Ξένες γλώσσες

However, Fr. Harakas’ book does bring up another question which is an integral part of the ongoing abortion debate; that is, when does life begin: at conception or at implantation; at "viability" (the age at which the child may survive outside the womb) or at birth; when the heart begins to beat (approximately twenty-four days of gestation) or at the earliest date fetal brain waves can be measured (approximately six weeks)? For most serious scholars, the choice would appear to be between the moment of conception and the moment of implantation which occurs several days after conception. Even the most staunch supporters of abortion recognize that the child in utero is most assuredly alive and possessing of all organs in a ...

NEW YORK, NY (March 24, 2016) –  Jonathan Jackson + Enation have returned to the studio with Grammy nominated producer Greg Archilla (Matchbox 20, Collective Soul) to record Blame-shifter, their new EP they’ll self –release on their own label, Hilasterion Records (distributed through Sony RED) on May 13, 2016. Jonathan, on break from filming his hit TV show, recorded five new songs for the band’s EP plus a cover of “Unchained Melody” recorded live at The Grand Ole Opry.  The new songs will also be a part of their next full length album which will be announced later this year. The past two years have been a whirlwind for the band. They partnered with Loud & Proud Records to release Radio ...

Christ’s new commandment isn’t simply a command to love in the general sense. That, in any case, is innate in people and we all, to a greater or lesser extent, love our fellows. What is new here is: ‘As I have loved you’. ‘If you love those who love you, where is the grace in that? For even sinners love those close to them’ . Christ was sacrificed for others.  And ‘as I have loved you’ means that believers should sacrifice themselves for others, too. Love which embraces one’s enemies is inconceivable and utopian without the resurrection. And the resurrection is the triumph of love. It’s clear, then, that the resurrection, and love, these two basics of the dogmatic and moral ...

With people who've got personal issues with each other, we give our opinion in the presence of both of them, so that neither of them can take what we say for their own benefit and use it as heavy artillery (if what we say carries any weight) in order to blast his opponent, enlisting us to load the cannons, while we're at it. The best thing is, as far as you can, to avoid people like that, in order to preserve your peace and pray for their peace and for the peace of the world in general.

Now, if all those voices are speaking the truth in focusing on the defeat and note that the Christian Church today is incapable of giving meaning to its existence, to the manner of its presence in modern society and especially to its relationship with the stranger, the different, the Other, then we ought to confess boldly that this weakness is directly linked to the person of Christ. To put it another way, it is linked to the inability of the members of the ecclesiastical body to understand and therefore experience the Orthodox Church as the Church of the Incarnation. And naturally this, has nothing to do with the ideological quotation of Christian references nor, of course, with a corresponding contribution ...

In the silence of the night… Despair and sorrow at their height… His disciples hiding in fear… The myrrh-bearers ran to the Tomb and saw that it was empty! Can any human person imagine the joy they felt when they gazed upon Joy itself, the Risen Lord? This was their reward for the courage they displayed: they were the first to receive the Joy of the Resurrection! Fallen nature was bursting because it couldn’t contain the Lord of Life and was anxiously awaiting this joyful message of the Resurrection. Because ‘it was not possible for the Lord of Life to be held in corruption’… The Light of the Resurrection shone in the world, dispelling the darkness of sin which had had dominion over people. Christ, has risen, conquering death! Christ ...

People who preserve the experience of painful contrition before the Lord in all its potency, an experience which comes from the recognition of the dangers and difficulties of the spiritual life, these people have found the right path.

    PRESS RELEASE Athens, Τuesday, 10 May 2016 On Wednesday, 18 May 2016, at 18:00, at the Military Museum in Athens, the web magazine Pemptousia and the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Our Lady, in Balamand (Lebanon) are organizing an event on the subject ‘No forgetting. 3 years since the abduction of Metropolitan Pavlos of Aleppo of the Patriarchate of Antioch. Taking part in the event will be speakers who are associated with Metropolitan Pavlos, from Greece and Syria. The main speaker will be His Eminence Nikolaos, Metropolitan of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki. His Beatitude the Patriarch of Antioch, the Archbishop of Athens and members of the political world will send written addresses. Metropolitan Pavlos of Aleppo, was abducted, together with the Syro-Jacobite Metropolitan of ...

The person of Christ has been subject to a great many misconceptions, from the time He came to earth until today. Many people altered or distorted the purpose of His presence among us even as early as the time when He was alive. If we are to understand these attempts at fabrication, we need to look at Judaism as it was at the time of Christ: a mixture of many different traditions. These traditions were widespread, powerful, with many fanatical adherents, who supported them passionately. The Jews were longing for the Messiah, but it’s not clear exactly what this meant for them. In order to understand the transformation of the meaning of the word, we have to make a brief review ...

