Archive

Commemoration of the Beheading of the Holy and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John

The divine Baptist, the Prophet born of a Prophet, the seal of all the Prophets and beginning of the Apostles, the mediator between the Old and New Covenants, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, the God-sent Messenger of the incarnate Messiah, the forerunner of Christ’s coming into the world (Isaiah 40:3; Mal. 3: 1); who by many miracles was both conceived and born; who was filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in

Miraculous Love

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, July 21, 2024 The Lord seems to have been very mindful of the people he met. Men, women, children, the rich and poor, the well-positioned and even more the lowly, oppressed, needy and foreigners. The Mosaic Law was the overshadowing context of Jewish life and, after all, Jesus was a Jew, but people were more important to him than the Law. Today he meets a Centurion, a

Love for Your Neighbor

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 13, 2019 Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia Love for your neighbor encourages love for God There’s one thing that’s required in this life, love and worship for Christ and love of our fellow human beings. We should all be one, with Christ as the head. This is the only way to acquire grace, heaven, eternal life. Love for your neighbor cultivates love for God. We’re happy when we love everyone else, mystically. Then

Equality between Women and Men in the Church

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on August 21, 2019 Protopresbyter Vasileios Kalliakmanis Let’s examine how women have been treated in Orthodox theology. It’s well known that Saint Paul proclaimed: ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’. In saying this, we don’t want to demolish the differences which exist between men and women, as has happened in recent years, but rather

Saint Kyriaki the Great Martyr

Saint Kyriaki was the daughter of Christian parents, Dorotheus and Eusevia. She was given her name because she was born on Sunday, the day of the Lord (in Greek, Kyriaki). Kyriaki was raised in a Christian enviornment and was highly respected, extremely educated, and philanthropic, but also very beautiful. Dorotheus and Eusevia were elderly and wanted security for Kyriaki upon their deaths which could be obtained through marriage. Kyriaki, being very devout in her Christian

Sin as a Sickness

~Fr. Andreas Agathokleous It’s natural to have feelings of guilt if we look at sin as a transgression against ‘the law of God’ rather than as a sickness we’ve inherited as children of the first Adam. Because if, over time, sin becomes second nature, it exercises authority in our soul making us do what we don’t want to, as Saint Paul says. As we all know, this brings its own pressure, peace is lost and

Great Lent: An Empirical Journey into the Depths of Our Being

Elder Patapios Kavsokalyvitis, Superintendent of the Skete of the Holy Trinity, Mount Athos By fasting, we learn to say ‘No’ to our desire for food and also learn to say ‘No’ to our often self-destructive will. We also learn to say ‘Yes’ to God, which is always redemptive. We’ve begun the Triodio, this blessed period of the liturgical year, with repentance, because we’ve felt deeply, existentially, within us the need to return from our expatriation.

Memory of Saint Timothy the Apostle

The Church commemorates Saint Timothy the Apostle. Saint Timothy was a faithful disciple of Saint Paul the Apostle and is addressed as the recipient of the First and Second Epistles to Timothy. These two books are a group of three books of the canonical New Testament, which are called pastoral epistles, because they addressed not to Christian communities but to spiritual shepherds-bishops with pastoral oversight of local churches, such as Timothy, who shepherded with ardor

The Ninth Day of Christmas. The Significance of the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan

Sophia Kafkopoulou On 6 January, our Church celebrates Theophany, one of the great feasts of the Lord. Jesus’ baptism is the event which formally confirmed the advent of the Messiah. Although the Lord Himself had no need of the remission of sins, He nevertheless came to John ‘to be baptized by him and to fulfil all righteousness’ (Matth. 3, 13-15). As regards Jesus, the Gospel stresses that, as soon as He entered the waters of

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