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The Divine Liturgy of the Greek Orthodox Church in English

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Lord Jesus Christ Son Of God Have Mercy On Me. a Sinner.   I was strolling through Moscow once on a Lenten evening. There were a lot of people in the churches. This warmed my heart. And although the forty times forty churches were largely lost under the Bolsheviks (even twenty times twenty sounds fantastic), thank God, there are many churches within the Garden Ring. And I repeat, these churches are not empty, and that’s putting it mildly. The smaller ones are even chock full. More and more people come to the churches. People of both sexes and all ages come. They whisper something of their own and repeat something learned by heart from a prayer book. They follow the service, bringing their requests, or, in general, repent of their sins. It’s their business—theirs and God’s. He hearkens to their whispers and thoughts, and He answers. If He didn’t answer they wouldn’t come. That’s something that just occurred to me. Indeed, no one beats us for prayer, and no one cheers us on. No o
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The Gospel of John • Official Full HD Movie • English

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How Jesus Christ  Lived and Suffered for Us The basis of life is love: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mk. 12:30-31). Because of our sinfulness, none of us is capable of loving God and our neighbors in such a complete and perfect manner. Only Jesus Christ truly loved everyone, even His enemies. His infinite love was evidenced in His every word and deed. Being the only-begotten Son of God and God Himself, Jesus Christ in His pity for us came down from Heaven and was incarnate, becoming in everything the same as us, except in sin. Being the Sovereign Heavenly King, before Whom all Angels and creatures tremble, He deigned to take on the image of an ordinary person, to restore our corrupted nature. While possessing all the treasures of the world, He agreed to be born in poverty, lying in a manger in a dark cave. Being the supreme Lawgiver, Jesus Christ during His ear
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Holy Week: The True Lamb of God

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                            Holy Week     We are on the verge of the Resurrection of Christ. Holy Week is an incomparable time. There are only a few steps left to take, a few days left to get through. The world is struggling against each of us, trying to separate us from God, to cause misunderstanding and resentment. It attempts to tie us down with sin, make us closed to God. This is why we should stay awake and fight for our hearts which can hold God and in which the Kingdom of Heaven could start.   On the one hand, the Lord voluntarily accepts sufferings, which means His death.  On the other hand, His steps towards Golgotha is a feast for us. We partake of Holy Communion, we take His love and thus we can live.  The majority of people do not live today, but simply exist. They try to do their best to live in comfort, they build and collect something, they try to make their life more interesting and entertaining, to make it be more diverse.  However, they just cannot adm
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The Spiritual War -- Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona

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  When travellers who have travelled a long and difficult road find a large, leafy tree along the way, they sit down beneath its shade, rest there, and after getting relief and gathering strength they continue their way. So does the Church offer the life-bearing tree of the cross of the Lord to those who have passed the time of the fast in ascetic labors and deprivations, for their “relief, cooling, and consolation.” The time of the fast is a time of increased asceticism and labors of piety. If there is any time when we must crucify our flesh with its passions and lusts, it is Lent. A true fast consists in alienating ourselves from everything bad, restraining our tongues from every idle word, especially corrupt and indecent words, in setting aside hatred and anger, and turning away all fleshly lusts and desires. Turning away from all this should be for us not a fast, not forced labors, but the most appropriate work, bringing peace and joy. However, our nature is prone to sin, and
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PARINTELE RAFAIL NOICA la Iasi: CE ESTE POCAINTA? (a doua zi a colocviul...

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  Pocăinţa Împăratului Manase   Acesta a făcut atâtea păcate înaintea lui Dumnezeu cum nu a mai făcut nimeni. Timp de 52 de ani a făcut cu sila un popor întreg să se închine la diavoli, silindu-l să se lepede de Dumnezeu. Iar pe cei ce nu voiau îi omora cu cele mai crâncene chinuri. Dar, Dumnezeu, l-a adus pe Manase la pocăinţa prin judecăţile Sale.  Cum? A trimis Dumnezeu pe împăratului Asud cu mare oştire şi au robit Ierusalimul, luând pe împăratul Manase rob.  L-au legat şi l-au pus într-o cuşcă în care nu putea sta în picioare. Era legat ca un belciug, cu capul la picioare, cu doua lanţuri de aramă. Şi l-au băgat în cuşca aceea, în care nu putea să ridice capul, decât să stea numai aşa, legat în formă de belciug rotund. Împăratul a crezut că va trăi o săptămână sau câte va zile şi îi dădea mâncare de două ori pe săptămână, numai pâine de tărâţe şi apă. Şi a trăit împăratul în acea cuşcă, legat cu lanţuri, nu o săptămână, nu o lună, nu zece luni, ci treisprezece ani şi.
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Orthodox Patriarch Cyril cries during Lent Divine Liturgy

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Hermits of our times

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  Fr. Seraphim Rose: Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? . . .  “Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? Very simply, because pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world. I am at this moment in some pain, and I call on the Name of Jesus—not necessarily to relieve the pain, but that Jesus, in Whom alone we may transcend this world, may be with me during it, and His will be done in me. But in pleasure I do not call on Him; I am content then with what I have, and I think I need no more. And why is a philosophy of pleasure untenable?—because pleasure is impermanent and unreliable, and pain is inevitable. In pain and suffering Christ speaks to us, and thus God is kind to give them to us, yes, and evil too—for in all of these we glimpse somet
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