The Enlargement of the Heart All serious Orthodox Christians will benefit from reading The Enlargement of the Heart. It contains a series of excellent lectures on the nature and purpose of human existence. These were given by Archimandrite Zacharias from the Monastery of St John the Baptist (Essex, UK). His lectures are based on the theology of his spiritual father, the very recently canonised St Sophrony of Essex, and his spiritual ‘grand-father’ St Silouan the Athonite. The lectures cover a range of topics, including “Man’s Birth into Eternal Life”, “Prayer: the Way of Creation”, and “Spiritual Fatherhood as a Ministry [...]

Oikos of Christmas Day «Τὴν Ἐδὲμ Βηθλεὲμ ἤνοιξε, δεῦτε ἴδωμεν· τὴν τρυφὴν ἐν κρυφῇ εὕρομεν, δεῦτε λάβωμεν, τὰ τοῦ Παραδείσου ἔνδον τοῦ Σπηλαίου. Ἐκεῖ ἐφάνη ῥίζα ἀπότιστος, βλαστάνουσα ἄφεσιν· ἐκεῖ εὑρέθη φρέαρ ἀνώρυκτον, οὗ πιεῖν Δαυῒδ πρὶν ἐπεθύμησεν· ἐκεῖ Παρθένος τεκοῦσα βρέφος, τὴν δίψαν ἔπαυσεν εὐθύς, τὴν τοῦ Ἀδὰμ καὶ τοῦ Δαυΐδ· διὰ τοῦτο πρὸς τοῦτο ἐπειχθῶμεν, οὗ ἐτέχθη, Παιδίον νέον, ὁ πρὸ αἰώνων Θεός .» “Bethlehem has opened Eden, come, let us see; we have found delight in secret, come, let us receive the joys of Paradise within the cave. There the unwatered root whose blossom is forgiveness has [...]

Elder Cleopa of Romania (1912-1998) Elder Cleopa was born Constantin Ilie in Sulița, Romania in 1912 into a pious family. Uninterested in the things of the world from a young age, he entered the monastery of Sihastria together with two of his brothers at the age of seventeen. He was tonsured with the name of Cleopa in 1937. Against his will, he became abbot of Sihastria in 1942 at the age of thirty. He was not abbot for long when the political situation worsened in Romania with the rise of communism. He was repeatedly arrested by the secret police, and [...]

Psalm 148 In this psalm of universal praise we see creation presented as a cosmic orchestra, where each of the three individual sections are called to lift up their distinct praise in harmonious melody. The first section praises God from the heavens: the angelic hosts, the sun, moon and stars. In times past they were the objects of worship, but here the psalmist tells us that there is someone higher than all these that deserves praise: the Lord, “for He commanded and they were created” (v 5). This praise is unceasing as the angelic hosts continuously cry out, “Holy, Holy, [...]

IV The Spread of Christianity in the New World - the Americas In the previous articles, we discussed how Christianity spread in the Middle East, Africa and the whole of Europe. In this article we will look more closely at the missionaries of the ‘New World’, particularly those in North America. We will discover four of these Saints who have particularly made an impact on Orthodox Christianity in the Americas. St Innocent of Alaska, Equal to the Apostles and Enlightener of North America St Innocent was a Russian Orthodox priest, missionary to Alaska, bishop, archbishop, and then Metropolitan of Moscow [...]