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The Fifth Wednesday of Pascha. The First-Born of the Dead and the Land of the Living (III)

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~George Mantzarides, Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki The resurrection and entry into the eternal life of the Kingdom of the Triune God are not abstract ideological matters. They are truths and circumstances which came into the world with the advent of Christ and can be approached empirically (Cf. 1. Cor. 13, 12). Indeed, this approach is proposed to every person who is of a mind

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (John 4:5-42)

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! ~Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou This Gospel reading is exceptional, loaded with great and sublime truths which the Lord condescended to impart to a dissolute woman, a heretic who had led a reckless life and hailed from Samaria, an abomination for the Jews. The reconciliatory way that Christ relates with this woman gives an example for converse with our fellow men. In this passage, on the one hand, we behold the majesty

The Fifth Monday of Great Lent. The Ascetic Life (St. John of the Ladder)

Bishop Agathangelos of Fanari For the secular people of today, focusing on an ascetic saint represents a problem. How can the ascetic figure of Saint John, the author of the Ladder, speak to us, when he acquired and preserved the Grace of God through tears, prayers, and spiritual asceticism? In Orthodox teaching, the ascetic life is nothing other than the transcendence of selfishness, the attempt, in Grace, to apply God’s commandments, to live the life

Venerable Maximus the Confessor

Saint Maximus the Confessor was born in Constantinople around 580 and raised in a pious Christian family. He received an excellent education, studying philosophy, grammar, and rhetoric. He was well-read in the authors of antiquity and he also mastered philosophy and theology. When Saint Maximus entered into government service, he became first secretary and chief counselor to the emperor Heraclius (611-641), who was impressed by his knowledge and virtuous life. Saint Maximus soon realized that

The Thirty-Second Day of Christmas Advent. The Manifestation of God’s Infinite Love

Archimandrite Georgios Kapsanis, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou † Christmas, which by God’s Grace we’re celebrating again this year, gives us the opportunity to delve deeper into the mystery of God’s love. His gifts to us are manifold and priceless. The greatest of them, however, is the incarnation of His Only-Begotten Son, without which we would still be hopeless prisoners of the devil and of death. Saint Gregory Palamas says: ‘What depth of

The Holy Dormition of our Most Pure Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary

Saint Gregory Palamas If ‘the death of the saints is precious and the memory of the righteous is blessed’, with how much greater praise should we keep the memory of the ‘saint of the saints’ through whom the whole of sanctity came to them, that is the memory of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God? This is what we do when we celebrate the anniversary of her holy Dormition or transferal, in which, even though she

How Magnificent Our Lady Is

Metropolitan Nikolaos (Hatzinikolaou) of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki What a magnificent person our Lady is. She shows us the path and provides us with the way to deification, that is, how each of us can attain a state of likeness with God and communion with him. Our Lady is also a model for our life and a source of strength, with the protection of her intercessions, on this journey of ours. But how is this so?

The Third Thursday of Great Lent. The Sign of the Cross in the Old Testament

~By Theodore Rokas In his first epistle to the Corinthians, Saint Paul mentions that ‘the Jews seek a sign’ (1 Cor. 1, 22), that is they wanted a supernatural sign, such as resurrection of the dead, or healing of the demonically possessed, which would make them believe in the preaching concerning the Cross. So they sought this supernatural sign, ignoring and ignorant of all the signs and wonders that God had shown them in the

The Second Friday of Great Lent. Saint Gregory Palamas (2nd Sunday in Lent) – A Christian Existentialism

Fr. John Meyendorff In its opposition to Barlaamite nominalism, Palamite thought is a solemn affirmation of divine immanence in history and in man. God does not reveal Himself to the world only “through creatures” but directly, in Jesus Christ. We have all, all of us, known the Son by the Father’s voice speaking to us from on high (Matt. 3: 16-17) and the Holy Spirit himself, who is unutterable light, has shown us that this is indeed

The Feast of the Transfiguration

The Transfiguration of Christ is one of the central events recorded in the gospels. Immediately after the Lord was recognized by his apostles as “the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the Living God,” he told them that “he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things … and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Mt 16). The announcement of Christ’s approaching passion and death was met with indignation by the disciples. And then,