Ξένες γλώσσες

I grew up at the edge of Springfield, Illinois, across the street from open spaces, an active farm with cattle and corn growing in a field that adjoined the pasture. Beyond the farm was a forest, and another forest lay a few houses away from the north side of our house. After a few years the farm died but the fields remained, and the fields and forests were great places to explore and play in. I loved one tree in particular; its branches grew in a way that made it perfect for climbing. When I was nine or ten I would climb it nearly to the top, which was as high as the roofline of our house, and when storms ...

Doing away with our will can be achieved smoothly: by loving Christ and observing His commandments.

The greatest ecological disaster described in the Scriptures is the flood during Noah’s times; it took place because “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6, 5). Man rebelled absolutely against God and against anything which had to do with his spiritual existence. Because of the prevailing wickedness those days, which was the result of man abusing his freedom, the Lord is forced to say: “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh” (Genesis 6, 3). By ‘flesh’ it is meant ‘man’s carnal attitude, his beastly and full of passions life’. Thus the flood was not imposed by the Lord ...

Recently, after finishing my meal at a Chinese restaurant, I received a very interesting fortune cookie that said, “You are surrounded by fortune hunters!” I don’t believe these fortune cookies tell any true fortune. I read them just for fun. When I first read mine, I thought the words were very amusing. “I am a priest,” I laughed to myself. What kind of “fortunes” can people seek around me in the places I go or the things that I do?” I am either at church performing public services or private services and prayers; or I am visiting the sick, the poor and the distressed. Since many people believe that going to church is a waste of time, they choose to do other ...

Any place can be a place of Resurrection, as long as you live in Christ’s humility.

1. If somebody isn’t thinking and says something that annoys you, don’t get upset. Ignore them. Never mind what they said. Is that a reason for you to burn? In cases like that, say nothing. Instead of saying ‘That mother-in-law of mine’ll be the death of me’, say, ‘That mother-in-law of mine’ll be the saving of me’. Let me not do anything bad. Let me not think badly of her when she’s my salvation’. The Scriptures say ‘defeat evil with good’.  Let’s not do bad things. Good people don’t do bad things when other people are bad or something unpleasant happens. 2. We should always see the good in people. Because if we see what’s not good, we’ll certainly see lots ...

The fall was the result of the inexperience and carelessness of God-created man. These made him neglect and practically betray his personal union and communion with God the Father, believing that he can prosper by himself. Therefore, the fall is regarded and is named as the detachment and withdrawal of each and every created being from the first cause of creation, i.e God. The universe, according to divine revelation, is that which has been caused and as such it is not self-existent, but it exists because it participates in the divine energy and providence. Therefore, if that which has been created is cut off from the cohesive force and energy of God, it is spoiled and dies. The defection of beings from ...

The holy martyr Saint Adrian and his wife, Saint Natalia, both came from Nicomedia. In the second period of the reign of Maximian (286-305), twenty-three Christian men who had been hiding in caves were arrested and subjected to a variety of tortures and abuse. Before they were put to death as martyrs, Adrian asked them: “My good people, why are you putting yourselves through these unbearable and vile punishments?”. They answered: “In order to win the good things God has prepared for those who suffer for Him, which, of course, are beyond the ears of people to hear and the human tongue to describe”< cf. “which neither eye has seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of ...

Photo by Tim Pierce There is a cliché floating around that people drop as if it were a self-evident truth-a category that may not exist, despite our Declaration of Independence. In anything involving religion, morals, medical ethics, or sexuality, whatever you choose to do is “between you and your God.” Euthanize comatose grandpa? This decision is between you and your God. (Grandpa’s God is presumably as out of it as grandpa is.) A woman’s decision to abort is between her and her God, and how a man chooses to worship, or whether to worship at all, is between him and his God. Here we are: back at polytheism. All these gods-mine, yours, hers, his, theirs-are the result of a combination of secularism ...

Sin is a great evil, because it produces unhealthy thoughts, befouls the soul, dissipates it, corrupts it and, in the end, impels it towards death. Just as illnesses weaken the body and kill it, this is what sins do to the soul. An ailing soul, burdened by passion, always gives in to it. It’s unable to rise again and turn to heaven and is too weak to face the light of truth.

Philantropia in Byzantium was not what we understand today as philanthropy and charity.  Nowadays philanthropy implies the prophylactic and therapeutic welfare, concern for the general public and charity so called directed toward alleviation of individual suffering. But in the thought and life of Byzantines philanthropy was: first, a philosophical and theological abstraction; second, a political attribute; third, charity directed to the individual in want; and fourth, philanthropy properly so called and expressed in organized institutions. If we were to ask a Byzantine what prompted him to believe in and apply philanthropia, he would have answered in the following terms, which formed the philanthropic philosophy of a monastery. Become not only merciful, as your Heavenly Father is merciful, but also just; for ...

