Mihaïl Koutsos Psalm 136. By Jeremiah to David, on captivity 1 By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 We hung our instruments on the willows, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, and our abductors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion’. 4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you,
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on May 7, 2021 Holy Monastery of St John the Baptist, Kareas Attikis It’s the event that each and every one of us can be absolutely sure of: sooner or later death will come to us. Yet, for most people, the end of life remains greatly undesirable and is to be firmly resisted. This is because, during the course of our life on this earth, we haven’t been nourished on the expectation of ‘the
Published by Pemptousia Partnership on February 17, 2022 Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos ‘Herein lies the essence of sin: in our lack of trust in and absolute love for God the Creator; and in our total attachment to the ego’. In society today, in particular, the notion of sin has been deliberately distorted. This is because we dwell on the superficial meaning of the word (‘failure’, ‘missing the mark’) and miss the more profound meaning. For the Orthodox Church and
Thoughts on God, Us and Time By Michael Haldas, July 11, 1916 “Our future is not about what we have or don’t have, or about what might happen or what might not happen. Our future is all about Who we know and how well we know Him…In life, in death, and for eternity our relationship with God is what matters most, and therefore should be our main concern here and now.” (Cindi McMenamin, J.I. Packer)
The Byzantine Church since at least the 5th century has practiced a period of fasting prior to the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. This ancient custom has much to offer contemporary Christians. Christians of the East have always recognized the mystery of Our Lady’s Dormition, her ‘falling asleep’ at the end of her natural life. The passage of Mary the Virgin Mother of God from this life to life eternal is a cause
In the Orthodox teaching, sin is not only the transgression of a rule leading to punishment; it is always a mutilation of life given to us by God. It is for this reason that the story of the original sin is presented to us as an act of eating. For food is means of life; it is that which keeps us alive. But here lies the whole question: what does it mean to be alive
By Father Leonidas Contos, LOS ANGELES, August 2, 1962 Orthodox theology refuses to see Mary as only the physical instrument of Christ’s birth. She is seen as a cooperating instrument in the work of redemption. Christ did not save the world, so to speak, automatically. He was not on earth as an alien thrust in, but lived as part of humanity, sharing its weakness, knowing its need. The grace He released into the world became
The Son of Disobedience is the Product of Oppression “A mother complained that her son no longer her, he doesn’t go to Church and the like. I told her, “You oppressed him for so many years. You ordered him around constantly. Now he wants freedom. Don’t order him around. Only pray with spiritual love for him. If you saw a Turk controlling your son and dictating to him to ‘Say this or that thing to
In the Orthodox teaching, sin is not only the transgression of a rule leading to punishment; it is always a mutilation of life given to us by God. It is for this reason that the story of the original sin is presented to us as an act of eating. For food is means of life; it is that which keeps us alive. But here lies the whole question: what does it mean to be alive
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