Confession The spiritual struggle that is required of us can not depend on having a spiritual father. Most Orthodox Christians do not have one, and the average parish priest is not equipped, either with the time, nor the inclination, to take on the role of spiritual father to members of his flock. Just carrying the load as rector, preacher, councilor, confessor, teacher, CEO, and priest, can be an overwhelming burden to the average cleric. Add to the above duties, the obligation a priest has to his wife and family, and you have the potential for burnout. Is it any wonder so many priests get that glazed look on their faces when someone approaches with spiritual questions that would require more ...
According to Fr. Symeon Venetsanos ‘the spiritual or moral awakening of a child occurs gradually, depending on the degree of maturity, readiness ad receptiveness of the child concerned’. Some children will become aware early, others normally and others again rather later, even if they’re subject to precisely the same stimuli. In each case, the people in the children’s environment should respect each child separately, not exert pressure and, in the case of premature questions, should not assume that the child is ready to accept more mature answers. It should be remembered that they’re still children. So teaching about death should begin with children’s first questions about it, which will be prompted by the stimuli and experiences which they’ve encountered in their ...
Trust your courage to God and don’t start any good work in two minds, because this leads to enfeeblement. Your efforts are no use and the task of your spiritual improvement is burdensome. Begin the good fight with boldness and unwavering faith in God.
Assessment It is useful that the children learn the value of the Saints and the things they offered to society and to the people through their miracles. This is the reason why this subject was chosen to be taught to pre- schoolers. In the end, the teaching results were both positive and negative. First of all, the cognitive level of the particular school class was good enough for the teaching to “flow smoothly”. The subject chosen began being taught and was completed with consistency, and the curriculum designed to be taught was well adapted to the children’s level. I personally believe that the terms used were fairly incomprehensible for pre- schoolers, however they surprised me by thinking about them and finally managing ...
We, today’s Christians, should realize that we’re living in an idolatrous, atheist world and should be grateful that they haven’t started stoning us yet. Or crucifying us. That’s the bitter truth.
The synergy of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge functioning together is set forth many times in both the Old and New Testaments. Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, implicit in all three of these words in their root meanings are the connotations of right and wrong, character, and discernment between good and evil. The thread of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge runs through both the Old and New Testaments “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.” (Ex 31:3) In the words of Exodus, the artist is invested with wisdom, understanding and knowledge. What is the significance of these three attributes? They are the basis of the creative process, of how ...
How does the Church present this fatherhood to people and how does it teach them about it in such a way that it once again projects the sanctity of a life which has not been destroyed by egotism, and also so that people can be reborn through spiritual birth into eternal life? Its whole being speaks of it, as does the whole of its methodology and its theanthropic attitude to people and to the world. Fatherhood in the Church, whether it’s the paternity of God, the charismatic paternity of the Prophets, the Apostles, the holy Fathers or the spiritual father, isn’t a fatherhood of authority, tyranny or domination of the human conscience and soul, but fatherhood in the pangs of ...
The Orthodox Church will celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy tomorrow and commemorate the restoration of the holy icons as decreed by the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787. In 2014, a Synaxis of Primates convened and chaired by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Phanar during the first week of Great Lent concluded on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. It was then that a final unanimous decision was taken by the heads of the autocephalous Orthodox churches to convene a Holy and Great Council in 2016 (and reaffirmed by all local churches in January last year). Following the 2014 Synaxis, I wrote an article, “The Sunday of Orthodoxy at the Great Church of Christ,” in which I described the historic ...
People who are ambitious, who love the flesh and money, can’t bear any threat, any ridicule, any disdain on the part of other people, any deprivation or financial loss. This is why they betray the heavenly and the eternal for the earthly and the temporary. For the sake of the passing, they lose the enduring. For things that are worth nothing, they lose their salvation.
On the first Sunday of Great Lent, our Church celebrates the triumph of Orthodoxy, of the true faith, which has overcome all heresies and has been established once and for all. This is why it’s called the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The word ‘Orthodoxy’ doesn’t refer to any particular system, or any folk tradition or art. Orthodoxy is ‘right thinking’*, the right faith in God. It’s the Church, the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. It’s the body of Our Lord. The definition of the Church was given to us by its Founder Himself, the Lord, through the voice of Saint Paul, who, in his letter to the Ephesians reveals that: ‘… And he has made him the head over all things ...