First of all, Edwards' treatise seems to me to have more to do with John Locke, than it does with the view of the will found in the Bible. John Locke was a great thinker, but was essentially a theistic empiricist. His views on human psychology seek to apply the principles of physics to psychology — a move that is certainly open to question. For example, Locke said that ideas are either complex or simple. Complex ideas are formed from simple ideas — so for example, our idea of "Apple" is based on the linking of the simple ideas of sphere, red, sweet, etc. Thus a complex idea is like a compound formed from several more basic elements. The problem ...

People don’t understand the Scriptures; they find them almost incomprehensible. It’s only when they’re taught by the Holy Spirit that everything becomes clear and the soul feels it’s in heaven. Because the same Spirit is in heaven and on earth, in the Holy Scriptures and in the souls of those who love God. Without the Holy Spirit, people go astray and are unable to know God truly and to be comfortable with Him, even if they study all the time. Believe in the Gospel and in the testimony of the holy Church. Then even here on this earth, you’ll taste some measure of the bliss of Paradise. Truly the Kingdom of God is within us and His love grants Paradise ...

As a child, I remember thinking that church was so uninteresting. “Why is the priest repeating himself over and over again?, I would think to myself.  I was so bored by the repetition. Nothing changed in the service: the same words, the same motions, the same responses by the choir and the cantors each and every Sunday. In the car on the way to church, I would forecast it in my head. I could anticipate what would be said and done and how my boredom would follow. I can imagine that there are many other children in our churches who feel the same way, maybe even more so today because of the hurried growth of today's culture. They like to be ...

As the psychoanalytical dialogue progresses through its various stages (which, for the moral conscience, are particularly sensitive), the patients’ attitude toward their personal responsibility for creating and maintaining these moral conflicts manifests itself quite clearly. Experienced psychotherapists and psychiatrists, however, know that neurotic people, who are experiencing an existential moral problem, will never admit that the symptoms of their mental disharmony or disorder are the result of the way in which they are experiencing this moral conflict. Patients always insist that the problem is pathological/anatomical, and for this reason never think to visit a psychiatrist but rather insist on visiting general practitioners, cardiologists, surgeons, and every other kind of specialist except a psychiatrist. And, as prominent psychiatrists testify, often, since ...

On the 24th day of the month of August, the Church celebrates and honours the sacred memory of the holy hieromartyr Cosmas Aitolos. Saint Cosmas is one of those saints of the Church who are called New Martyrs and who appeared in the years of Turkish rule. After the Fall of Constantinople, the Turks became the new persecutors of the Church in the East and then many Christians, man and women, preferred to give up their lives rather than convert to Islam. It was these who, through their example, kept alive the Orthodox faith of the subject Orthodox peoples of the East. Saint Cosmas was born in 1714 in the village of Megalo Dendro, in Aitolia, which is why he’s called “Aitolos” . He ...

Man has been trying to make sense of the creation ever since antiquity as it is manifested in the teachings of many religions and philosophies. Generally, we may say that ancient Greek philosophers have offered three explanations as to the creation of the world: a) the Stoics and the Epicureans advocated that the world was self-existent, autonomous and eternal, b) The Pythagoreans argued that the physical elements and laws were divine and c) The Aristotelians attributed the cause of the creation to a god “who was the first mover, unmoved”. We may also argue that all subsequent theories, whether hailing from scientific or philosophical/religious circles, are divided into the following three main categories: the materialists, the pantheists and the theocrats. However, ...

God longs to be longed for by people. He fills those who wish to drink. He benefits those who want to do good works. He gives much more pleasing things than others receive. The only thing is that we shouldn’t ask to be given small things that are unworthy of us.

  Finally, to consider as an option for situations other than that of life and death the murder of a human being whose only fault is that he occupies the body of an unwilling fellow human being through no fault of his own, is to take the path of Fallen Adam who by disobeying God, chose a life apart from Him. In the same spirit of Adam’s "choice," by the spilling of innocent blood through abortion whether directly — by having or performing an abortion — or indirectly — through counseling, promoting, providing, condoning or even, yes, ignoring abortion — we remove ourselves from the Salvation of Jesus Christ. The Great English philospher, Edmund Burke once said, "It is sufficient for evil ...