Shortly before He was taken away to be put to death, Christ turned to His heavenly Father and addressed Him in fervent prayer. The prayer is so important for the spiritual formation of the Church that it’s known in Greek as the “Archiepiscopal Prayer”. In it, Jesus prays for the disciples He’s leaving and, at the same time, reveals the Person of the Divine Father and His relationship with the Son.
The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, is a joyful festal stage in the truly jubilant Resurrection time of our Church. With feelings of rejoicing, we Orthodox faithful pack the churches on this holy day, to send hymns of thanksgiving to our Saviour and Redeemer Lord and to praise His holy ascent to the heavens, after He had consented to descend in order to perform his redemptive work for the human race.
Today is the Sunday of the blind man and the gospel passage refers to the event of the curing of the blind man, as the content of the troparia also refer to this event. If we gather all our thought, all our self, our heart to this day, the Sunday of the blind man, and especially now that we are inside the church, inside the worship, inside the mystery of the Divine Eucharist, I think that a miracle will take place in our soul and we will leave not as we came, but changed.
In the Gospel reading for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (4, 5-42), Saint John the Evangelist transports us to a well in Samaria, one hot noontide. Christ had sent His disciples to the nearby town of Sychar to fetch supplies and a local woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus asked her to give Him some water, and then began one of the most revealing dialogues in Scripture.
The fifty days following Pascha until the Feast of Pentecost are known as the period of the Pentecostarion in the Orthodox Church. At the mid-point between these great feasts of Pascha and Pentecost, on the twenty-fifth day which is always a Wedneday, is one of the most beloved feasts for the most devout Orthodox Christians known quit simply as Mid-Pentecost.
The Church calls St Constantine (306-337) “the Equal of the Apostles,” and historians call him “the Great.” He was the son o the Caesar Constantius Chlorus (305-306), who governed the lands of Gaul and Britain. His mother was St Helen, a Christian of humble birth.
This year marks the 1700th anniversary since the issue of the Edict of Milan about religious freedom. Therefore, we are communicating to the Church in all places and times in order to address a message of hope, love, peace and optimism from the most holy Apostolic and Patriarchal Ecumenical Throne in as much as the Church is the continual presence of God.
ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE ORTHODOX METROPOLITANATE OF HONG KONG AND SOUTH EAST ASIA
Hong Kong, June 1st, 2013
Encyclical of His Eminence Metropolitan NEKTARIOS of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia to the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Members of the Orthodox Communities of [...]
The Orthodox Community in Hong Kong celebrated in a solemn way the Holy and Glorious Pascha. Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong and South East Asia presided over the Services of Pascha on Holy Saturday evening and on Sunday of Pascha morning. The Church was filled to capacity with faithful. At the Agape Service [...]
Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong and South East Asia presided over the Vespers and the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great on Holy Thursday morning; the service of Passion (12 Gospels) on Holy Thursday evening; the service of the Great and Royal Hours on Holy Friday morning; the Great Vespers of Apokathelosis (descent [...]
On Sunday, March 17,2013, fr.Panharios Borreros visited the Orthodox Community in Lake Cebu, Chrismated catechumens and celebrated the Divine Liturgy.
The Orthodox Community of Sts Peter and Paul in Pasay City, Philippines, celebrated in a solemn way the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
The Orthodox Community in Sorsogon, Philippines celebrated in a solemn way its Patron Saint, Hieromartyr Eleftherios.
The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, is a joyful festal stage in the truly jubilant Resurrection time of our Church. With feelings of rejoicing, we Orthodox faithful pack the churches on this holy day, to send hymns of thanksgiving to our Saviour and Redeemer Lord and to praise His holy ascent to the heavens, after He had consented to descend in order to perform his redemptive work for the human race.
He had an outstanding secular training. Having exceptional drawing abilities, he graduated the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts. (When consecrated Bishop, he was given the name Luke after the Apostle, who in addition to being a physician and evangelist was a talented iconographer). He decided against pursuing art in favor of doing service in helping people who suffer and chose to be a physician. An extraordinary medical student, he excelled at anatomy. His superior knowledge of anatomy served him throughout his surgical career.
And when he was sent by our Lord to preach, as I suppose, he heard how our Lord said to him: “Go, my disciple, to preach, void out of this country, and go fight and be capax of [valiant in] perils. I have first accomplished and finished the works of My Father, and am first witness; fill thou the vessel that is necessary and follow thy Master, love thy Lord, give thy blood for His blood, and thy flesh for His flesh, and suffer that which He had suffered; let thine armor be debonair in thy sweatings, and suffer sweetly among wicked people and be patient among them that perish thee.”
Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox world, officiated at the first religious ceremony at St. Macrina Church after 90 years in the Central Anatolian province of Niğde yesterday. About 200 people including Greek Deputy Agriculture Minister Maksimos Harakopulos and members of various associations from Argentina, Greece and Istanbul attended the Mass.
On Saturday, June 1, 2013, His Beatitude Patriarch JOHN X (Yazigi), the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East made his first official visit to His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople. This is the first in a series of visits to the heads of the local Orthodox Churches following the Patriarch of Antioch’s election.
On Thursday, May 23, 2013, at the invitation of the local Autocephalous Church, His All-Holiness visited the Czech Lands and Slovakia to attend celebrations for the 1150th anniversary since the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the region.
Accompanying the Ecumenical Patriarch were Metropolitans Yurij of Winnipeg [...]
Shortly before He was taken away to be put to death, Christ turned to His heavenly Father and addressed Him in fervent prayer. The prayer is so important for the spiritual formation of the Church that it’s known in Greek as the “Archiepiscopal Prayer”. In it, Jesus prays for the disciples He’s leaving and, at the same time, reveals the Person of the Divine Father and His relationship with the Son.
In the 4th century small anchorite communities began to form in the region, acting on instruction of Saint Basil of Caesarea. They carved cells in the soft rock. During the iconoclastic period (725-842) the decoration of the many sanctuaries in the region was held to a minimum, usually symbols such as the depiction of the cross. After this period, new churches were dug into the rocks and they were richly decorated with colourful frescoes.
The man was born blind. He never saw the light of this world. He never saw the faces of his beloved parents, relatives and friends. He never admired the beauty of the fields. He never could imagine the multitude of the colours of the flowers. He never looked up to see the stars in heaven.
Large-scale poverty is now endemic in Hong Kong as the gap between rich and poor widens, with old people the hardest hit, according to one of the city’s oldest and most respected NGOs.
The Hong Kong Council of Social Service, which has been tracking poverty in the city [...]
Hong Kong goes into three days of mourning today (October 4) for the 38 people killed in the ferry disaster.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and other principal officials will observe three minutes of silence outside government headquarters in Admiralty at noon.
Government services except immigration and emergency services will [...]
Detectives in Faisalabad, around 60 miles from Lahore, said they were investigating whether accusations of blasphemy had also been made against the boy.
Human rights campaigners condemned the killing of Samuel Yaqoob whose burned and tortured body body was discovered on Eid, the celebration which marks the end of the [...]
The Holy Apostle Bartholomew was born at Cana of Galilee and was one of the Twelve Apostles of Christ. After the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, it fell by lot to the holy Apostles Bartholomew and Philip (November 14) to preach the Gospel in Syria and Asia Minor. In their preaching they wandered through various cities, and then met up again. Accompanying the holy Apostle Philip was his sister, the holy virgin St Mariamnne.
We have just read the long lesson of the man born blind, whom the Lord Jesus restored to the light; but were we to attempt handling the whole of it, and considering, according to our ability, each passage in a way proportionate to its worth, the day would be insufficient. Wherefore I ask and warn your Charity not to require any words of ours on those passages whose meaning is manifest; for it would be too protracted to linger at each.
And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. Being full of love for man, and caring for our salvation, and desiring to stop the mouths of the foolish, He omits nothing of His own part, though there be none to give heed. And the Prophet knowing this says, That You might be justified when You speak, and be clear when You are judged. Wherefore here, when they would not receive His sublime sayings, but said that He had a devil, and attempted to kill Him, He went forth from the Temple, and healed the blind, mitigating their rage by His absence, and by working the miracle softening their hardness and cruelty, and establishing His assertions.
St. Antonina was from the city of Krodamos (in present day Asia Minor). She was arrested for being a Christian, and was brought before Governor Festus. He urged her to worship the pagan gods and promised to make her a priestess of the goddess Artemis. She bravely confessed Christ and urged the governor to renounce the worship of demons in the form of idols. Festus gave orders to strike the saint on the face and lock her up in prison.
However, that which escapes the attention of many is that in Syria there is a massacre of the Christian population. Recently there came to light the disclosure of the fact of the abduction of the Orthodox Metropolitan Paul and the Syro-Jacobite Metropolitan John-Ibrahim.
In our lives, my beloved brothers and sisters, God has endowed us with many gifts. Health, people we love and who love us, the beauty of the world surrounding us, the good things we need in our lives. We acknowledge many of these gifts and sometimes thank God for His loving-kindness.
It is unknown where the Holy Martyr Kalliope was from, who suffered during the years of the Emperor Decius (249-251 AD). She was known for her bodily and spiritual beauty, and also for her clear and deep piety. During the persecution of Christians of that era, she was arrested and led before the eparch for judgment. He immediately observed Kalliope’s beauty, and was occupied by evil thoughts and desires, and sought with promises and flattery to convince her to fulfill his guilty desires.
