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Let not your heart be troubled:1 believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (Jn 14:1–3). We must lift ourselves up, my …

“And I’ll tell you this, my child, that the days will come when the Christians will add to and will take away from, and will alter the books of the Holy Evangelists, and of the Holy Apostles, and of the Divine Prophets, and of the Holy Fathers. They will tone down the Holy Scriptures and will compose troparia, hymns, and writings technologically. Their nous (souls) will be spilled out among them, and will become alienated …

Excerpt from Treasures of the Fathers: The Holy Pascha series, which is available for purchase and download here. Without question, the Holy Pascha week is the holiest week of the entire year. The artistic beauty and spiritual depth of the rites of this week are at its zenith. Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are the foundation upon which is built the whole fabric of Christianity. The Word, “Pascha” “He is the Pascha of our salvation.” Melito …

Recently, I had the blessing of attending a college youth meeting in which they were discussing the sanctity of marriage in Church and society. Not surprisingly, the issue of same-sex marriage came up and the servant asked the youth, “If you were invited to the same-sex wedding of a close friend, would you attend?” Quite surprisingly (at least to me), a couple of Orthodox Christian youth indicated that they would indeed attend out of a sense …

The following account was written by a British author, E.L. Butcher, during the time of the British occupation of Egypt in the late 19th c. The ceremonies of a wedding, on the other hand, are most of them beautiful and symbolic. Unhappily, Moslem influence has affected even these, and till quite lately it was thought improper for a man even to see beforehand the girl he was going to marry, much more to have any …

In 384 A.D., our father among the saints, the Holy Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzus) composed the following 111-line poem to Olympiatha, a young bride, on the occasion of her crowning and marriage to Nevrithios, an illustrious youth and official of the imperial city. Although the saint wrote this poem as advice to a young bride, it can be received as advice for all faithful women. My daughter, For your wedding, I, your spiritual father Gregory, …

Are you going to SMSP or SASC tomorrow? This question likely makes no sense to you, dear reader, but to a fictional youth deciding between two fictional parishes, St. Mark and St. Peter Church (SMSP) and St. Athanasius and St. Cyril Church (SASC), the question makes perfect sense, because each parish, of course, has an acronym. Wait… acronyms? For parish names? Why? Let me suggest with all love, respect, and sincerity, that this notion of …

When the Founding Fathers of this country, after having been oppressed in England throughout much of their lives, sought to define the inalienable rights to which every human is entitled, they came up with this phrase found in the Declaration of Independence: “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We see that the pursuit of happiness was considered to be as important as life itself. Who among us doesn’t want this happiness and joy? It …

In the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday of Hatour, our Savior declared, “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Lk 14:27). From these divine words, we learn that suffering and tribulations in this world are part of the cost of discipleship and requirements for those who wish to bear the name “Christian.” The letter reproduced below is said to have been written by a modern Russian …

Any period of fasting is a time for reflection and sincere self-examination. What kind of person have I become? What motivates me? Who am I? Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos, who was recently canonized as a saint in the Greek Orthodox Church, offers a thought-provoking meditation on the two categories of people in this world: I know from experience that in this life people are divided in two categories. A third category does not exist; …