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ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Second Tuesday of Pascha. The Resurrection: An Affront to Reason

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 17, 2015 By Archimandrite Epiphanios Ekonomou It’s hardly surprising that the message of the Resurrection of Christ has raised a whole host of doubts and questions. Objections were registered immediately after the occurrence of the supernatural event on which the whole structure of the Christian Church is founded. For the Jews of Biblical Jerusalem, it was a blasphemy of the apostate Christians to claim that a crucified criminal could ever be

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Thursday: Pascha Today

By Olivier Clément Olivier Clément is a world-renowned, contemporary French Orthodox theologian who taught for many years at the St Sergius Theological Institute in Paris. His lyrical contribution to the Festschrift >of his close friend, Father Boris Bobrinskoy, former Dean of St Sergius, ended with the following reflection on the meaning for us today of Christ’s Resurrection. [1] In our civilization, so rich in knowledge and in power, we can no longer offer any reply to the enigma

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Wednesday: Christ is the Resurrection and Eternal Life

Published by Pemtousia Partnership, May 15, 2016 The author continues his thoughts on the Resurrection and notes that the Resurrection is of great significance for humankind as it is a command to follow Christ’s path, copying his works, following His commandments, and loving our fellow man.   (Continued from The Resurrection of Christ is the Quintessence of the Divine Revelation) Christ’s new commandment isn’t simply a command to love in the general sense. That, in

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Tuesday: The Resurrection of Christ is the Quintessence of the Divine Revelation

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, May 12, 2016 The author offers thoughts on the Resurrection with a look at current and ancient views on faith, death, and belief in immortality.  The Resurrection is forgotten in this day and age. Even the immortality of the soul is ignored. It’s typical that scientists who concern themselves with the human soul don’t usually treat it as an ontological feature of a person, but more as a biological function. People

The Holy and Great Friday: Unbelief and Good Friday

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 5, 2018  Christmas and Easter are often difficult days for those who do not believe in God. Christians are more public about their faith than at other times of the year and this brings with it an annoyance. Christmas bespeaks the birth of God as a human being. Easter bespeaks a resurrection from the dead. For those who do not believe, such miracles, spoken of so glowingly and with such

The Holy and Great Wednesday: “If this is how you see Christ, then Holy Week won’t mean a thing to you…”

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 12, 2017 Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou Holy Week is the heart of the Christian Orthodox Faith and the centre of the yearly cycle of Christian Feasts. Every year our churches are packed at Holy Week and, come the last three days, they are bursting at the seams with both people who attend church every Sunday and people who attend only on special occasions. Holy Week brings the pious and the not

The Holy and Great Tuesday: The End of the Fast and the ‘Air’ of Asceticism

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, April 9, 2017 Having completed the forty days that bring profit to our soul, we beseech You, in Your love for us: May we behold the Holy Week of Your Passion that in it we may glorify Your majestic works and ineffable dispensation for us, singing with one mind, ‘Lord glory to You’. Great Lent has come to an end. It’s an event which cannot but move all consciously-striving Christians, whatever

The Second Wednesday of Great Lent: On Humility and the Humble Outlook (Part 2)

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, November 4, 2014 By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi Βlessed and favoured people who are humble are meek, calm, serene, attached to virtue, opposed to evil, untroubled by any circumstance or threat. They live in the bosom of the faith, like infants in the maternal embrace of grace. They never live for themselves, because they’ve forgotten what that is. They’ve become one with the others; they become all things to everyone, in

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian

Saint Ephraim the Syrian, a teacher of repentance, was born at the beginning of the fourth century in the city of Nisibis (Mesopotamia) into the family of impoverished toilers of the soil. His parents raised their son in piety, but from his childhood he was known for his quick temper and impetuous character. He often had fights, acted thoughtlessly, and even doubted God’s Providence. He finally recovered his senses by the grace of God, and

The True Science of God

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 21, 2016  I had occasion this week to stand in a group of scientists. I was burying one of their own. The city I live in is a “science city,” the location of one of the primary national labs in the US. I have lived here for over 25 years. I have gotten to know many scientists. When they are at their best (and science at its best), wonder forms