When John the Forerunner was in jail, he sent two of his disciples to ask Christ: “Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else? Jesus replied: Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor” (Matthew 11, 4-5). Historically these cures have been performed to those who were ailing, but they also have acquired a different meaning in the wider context of the Scriptures. The ailments of our nature symbolize the passions of the soul, where the law of corruption resides. There are ...
(On the feast day of Saint Paul of Thebes and John Kalyvitis) Our Church honours the two great saints, Paul of Thebes and John Kalyvitis. Their life stories are a little strange but quite fitting for us, monks. The former was among the first people to become monks, since he had truly forsaken the world and went to the desert all alone. Both lived alone with the Lord, something which was unheard of those days and rare. In a sense they were the pioneers of this way of life. The latter, (John Kalyvitis) lived later than Paul. He was a young child when he left home to become a monk, burning with zeal. A few years later, he left his ...
The first step towards pride is vainglory, that is the feeling that I’m something. The second is self-importance, that is the feeling than not only am I something, but something important before God and other people. From vainglory and self-importance arise a whole host of proud thoughts, which are an abomination to God. Self-awareness and the experience of our insignificance can help us here. We should often recall errors we’ve made in the past and rebuke ourselves for them.
The response to our 40 Day Challenge has been excellent … and encouraging. We are heartened that this initiative has been received so well -- Glory be to God! Last week, the focus was on Fasting and Almsgiving. For Week 2 of our Challenge, we are drawing the attention of the faithful to the Church and Icons. Today, the First Sunday of Lent, all Orthodox Christians -- from Canada to Korea, Belgium to Burundi -- commemorated the Triumph of our Holy Faith. This is the faith of the Apostles. This is the faith of the Fathers. This is the faith of the Orthodox. This is the faith on which the world is established (Synodikon of the Seventh Ecumenical Council). As we celebrate the Sunday ...
The devil tries in every possible way to harm priests, because thousands can benefit and be saved by one holy priest, just as thousands can be harmed and destroyed by one who doesn’t struggle.
Why can't priests and deacons marry after ordination? Why shouldn't widowed priests be permitted to remarry? What happens if a priest gets divorced? Why doesn't the Church "restore" a married episcopate? Such questions have been asked repeatedly the last century. Though they do not appear on the present agenda of the long-anticipated Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church, they often have been cited as the kinds of questions that such a council could consider. Even if lesser authorities – autocephalous churches, diocesan bishops – cannot do so, surely a Great and Holy Council could legislate "reform" in this and other areas of church discipline if only it should choose to do so. Or so many people claim. And many people ...
Unless the truth is Christ, I don’t need it. It’s pure hell. So is justice, love, the beautiful and good, happiness, even God Himself. They’re all hell if they’re not Christ. I don’t want love without Christ; I don’t want truth without Christ; I don’t want justice without Christ; and I don’t want God without Christ.
And today, the heretics are telling us precisely the same thing. They have the nerve to call our icons idols and us idolaters. They have cheek for anything. Let me tell you about an incident that happened recently in a town in Siberia. During the liturgy, two Baptists walked into the church and started shouting that the Orthodox are idolaters and the icons idols. What nonsense! How dare they open their unclean mouths and utters such words, that drip poison, calling us idolaters and the icons idols? This demonstrates that they haven’t properly understood the second commandment of the Mosaic Law: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that ...
It has become a truism for many in the West that faith and science belong to two conflicting world views. An atheist will say that science is rational, based on empirical observation and self-correcting as new theories eventually modify or replace old out-dated ones. Faith, on the other hand, is held to be irrational, defined by static religious texts and immoveable religious authorities, which can be neither challenged nor revised.There is another view that regards this conflict as a needless clash of two Titans of similar breed: fundamentalism in religion and triumphalism in science. Rather than a genuine standoff between two antagonists we have instead a phoney war based on a cartoon version of both disciplines and, therefore, a misunderstanding ...
