Ξένες γλώσσες

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. At the end of today’s reading, words stand that we pass by very often. The blind man says to Christ, “And who is the Son of God?” and Christ answers, “You have seen Him and He is speaking to you”. For us, the first words are so natural; the first event of our life, the first event of a meeting is that we see a person, but what was this wonder of this man who had never seen anything in the world and who, touched by the life-giving hand of Christ, of a sudden saw! And the first person he saw was his Lord and his God, Christ, the Son ...

‘They saw a man blind from birth’ The curing of the man blind from birth is a terrible rebuke for the Pharisees, who didn’t want to accept the words of Christ. Before this momentous event, Christ had had an extensive dialogue with the Scribes and Pharisees, in the course of which He said to them: ‘I tell you absolutely truly: before Abraham was born, I am’ (Jn. 8, 58). The infuriated Jews didn’t understand Christ’s words and picked up stones to throw at Him (op. cit., 59). In order not to stoke their anger, Jesus hid and left the temple grounds (ibid). It was after this that he met the man blind from birth and cured him, in part so that ...

Spiritual people are all pain. In other words, they feel pain for situations and people, but are rewarded for this pain with divine consolation. They feel pain, but also divine consolation within themselves, because God pitches blessings down into our soul from Paradise. And we rejoice in His divine love. This is joy, spiritual joy, which is inexpressible and inundates the heart.

The state of one-genderism is described in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, where, in answer to a question from His disciples regarding the way to enter the Kingdom of God and our salvation, Jesus answers: ‘When you make the two one, the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, the top like the bottom, that is it. And when you make male and female to be one and the same, so that the male is not male and the female is no longer female… then you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven’. Moreover, at a different point in this same Gospel, it is emphasized that a fundamental condition for a woman to enter the Kingdom of ...

Without freedom, people would be just like any other animal. We’d be subject to servitude and our thoughts would revolve in a tight circle, within which they’d be restricted. Ideas of good and evil would be beyond our ken. We wouldn’t know what was shameful, wicked or false, we wouldn’t have the authority to act on out own volition and so emerge from the restricted circle of our innate impulses.

When the Lord enters our heart, the desert of the soul blossoms like a lily. Ah, why don’t we turn our hearts to the Lord more often? How much peace and consolation God has in store for us.

4. The slanders We have left to the end any reference to his cross. At various times people came to him asking for spiritual guidance. But these people had wicked thoughts, either from their passions, which had taken over their soul or from some undiagnosed mental illness, in the medical sense. They became tools for the prosecution and were the cause of great tribulations and sorrows. Although he was endowed with extraordinary mental acuity, the blessed man , was unable to see the danger. He saw the good in everyone. According to the Old Testament Proverbs, ‘the innocent believes every word’. He welcomed everyone with the same goodwill and alacrity. ‘I am indebted to both the wise and the foolish’, as ...

The closer people draw to God the more they approach each other. And again, the more they approach each other, the closer they draw to God.

We have to learn to bow our head to the will of God and not insist on having our own way. Obedience to God is achieved through obedience to our spiritual guides, our parents, out teachers, and those senior to us at work. If we’re obedient, we’ll realize that it is that’s required of us.

2. His zeal The Elder was a phenomenon as regards his conscious zeal, as the reader will easily recognize. It was imprinted on all areas of his activities and service, as also in his internal diligence. He demonstrated his unremitting zeal as a monk of the Monastery of Stavrovouni, in the brotherhood of the great hesychast , in the public affairs of New Skete, in Minthi, Koutloumousi and Vatopaidi. It was always intense: in times of calm, in persecutions, in his youth and in his old age. The most amazing thing is that, as soon as he recovered from the heart attack which brought him to death’s door, he immediately found his rhythm again. With this unrelenting zeal, he inspired his ...

Sin really is a dreadful tyrant, issuing wicked commands and shaming those who obey them. From the time it entered the world, it has destroyed freedom, debased the value we have as our natural right and has introduced enslavement.

