Saint Ephraim the Syrian — “Death Slew and was Slain”   In his sermon “On Our Lord”, the masterful poet and orator St Ephraim the Syrian portrays with all his customary eloquence the theological significance of the death and Resurrection of our Lord. The Saint commences by confirming that our Lord did in fact die: “[death] trampled our Lord underfoot”. However, this trampling was in no way a defeat, for Christ “in turn treated death as a high road for His own feet”. In other words, Christ’s death was not an unintended consequence of His coming. There was a mission [...]

8th Ode of the Katavasiae of Pascha   Αὕτη ἡ κλητὴ καὶ ἁγία ἡμέρα, ἡ μία τῶν Σαββάτων, ἡ βασιλὶς καὶ κυρία, ἑορτῶν ἑορτή, καὶ πανήγυρις ἐστὶ πανηγύρεων, ἐν ᾗ εὐλογοῦμεν, Χριστὸν εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. This chosen and holy day is the first of Sabbaths, the Queen and Lady, the Feast of Feasts and the Festival of Festivals on which we bless Christ to all the ages.   This hymn is the 8th Ode of the Katavasiae of Easter, chanted for the first time in the Church Calendar during the Matins service of Easter Sunday and then for the following [...]

St Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow (1865-1925)   Born Vasily Ivanovich Belavin in the Pskov region of Russia in 1865, St Tikhon from his youth displayed fervour for the Orthodox Faith. He entered the Pskov seminary at the age of thirteen, and went on to graduate from the St Petersburg Theological Academy at the age of 23. He took monastic vows at the age of 26, taking the name of Tikhon in honour of St Tikhon of Zadonsk. Made an Archimandrite in 1892, he became Bishop of Lublin in 1897. The next year, he was made Bishop of the Aleutians and [...]

«ποῦ πορευθῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός σου, καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου σου ποῦ φύγω;» (Ψαλμ. ΡΛΘ᾽ 7)  “Where could I go from Your Spirit, οr flee from Your face?” (Ps 138:7)   Psalm 138 is a remarkable portrait of the deep awareness the Holy Prophet-King David had of God’s presence in his life. David was well acquainted with every corner of the land of Israel. As a young shepherd, he would wander through the mountains, he spent much of his youth hiding from King Saul in the forests and the caves, and he fought many battles in the plains and deserts [...]

Recalling the sound of hand grenades   A gentle, tall and dignified man, Barba Gianni, recalls his memories of the German occupation during the Second World War in Greece. He remembers the different sounds of hand grenades, and how as children they had been taught to distinguish between the sizzle and the whistling sounds. He remembers how he was fearful of overhead planes, and remembers how he had a very close encounter with death when a bomb exploded near him. Regarding the civil war, he recalls how his father refused to take sides when coerced by a Greek communist fighter [...]