The Divine Flame Elder Porphyrios Lit in my Heart By Monk Agapios Published by The Holy Convent of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, 2003   St Porphyrios (1906-1991) was a monk from Mount Athos whose ill health forced him to leave his monastic community at a young age and serve as a spiritual father in the world. He was endowed with many gifts of the Holy Spirit which allowed him to provide spiritual guidance to the many faithful who came to him. The Divine Flame Elder Porphyrios Lit in My Heart is a short book recounting a series of conversations [...]

Mnimosina (Memorial Services)   The Mnimosino (calling to memory) is a prayer service conducted, often at the end of the Divine Liturgy, for our departed loved ones. The service is composed of psalms, litanies, hymns and prayers. These services can also be conducted at a grave site or at other times in church. He In the Mnimosino we ask God to show mercy and forgive the sins of the departed, whether committed in word, deed or thought, whether done in knowledge or in ignorance. To grant rest to their souls and life everlasting, as only He who overcame death can [...]

The First Apology of Justin Martyr   In the middle of the second century, a fearless philosopher, who later came to be known as Justin the Martyr, delivered a zealous apology of the Christian Faith to the emperor Antoninus Pius and the Roman Senate. St Justin the Martyr, a Roman of Samaria, became the earliest Christian Apologist, launching a rich tradition that flowed through early Christianity and aided in the formalisation of accepted Christian teaching. On its surface, the First Apology (there were two) appears to be a petition to the emperor and Senate for the repeal of laws persecuting [...]

Entrance Hymn from the Divine Liturgy Δεῦτε προσκυνήσωμεν καὶ προσπέσωμεν Χριστῷ. Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ   This hymn is the entrance hymn used in most Sunday and weekday Holy Liturgies of the Church Calendar (different hymns are used on the major feast days). It is called an entrance hymn because it is chanted as the priest, holding the Holy Gospel in an elevated position, enters the Sanctuary to complete the Little Entrance. Nowadays, the Little Entrance is more of a symbolic procession, as it begins where it ends (in the Sanctuary). However, up until the [...]

Gerontissa Makaria Desipri (1911-1999)   Referred to by her spiritual children as “Mother of the afflicted”, Gerontissa Makaria was the vessel chosen by God to discover the relics of St Ephraim “the Newly-Revealed” of Nea Makri, north-east of Athens, in 1950. On this same site, she founded the current monastery dedicated to the Annunciation of the Mother of God and remained Abbess for almost 50 years. Makaria born in 1911 in Tinos, to God-fearing parents. From a young age, she grew to love God and the Church, leading to her monastic tonsure in 1932. In 1945 she visited the ruins [...]