Friends, with the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord on Tuesday - the 8th day after Christmas - I thought this short piece from Met. Kallistos appropriate. With Love In Christ, Fr John "The Name of the Son of God is great and boundless, and upholds the entire universe." (The Shepherd of Hermas) We shall not appreciate the role of the Jesus Prayer in Orthodox spirituality unless we sense some of the intrinsic power and virtue of the divine Name. If the Prayer is more e

There is a real sense in the hymns of Christmas that, as the Talking Heads say, “time isn’t holding up”; it’s not behaving as we think it should in its usual linear way. It is not unlike Holy Week in that regard. On Great and Holy Friday, for example, we sing, “Today he who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon the tree.....” Today? You mean 2,000 years ago, right? A long time ago in a galaxy far, faraway? No, the hymns insist: today! Likewise at Christmas we sing, “Tod

He comes forth, God with what he has assumed, one from two opposites, flesh and spirit, the one deifying and the other deified. O the new mixture! O the paradoxical blending! He who is comes into being, and the uncreated is created, and the uncontained is contained, through the intervention of the rational soul, which mediates between the divinity and the coarseness of flesh. The one who enriches becomes poor; he is made poor in my flesh, that I might be enriched through his

The first kontakion of St Romanos the Melodist on the Nativity is well known and much loved. His lesser known second kontakion on the Nativity, however, is also worthy of attention. This dramatic sung-homily opens with the Mother of God singing praises to the newborn child in her arms whom she acknowledges as the “immutable Word that became flesh.” Eve, in Hades, hears the song of praise and rouses Adam from his sleep to tell him the good news. Initially hesitant because he h

Friends, we are blessed this Sunday to celebrate the feast of one of the great modern saints, Fr Porphyrios of Kapsokalavia, who reposed in the Lord on December 2,1991. St Porphyrios is a wonderful saint who left behind him numerous writings which are a testimony to the grace of the Holy Spirit in his life. These below are just a few gems from his many grace-filled words. -With Love in Christ, Fr John Christ is our Friend, our Brother; He is whatever is beautiful and good. He