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Paper given at a day conference of the Artos Zoïs (Bread of Life) Institute, on the subject “Let’s discuss the sermon at long last”. (Saturday 1 October 2011, National Research Institute, Athens) Venerable fathers, dear friends, I’m here with you today (and I’d like to thank my friend Stavros Zoumboulakis, the director of the Artos Zoïs Institute, for inviting me), not to deliver a theological treatise on the “much visited” subject of the sermon, but in order to put before you my thoughts, as these have gestated over the 29 years I’ve served in a small parish. I’m the parish priest at the church of Saint John Chrysostom in the town of Preveza. The parish consists officially of 239 families and, in fact, of as ...

Keep your faith, which is eternal and beyond any doubt.

My other article in OrthodoxyToday spoke to persons thinking of killing themselves.  The present article is directed to people who contemplate helping them do so, whether on a broad basis as part of some “right to dignified death” movement, or moved by personal compassion in a single individual case to spare someone they love from physical or mental pain or disability.  The present article surveys the teachings of the earliest Christians, Christians removed at most only a few generations from Christ and who preserved His spirit and words and Bible interpretations, to ascertain whether suicide and assisting suicide conform to Jesus’ way of love for all humankind.  This article is therefore relevant to all people interested in Christian ethics, and ...

Nun as Godmother The institution of godparents (sponsors) is one that dates back to the first century of the Christian Church. Anyone approaching baptism, be they infant or adult, was required to have a godparent. In the case of an infant, it is the godparent that speaks for the child, answering the questions posed by the priest during the baptismal service. But it doesn't stop there! The godparent is charged by the Church with the duty to make sure the newly baptized is instructed in the teachings of the Church, remains a frequent communicant within the Church and remains active in the Church. In the case of a child, it is to the godparents that the parents entrust their child, ...

This is today’s feast, the event we’re celebrating today, the escorting of the maiden to the Temple and her introduction into the Holy of Holies. What a strange event! What an astonishing thing it is that we hear! A little girl living in the fathomless and unseen depths of God. Even if she had no more than stepped into the courtyard, this alone would have shown her closeness to the Lord, because when God said He would not allow anyone to enter into His courtyard, He meant those who had created a rift with him. Even if they had no more than seen the Holy of Holies, that in itself would have been an indication of their boldness towards God. ...

Vanity is empty pride about ourselves. It’s hollow externally, does nothing useful and simply pursues the superficial admiration of other people. Whatever vain people do, they do to be seen. Vanity’s a great hindrance to virtue.

Compared to the contemporary worship of most Protestant churches and post-Vatican II Roman Catholic churches, the worship of the Orthodox Church seems overly-formal, complicated, and rigid in its rubrics. Why are there so many rituals in the Orthodox Church? Why isn’t there more spontaneity, creativity, and freedom of expression? Why is the Orthodox Sunday worship service—the Divine Liturgy—essentially the same week after week, every year, for more than fifteen-hundred years? Most Orthodox believers would respond, “Because it is our Tradition.” However, do you know why it is our Tradition and why rituals are so important to our Christian Faith? The Need For Peace And Order Actually, the Bible and the Church Fathers rarely use the word “ritual” or “rite” when describing Judaic ...

Address on the Feast of Our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God, when she was taken by her Parents to the Temple All too often the “remembrance of the righteous which is accompanied by encomia” is an opportunity to censure the person praising if he falls short of expressing the worth of the person being praised- because the address is not always, nor in all circumstances, equivalent to reality. But how can I speak of the Mistress of all the righteous, the Mother of God Who is the King of Righteousness, or touch very lightly on even a part of her real worth, since it is my intention to praise her memory? I think that if there were angelic voices ...

Whatever movement you make, starting with its conception and following through to the implementation, you have to examine all the time what God will take from it. Because that’s all that’ll remain; all the rest will be done away with. This is why we’re always telling you to be careful, because within the all-embracing evil of the devil, there’s also this dreadful mystery. Satan doesn’t only fight to throw his opponent and get him out of the ring and the stadium. Naturally, he’s delighted beyond belief when people listen to him and leave the stadium, the contest. But those who aren’t convinced and get involved in the action, he doesn’t stand in their way. Not only that but he gives them support, ...

People who are really brave are those who never despair.

THE PRESENTATION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD The typology of icon The Presentation or Entry (είσοδος) of the Mother of God in the Temple (November 21st) does not belong to the most ancient festivals of the Church. None the less, it must be earlier than the end of the VIIth century, since St. Andrew of Crete had known it at Jerusalem at this epoch. It seems that it was introduced at Constantinople a century later, under the Patriarch St. Tarasius. It was to be adopted in the West only under Pope Gregory XI, who had it celebrated for the first time at Avignon in 1374. Like the festival of the Nativity of the Mother of God, that of Her Presentation in the Temple ...

Elder Iakovos Tsalikis (5/11/1920-21/11/1991) Our age and today’s culture has, unfortunately moved away from the vision and pursuit of sanctity. The Orthodox faith is based on the presence of the saints. Without these, our Church is on the path towards secularization. Naturally, as we know from Scripture, God alone is holy, and sanctity derives from our relationship with Him, and therefore sanctity is theocentric rather than anthropocentric. Our sanctity depends on the glory and the grace of God and our union with Him, not on our virtues. Sanctification assumes the free will of the person being sanctified. As Saint Maximos the Confessor says, all that we bring is our intentions. Without those, God doesn’t act. And Saint John the Damascan repeats ...

Abba Pimin said something wonderful: ‘Stay close to a person who fears God and then you’ll have fear of God, as well’. Who are they who really fear God? Those who are passionless, virtuous, saintly people who never cease to repent. How much we owe to such people when we encounter them, how much we owe to the fact that we’re with them and that, in some mysterious way they stimulate our heart to pray.

You cannot attend an Orthodox service and not be aware of doors. There are the doors that form the center of the icon screen, opening directly upon the altar. There are the two doors that flank them, one on either side, known as the “Deacon Doors.” Someone always seems to be coming out of one and going into another. One visitor to my parish confessed that the service reminded her of a “cuckoo clock.” “The door opens. Someone comes out and says something and goes back in again.” I have to admit that I have never been able to rid my mind of her description. Doors are important things, even within the Scriptures. Their place in the liturgical life of the Church ...

Whatever else, we must convince our heart to pray, otherwise it’ll dry up completely. The recognizable features of prayer are love of God, directness and simplicity. The same is true for the prayers we make to the saints.

"When people honor you, humble yourself all the more at that moment, and say in your mind: 'If they truly knew who I were, they would show me no regard at all.' In this way, you will not cause injury to your soul," a wise elder said. ***  In the era that asceticism flowered in Egypt, there lived an orphan girl named Taisia. When her kind parents died, they left as an inheritance, first, above all other things, their piety and love for the poor and strangers; and, after that, a large home and a great deal of money to manage. The girl, out of great reverence for the hermits, made her home a guest-house, as a service to them, and, when ...