December 2011
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Sermon of His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow...
Crossing the symbolic line separating one year from another, from December 31 to January 1, people normally meet the New Year with joy and gladness. But on New Year’s Eve everyone also gives thought to time, to how one year gives way to another in our lives.
It is customary, in congratulating people on the New Year, to wish them new happiness. In this simple human wish is an expression of hope...
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4 Spiritual New Year’s Resolutions
1) Put your God-given Talents to use. We all have hidden talents, or talents not used to their full potential. Recognize them, ask for guidance from Our Lord and put them to use for the benefit of God’s Holy Church.
2) Ask for forgiveness from our family, friends and Christian brothers and sisters in our parish. Forgiveness is a difficult virtue to put into practice and even more difficult to...
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The Transfiguration of Saint Seraphim of Sarov
Saint Seraphim of Sarov is commemorated on January 2, one day after Saint Basil.
Once a certain man by name of Nikolay Motovilov came to St. Seraphim for instruction and spiritual consolation. During their talk, which took place in a winter snow-covered forest, St. Seraphim suddenly showed forth with the Divine Light, like the Lord Jesus Christ showed forth with the Divine Light on Mount Tavor....
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Encyclical of Archbishop Demetrios for the Feast...
…As we begin this new year, with the blessings of our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Church, we give thanks to Him for His abiding presence with us. It is in Christ’s presence that we find the grace to transform our lives and restore our communion with God. In His presence we know the truth of the Gospel and the endurance of hope,...
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St. Basil's pie (Vasilopita)
Ok, let’s talk a little tradition here. In Greece we, Christian Orthodox, have the custom of Vasilopita. Just after the coming of the New Year or the next day the Chief of the family cuts the vasilopita. Vasilopita is either a cake or a tsoureki. The person who makes this pie, puts a coin inside the pie and whoever wins the coin is the lucky person of the year.
This custom comes from the very...
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Today is New Year's Eve!!! :)
Today is a joyful day here in Greece! All the children are outside, and go from home to home to say the New Year’s carols! Again, like the Christmas carols, the New Year’s carols are differ among the different places in greece. Eg. The carols in Crete are more joyful than Epirus’ carols, because Cretan Lyra is used.
I have to mention here that St. Basil that is commemorated...
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The Theotokos is the only mother of all Christians
The Panagia (Theotokos) is the only mother of all Christians. And who does not call upon her. Because the sufferings of mankind are many in this vain world, nowhere else can we all find relief, except in the Panagia. When you are sitting there quietly, a thought suddenly comes to you and brings darkness. Where will you go to be loosed from this darkness? To the Panagia. All the Saints are our...
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The Fathers are life, they are not philology!
We look at what the Holy Fathers said and wrote, and not at how they lived. Instead of doing commentaries on the texts of the Fathers, we ought rather to copy their lives. The Fathers prayed much, kept vigil much, fasted much, loved poverty and simplicity, hated the secular mindset, fought delusions, turned away from the comforts of life, avoided high offices, glory and honors, and loved...
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There are five baptisms
There are five baptisms. First is Moses’, when the Hebrews passed over the Red Sea. Second, that of John the Baptist. Third, that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, without which baptism one is not a Christian. Fourth, martyrdom - baptism in blood. Christ suffered that baptism. And fifth, the baptism of tears, which comes from the remembrance of one’s sins.
-Archimandrite Cherubim
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Orthodoxy: a huge hug for everyone
The good thing in this sad situation with Elder Ephraim’s custody is the fact that all the Orthodox Christians of the world are united and support each other. Orthodox people from Russia, Serbia, Romania, Ucraine, America, Australia and all the Orthodox neighborhoods of the world support Elder Efrem and react. We all are one, so if one member of the Church suffers we support it. We all all...
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Orthodox converts on tumblr. Why did I convert/ I...
Oud dear friend theminorprophet shared with us the reasons why he chose Orthodox Christianity as his spiritual home:
I’ve spent the last 5 years studying Orthodoxy, reading the Fathers, learning the Liturgy, praying and asking for guidance. About a year ago, I knew my heart was changed, and that the Orthodox Church was my new home. I knew that I had been called there by God. I was baptized this...
