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Being a Christian in Today's World   In order to correctly deal with the subject of the title above, it would be best if one were to identify the main factors that threaten and prevent one from living as a Christian in our times. These are obvious to the thinking person, and they appear to be: The spiritual weakness of the human person, which fluctuates according to the temptations of sin, how frequently he succumbs to them, and how much he has advanced in his spiritual life. The quality of his upbringing and how much he conformed to the advice [...]

The Most Significant Yet Most Neglected Mystery After His glorious Resurrection, Jesus Christ gave authority to his disciples to forgive sins (John 20:23). This grace has been preserved by the Church through the unbroken link of Apostolic Succession, and is maintained in our own days through the priesthood. There is no other way to receive forgiveness than face to face confession with a priest, and it must be preceded by repentance in order to be effective. Some people don’t confess at all, yet claim to have repented. Their sins remain. Others approach the confessor yet remain unrepentant and make no [...]

On the Holy Icons: St Theodore the Studite Published by SVS Press, 1981. ‘On the Holy Icons’ was written by St Theodore the Studite as a defence of icons during the second iconoclastic period of the 9th century. These were historic periods of great tumult, where many icons where taken down from churches and destroyed by the iconoclasts, who regarded their veneration as idol worship. St Theodore’s important patristic text is a step -by-step refutation of the arguments against the Holy Icons, covering every theological angle. He writes in the form of a debate, raising each specific argument of the [...]

The Godparent The most important person in a child's life, after their immediate family and their spiritual father, is the Godparent. As baptisms in the Orthodox Church are traditionally conducted when the child is very young the Church has seen fit that each child has a sponsor. Adults seeking to enter the Church must also have a Godparent. The practice of having a sponsor has existed since the first century. To serve as a Godparent is a special honour, a sacred task, and it comes with many responsibilities. Along with the parents, the Godparent is responsible for the spiritual development [...]

On the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit In his conversation with Nicholas Motovilov, St Seraphim of Sarov instructs that the aim of the Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit. Practising the virtues should not be the goal of our spiritual life; rather the virtues should be the means by which the goal is achieved. He explained this through the parable of the ten virgins, showing that the five foolish virgins had practised the supreme virtue of purity, that is virginity, yet they had no oil in their lamps. In their spiritual ignorance they assumed that Christian duty was [...]