The tears of gratitude of the poor that were shed for the help you gave them will be bright pearls for you in your life after the grave. Tears that the poor shed over your coldness and indifference will fall into your soul like a flame of fire before the throne of God.
You’re in a dark room and waving your arms trying to get rid of the darkness. But darkness isn’t dispelled like that. Open a window to let some light in and only then will the darkness flee. It’s light that expels darkness. So let’s study Scripture, the lives of the Saints, and the Fathers. That’s the light that will get rid of the dark.
+ B A R T H O L O M E W By God’s Mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch To the Plenitude of the Church: May the Grace, Peace and Mercy of Christ Risen in Glory be with you All Dear venerable Hierarchs and beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, The experience of Christ’s Resurrection, the all-saving victory of Life over Death, is the nucleus of faith, divine worship, ethos and culture of the Christ-loving orthodox people of God. The life of the Orthodox faithful, in all its manifestations and dimensions, is nurtured and nourished by faith in the Resurrection, and constitutes a daily Pascha. This paschal experience is not simply a remembrance of the Lord’s Resurrection but also a participation in our ...
Sometimes a book defies categorization or description for that matter. John McKinney’s Hiking the Holy Mountain: Tales of Monks and Miracles on the Trails of Mount Athos, Greece does those things and more. At first glance, one would think that this yet another mundane (and even boring) hiking guide to a remote locale. Yet, I can tell you that this work is not such a thing. The southern Californian McKinney may have started out wanting to write about hiking a remote peninsula in northern Greece for its aesthetic natural appeal, but what he ended up with was through that experience finding a life journey which became entwined with the faith of these monks on that remote northern Greek peninsula. What started ...
No other hymnological text expresses the redemptive, existential and metaphysical dimension of the Resurrection with such completeness and power as does the incomparable canon by Saint John the Damascan. It’s a masterpiece of Byzantine poetry and one of the most beautiful texts in world literature. Full of sublime spirituality, lyrical expressions and messages of salvation, the Damascan’s canon announces to people of every era ‘the glad tidings of the Resurrection’, the abolition of death, the fulness of life and the triumph of the last days. Above all, however, it stresses the quality and quantity of the joy of the Resurrection. It shows us the way and tells us what we need in order to see the Resurrection. It strengthens us in ...
The Risen Christ and the World The Resurrection of Christ is a historical event. It demonstrates that Christ is truly God, and that He is the expected Messiah who will return to judge the living and the dead. The Risen Christ is the True God, which means that He perfectly embodies Truth, Life, Love and Goodness. As soon as evil perceived that the ultimate Good was crucified and then resurrected, it revolted. It did whatever it could to hide the truth. It used deceit, lies and bribery. For its first wicked act, it bribed the soldiers who stood guard over the tomb of Christ. They were told to say that they slept while His disciples came and stole the body. This tendency, as exemplified ...
The grace provided by the holy sacraments is so great that it has the power to cleanse and renew each person.
In the center of our liturgical life, in the very center of that time which we measure as year, we find the feast of Christ’s Resurrection. What is Resurrection? Resurrection is the appearance in this world, completely dominated by time and therefore by death, of a life that will have no end. The one who rose again from the dead does not die anymore. In this world of ours, not somewhere else, not in a world that we do not know at all, but in our world, there appeared one morning Someone who is beyond death and yet in our time. This meaning of Christ’s Resurrection, this great joy, is the central theme of Christianity and it has been preserved ...
Many people take His silence as an indication that God ‘doesn’t exist’. But if we consider the position we put God in through our passions, we’ll see that He has no choice but to be silent. We ask Him to indulge us in our evil deeds. He doesn’t openly bother us. He allows us to continue in our wicked ways and to reap the fruit of our personal sins. God’s silence is the most eloquent, the kindest answer to our bad behaviour. We’ve thrown the Word of God out of our lives. We’ve ignored His words and, well, now we’re facing the consequences of our actions.
