Ξένες γλώσσες

If, my beloved fathers and brethren, I were granted the gift of acquiring one of the tongues which the angels have, as the Apostle of Christ Paul says, (“even if I speak in the tongues of the Angels”) it would be certain and only to be expected that I would be able to praise Michael and Gabriel, the Archangels of the Lord, in a manner befitting them, since it is natural that one thing can be praised and presented to others by something similar to it. Had I but one of those fiery and immaterial tongues which were given to the holy and divine Apostles, I would be able to speak with supernatural praise, as is their due, of the ...

A timely reprint – for thinking about heaven and hell. I continue to be amazed at the literalism that infects the minds of many Christians. Just because Scripture uses the language of geography to describe something does not at all mean that we should assume that it is referring to a literal geography. Those whose imaginations are filled with various versions of heaven and hell in literal terms – it seems to me – lack imagination. The accounts of Christ after the Resurrection, though marked occasionally with very physical descriptions, are clearly marked as well with things that defy everything we know of physicality. His Resurrection is the only “image” of a tangible/non-tangible sort that we can point to for the character ...

Wealth or Spiritual Poverty? Today’s Gospel reading is very well known. It’s the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and the subject it deals with is wealth, both material and spiritual. The Gospel presents two people with entirely different lifestyles. One was rich, very much so, and was a man of means. He was comfortable and enjoyed all the comforts this fleeting life has to offer. Most of all, though, he was selfish, turned in on himself, ignoring the least of his brethren, who was right next to him. This other person was at the opposite pole from the man who lived in luxury. He was a ‘poor Saint’, an unimportant, beleaguered, tormented and starving person, living in wretched conditions. The poor ...

A sign of the first fear is if you hate sin and become enraged at it, as if you’ve been wounded by a wild animal. A sign of perfect fear is to love virtue and to fear alteration, because nobody’s safe from it. In all things in this life, we shall beware of falling.

The Lord’s words, Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul (Matt. 10:28) have inspired many generations of Christians over the past two thousand years, since the sacrificial cru­cifixion of our Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ. Following these words, even our sinful yet cross-bearing people have produced many martyrs and saints from the inception of Christianity until now. Even today, when many have distanced themselves from Christ, there are God-thirsting souls who are prepared to follow Christ through death into eternal life. Such a one was Fr. Hariton. Fr. Hariton first saw this world on the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel, November 8/21, 1960, in the village of Lukovačka Reka at Kuršumlija . ...

With the honours accorded to a Head of State, the Precious Girdle of Our Lady the Mother of God left the Holy Mountain in order to be available for veneration by the Orthodox faithful in Greece in the Metropoles of Nea Ionia, Larissa and Aitoloakarnania. Together with Elder Efraim, the venerable Abbot of the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi, It was given in an official welcome in New Ionia on 3 November by Metropolitan Gavriil and a host of clergy and laity, since it is the sole heirloom we have of Our Lady’s life on earth. To see the reception of the Precious Girdle of the Mother of God, click : http://www.pemptousia.gr/?p=174796 Today, Monday 6 November, at 20.30, in the church of ...

If the name of God is always on our lips, will He Who has so much love not sweeten us?

In his 56th Discourse (On faith and those who say it is not possible to live in the world and achieve the perfection of the virtues), Saint Symeon the New Theologian  presents us with the following story. “In our own time, there was a young man, about twenty years old, by the name of George, who lived in Constantinople. He was a good-looking specimen, elegant in shape, manners and gait… During the day, he was in the palace of a patrician, from which he went out on a daily basis and managed everything necessary for the people in the palace… At night, he shed tears from his eyes and did ever more prostrations, down to the ground. When he stood in ...

When people are trying, they see for themselves just how much God looks after them personally and how greatly He’s concerned with the details of their life. And so their faith increases. If they’re faced with various difficulties and temptations, they don’t think themselves unhappy, because Christ Crucified is behind the difficulties and gives them the strength they need to deal with them. Blessed are they who really live with Christ, breathe with Him and die with Him in this life.

The Decline of Asceticism and Spirituality The frenzy spread by the demand for “social progress” throughout the nineteenth century diminished the interest in asceticism and the spiritual life. People’s relationship to the Church was limited to “spiritual responsibilities.” Monasticism, under the influence of pathological phenomena that were imposed by the architects of the ethnic life, was marginalized as a parochial historical phenomenon of degeneration and decline that obstructed the progress of society. The spirit of secularism entered into the monastic environment itself, with the demand for monastic justification, not as it was, but with a “more active participation” in the life of society and the world. The study of our colleague, Mr. Al. Gousidis, emphasizes relevant claims: 1) the nomination of monks into ...

Because they don’t need anything, self-contained people are closer to God than others are.

But those who are united to God by faith and recognize Him through action are indeed enabled to see Him by contemplation. They see things of which I am unable to write. Their minds sees strange visions and is totally illumined so that it becomes like light, though they are unable to conceive these things or describe them. Their mind is itself light and sees all things as light; the light itself has life and imparts light to those who see it. They see themselves entirely united to the light and, as they see, they concentrate on the vision {and are as they were}. They perceive the light in their soul and are in ecstasy. In their ecstasy they see ...

Let nothing seem difficult for you.

The degradation of the quality of the environment in which we live is an incontrovertible fact. For decades now, many people have recognized the importance of this, though, unfortunately fewer have been moved to take practical steps and undertake action, even though we all suffer the consequences of this decline. Scientific discourse is unavoidably involved in this question.  In the first place, circumstances are such today that it’s accorded, as if by right, a part in any kind of discussion which takes place in the public sphere. And also because technological applications shoulder a large part of the burden  of responsibility for the ecological crisis, or because the solutions to many of the problems are expected to come from scientific thinking.   In ...

There’s no other factor that’s so effective as the various afflictions, either deliberate or otherwise, which bring the mind to a humble outlook. The impossibility of its redemption teaches it in a practical manner just how insignificant and wretched it is. Then Christ words ‘You can do nothing without me’ (Jn.15, 5) become abundantly clear, and, with the help of Grace, the mind is transported to the real world of the kingdom above.

Our Christ and God calls to us every day through his Gospel: “blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. When we hear this, we ought to be pay attention and examine ourselves carefully, to see whether we are really such poor people to the extent that we are aware in our souls that the kingdom of heaven will certainly be ours. Whether we possess its riches to such an extent that we feel without doubt that we exist within it and rejoice by plunging ourselves into the good things it has to offer. Because the Lord said that it is within us.             Signs and proof that the kingdom is within people are that they ...

Look at people who are scornful, malicious and proud as no more than puffs of wind. Don’t be hurt by their wickedness, their pride and their malice. Make sure you stay calm. The enemy’s attempting to annoy you by involving your human passions or by planting suspicion and flights of fancy in your heart.