1. The call through a divine vision In his fifteenth year, while he was on a hill at Paphos, floundering in the dark void because of a sense of the pointlessness of it all- he’d watched a documentary with scenes from World War I and the Asia Minor Catastrophe- the Lord appeared to him perceptibly, in a transmundane light. He was full of love and said to him: ‘Sokratis, this is why I made human beings. People are immortal’. Even he himself was never able to put into words the miracle which occurred in his adolescent soul. What he did realize, however, was that everything to do with his divine calling began then. The kindling of his heart with love for ...

Fatherly Exhortations to Students, Graduates and Clergymen You are human, the most beloved creature of God. The creature that God ordained to live forever. No other creature was destined to live forever. You did not choose the path of God. You chose your own path, the path of disobedience. That is why you were exiled on earth. Yet, God loved you so, that He became man. The God-Man. Who is both God and man. He died on the cross like a man for you. He descended into Hades. He defeated death. He completely shattered the very core of death. Christ rose from the dead in order to resurrect you. To grant you eternal life once more. This God, the God-Man Christ, called you. He ...

Cutting yourself off from the link with other people isn’t a feature of those who live in accordance with the commandment of love.

‘They will worship the Father in spirit and truth’ There was conflict between the Jews and Samaritans. They weren’t related peoples. Samaria was a region totally foreign to the way of life of Israel. The Samaritans took their name from Mount Shomoren. They believed that the true God was a local deity and they also believed in idols. The Israelites viewed the Samaritans with repulsion, and the Rabbis ordained that Jews were to have no dealings at all with the inhabitants of Samaria. Christ stopped to rest in this region, specifically in the town of Sychar, close to Jacob’s well. It was there that He had a dialogue with a Samaritan woman. The dialogue between Christ and the Samaritan woman From her questions and ...

At the presentation of the book on Elder Iosif Vatopaidinos, at the Athens Concert Hall, 19 April 2018. Nine years have passed since the demise of our blessed Elder, Iosif Vatopaidinos. Throughout this time, many devout souls were hoping earnestly to see his biography published. Naturally, there was not the slightest chance that the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi would fail to proceed with such a publication about the man to whom it owes its regeneration. It was in no rush to do so, however. For its capable helmsman and unflagging labourer for the cause of good, Elder Efraim, it was not his first priority. With great insight, he determined that the passage of time would preserve the text from any shades ...

There is a way for us to show good avarice. Let’s give just a little in this present life so that we’ll be rich in the next.

Though God is indescribable and unapproachable in His essence, and can change events with a single word, He came to us, descended to us, and submitted Himself to the whole of the human condition: the humiliation, the passion and death. He did all of this precisely in order to meet us. He didn’t say: ‘Here I am. Come and find Me’, but Himself came to us. What does this mean for us, in our everyday lives? We, too, must descend to where other people are, meet them there and stop demanding that they should come and find us. We have to take that step which Christ took when He came and found us- not so that we’d remain as we ...

Love of God is born of genuine faith, because those who love God can’t bear ever to leave Him. Grass can withstand fire more easily than the devil can deal with the flame of love. Love is a better defence than a wall and more resilient that diamonds. Love isn’t human words and concepts, nor mere declarations and addresses, but obvious concern backed up by works.

A large delegation of Norwegians was received by the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, His Eminence Mr. Anthimos, on the occasion of their educational tour and pilgrimage to Byzantine churches and other Christian monuments of the city of Thessaloniki. The delegation headed by Torstein Theodor Tollefsen, professor of Ancient and Byzantine philosophy at the University of Oslo, was consisted of emeriti professors, doctors, researchers, other philhellenes and friends of Orthodoxy from Norway, as well as members of the Norwegian Orthodox Parish of St. Nicholas in Oslo, which belongs to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Parish of the Metropolitan Church of The Annunciation of the Mother of God in Oslo of the Metropolis of Sweden and All Scandinavia. His Eminence, the Metropolitan Anthimos received ...