Ξένες γλώσσες

God sees what each of us has in our soul, what our heart is attached to for most of the course of our life. If the Lord had given us the ability to read the depths of the human heart, then we’d certainly turn away our eyes in horror at the host of sins and iniquities we’d see there.

Today (May 29), the Orthodox Church remembers the Fall of Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, in 1453. Named after Saint Constantine the Great, Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire (330-1453). Although Byzantium’s vast power spanned 11 centuries, its story is often held hidden. In his 2006 book, “Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World,” Colin Wells describes it as: The successor of Greece and Rome, this magnificent empire bridged the ancient and modern worlds for more than a thousand years. Without Byzantium, the works of Homer and Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Aeschylus, would never have survived. Yet very few of us have any idea of the enormous debt we owe them. More than just the cultural, ...

Compunction is born of watchfulness and watchfulness is increased by compunction. The one begets and reinforces the other. Together they give depth to prayer and, gradually, life to the heart, which they cleanse.

We think we know a lot, but what we know is very little. Even those who work hard all their lives for the improvement of humankind, realize in the end that their knowledge is no more than a grain of sand by the sea. All our achievements aren't enough.

There's nothing more important than realizing your weakness and your lack of knowledge. The first step to wisdom is to recognize your mistakes. Knowledge of ourselves and of our errors is the beginning of our salvation. Those who know their sins are half-way to their justification.

Between 7 and 9 May 2015, the 1st International Conference of Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care (DMOPC15 – Living Water) was organized in Athens by Pemptousia, in collaboration with the Orthodox Internet portals ‘Orthodox Christian Network’ (www.myocn.net, Organ of the Synod of Canonical Bishops of the United States of America) and Bogoslov (www.bogoslov.ru, of the Department of Theological Training of the Moscow Patriarchate). 72 speakers from 21 countries and with a variety of specialities and ecclesiastical rank took part in the conference. The proceedings highlighted the advances, but also the concerns, which have arisen from the use of the Internet. The content of the proceedings is now available to anyone interested, so that all who wish to benefit from it can have ...

People who have a spiritual life see with the eyes of their soul how the evil one sets his traps, how the angels guide us. How the Almighty Lord allows temptations and how He comforts us

We’ll start by quoting some selected passages from the Scriptures, in order to cover as many aspects of the vine and wine as we can. Wine as a material good/Preservation of wine: The Wisdom of Sirach says (39, 26): ‘The principal things for the whole use of people’s lives are water, fire iron and salt, flour of wheat, honey, milk and the blood of the grape, and oil and clothing’. Corn, wine and oil are considered to be essentials (Ps. 4, 8). Wine is important in life because it’s a tonic, especially for those walking long distances. Saint Paul tells Timothy: ‘Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses’ (1 Tim. ...

It's better for parents to talk more to God about their children than to talk to their children about God.

There’s a worse inundation than water: if you're inundated by the passions. When the passions start to burn, when they begin to smoke and blacken everything, when they give off their stench and it gets everywhere. Where will people go then and who will save them? Only under the hand of God, only under His protection, in the refuge from above. The flood of the passions almost engulfed David but he fled from them and found refuge in the strong arm of the Lord Most High: He escaped the fire, the smoke and the stench of the passions that were pursuing him. He escaped to the protection from above.

The danger in setting the period between conception and implantation as an acceptable time to destroy the already conceived child is that it is both arbitrary and artificial without any real medical, scientific or theological meaning. It has instead the meaning each individual involved cares to give it. Therefore, while one person may speak scrupulously and compassionately only about cases of rape and incest, the less scrupulous will use this "dispensation" — not oikonomia — to cover every "traumatic" pregnancy. And, by accepting for whatever "good" reason the legitimacy of the termination of pregnancy after conception, there is no way to intellectually or theologically forbid the taking of that life at a later stage for reasons which may be less ...

When children are hurt and wounded by something serious, don't let it bother you if they behave badly. They don't really want to, but can’t help it when it's hard for them. They're sorry afterwards.

But what is the criterion for assessing such a presence or absence of Christ within a person’s being? How is this presence «measured», that is, how does it become visible, how does it become perceptible? How is it revealed, if, indeed it is revealed, this «Christification» to recall a word used by Father Justin Popović? How does the spirit become flesh? The answer is simple and not at all theoretical. The fundamental criterion for Christification, the discovery of the Christ-bearer, is the revelation of the identity of the energy of Christ and the Christ-bearer by imitation and type. Just as the Church is an image and type of the Holy Trinity, so the human person is made in the image ...