by Elder Efraim
Abbot of the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi
According to Abba Cassian the monk seeks to obtain the kingdom of heaven and aims to purify his heart through repentance. By extension this applies to all believers and laity who wish to struggle and are already struggling for their salvation. read more… Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
SAY not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart.
Romans 10:6-9. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
by Hieromonk Damascene
A talk delivered at the Annual Lenten Clergy Confession of the New Gracanica Metropolitanate and the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Jackson, California, March 4/17, 2004.
The topic of today’s talk—what Christ accomplished on the Cross—is of course a prime subject of contemplation during the Lenten season, as we prepare to prayerfully commemorate Christ’s passion, death, and the inevitable consequence of His death: His holy Resurrection. As we call to mind and repent of our sins during the Holy Fast, we also call to mind that which has saved us from the eternal consequences of sin. We call to mind Christ’s life-creating death on the Cross, which He underwent for the salvation of each one of us.
The Orthodox dogma of our redemption—which includes the doctrines concerning Christ’s incarnation, death and Resurrection—is the chief dogma of our Faith, together with the dogma of the Holy Trinity. I have been especially contemplating and reading Patristic writings on this subject for a few years now. It is a vast subject. In this lecture I will try to outline its main points in a linear and chronological fashion. I will speak about the state of man before the Fall and after the Fall, and then speak about how Christ saved us from the consequences of the Fall through His incarnation, death and Resurrection. Finally, I will summarize all the present and future accomplishments of Christ’s redemptive work. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
“Do you think that I cannot call upon My Father and He will not provide Me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels” (St. Matthew 26:53).
Thus spoke the Lord to the disciple who drew the sword to defend his Teacher in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is obvious from these words that the Lord could have defended Himself, if He wanted to, not only from Judas and his company of guards, but also from Pilate and the leaders of the Jews. For the might of one angel is greater than the greatest army of men, much less the might of twelve legions of angels. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
St Syncletica. Fresco by Elder Sophrony Sakharov at the refectory of St John the Baptist Monastery in Essex.
Our holy mother Syncletica was born at Alexandria in the course of the fourth century to rich and devout parents, who came originally from Macedonia. From her youth, she had been seen as an excellent match on account of her great beauty, intelligence and virtues, and she had many suitors; but she remained deaf and blind to every worldly attraction, for she aspired only to spiritual marriage to Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom. Bringing her flesh into subjection by fasting and austerities of every kind, she constantly gathered her spirit in the depths of her heart and cried out night and day: My Beloved is mine, and I am His (Song of Songs 2:16).
On the death of her parents, she distributed her great fortune to the poor and then, accompanied by her blind sister, she fled far from the city. Read more… Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Fr. George Morelli
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Joel 2: 28
These words by the prophet Joel (whose name means Yahweh is God) were spoken during the reign of King Uzziah (800 BC). Joel prophesied to the people of Judah and probably came from that area. His life overlapped the prophet Amos and the great prophet Isaiah. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
GOD sent the prophet Jonah to preach to the people who lived in Nineveh in Assyria. They were enemies of the Israelites. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he feared that if the Assyrians were converted, they might harm his people. Instead, he set out by boat for a far country. In this way he thought he could hide from God.
But God sent a violent storm upon the sea. «Throw me overboard,» said Jonah to the sailors, «for I know that the storm has come because of me.» So, praying to God for mercy, they threw Jonah into the sea. And the wind stopped,
I confess my sins and take Holy Communion
A few days later, I travelled to the Zitsa monastery again to confess my sins and take Holy Communion. Earlier, I gave it a long thought as to which church I should go to, but I thought it was best to go where it all happened.
When I reached the monastery, I asked a nun to inform Bishop Basil that I wished to confess and take Holy Communion and felt the need to do it in his presence. I briefly described the experiences I had and that this was the reason I was asking the Bishop to see me. After a short wait, I was given permission to enter the Bishop’s office.
Return to the everyday life of our world
As soon as the vision ended, I woke up and noticed that I was drenched in sweat and that I could not move because of some inexplicably enormous fatigue. The clock next to me was indicating the time to be six o clock in the afternoon! Still under the spell of the vision, I was feeling both joy and fear, but nevertheless I thanked the Lord for allowing me to experience all these.
The angel counsels and exhorts me
When among the righteous and the sinners I recognized my relatives and friends the angel- guide warned me: “Dousan, you must not give an account on how each one of your friends and relatives looks like. You must only say what the sinners and the righteous look like”.
After these words, the angels sounded their trumpets again and the entire vision disappeared. Soon afterwards my angel –guide explained that on the day of the Judgment, all the people who will be living during that time will be reckoned among the risen, will be transformed as quickly as the shut of an eye and will have their deeds written on their foreheads.
There was this couple, truly and utterly devoted to God;
People who have decided to abandon their lives to His hands. And He blesses them with both of His hands. They find themselves in the path of Elder Porfyrios, the well known enlightened, contemporary saint, who embraced every detail of their lives. He shields them from every danger and protects them from every threat, his prayer smoothes out every obstacle. The Lord gives them five children, two girls and three boys. The elder one is Eve. She is a talented wise little kid, prudent as an adult. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
1 Kings 17:1; 18:17-19:21 – 2 Kings 2:1-15
After Solomon died, his kingdom was divided, and most of the men who ruled were not wise and great leaders. But there were still a few leaders who listened to the words of the Lord and told the people to do what was right. These people were called prophets. One of these prophets was Elijah, who lived while Ahab was king of Israel.
