Ξένες γλώσσες

A collaboration between N. Papakostas, Th. Papayiannis and N. Desekopoulos. The Revelation of Saint John according to Nikos Papakostas is being successfully presented in Greece and abroad for the fourth year in succession with glowing reviews from all the media.  The work, as staged in the Theatre Saint Michel in Brussels, was broadcast by ERT WORLD throughout the world, while the performance in the cathedral of the Holy Cross and the Archangel Michel, in London, was transmitted by HELLENIC TV to an audience of Greeks abroad. The Revelation of Saint John is a work that touches all people, which moves between prophecy and vision, anxiety and transcendence, and has acquired a new and different form through its poetic rendition and musical setting ...

Over the last month or so, we at Pemptousia have run a series of articles in which prominent members of the Church (Abbot Efraim of Vatopaidi, Metrop

It wasn’t an easy matter for someone to become a disciple to an Elder such as Elder Iosif the Hesychast. Many tried, but couldn’t manage and left in the end. This is why the Elder didn’t initially want to accept Fr. Sofronios. But once he’d accepted him, by divine information as we’ve already mentioned, he was demanding with his disciple. And this, of course, was not for self-serving reasons, because he was always concerned about the spiritual benefit and progress of his disciple. He trained him with strictness and love, with penances and admonishments. He made the necessary incisions to cleanse his heart of the passions, so that he could begin to experience the Grace of God and sanctification. Our Elder ...

In the ranks of the Old Testament prophets, a special position is occupied by the Prophet Elijah, whose sacred memory the Church honours and celebrates today. In the New Testament, the name of the Prophet Elijah is frequently mentioned by Christ Himself. Zacharias, the father of the Forerunner, said that John would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah”, that is, that he would have the features and the zeal of the Prophet Elijah, that he would be the Prophet Elijah himself, whose return the people were awaiting. When Jesus bore witness to John the Baptist and praised him highly, He said that he was Elijah: “If you want, accept that he is Elijah who was to come”. The most ...

You’ll gain great profit from humble prayer, from blessed heartache, which at once re-opens the gates of divine mercy. Send your hot tears as intercession, together with the groaning of your heart and prove, in this way, your sorrow and your shame for your great fault.

The understanding that, in cases of dire medical necessity, the life of the mother must receive primary consideration is valid Orthodox thought. However, recognition of the value of the life of the woman must be coupled with the understanding that the child is not expendable, but rather, that everything must be done to protect his life as well. Only in the last extreme of dire necessity is it condoned to forfeit his life when all other avenues of medical endeavor fail. In the words of Fr. Stanley Harakas:38 When the life of the mother is in jeopardy due to her pregnancy, then an exception to the prohibition on abortion may be allowed...Any decision of this sort should be made by the ...

Independence of mind is the will of the rational soul, which turns immediately to whatever it is it wants. We should urge it to be always ready to turn only to what’s good so that with good thoughts we can expunge the memory of evil.

As well as the liturgy and other services, Fr. Symeon also held ‘silent’ assemblies. No-one spoke. Or rather, no-one heard because everybody was speaking mystically to God, using a prayer-rope and saying the Jesus Prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me’. The church of Saint Athanasios was completely full. Everyone seated, heads bowed, holding a prayer-rope and seeking God’s mercy. These assemblies also lasted an hour. Fr. Symeon laid great stress on sermons. He considered it as importance as a service, as indeed it is. The Word of God must first be received through the hearing, as the proclamation of the Gospel, so that people will believe and then receive Him as Holy Communion. The Elder spoke ...

Even though the blessed Elder Iosif was a great hesychast, he considered obedience to be the most important virtue for a monk. This is why he trained his disciple to gain the spirit and the fruits of true obedience, even though to some it may appear that his manner of doing so was harsh. He himself used to exclaim and urged his disciples: ‘Oh, blessed obedience- and again obedience. Without doubt the scepter belongs to you. Elder Arsenios and I have shed lots of blood in our ascetic life in order to taste the good things of heaven. Just with the observance of obedience, you’ll enjoy the same Grace as us. Cleave to obedience with all your soul. There’s no ...

When Julian the Apostate came to power as emperor (361), he scorned both the good that had been achieved by Saint Constantine the Great and everything he had gained from his own Christian upbringing. He upset public order with his tyranny and railed against God, doing his level best, with all means at his disposal to bring back the worship of idols. He sent officers faithful to his own aims into various provinces in order to force people to comply. With this in mind, Capitalinus, his deputy in Thrace, moved to Dorostolos (today’s Silistra, in Bulgaria), the capital of Skythia. Once he was established in his court, he directed threats against not only Christians but also those who were reluctant ...

When we keep Christ’s commandments, we’re not offering anything to Him. Because He has no need of anything and is the Giver of all good things. In fact, we’re simply benefitting ourselves by making eternal life and the enjoyment of its ineffable bounties available to us.

For us Christians, who are enlightened and illuminated in Christ, everything in this world is of value and has meaning, insofar as it’s a means and path to eternity. Because we see what isn’t apparent and gaze upon the invisible. We arrange the whole of our life in time on the basis of what’s eternal; what’s human on the basis of the God/Human. As long as there’s something eternal within the bounds of time, we survive on this. But when it’s absent we seek it beyond time, in the kingdom of the unending and the invisible. We gaze upon everything through the prism of eternity, that is, through the prism of Christ, since He is the eternal God and Lord.

Elder Iosif the Hesychast had reached a level where he was replete with divine Grace and was able to transmit it to his disciples. Elder Efraim Katounakiotis confessed that ‘you couldn’t get enough of the Grace that the Elder gave you’ . This is unusual and difficult for even many virtuous elders to achieve. It’s something which indicates the greatest boldness towards God and manifests the authentic, true nature of an Elder in all its magnificence. An Elder who possesses spiritual riches can pass them on to his disciple and the disciple, with fear of God, is able to receive this gift, so that he can guard it and pass it on in turn to those who come after him. ...

When they’d suffered many tortures and had shown endurance unto death, the holy martyrs became worthy of crowns and glory. The more cruel the tortures they underwent, the more glory and boldness they acquired before God. In the same way, and provided they were patient to the end and didn’t complain, souls that were subjected to great sorrows, (either from other people or from bodily diseases),  were also rewarded with the same crowns and glory as the martyrs.  And such people will not only enjoy all this in the future, from God, but even here they’ll be granted the consolation of the Holy Spirit. Since the path leading to heavenly life is, indeed, narrow and full of sorrows, and there ...

It is with some trepidation that I set pen to paper to record -what? What can one write about a personality whose holiness and spiritual wisdom stretched over many decades, who was shepherd to thousands of souls, saving them from destruction and bringing them into ‘a place of verdure’? About the comforter, the advisor, the father, the refuge of every soul in pain and every confused thought? About the last person who walked and strove in the ascetic life with the holy fathers whom God was pleased to give our generation, those who died to live, because, in living they were dead to the world. ‘so that the world may live’ through Christ, to Whom he brought it through his ...