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Wordly thoughts during prayer
From the moment you sit or kneel down to pray, many demons attack you, even at your first words of prayer; the evil one fills your mind with many worldly thoughts, all sorts of unimportant things. Even the curiosity to know the time will occupy in your mind. Or the interest to know whether is sunshine or cloudy outside. All these thoughts may seem innocent, but they vanish the voice of prayer...
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The Thoughts of Angels Compared With the Thoughts...
“The angelic hosts are not enslaved by their thoughts, or by the things of this world. They gaze upon created things, but their thoughts do not become enslaved by them; for the center of their thoughts is in servitude only to the power of God, through which they love all creation. As for us, when we see an object that attracts us, we immediately become attached to it. This is terrible and...
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About temptations
When the devil sees that our intellect has prayed from the heart, he makes a powerful attack with subtle temptations; but he does not bother to destroy the lesser virtues by such powerful attacks.
-Saint Kosmas Aitolos
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Thoughts about the fight in Bethlehem
First of all, I believe that this is one of the most sad events.
A priest that I personally know (and unfortunatelly was hit by an Armenian) was there, and he told that the Patriarchate of Jerusalem strongly complains for the attitude of Armenians, because they started the fight. Three Greek Orthodox were injured, especially hieromonk Matthew that his fingers were broken.
Even in case that...
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Anonymous asked: What is the Western Rite in Eastern Orthodoxy?
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A common misconception about Orthodox Cristianity
You don’t have to live in an eastern country to be an Orthodox Christian. It’s not like: “I live in an eastern country so I am an Orthodox or I live in a western country so I am a Catholic.” There are Orthodox Christians in the West too. Okay, Catholicism is more common in western parts of the world, but there is still Orthodoxy. It is a minority, but the believers there,...
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“Where Is God?” - Abbot Tryphon
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The Church of Christ
The Church of Christ is not composed of the many, but of those who keep the correct and saving confession of faith, even if they are few.
-St. Theodore Studite
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When someone gives his heart to God
“When someone gives his heart to God, then the mind of this man is also seized by the love of God. He is indifferent towards worldly things and continually thinks about the Heavenly Father, and being divinely in love, he glorifies his Creator day and night like an angel.”
-Elder Paisios
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Elder Porphyrios and Apollo 13
The Metropolitan of Limassol Athanasios speaks here about an interesting relationship between what happened to the Apollo 13 lunar mission and Elder Porphyrios of Athens. Apparently when disaster struck mid-mission due to a technical malfunction and the mission had to be aborted and the crew safely returned back to earth, there was a meeting held with some top astronomers and scientists on how...
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Musing of an Orthodox Brit.: 'The true Church. It... →
A post about the Catholic Saint Francis of Asissi and the Orthodox Saint Seraphim of Sarov. Amazing miracle! :) Glory to God!
orthodoxbrit:
Taken from the book “St Seraphim of Sarov” by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore and posted for the interest of a dear friend on here.
In the early 1920’s, sometime after St. Seraphim’s repose, a noble family of Protestants in Alsace began to take great...
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On Practicing the Jesus Prayer by St. Ignaty...
The name of our Lord Jesus Christ is a divine name. The power and effect of that name are divine, omnipotent and salvific, and transcend our ability to comprehend it. With faith therefore, with confidence and sincerity, and with great piety and fear ought we to proceed to the doing of the great work which God has entrusted to us: to train ourselves in prayer by using the name of our Lord Jesus...
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God is...
God is the life of all free beings. He is the salvation of all, of believers or unbelievers, of the just or the unjust, of the pious or the impious, of those freed from passions or those caught up in them, of monks or those living in the world, of the educated and the illiterate, of the healthy and the sick, of the young or the old. He is like the outpouring of light, the glimpse of the sun, or...
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Today Orthodoxy commemorates the 14,000 Holy...
14,000 Holy Infants were killed by King Herod in Bethlehem. When the time came for the Incarnation of the Son of God and His Birth of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Magi in the East beheld a new star in the heavens, foretelling the Nativity of the King of the Jews. They journeyed immediately to Jerusalem to worship the Child, and the star showed them the way. Having worshipped the divine Infant,...
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I delete the previous message, because it sounds...
… In fact I am an egoist, not at all humble, but full of passions. That’s the sad reality.
