Ξένες γλώσσες

At the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, it was not only Greeks pitched against Turks, as  is, perhaps, widely believed, but there was also a good number of foreigners involved. Some of these were forced to fight on the side of the Ottomans, such as an attachment of Serbs sent by the despot of medieval Serbia, Đurađ Branković, who was a subject of the Ottomans. Others again, such as Orban, the Hungarian (or Rumanian) canon maker, joined the Ottomans on the expectation of making a profit (Orban was richly rewarded for the construction of the massive bombard which the Turks used during the siege and which was trained, for the most part, on the gate of Saint Romanos). Most of ...

Previous post This is the same Holy Spirit Who preached by the prophets, Who gave understanding to the Apostles, Who spoke to people. He was given to them by the Lord, and all their adversaries were unable to gainsay or resist Him. As the Lord said: ‘It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father Who speaks in you’. This Holy Spirit also or¬dains priests, consecrates churches, purifies altars, perfects sacrifices and cleanses people of their sins. This Holy Spirit abides with the godly, refines the righteous and guides kings. This same Holy Spirit preserved the soul of Simeon, lengthening the time of his life and re¬versing the rules of death, until the day when he beheld Him ...

Let us extol the grace of the Holy Spirit in spiritual hymns, since grace has, on this day, manifested itself to us from heaven. Even though our words are inadequate to express the magnitude of this grace, we shall praise its power and activity insofar as we’re able. For the Holy Spirit delves into all things, even the profundities of divinity. We’ re celebrating the day of Pentecost, the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit onto the Apostles, the day of the hope of perfection, the end of expectation, the longing for salvation, the fulfilment of prayer and the image of patience. Today the Spirit Who acted to scatter the nations in the time of Heber has formed tongues ...

I want to go to Paradise, even if I’m the last one in, after the world person ever. As long as God puts me in, He can have put Nero and Hitler in before me and I’ll even shine their shoes. It’s no business of mine who God puts into Paradise. It’s His and He can do what He wants. I’ve got no say in it. I want to be saved, and the rest is up to the Lord.

The great opponent of truth, the thing that draws people today into perdition, is delusion. Because of this, the souls of the feckless are filled with dark ignorance which estranges them from God. They don’t recognize Christ as God, even though He regenerated and enlightened us. Either that or they recognize Him only in words, but not in deeds. They believe that God appeared only in olden times, but not to us. They think that the evidence of Scripture concerning God doesn’t apply to them but to others, or they blaspheme against what is taught about God, since they reject true, conscious devotion.

We’ll say a few words here about the profound meaning of the Saturdays of the Souls. Obviously, these days are dedicated to the dead, to the souls, to the world of the spirits. People aren’t just the body we see living, moving, working, rejoicing, suffering, growing old and dying. They’re also immortal souls, united to their bodies as long as they live. When the body dies, however, the soul lives, it exists and remains immortal. It’s a spiritual hypostasis, eternal, and is transferred into the invisible world of the spirits. As an affectionate mother, the Church is here not only for those who live in this world, but also for her offspring who have died and whose souls are now in the ...

Every good thing comes from God. There’s not a single good thought that isn’t from God, nor wicked one that isn’t from the devil. Anything good you conceive, say or do, they’re all God’s gift. ‘Every perfect gift comes down from above’. It’s all a gift from God; we’ve got nothing of our own.

Whereas gender theories claim that the problem lies in the human body and its sex, which may need to be corrected, Patristic theology insists that God did not make any mistake and that evil lies in our own actions. What is bad is not the material world, but ‘the pride of intellect, the impudence of vanity, the arrogance of human conceit’. As Clement the Alexandrian states, it is the egotistical attitude that must be stamped out, not the material world. It is precisely this egotistical attitude and the arrogance of human conceit which lead people to question the sanctity of the material body and to formulate theories devoid of any scientific basis, because the theory of the separation of biological ...

You can’t just eat, drink and smoke your way through life and make it a constant round of food, drink and tobacco. The spirit of evil has tried to turn us into perpetual smokers. He’s made our mouths, which ought to praising God all the time, into smoking furnaces.

There are two forms of birth: one according to the flesh, the other the spirit. Christ said to Nicodemus: ‘Those who are born of the flesh are flesh; those who are born of the spirit are spirit. Don’t be surprised that I said you must be born from above’ (Jn. 3, 6-7). The women of our own age have lost this sublime awareness and have begun to bear children mostly in the flesh. Our children have become unsuited to faith. Often, they’re unable to believe that they’re an image of the eternal God. The greatest sin today is that people are wallowing in despair and don’t believe in the Resurrection.

They’ve not read, not heard, that those who distance themselves from God are lost. If a nation wants to recover itself, it has to be reborn morally, cut out decadence and the paralysis of morality, cease from being immoral and sinful, stop injustice, greed, impiety and blasphemy. Open the Church histories and you’ll see that, since the world began, every transgression and disobedience has met with appropriate punishment.

The Fathers tell us that the sense of sinfulness is a great gift from God, even superior to the sight of sublime visions. When we realize our inner darkness,s and the infernal and disgusting nature of sin is revealed- giving rise, as it does, to repulsion- then divine grace brings its own comfort.

Sorrow’s acceptable to God provided it doesn’t deprive us of the courage to strive. We should leave all our requests in the hands of God, whatever we want to ask for, as a child would ask of its father.

Today, too, people can be true Christians only if, on a daily basis, they’re guided by God’s saints.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost We have heard in the Acts of the Apostles how, as the Feast of Pentecost was approaching, Paul the Apostle had started on his journey to Jerusalem to be there together with all those who on that very day received the Holy Spirit. Of all of them he was the only one who had not been present in the High Room where the event took place. And yet, God had given him a true, a perfect conversion of heart, and of mind and of life, and had given him freely the gift of the Holy Spirit in response to his total, ultimate gift of self to Him, the God ...

Some people think that prayer is yoga, that it’s meditation, a technique. That’s wrong. Prayer’s a spontaneous appeal from the human heart to God.

Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we cultivate. If our thoughts are peaceful and calm, if they’re meek and kind, then our life will be, too. If our attention is on our living conditions, then we’re consumed by a whirlwind of thoughts and we can find neither peace nor calm.

When there’s a lot of sin in a country, then its political matters also go wrong instead of proceeding normally.

Even though the saints sinned, they had the strength to arise, simply and robustly. If they sinned, they repented, from the depth of their heart until the day they died, but weren’t depressed and despondent. We, on the other hand, if we have a sin, begin with the ‘whys’: ‘Why do I do it? Why do I think it? Why did I act like that?’ As if it were a wonder that we would sin. Why wouldn’t you do it? Who do you think you are? Somebody so important, so infallible that you’d never fail, never commit a sin?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So we have come to the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. Thus we have come to the last day of Christ’s physical presence on Earth. This marks the fulfilment of all things, since His Conception at the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin, His Birth and all the events of His earthly life, recorded for us in the Gospels. Christ came down from Heaven in order to destroy the power of Satan over mankind. Christ was crucified and rose from the dead in order to destroy death. Christ ascends into the skies in order to raise up fallen human nature to the heights of Heaven. But He ascends not ...