The strong faith of the human heart demands prayer and, at the same time, produces it, and a life of prayer over many years produces love. The aim of our life is nothing other than the purification of the heart to the point where it's able to sing for joy. Consequently, prayer of the heart leads to joy of the heart. Nothing's difficult for joyful people, because they've got love.

Mother’s Day today, and all over the world children take the opportunity to remember and honour their mother. Yet there are also those who question the whole commercialization of the business of the adoption of the day as a ‘feast’, while others think that the state of motherhood is so sacred that every day of the year should be dedicated to it, rather than a single day. For its part, the Church presents the person of the Mother of God as the most outstanding of mothers and discreetly suggests the feast of the Reception of the Lord (2 February) as a day that could be set apart for us to honour mothers. Within our tradition, we also encounter the Church itself as ...

People who reject repentance are showing terrible cruelty towards themselves. Dreadful dislike and hatred of themselves, if they disregard repentance. People who are cruel to themselves can't help but be cruel to other people as well. People who are kind to themselves through the acceptance of repentance, are, at the same time, kinds to others, too.

The Dionysian corpus dates to the turn of the fifth and sixth centuries and it comprises of the following four works: the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, the Celestial Hierarchy, the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology. The identity of the author remains an enigma and all we have is his pseudonym. He became known as Pseudo-Dionysius or Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite. philofbeing.com Hierarchy constitutes a prominent place in the whole work of Dionysius. He mentions it several times and gives the following meaning: “Hierarchy is a sacred order, knowledge and activity, which is being assimilated to likeness with God as much as possible…” And that is the purpose of his hierarchy; the assimilation and union with God. Hierarchy is supposed to enable beings to be ...

The Resurrection is forgotten in this day and age. Even the immortality of the soul is ignored. It’s typical that scientists who concern themselves with the human soul don’t usually treat it as an ontological feature of a person, but more as a biological function. People today live and die without any particular prospect beyond their biological existence and their biographical activity. Within this context, it’s not difficult to understand the widespread pessimism, no matter how much we want and try to abandon the hope that will be the last to die. Death is the greatest and most permanent threat to humankind. And this threat doesn’t merely affect us, directly, when it comes, but also indirectly. It affects us in every ...

Evil has no natural existence and no-one is evil by nature. Because God did not make anything evil. If people desire evil, then what's not actually there is called into existence, because that's what they want. So, by the remembrance of God, we have to disregard the habit of evil. Because the nature of good is more powerful than the habit of evil. That's because good exists, whereas evil doesn't, except when we do it.

In one of its hymns, our Church calls the unbelief of Thomas "good". Understandably one would wonder - is there good and bad unbelief? There seems to be, because humans are not purely good or evil. In one who has a clean conscience, good heart and humble thought, everything is clear. In one infected with the virus of unbelief, all is dark and troubled. If only we had the good unbelief of the Apostle Thomas! We would say that doubt, hesitation and little faith, it is normal to a man who seeks God with the mind. The Apostles of Christ begged Him to add faith to their existing faith. Unbelief, however, is a serious spiritual illness. Faith is beyond reason and unbelief ...

The Holy Metropolis of Germany held a Church service at the Nazi Concentration Camp in the Bavarian town of Hersbruck It is well known that, at the Nazi Concentration Camp at the town of Hersbruck, near Nürnberg, some of the prisoners were Greeks, who underwent torture and, in many cases, breathed their last there. The Mayor, Herr Ilk, the Vice-President of the Bavarian Parliament, Herr Meier, Fr. Apostolos, the Prefect, Herr Kronter, the General Consul, Mr. Konstantinopoulos, the Curator fo the Bavarian Remembrance Museum, Herr Fröller,, the Member of the Bavarian Parliament, Herr Dinkel, Archimandrite Titos Yannoulis, the President of the Greek Community of Nürnberg, Mr. Konstantatos and the Chairman of the Victim’s Association, Herr Vrens. The Holy Metropolis of Germany held ...

Misguided zeal is the turbulence of a malicious soul and reveals itself as jealousy, envy and hatred towards anybody who has something special. It's motivated by loathing and wickedness and puts a blight on anything good. People who have misguided zeal want to sully everything that's bright in people and envies those who have it. It hates people who are happy and desires their unhappiness, it rejoices if they fall and is pleased if disasters come upon them.