Ξένες γλώσσες

When the bell rings and everybody tries to avoid saying their prayers (a parody of a prayer, but one which just may be, for some, the last thread connecting their lives with God and therefore the only little window through which they can get into Paradise), let’s remember those reading the following text. “Say the prayer” (From an article by a school pupil against school prayer) The perfection of the “Lord’s Prayer”  To Vima newspaper: Νέες Εποχές (New Eras), p. 53, 26/8/2001  * A text that, with communicative-linguistic criteria, could be called “perfect” People’s need to communicate with God (whichever god they believe in), their need for prayer, is one of the oldest known to humanity and is present in the languages of most peoples. In ...

Had the Lord not suffered and died for our sins, who of us would know that sin is such a deadly poison? Had he not risen, who among us would have discovered what a terrible thing sin is or would have any hope? In that case, repentance would have been of no benefit, and forgiveness impossible. Repentance is linked to the Passion and forgiveness to the Resurrection, through God’s grace. With repentance, the old self (of sin), dies and is taken to the grave. With forgiveness, the new self is born into a new life.

In our logical thought there’s an insurmountable imperfection: the arguments we employ and the principles on the basis of which we reach conclusions never prove to be sufficient in practice. In the insignificant routine of our existence even such logic, with its inadequate conclusions can be quite useful in some ways. But in the search for eternal truth we step beyond the bounds of all that which we can see and rationally discern. And we need to remember that.

The present article constitutes a brief reference to the life and work of Sergei Bulgakov, on attaining seventy three years since his death. Fr. Sergei Bulgakov Sergei Bulgakov was born on 16 July 1871 in the town of Livny, south of Moscow. Although he was raised in a religious ambience, he, in the beginning of his spiritual course, espoused Marxism and more so under the form of the so called ‘Legal Marxism’movement. Bulgakov’s first publication is entitled “The Significance of the Market in the Capitalist Production System” (1897). Discussing the possibility of the development of capitalism in Russia as a transition stage towards a socialist economy, Bulgakov accepts the necessity of the capitalist evolution, mainly on the issue of agricultural production. However, this stance contradicts ...

The memory of All the Saints who shone on the Holy Mountain is celebrated on the second Sunday of Matthew. The establishment of the common feast began with the composition of the service and encomium by Saint Nikodimos the Athonite. Tone one Let us honor in hymns and songs the Fathers of Athos, Angels in the body, Confessors, Saints, Hierarchs and Martyrs, and let us imitate their virtues, the whole company of the monks on the Mountain, crying aloud with one voice: Glory to Him Who crowned you, Glory to Him Who sanctified you, Glory to Him Who appointed you our protectors in dangers. %audio%

Let us always keep God in our mind, because, as Saint Basil the Great says, we fall into the trap of sin when God’s not there. When we aren’t aware of God, we forget that He is everywhere present and that neither good nor evil escapes His attention. We should remember death, because those who do never even imagine sinning. Let us love God with all the power of our soul, of our heart and of our mind, and let us love other people as we love ourselves.

Moreover, the truth is that the idea of creation from nothing had begun to gain ground in the mind of the scientific community, a concept that was clearly closer to a religious approach to things. Already a great figure in science in the 20th century, the physicist and philosopher of science, Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944), using a logic dependent probably on Occam’s razor, declared that the difficulties presented by a beginning (of the universe), are so insurmountable that they can be avoided only if we invoke a supernatural cause. On the other hand, the scientific thinking which has revolved around the secular line in recent centuries has sought interpretations of things within the universe, without recourse to entities or principles outside ...

May the Holy Spirit not depart from you, from your heart. Souls are naturally inclined to see the beauty of the form of God. God’s protection weakens our temptations and where there is fear of God, wisdom is granted. We must be people of grace and if others approach us, they must find rest. We should see them as better than ourselves, whatever weaknesses they may exhibit. We shouldn’t act harshly but should always bear in mind that others are heading towards the same goal. Be indifferent to all obstacles. Let the only thing that concerns you in your thoughts be your Bridegroom. However great the harm others do to us, we must love them. Love is the only way ...

