Archive

Do You Really Want to See the World?

Fr. Andreas Agathokleous It’s not easy to look at the world. You have to step back a bit, as you would with a painting. Not too far, though, because then you lose the relationship, you don’t hear the messages, the words of its silence. The world’s characterized by noise, bustle, cares and not insignificant problems. You can’t see everything. It’s impossible to know everything. You can just guess at it, looking through your own microscope.

The Normality of Ingratitude

Fr. Andreas Agathokleous It would seem that human behavior isn’t merely strange, but also unpredictable. It can’t easily be gauged and at times it’s surprising, inasmuch as it’s strange, weird and unnatural. Is it not natural for the beneficiary to feel gratitude and to want, as far as possible and to the extent of their ability, to repay the benefaction? And yet, exactly the opposite might be the case. In the book Wonderful events and advice

The Fifth Tuesday of Great Lent. Lent: The Other Dimension of Life

Fr. Andreas Agathokleous Amid the turbulence of our life, the deafening noise surrounding us, the long and pointless conversations on the telephone or in person, the stress and uncertainty regarding the state of the world today and tomorrow, the Church offers us the period of time of Great Lent. What meaning can this period, beginning with Monday in the first week and lasting until Great Saturday, have for all of us who live the modern

The Fourth Tuesday of Great Lent. The Joy of the Annunciation

~By Fr. Andreas Agathokleous The Feast of the Annunciation lends a pre-Paschal feeling to Great Lent, during which it always falls. The atmosphere of compunction recedes and gives way to the joy of the great feast. This is why we have a dispensation to eat fish. The hymns, the celebrations and all the other things associated with a Feast of the Mother of God dispel the spirit of mourning of Lent and offer us the

Who Loves Perfectly?

~By Fr. Andreas Agathokleous I don’t know if, in other eras, people experienced confusion regarding words, that is, that they said one thing and meant another. Despite the great achievements of scientific progress, technological development, the shrinking of distances, and tremendous communications, I think that, in our own age there’s the following particular contradiction: although we’re always waxing lyrical about love (in songs, poetry and prose), in reality we don’t know what it is, because,

Distress and Delight

Fr. Andreas Agathokleous How is it that you want to be friends with someone, but yet you don’t make any effort to get in touch with them, particularly when there’s no reluctance on their part? How is it that you want to feel God’s joy within you, to feel the sweetness of his presence, but yet you don’t pray? How is it that you say you love God, but yet you don’t observe his commandments?

Living with Cunning People

Fr. Andreas Agathokleous We usually view other people on the basis of our own inner eyes and ‘what the heart is full of’ (Luke 6, 45). If we’re cunning, we think other people are cunning, as well; if we’re guileless, we think that other people are, too. Saint Gregory the Dialogist notes the following: ‘The purer the heart, the more trusting it is’. This is how it can be tricked by wicked people who act on