In 1836 he was ordained as a deacon and a priest by the Archbishop of Kefallonia, Parthenios Makris. Upon his ordination he was given the name “Paisios”. He then served as priest at the Monastery of Saint Spyridon in Plati Gialo near Lixouri where he originally intended to serve as a monk. There he liturgized and preached on a daily basis, spending the remaining time of his day visiting the homes of the faithful who were in need of comfort, charity, spiritual guidance, relief and compassion.
Saint Metrophanes, Archbishop of Constantinople, was a contemporary of St Constantine the Great (306-337). His father, Dometius, was a brother of the Roman emperor Probus (276-282). Seeing the falseness of the pagan religion, Dometius came to believe in Christ. During a time of terrible persecution of Christians at Rome, St Dometius set off to Byzantium with two of his sons, Probus and Metrophanes.
The great and holy myrrh-bearer Mary of Bethany is one of the women disciples of Jesus. She and her sister Martha are celebrated as saints on their shared feast day of June 4. They are also commemerated on the Third Sunday of Pascha or Sunday of Myrrh-bearing Women. Martha and Mary were believers in Christ even before Jesus Christ raised their brother St. Lazarus (October 17) from the dead.
To the Emperor Titus Ælius Adrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus Cæsar, and to his son Verissimus the Philosopher, and to Lucius the Philosopher, the natural son of Cæsar, and the adopted son of Pius, a lover of learning, and to the sacred Senate, with the whole People of the Romans, I, Justin, the son of Priscus and grandson of Bacchius, natives of Flavia Neapolis in Palestine, present this address and petition in behalf of those of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being one of them.
The education, says elder Porphyrios, lasts throughout life (lifelong education) and starts from fetal life, and constantly evolving. The most important educations and upbringing is the one held by the family. According to elder Porphyrios, the family is the first physical means of upbringing and educating people. In the first 5 years of human life the family with all functions – visible and hidden, conscious and unconscious – helps on shaping the personality.
It is typical that, when Konstantinos Palaiologos sent his brothers, Thomas and Dimitrios to Mistra as governors, although there was a coolness between them, Ypomoni was not content with the customary leave-taking. She summoned the emperor and her other two sons to the monastery, together with senators and a mutual friend, Frantzis. She gave them her advice and then bound them with oaths to keep to the agreements and contracts: “So that no-one shall transgress onto the places or bounds of the other and seize them, but they shall work together in peace”.
St. Justin was born at Neapolis, now Naplosa, the ancient Sichem, and formerly the capital of the province of Samaria. Vespasian, having endowed its inhabitants with the privileges belonging to Roman citizens, gave it the name of Flavia. His son Titus sent thither a colony of Greeks, among whom were the father and grandfather of our saint.
The Holy Confessor John the Russian was born in Little Russia around 1690, and was raised in piety and love for the Church of God. Upon attaining the age of maturity he was called to military service, and he served as a simple soldier in the army of Peter I and took part in the Russo-Turkish War.
On May 25,2013, about 2000 people attended the liturgy the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew celebrated in Mikulcice, a place linked to the medieval Christian missionaries Sts Cyril and Methodius, in spite of the rainy weather.
What manner of cure is this? What mystery doth it signify to us? For these things are not written carelessly, or without a purpose, but as by a figure and type they show in outline things to come, in order that what was exceedingly strange might not by coming unexpectedly harm among the many the power of faith. What then is it that they show in outline? A Baptism was about to be given, possessing much power, and the greatest of gifts, a Baptism purging all sins, and making men alive instead of dead.
Ascent to heaven begins with contrition, with real repentance, with remorse. It’s worth remembering that we weren’t made to return to dust. The life of the passions doesn’t in fact bring joy and satisfaction. Attaching yourself too firmly to the things of this world is a serious mistake and brings its own cost in terms of bitter consequences. It’s not unfeasible to advance beyond the visible. Anyone can manage it.
One month lapsed and we are still living the nightmare of the abduction whereabouts our two Archbishops Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim Metropolitan of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo, and Boulos Yazaji Metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo, were kidnapped on the 22nd of April 2013. An unknown group has abducted them without claiming its responsibility until now, neither announcing the reasons for the abduction nor knowing their place.
One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.”
Holy Pascha in Hong Kong (2013)
The Service of Resurrection at Saint Luke Orthodox Cathedral in Hong Kong. Christ is Risen!
Bishop Kallistos Ware: Salvation in Christ-The Orthodox Approach
Lecture delivered at Seattle Pacific University.
Bishop Kallistos Ware: Saint Gregory Palamas
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware talks about Saint Gregory Palamas, Apophatic Theology, and the Essence vs Energies distinction.