There’s only one passion that stops us from doing as much good as we can – negligence. This passion is cured by prayer and alms-giving.

Honoring the saints is a fundamental element of Orthodox tradition and life. Through the churches dedicated to them, through the expressive icons of them as they are in eternity, through the poetic services, through their exciting Lives, through the constant invocation of their name, they’re people who are very much alive for us and their grace intervenes in the lives of the faithful, strengthening, supporting and sanctifying. It’s not unusual for the Church to address a group of saints, rather than individuals. In this way, we honor the infants slaughtered by Herod, the Fathers of the Ecumenical Synods, and those who were martyred en masse in the various persecutions. It would have been hard, therefore, for the sensitive, poetic, monastic and ...

Never respect those who criticize their neighbours. Instead, tell them: ‘Stop that. I err every day in worse ways, so who am I to condemn anybody?’ In this way you’ll have double the benefit. With one remedy, you’ll cure both yourself and your neighbor.

Set your minds, brethren, to the examination of your affairs and don’t neglect yourselves, because even a little neglect can lead us into great danger. I lately paid a visit to a monk and found him recovering from an illness. As we were talking I learned that he’d been alone and had contracted a fever that lasted seven days. It was then forty days since the fever had left him and he still hadn’t regained his former strength. You see, brethren, what a trial it is if something goes wrong with you. People usually dismiss a small disorder and don’t realize that if a little thing happens to injure their body, especially if it’s weak to start with, they’re going ...

The devil, the source of all evil, leads us into temptation in particular with thoughts of disbelief, blasphemy, hesitancy, despair, pride and vanity. Indirectly, he brings us into temptation through other people, with thoughts of superiority, vainglory, anger and lust, with avarice, greed, envy, strife, judgment of others, gossiping and so on. The devil also brings temptations to the body with sloth, gluttony, inebriation, fornication, weakness of the will, hardness of heart and suchlike.

One of the world’s oldest churches was purchased by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the ecclesiastical center of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians. The Byzantine Basmelekler Church (also known as the Taksiyarhon Church) was purchased on September 10. The Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reported that the Başmelekler Church was built in 789 by Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos. The church, which is located in Trilye, a seaside village near Istanbul in Turkey, was put up for sale by owner Teksen Construction for $400,000 back in 2007. According to Metropolitan Elpidophoros Lambriniadis who facilitated the details of the purchase, the Istanbul-based Patriarchate completed the purchase of the church, now the Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, and that it is no longer derelict. "There ...

We shouldn’t regard with surprise and meanness of spirit the various sins, weaknesses and passions of other people. All of these are old enticements, they’re weaknesses of the whole human race. We can’t rid ourselves of them by ourselves. What we need is a savior, not an intercessor, not an angel, but the Incarnate Lord Himself.

There has been some debate, even at local school-board levels, about the theory of evolution vs. creationism and the more recently offered idea of “intelligent design.” Now Cardinal Cristoph Schönborn has weighed in with an op-ed piece in the New York Times (July 7), claiming that Christians cannot believe that life’s origins can be found in natural selection’s chancy, random stabs at development. Some kind of intelligent design must lie behind it, and reason can lead to a rational belief in an intelligent designer. This has been seized on as a retreat from John Paul II’s endorsement of the theory of evolution as real science, a sign that the new papacy will retreat from serious science into the intelligent design ...

Beyond the checking of prevailing theories, which is inherent in the research process, and the required investigation of all alternative proposals, which will provide the answers sought for, it’s difficult to avoid the observation that one point which encourages the need for a recourse to forms which by-pass the established cosmological model of the Big Bang, has to do precisely with its close relationship with the religious version of the creation of the world. Indeed, acceptance of the beginning of the universe from a particular time is more in tune with the Biblical (if not other) narratives concerning the beginning of the world through divine will and intervention. This is where things take a different turn. On the one hand, there’s ...