The raising of Lazarus is a disclosure of the journey of triumph, which Jesus had achieved by His Death and Resurrection. This is manifested in the feast prayers as they state that Christ, “by raising Lazarus from the dead, did confirm the universal Resurrection”. This means that, when Jesus stood before Lazarus’ tomb and called ...
Read moreThe Gift of Pascha
At the beginning of this Great Week, the Church chooses for us biblical texts that remind us of what She had said, on the first day of the fast, about the end times. Why is the end being mentioned both at the beginning and the end? The Great Lent is one whole which tells that ...
Read moreThe Light is Greater
Decades ago, it became popular for some, throughout Antioch, to boast about their spiritual fathers. This brought about, here and there, a fall into “the relationships fashion” and into “selfish ambitions and conceits”. I am not generalizing the wrath. I am not bypassing the manifestations of awareness. In spite of the wound left by this ...
Read morePrayer and Fasting
Someone said to Fr. Alexander Elchaninov: “you do not find ill-tempered people just as you do during the last week of the Great Lent”. He answered him: “what you are saying is absolutely true. This is what always happens when we separate fasting from prayer…”! I do not think there is an indication more eloquent ...
Read moreFrom Knowledge to The Knowledge
Does a preacher, from the pulpit of a church, have the right to utter words borrowed from the literary world? I was reminded of this question by a priest, who lives in the West, and who, in a sermon he had delivered on one of the Sundays of preparation for the Great Lent, had quoted ...
Read moreThe Power of the Chaste Ones
The Apostle’s saying, “flee sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18), which is read by the Church on the “Prodigal Son Sunday”, reminds me of the All Comely Joseph who had fled from his master’s wife who wanted him for herself (Genesis 39). This allows us to believe that, from the days of preparation for the fast ...
Read moreThe Lover of Money
He who loves money, cannot possibly have, in the temples of his brain, a place for human feelings! I will give you, as an example of that, what happened in Lazarus’ house on one of these similar days. There, Jesus was hosted by Lazarus and his two sisters. The joy was great, in the house ...
Read moreHealing of the Time
Great Lent is an openness towards eternity, a restoration of the time that was broken by Adam. God had created Man to live forever. Adam sinned. He became mortal. His sin had broken his time; it became finite. This is what Christ is come to heal us from. Fasting came to be so that we ...
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Not One Dead Remains in the Grave
Why did Jesus have to die? It is essential to mention that since Jesus had committed no sin, death had no power over Him. What happened is that He had condescended to His death. This causes His death to be salvific. As to why He had to die, it is because death is the true ...
Read moreThe Straightforwardness of a Teacher!
The theologian is a theologian wherever he may be. Theology flows out of him. You see it. You touch it. You hear it, whether he speaks in the Church or at home, or on the road… Once, Father Thomas Hopko (+2015) stopped a taxi. On the way, the taxi driver asked him: “are you a ...
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