we might think of as insignificant, then we won’t fall into great and grievous sins.

1. Some Pages of History Cultural consciousness of our times formed up by the age of Enlightenment considers relations of different religions and faiths as marked predominantly by discords, conflicts and wars. But inter-religious relations have always been one of the most important factors in civilization dynamics, and the need of their peaceful character has always been strong. Therefore attempts of contact and dialogue as well as the search for some strategy or model of harmonious relations between spiritual traditions and religions, in fact, have never ceased. Their systematic and more or less uninterrupted history begins approximately in the middle of the XIX century. In the earlier periods, in various cultural spaces we find scattered events that could be regarded as ...

By God’s Grace, a fortnight has passed since the end of the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care, which was held at the congenial conference centre of the Orthodox Academy of Crete, at Kolymbari, Hania, with the blessing of His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew II. The conference was hosted by Metropolitan Amphilochios of Kiasimos and Selinos. The centre and spiritual heart of the Conference was the Holy Altar of the venerable basilica of the Stavropegic Monastery of Our Lady the Guide, Gonia, where, every day, the head of the conference celebrated the Divine Eucharist, a sacrament of the Church and the centre of the spiritual existence of its shepherds. The guiding force behind this five-day spiritual ...

When God sees that you attribute to Him whatever you’re managed to achieve through your own efforts, He then, in turn, gives you what is properly His: divine, spiritual things.

What are the devil’s arrows? They’re wicked desires, unclean thoughts, devastating passions, rage, jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, love of money and every other form of indolence. All of these can be demolished by the sword of the Spirit, that is the word of God.

A sign of the first kind of fear is to hate sin and to become angry with it, as if you’ve been wounded by a wild animal. A sign of perfect fear is to love virtue and to fear alteration. Because none of us is immutable. In every matter of this life we should fear the fall.

There’s no other factor that’s so effective as various sorrows, self-inflicted or otherwise, in bringing the mind to a humble outlook. The impossibility of its redemption teaches it in practical terms just how insignificant and inconsequential it is. Then the Lord’s words ‘You can do nothing without me’ (Jn. 15, 5) become perfectly clear and, with the assistance of Grace, the mind ascends to the real world of the kingdom above.