Ξένες γλώσσες

In Athens, Fr. Ioakeim used to stay at the dependency of the Holy Sepulchre. One woman, who kept losing children, after the last time, had despaired, even of the doctors. She heard of the elder, went to find him and fell at his feet, begging him to pray. The elder went at once to the church of the Holy Unmercenaries, which is at the dependency of the Holy Sepulchre, and gave her the relics of the Unmercenary Doctors, saying: “Hold them over yourself”. Then he read various prayers, prayed and said to her: “Don’t worry, you’ll have a child”. And, indeed, she did. The woman was overjoyed and asked for a photograph of the elder to have at home as ...

Among other things, I asked the Elder what I could do to love Christ? I thought that he’d tell me all sorts of things involving unceasing prayer, many prostrations, fasting and so on, but he simply said: ‘Love Christ’s Cross’. Indeed, looking upon the Saviour’s Cross you learn to gratefully accept all the so-called ‘misfortunes’, the sorrows and so on that befall us, and to view them as absolutely nothing compared to what Christ the Saviour endured for us. It stops you from becoming arrogant, and gradually gets you used to praying with gratitude. But even if we don’t attain heartfelt prayer quickly, which is difficult, the imprint of Christ’s Cross is permanently engraved on our memory, and this results ...

When the Lord comes into a heart it blossoms like a lily. Why don’t we turn out heart more often to the Lord? How much peace and consolation God holds for us.

On the occasion of the memory of the holy six hundred and thirty God-bearing Fathers who constituted the 4th Ecumenical Synod in Chalcedon, the Church reminds us of its answer to an always topical problem, expressed differently, of course, at different times, which is that of the means and measure of God’s co-operation with us. It does this by recalling the vicissitudes of the 5th century, when the Christian world was rocked by two heresies which were completely mutually contradictory. These appeared to be at odds with each other, but in fact both attacked Orthodoxy. What we’re talking about here is the fierce rivalry between Nestorianism and Monophytism. On the one hand, there was Nestorius who reacted so strongly against the ...

Some people think prayer is yoga, that it’s meditation, or a technique. This is a mistake Prayer’s a spontaneous request from a person’s heart to God.

In his article The Church, the Authentic Interpreter of the Scriptures, Kostas Nousis makes some very valuable and telling points. What may not be clear to readers unfamiliar with Modern Greek history is the background to some of those points. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the subsequent occupation of the imperial lands by the Turks, Orthodoxy was kept alive partly by the official Church, but largely through the faith of ordinary people, particularly those living outside the cities, who were under less pressure to compromise or, indeed, convert to Islam. An example in recent years, from outside Greece, would be the family of Elder Cleopa (Ilie) in Romania, whose house, in a village, was essentially a home church. ...

The definition of death in the Church and in science The definition of death is at its most crucial in heart transplants. The Church sees our death as a mystery of separation, or of the exit of the soul from the body. Modern science often equates death with brain death. This death is defined through the mechanistic anthropology of modern science as the irreversible cessation of the function of the brain, with the irrevocable loss of consciousness. But though the irreversible cessation of the function of the brain can be defined on a purely biological level, the irrevocable loss of consciousness, which according to the Church’s view of our nature has to do with the soul, cannot be sought at this ...

The more people approach God, the closer they come to other people. And the closer they come to other people, the more they approach God.

Once upon a time there lived in the desert by the Jordan River a very holy hermit. His name was Gerasimos. Gerasimos had become a monk when he was still young man. Because he wished to perfect his spiritual life, he left the monastery and withdrew deep into the desert, far from the noise and vanities of life in the villages, towns and cities of the world. There alone with nature and the divine Creator of the universe, Gerasimos spent most of his long life. In the solitary stillness of the open desert the hermit could commune without interruption with God. Even words were not necessary for this communion. By day and night Gerasimos prayed and meditated silently within his heart. ...

