Ξένες γλώσσες

Shawn Paul Humphries was a murderer executed by the state of South Carolinaon December 2, 2005.  Fr. John Parker wrote the following piece for The Post and Courier in Charleston, SC on December 14, 2005. Hopefully, the Dec. 3 article about the execution of Shawn Humphries appeared on Page 7B of The Post and Courier (as opposed to a more prominent place) because we are ashamed to publish it as news. But, to quote an ancient saint, "Fie on the outrage!" How many times a year do we read about citizens incensed that the Ten Commandments are not posted here or there or are removed from public view, and yet we consent, at least by our silence, to state-sanctioned murder? We do ...

C. So, if a sermon is not merely the announcement of the fact of salvation, but should also encourage and teach the observance of the word of God, then the position of the priest who knows his “audience” becomes difficult. People today tend to think of the Gospel as a book with a four-fold history of Christ. But Christ didn’t write books, nor did He envisage volumes. The Gospel on His lips was the good news . Christ Himself is the bearer of this message, the herald of this good news: that people will be healed, the blind will regain their sight, the poor will inherit imperishable treasures, sinners will be forgiven, the polluted will be purified, imperfections will be perfected ...

As with most other questions surrounding the festivals of Christmas and Epiphany, the dissemination of the December festival in the East (and, as we shall see, the reverse process in the West) has been surrounded by controversy that will not soon, it seems, yield to perfect agreement. In Syria a festal list in Apostolic Constitutions V.13 gives first place to a feast of the nativity (genethlion) on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that month number repre­senting the Syrian acceptance of April as the paschal first month. That festival of the nativity is followed, on the sixth day of the next month, by the feast called epiphanios, on which, the text says, "the Lord made to you a manifestation ...

I’m not an Anglophile, nor a Francophile nor a Russophile. I was, am and always will be a Theophile, because only God loves and protects Greece.

The news, on this Sunday evening May 1, is full of the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of American troops inPakistan.  I listened to both President Obama’s announcement of the death, and Prime Minister Harper’s statement regarding it.  Both Obama and Harper’s words were measured and sound, and I find nothing to take issue with in either of them.  Osama bin Laden was, by any standards of civilized society, a murderer, someone who plotted to kill innocent men, women and children in support of his personal ideology, which seems to have been motivated by hatred for the West and theU.S.A.in particular.  He rejoiced in those deaths, showed no apparent remorse for them, and was intent of planning ...

Help from the Mother of God 18/1/2016 In 2008, my wife and I were married. During her first pregnancy she lost the baby. After that, our spiritual guide brought us from the Monastery of Vatopaidi a ribbon from the Girdle of the Mother of God, which my wife wore all the time. At the same time, we kept the rule given us by our spiritual guide, read prayers and lived modestly. No sooner had we finished the rule than a child was conceived. We had a girl, Sidonia. May the Mother of God help all those who call upon her. Bid. Nas

The holy martyr Petros, Bishop of Alexandria at the time of the Emperor Maximian (286-305) was a teacher of the true faith and guide of the Christians in the Orthodox dogmas. During the persecution of Diocletian (303), soldiers were sent to Alexandria where they arrested him and took him to Nicomedia. He was imprisoned by order of the emperor, the intention being to behead him. This information came to the attention of the priest Arius, who had been excommunicated by the saint for teaching that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, that is the Son, is not God, but a perfect creation of God. Arius seized the opportunity and sent priests and deacons to intercede with the saint to have ...

These days, people don’t understand, they don’t repent, they don’t come to their senses. The devil needs to prod them with his horns.

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, ...