Catechesis for 1st Week in Great Lent by Saint Theodore the Studite

Brethren and fathers, the season of Lent, when compared to the whole year, may be likened to a storm-free harbour, in which all who are sailing together enjoy a spiritual calm. For the present season is one of salvation not for monks and nuns only, but also for lay people, for great and small, for rulers and ruled, for emperors and priests, for every race and for every age. For cities and villages reduce their hubbub and bustle, while psalmody and hymns, prayers and entreaties take their place, by which our good God is propitiated and so guides our spirits to peace and pardons our offenses, if, with a sincere heart, we will only fall down before him with fear and trembling and weep before him, promising improvement for the future.

On Cheesefare Sunday

On this Sunday the Holy Church focuses on the memory of the exile of our ancestral parents from paradise for disobedience and intemperance in order that through misfortune it more evidently emphasizes the importance of the presented ascetical effort for all, and in the loss of the blessedness of paradise it specifies a subject, worthy […]

Clean Monday and the First Week of Great Lent

With Clean Monday begins Great Lent in the Orthodox Church and marks the end of feasting. Clean Monday is called as such because Christians are called to cleanse themselves spiritually and bodily. It is also a day of strict fasting with no work. The holy fast has a duration of 40 days in imitation of […]

What is Orthodoxy?

According to Saint Anastasios the Sinaite, one of the earliest Fathers of the Church, “Orthodoxy is a true conception about God and creation.” Orthodoxy, i.e. right belief, is the truth itself. According to the confession of Christ Himself (“I am the way, the truth, and the life”), He is the truth incarnate. We can find […]

The Synodikon of Orthodoxy

“Whosoever, therefore, shall confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I deny before My Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32-33). The term synodikon is applied to an official definition promulgated by a synod or council, or to […]

Clean Monday and the First Week of the Holy and Great Lent

With Clean Monday begins Great Lent in the Orthodox Church and marks the end of feasting. Clean Monday is called as such because Christians are called to cleanse themselves spiritually and bodily. It is also a day of strict fasting with no work. The holy fast has a duration of 40 days in imitation of […]