King Ahab was married to a woman named Jezebel, who worshipped the false god Baal. Ahab also turned to Baal, and even built an altar to him. This made God angrier at Ahab than he had been at any other king. Elijah went to Ahab and told him, «As truly as I serve the Lord, there will be no rain in this land until I say so.»
Question: In addition to what you have already told us, geronta, what else must we do when these changes appear in our spiritual life? Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
The Church of God is not an institution, it is a miracle and it is a mystery. It is a miracle because how could we expect that closeness of God which is revealed to us in the Church. And it is also a mystery in the original sense of the world, something which cannot be either explained or conveyed in words, something that can be known only through a spellbound communion with God. The English word “God” comes from a Germanic root that means “him, before whom one prostrates in adoration”.This is where our knowledge of God begins – the sense of the divine presence that forces us down to our knees, spellbound, silent, not with an empty silence that is ours at times but with a silence which is nothing but intent worshipful listening, listening to the presence, listening to that presence which is at the core of the silence. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
By Bishop John (Kallos) of Thermon
The first and great commandment of Christ was the commandment to love. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Luke 10:27. This commandment of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ passed through my mind as I read the book “Why Pray” by Fr. Mark Gibbard. In the chapter entitled, ‘Praying is Exploration,’ he says, ‘Seldom in the history of mankind has there been such real concern for our fellow man, than there is today. There are the demands that poverty should be wiped out. There are the protests against the horror of war. There are the struggles against unjust racial discrimination. Concern about man and unconcern about God. Demand for action and disregard for prayer.’ Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
God will judge The Prince of evil on the last day - The Day of Judgment
«Satan can only deceive he cannot pluck us out of the hand of God»
Deceive – to mislead by a false appearance or statement
By Fr. Timothy Evangelinidis
When I was much younger and attending university in my home-town of Sydney (in those days a much smaller and less busy place), I was allocated a particular lecturer who prided himself on being an atheist. «Religion is something for weak people, those who cannot think or live for themselves». Arriving at his first lecture this man proudly announced that with a few premises, sub-conclusions and a watertight conclusion, he would prove beyond any doubt that God did not exist. It went something like this: Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
“Whose voice is that rattling in your brain?”
The following words of St. Silouan are fairly straightforward. God give us grace and good hearts to hear him.
If you think evil of people, it means you have an evil spirit in you whispering evil thoughts about others. And if a man dies without repenting, without having forgiven his brother, his soul will go to the place where lives the evil spirit which possessed his soul. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Angels and Demons
God sent us angels to be our traveling companions and our guides in this life, to guard us and protect us from all evil. They are also our most faithful allies in our struggle against the forces of evil. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
«And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentile unto all men . . .» (II Timothy 2:24)
OUR PIOUS BROTHERS AND SISTERS, the laity in Christ, must also take care not to be led astray by the spirit of the world and to confuse imprudent zeal with the true spirit of evangelical love.
St. Nectarios of Aegina offers us, in just a few lines, an image of the true zealot of Christ: Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Your birds awaken me in the morning, and the murmur of the lake lulls me to sleep in the evening. But it is not the birds that awaken me, nor the lake that lulls me to sleep, but You, 0 Lord, Master of the voice.
You lend Your voice to the birds and the midnight murmur to the lake. You have lent a voice to every throat, and have put a story into every creature. I am surrounded by Your heralds, as a student by many teachers, and I listen to them tirelessly from day until dusk. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
St Nicholas Velimirovic
«The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom» (Proverbs 1:7).
If someone were to know the number of stars in the heavens and the names of the fish in the sea and the amount of the grass in the field and the habits of the beasts in the forest and would not have the fear of God, his knowledge is as water in a sieve. And before death, his knowledge makes him a greater coward than the completely ignorant. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Dearly Beloved Brethren,
Nοbody knows the time or even the place that our Lord is coming again to judge the living and the dead. For this reason, the Fathers of our Church do not tell us to try and outsmart God, by predicting the time that He will appear. On the contrary the Fathers concentrate on teaching us to be constantly ready and watchful, by praying, fasting and doing works of love and faith. We are instructed to expect a sudden if not instant entry of our Lord.
In the final chapter of the Book of Revelations, the Apocalypse of Saint John we are informed that we must fully accept the imminent coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore we are told that our world will suffer terribly before the DEUTERA PAROUSIA (SECOND COMING) of our Lord and that this world will be destroyed. Nevertheless so let it be, in obedience we should pray «Even so come, Lord Jesus [Christ]» (Rev 22:20) and come quickly. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Standing by the coffin I gazed therein and beheld the corruption of the flesh. In the grave it had become repulsive – there was nothing to resemble an attractive face; instead dry, crumbling bones covered with corruption were to be seen. With sorrow and grief I withdrew from the coffin, carried by my thoughts to that time when we will be resurrected to the sound of the trumpet and will glorify Thee for the resurrection prepared for Adam’s descendants and say: Praise to Thee, O Lord of all! Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙ
Απόψεις για τη Μονή Βατοπαιδίου (και όχι μόνο) 