Difference without Division. Communion and Otherness Written by John D. ZizioulasT. & T. Clark, 315 pp. In his foreword to Communion and Otherness, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, calls it “a great book and a converting one.” Williams warns that readers will have to work hard to understand parts of the book, and he is right: this is not an easy read, but it is very much worth the effort. John Zizioulas, an Orthodox bishop whose title is Metropolitan John of Pergamon and who has taught for years in Scotland and England, bases his work solidly in the Orthodox tradition while looking also at Levinas, Buber, Heidegger, Husserl, Lacan, and other more recent thinkers. Like many Orthodox writers, Zizioulas is sometimes critical ...

On many occasions, at the big feast of the province, instead of being the chief celebrant at the liturgy, as was his right, grandly wearing his monastic veil and expensive vestments and ordering his juniors about, the Elder would wear a shabby habit, would not concelebrate, but instead assisted and served the other Fathers as if he were the least of them. He’d carry the candles and do similar humble tasks. Needless to say, his great maxim was, as far as I can understand, the following: ‘Miss no opportunity to humble yourself”. Moreover, he never told a spiritual child of his ‘Do this’: for example ‘Bring a candle’ or ‘Polish a candelabra’. He would even, on occasion, actually pretend not ...

We have to learn to bow our heads to the will of God and not to insist on what we ourselves want. Obedience to the will of God is achieved through obedience to our spiritual guides, our parents, our teachers and our superiors in the workplace. If we practice obedience, we’ll understand what’s required of us.

Archimandrite Ioakeim Spetsieris, New Skete, (September 1943) Anecdotes from his life * His grandfather was a married priest called Ioannis. When Fr. Ioakeim, (Ioannis in the world) was born, his grandfather foretold that he would have his name, that is Ioannis, and become a priest. This grandfather had such virtue that he even had foreknowledge of his death. At the end of a liturgy he came to the Royal Doors and told the congregation: “This was my last liturgy”. He went to his daughter’s, who was married and they gave him a coffee. And there he told them: “That’s the last time in my life I’ll drink coffee”. * Ioakeim (Ioannis Spetsieris in the world) came from Kefallonia. His father was a farmer ...

Sin really is a horrible tyrant. It makes evil demands and shames those who give in to it. From the time it entered the world, it’s destroyed our freedom, corroded the worth that’s ours by nature and has brought us into slavery.

The negative arguments against transplants The negative arguments against transplants mainly invoke the sanctity of the human body and the spiritual dimension that these basic organs have in Old Testament anthropology, which is retained in the Patristic tradition. The heart, the blood, the liver and the kidneys are linked, in particular in the Old Testament with the spiritual life of the believer. In the Orthodox ascetic tradition, too, the physical heart is directly linked to the spiritual life. The way to a person’s deeper, spiritual heart is through the physical heart. Besides, the negative arguments claim that we owe our body to God and can’t simply give it away. A Christian’s body is the temple of God, or a member of ...

It has become a commonplace to hear someone say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” Most people have a general understanding of what is meant. I usually assume that the person holds to a number of ideas that are considered “spiritual” in our culture, but that they are not particularly interested in “organized religion.” I understand this, because organized religion can often be the bane of spiritual existence. I am an Orthodox Christian – which is not the same thing as saying that I have an interest in “organized religion.” There is much about organized religion that I dislike in the extreme, and I occasionally see its shadow seep into my experience within Orthodoxy. But I repeat unashamedly that I am an Orthodox ...

July 12, the Feast of Saint Païsios People weren’t made to stay where they are. They were made to become what they aren’t. Our majesty isn’t to be found in the present or the past, but in our future. Stagnation in the present, as immobility, is the equivalent of death. And any movement towards the past is motion towards the non-being from which we were called by the Creator’s command. It’s only movement towards the future that denotes vitality and the chance of prospering. The time of our life acquires meaning and content only when it unfolds as a movement towards the fulfilment of the purpose of our existence, the purpose for which we were created. And that purpose is for us ...