Callous people are foolish philosophers. They explain the will of God to others, to their own condemnation. They’re blind and tell others how to see. They praise silence and laud it with verbosity. They teach meekness and are often angry while doing so. They praise prayer and avoid it like the plague.
Every time we celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God it’s as though we have Easter again. The summer Easter. Our Lady the Mother of God prepares Easter for us. A glorious crossing ‘from death to life’. A second Easter, holy, spotless, giving life to the human race, because today, in truth ‘ the laws of nature are overcome’. Saint John the Damascan declares: ‘How the source of life goes to life, passing through death’. The death of the ‘life-giving Mother’ of the Lord surpasses the notion of death, so that it’s not even called death, but rather ‘dormition’, and ‘divine transition’ and a departure towards or arrival in the Lord. And even if it’s called death, it’s still a ...
Decades ago, when I was in seminary (Anglican), a professor told me that he did not believe in angels. I was surprised and asked him why. He responded that he “did not think they were necessary… that anything angels did could be done by the Holy Spirit…” While this is obviously true, I noted that angels are found throughout Scripture, and that “necessary” was not a theological category – and that he himself was not necessary for that matter. The story had a happy ending…but has always remained with me as an example of how people sometimes go wrong theologically. The Virgin Mary is among those theological matters that many Christians find “unnecessary.” She is not only unnecessary to them, but ...
Grace, which comes from repentance, snatches the soul up towards God, Whose light attracts it. In the beginning it’s not so obvious, but its warmth, which is love, begins to soften the heart. Then strangely, a dichotomy appears: on the one hand the person is overcome by fear, or rather horror, when they feel their dreadful guilt; on the other, they’re filled with the hitherto unknown grace of the presence of God. The fear part of the dichotomy is the greater, because, through the presence of grace, their eyes are opened and they clearly see their uncleanness.
The monastery was founded in 980 by the Iberian noble and distinguished general John Thornic, who essentially enlarged and renamed the old monastery of Clementos granted to him by the emperor Basil II. Of this earlier monastery’s only part of the katholikon seems to have survived, incorporated into the chapel of the Forerunner behind the present katholikon. The katholikon, dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin and built between 980 and 983, contains the tombs of the founders and seems to be the oldest surviving katholikon among the mountain’s twenty ruling monasteries. The wonderful marble pavement is of the 11th century, and the church’s watt-paintings belong to various phases from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The chapel of the Portaitissa, ...
If ‘the death of the saints is precious and the memory of the righteous is blessed’, with how much greater praise should we keep the memory of the ‘saint of the saints’ through whom the whole of sanctity came to them, that is the memory of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God? This is what we do when we celebrate the anniversary of her holy dormition or transferal, in which, even though she is a little lower than the angels, she yet surpasses to an incomparable degree the angels and archangels and all the heavenly powers as regards her proximity to God and the marvels that were performed and written about from ancient times . Dormition of Theotokos, byzantine icon, 9th ...
If you’re not aware that you’re devoid of the virtues, this is a downward slope towards impiety. Because those who’ve become accustomed to the pleasures of the flesh and who ignore the voice of God will end up refusing to be moved and will prefer the pleasures of the flesh to God. They’ll think these pleasures are more important than God’s will.
‘And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said ...
The Abbot of Vatopaidi monastery, Archimandrite Efrem, spoke on the radio programme “Gisa somewhere else” of SKAI 100,3 FM on Saturday 14th August 2010, on the eve of the feast of the Dormition of our Lady, the Mother of God. Elder Efrem was celebrating the feast at the Vatopaidi Metochi at Porto Lagos. Here is the full text of the interview. Gisa: Geronta, you are in Porto Lagos to celebrate the feast of the Dormition and I was wondering why women cannot attend? Elder Efrem: Excuse me. This is the monastery’s metochi and women can visit as well. Gisa: Up to there, but what about further up? Elder Efrem: The Holy Mount Athos as you know is inaccessible to women and this is the tradition ...
The Only-Begotten Son and Word of God, who became a human person for us (though He was sinless), voluntarily underwent the crucifixion, death and burial so that our human nature, which the father of evil had caused to be cast out of paradise in olden times, could be elevated. Christ rose, however, and was elevated to His initial glory, and then sent the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to his disciples and apostles. After the God/Man/Word ascended into heaven, the eye-witnesses and servants of the Lord were in the upper room, as Saint Luke tells us, and after they had received the Holy Spirit they were unwilling to neglect preaching the Word of God in order to wait on tables. So ...
Prayer of the heart, the Jesus Prayer, occurs only for those who’ve been given the grace of God. It shouldn’t happen with the thought: ‘I must learn it; I have to know how to do it, to achieve it’, because that might lead us into pride and egotism. It needs experience, longing, but also a sound mind, vigilance and caution, if it’s to be pure and pleasing to God. If you have the thought: ‘I’ve really advanced in this’, that’ll spoil everything. What have we got to be proud about? Nothing we have belongs to us. These are delicate matters. Pray without forming images in your mind. Don’t imagine Christ. The Fathers stressed prayer without images. An image is a slippery ...
The image that one nation has for another goes through different levels of the social, cultural, political and-of course-religious life. And this image is not simply formed or imposed by these life-factors, but is also and primarily expressed through them. What I want to say is that the official policy of a State can to a certain extent define and control through propaganda the image of a supposed enemy. This control, however, will never have a long-lasting and deep effect on the mentality of the ordinary people and on the common sense of any people. The life-factor that goes really deep into the ordinary people's heart is faith in God. Religion. Faith is something that touches the deepest feelings of human beings. ...
The feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God is celebrated on August 15 by the Christian world and is the greatest of those established by the Church in honour of the Mother of the Lord. It may be the oldest of all. The first evidence we have for it dates from the 5th century, round about the time when the 3rd Ecumenical Synod was called in Ephesus (451), at which the dogma of the Mother of God was defined and the honour due to her was developed. It appears that it was first held in Jerusalem on 13 August and was transposed soon afterwards to the 15th of the same month. It was a general feast of the ...
Millennial doctrines also came to light from the books of the Apocalyptic literature of Judaism. Such books were Esdras, Enoch, Baruch, Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, the Book of Daniel, the Revelation of Peter and so on, which are linked to the expression of later Jewish Messianism. This referred to the expectation among Jews that the Messiah would rule on earth for a thousand years, his residence being in Jerusalem, to which all the peoples of the earth would be subject. In the Old Testament, the predominant term is ‘the Lord’s Anointed’, either related to the person who would sit upon the throne or to the future kingdom of Israel. In Jewish tradition, the expected king is linked to the ...
Slander is condemnation, defamation. Slanderers defame and condemn their neighbours and deprive them of their honour just as murderers deprive them of life. Both groups are equally guilty of homicide.
II) Ontological effects of the Jesus Prayer The act of repeatedly invoking the Name has a double effect: it makes our prayer more unified and at the same time more inward. 1. Unification The repeated Invocation of the Name can bring us, by God’s grace, from dividedness to unity, from dispersion and multiplicity to singleness. ‘To stop the continual jostling of your thoughts,’ says Bishop Theophan, ‘you must bind the mind with one thought, or the thought of One only.’’ To oppose our thoughts, we look upwards to the Lord Jesus and entrust ourselves into his hands invoking his Name; and the grace that acts through his Name overcomes the thoughts which we cannot obliterate by our own strength. This is a positive spiritual ...
Nothing’s difficult if we want it enough and nothing’s easy if we don’t. We manifest our confession in Christ not only in words but also with deeds. We mustn’t shame the dogmas with offensive works, but in all things we should contribute to the glorification of our Lord.
