St Basil the Great – On Humility   In his beautiful homily On Humility, St Basil the Great exposes with his artful oratory man’s disobedience, and reveals the folly of human glory. This is of course to show that God’s glory is the only true glory - the glory which man should still possess had he not chosen his own path towards false glory. St Basil draws a direct line between pride and death, telling us that arrogance is poison to the soul. Absalom and Goliath, along with many other Old Testament characters and stories, are used to illustrate this [...]

St Nicodemus – on Frequent Communion   St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain was born in 1749 on the island of Naxos. He was baptised Nicolas and received his early education from the local priest. He entered Dionysiou Monastery on Mt Athos in 1775, and soon after was clothed with the Monastic Habit and given the name Nicodemus. As a monk, he revised and annotated many patristic manuscripts, including the well-known “Concerning Frequent Communion of the Immaculate Mysteries of Christ”. This book had as its purpose to defend the tradition of frequent Communion in the divine Mysteries at a time [...]

St Irenaeus of Lyons St Irenaeus of Lyons was born c. 130 AD in Asia Minor, and later became the Bishop of the city of Lugdunum in Gaul (now Lyons in France), where he martyred around 202 AD. In 1904 an old manuscript was discovered in an Armenian church which was proven to be a treatise written by St Irenaeus called “The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.” This remarkable discovery of a work which until then had been considered lost, provided a great insight into the way in which the Christians of the second century understood, interpreted and lived their [...]

Paschal Homily of St John Chrysostom   This homily is read aloud to the congregation by the priest on the evening of Holy Pascha, at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy. It draws from the richness of the Gospel parables to reassure and confirm the faith of the entire congregation. The homily calls us to enter into the joy of our Lord, like the good and faithful servant, whether we have began our spiritual struggle in the 1st hour, the 3rd, 6th, 9th, or even the 11th hour. On first impressions, the homily may appear to discourage personal struggle where [...]

Elder Sophrony - On Prayer The practice of prayer has been described widely by many Church Fathers. It is common to all practising Christians, traceable even to the first -created Adam and Eve. The practice of prayer remains pertinent to all of us in the modern age. For example, the Jesus Prayer (‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me’) continues to be widely used by monastics and lay Orthodox living in the world. Prayer is often described as vital - the oxygen of the soul, the fuel of the spirit. And yet if we ask ourselves what is true prayer, [...]