May Lord forgive me because I am a sinner…
Please pray for me.
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Elder Joseph's divine vision on the feast of...
“On one occasion it was a feast of the Lord, I think Epiphany, and Father Arsenios and the Elder Ephrem went to a vigil nearby, as was their custom. Our Elder, however, did not go, but stayed in his artificial cave occupied with inwardness and prayer. ‘As I was sitting there immersed in myself,’ he told us, ‘and noticing the sweetness of the prayer, all of a sudden I was filled with light...
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Blessed Nun Maria, the Tall: Her great martyrdom...
I with my sins, which appear to be many, will not have repented correctly. I am tortured and endure the greatest. This cortisone which I take removed the calcium and the bones remain hollow and growth hormone extends the bones and breaks them and dismantles them and moves them, and Maria the tall has become Maria the hunchback. My pains are great and my spiritual pain, because I can’t move...
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About Eastern Orthodox Hesychasm
For a better understanding of Hesychasm, it is essential to draw a distinction between loneliness and solitude. The word ‘monk’ is of Greek origin and is derived from the word μόνος (to be alone). However, the life of the monk is far from being an unbearable state of isolation or an undesirable banishment. Rather, the life of the hesychast is rich in transformations and sensations, essentially...
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The Unworthy Priest
The icon above is located in the cemetary Church of All Saints in the town of Perama of Rethymno, the seat of the municipality of Mylopotamou, by the iconographer Emmanuel Sephake. The prototype for this icon is in the historic Church of the Holy Trinity in the same town (probably from the Venetian era), near the Monastery of Arkadiou in Rethymno, and is found in the Holy Altar, roughly next to...
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The Beauty of People
“Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone he met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was...
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The Heart: the Center of Human Personhood
“It is astonishingly great that God the Father, poured from His Spirit a noetic sensation (noera aesthisis) or breath to the bodily hearts of those who rightly believed in the incarnate Logos”.
- St. Kallistos, Patriarch of Constantinople
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The Reasons for Christ’s Coming
Christ came because of:
(1) God’s love towards the human race: “For so God loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16);
(2) the restoration of the image and likeness of God in fallen man;
(3) the salvation of human souls: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John...
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What has the world come to, by denying God!
In each and every day there are temptations, sicknesses, divorces and adventures. One hears of them and is constantly distressed! What has the world come to, by denying God! We have become a jungle, a human butchery shop. May the Lord have mercy on us.
-Elder Joseph
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Elder Efrem of Vatopedi: I surrender at Mary's...
“I was surrendered at Mary’s hands since I was young and again where I go (to jail for a crime without evidence) I surrender at Mary’s hands, so don’t be afraid. I have never sought glory or heroism. If I was seeking these I wouldn’t have become a monk on Mount Athos. I defended and I am defending the Holy Mountain and the property of the monastery that our...
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Inattention
If you cannot be attentive to the words you say, why should God?
- Met. Anthony (Bloom), Beginning to Pray, pp. 49-50
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Love silence...
More than all things love silence: it brings you a fruit that tongue cannot describe. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then there is born something that draws us to silence. May God give you an experience of this “something” that is born of silence. If only you practice this, untold light will dawn on you in consequence … after a while a certain sweetness is born in...
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The Kingdom of God Begins Here on Earth, Just as...
“The Kingdom of God begins here on earth, just as hell does - within us, that is, in the heart and soul of a man, by his way of life. Beyond the threshold of eternity both the one and the other only grow, infinitely, unto likeness to the angels or to the devils.”
- Father Raphael of Optina
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Orthodox converts on tumblr. Why did I convert/ I...
Daniel shared with us the reasons why he chose Orthodoxy as his spiritual home:
“I converted to Orthodoxy since I found that it is the only form of Christianity which has a clear historic link to its origins in the Early Church. Whilst I could see though historical study that others such as Rome abandoned this historic communion for political gains I found a clear understanding of the...
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Word from the desert
“The person honored more than he deserves is actually harmed, while the person who is not honored at all by his fellow human beings will be honored in heaven by God.”
-From an Athonite Gerontikon
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There are difficult times ahead...
Beware, believe, pray and get on with the struggle. There are difficult times ahead. May our Lord save us from the events which will take place to tempt those living on earth.
-Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi
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