By Dr Guy Freeland* Ding-a-Dong Ding Even if it is those lovely Greek Christmas carols that you are into, you must have heard, if only at your local shopping arcade, that splendid English carol, “Ding! Dong! Merrily on High”, which simulates bells descending down the scale: Glor-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-ria! Hosannna in excelsis! (Apologies if I have the wrong number of “or”s.) Written …
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A few decades ago, a distant relative here in Melbourne committed suicide. At the time, he was afflicted by a debilitating mental illness that altered his perception of reality. His death was confronting and infinitely traumatising for all of those who knew him and loved him. At his funeral, the priest did his utmost to console his heartbroken family. He …
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By Dr Philip Kariatlis PART I Two weeks after Easter – known in the liturgical calendar as the third Sunday of Pascha – the Orthodox Church celebrates two events, which are recounted in the Gospel reading designated for the Divine Liturgy of that day (Mark 15:43 – 16:8). Firstly, the day honours the action taken by Joseph of Arimathea, …
Read More »In the Orthodox Church, the feast day of St Thomas, the faithful disciple of the risen Lord, also known as ‘the Twin’ (Didymus)[1] is celebrated precisely one week after Easter – that is, on the Sunday following Pascha, which is known both as the ‘Sunday of Thomas’ and the ‘After-feast of Pascha’ (Antipascha). Even though popular piety has wrongly attributed …
Read More »Metropolitan George (Khodr) of Mount Lebanon 19 April 2014 How should I conduct myself at Pascha? I try to become the Gospel, to become the word so that people may read me and live. How should I conduct myself at Pascha? If the word means passing over, then there’s nothing left for me except to leave everything to meet Christ. …
Read More »By Photios Kontoglou The faith of a Christian is tested by the Resurrection of Christ like gold in a furnace. Out of the entire Gospel, the Resurrection of Christ is the most unbelievable thing, totally inadmissible by our logic and a true cause of its suffering. Because it is something totally unbelievable, for this reason it requires all of our …
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By Photios Kontoglou On Pascha [Easter] Monday, in the evening after midnight, before lying down to sleep, I went out into the little garden behind my house. The sky was dark and covered with stars. I seemed to see it for the first time, and a distant psalmody seemed to descend from it. My lips murmured, very softly: “Exalt ye …
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By Photios Kontoglou Those simplistic people, those illiterate old men and old women, who during Lent and Holy Week can be found all day in church, lived out their younger years in the education and admonition of the Lord, and understood the joy-giving mourning, which has not been understood, alas, by our scholars, who wanted to teach them, rather than …
Read More »16 Apr 2014 DEAN KALIMNIOU “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that, He …
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By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos The “Synodikon of Orthodoxy” is a text contained in the “Triodion” and read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday of Lent. It is well known that through the ages various heresies have appeared which deny the experience of revelation and in fact make use of philosophy and conjecture, doubting the Church’s truth on …
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ModeOfLife Become love as God exhorts us, for this is the true starting point for changing your life and the world. For it is love that will bring respect, justice and equity into the world, not our personal opinion of what justice or equity is.