We are keeping today the Resurrection of Christ which is the victory of God over death but also over evil. But this victory is not won by God alone. When the Son of God became Man it is in His humanity by His Divine power that He overcame evil. And so let us rejoice not only in the love of God, in the mercy of God, in the greatness of God, in His generosity, but let us rejoice also in the fact that we, human beings are capable of uniting with God in such a way, in such a manner that in and through us evil may be destroyed. Not only our private sin, not only our weakness, but “the ...
Before daybreak, at night, in the innards, in the belly of the grave, the Risen Lord sprang up. ‘From the belly, before the morning-star’, the heavenly Father raised Him and since then He has been our eternal High Priest. Christ’s resurrection is a special gift, the last gift on earth of the Lord Who welled like myrrh from that tomb. There has never been a more beautiful treasure-chamber than the Lord’s tomb. There has never been a more beautiful opening than the opening of Christ’s tomb. The Father agreed to His Son being cast into the tomb by the transgressors precisely because He intended light to rise from the grave. The Father would have remained unknown, inaccessible, but for the coming of ...
In a few hours, we’ll stand before the Lord, the naked Servant, Who is crucified but Whose mien, nevertheless, is one of majestic triumph, regal glory and serenity. If we are to understand the love we should have towards other people, or our love towards God, or His towards us, we have to understand the love shared by the Father and the Son. Otherwise, we’ll never understand what’s meant by the word ‘love’ and it’ll simply be something that calls to mind certain feelings, certain acts of tenderness and something human. Everything starts with the Father. There’s a monocracy in the Holy Trinity. It’s not possible that this great moment in the divine dispensation could occur except through the Father. In the first ...
So is it to be wondered at that we don’t know how to love our enemies, when we don’t love even our friends? Is it odd for a child not to be able to read a book if they haven’t learned the alphabet? How can you love a distant stranger when you can’t love your neighbour?
What you sow in this life, you’ll reap on the day of judgement.
Most people don’t merely bear willingly the weight of Satan in their heart, but gradually become so accustomed to it that they don’t notice it any more and even increase it. And sometimes the evil one increases the load ten times.
At the Matins service of Holy Friday the following hymn is sung: Today is suspended on a tree He who suspended the earth upon the waters. The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns. He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery. He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face. The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the Cross with nails. The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a spear. We worship Thy passion, O Christ. We worship Thy passion, O Christ. We worship Thy passion, O Christ. Show us also Thy glorious resurrection. This version (below) is being sung by the late Archbishop Job of Chicago (OCA). In the service, the 12 Passion Gospels ...
Real life is like a battleship that ploughs on through thick and thin. Storms come and you hardly notice them. The opposite happens, however, when you don’t struggle. If we could just see how much God loves us, how good God is, we’d be over the moon.
‘Humbled by Your loving-kindness, You washed the feet of Your disciples, directing them to the path divine’. This sentence encapsulates one of the most prominent scenes of humility in the life of Christ, an extraordinarily strange image for a teacher, a leader, someone with authority over heaven and earth. Christ kneels and washes the feet of His disciples and, moreover, rejects any discussion of the propriety of the act. If Peter doesn’t agree to having his feet washed, he will have no relationship with the Lord, will be cut off, because, by refusing the gift and the humility, he would be allowing himself to be ruled by his own egotism. It’s unusual for leaders in any era to behave with simplicity. ...
Have nothing to do with the sins of others. As long as you remain unaffected by their badness, you are helping them. But as soon as they say something bad to you, they’re diminished in your eyes and your love dwindles, no matter how much you think you’re helping them.
‘Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins…fulfilled the task of a myrrh-bearer and, lamenting, brought you sweet-smelling oil before your burial’. The Tropario (Hymn) of Kassiani dominates the service of matins for Great Wednesday. A sinful woman, a harlot in her body, realizes the state she’s in, undertakes the role of a myrrh-bearer and brings myrrh to Christ before His entombment. In a most moving gesture of love, she silently anoints the Lord’s feet, washes them with her tears and dries them with her hair, thus demonstrating the reality of her repentance, which the Lord accepts. A myrrh-bearing harlot of a woman, whose soul remained sensitive and aware of her sinfulness. Tears, myrrh, humility are all mixed with feelings ...
