Category: Articles
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A Comment on the Defrocking of the Metropolitan of Homs
He who speaks about human rights and their dignity and sanctity in the Sunday sermon must apply them in his institutions, in his decisions, and in his manner of dealing with cases. Yesterday’s statement of the Antiochian Synod does not observe the least of human rights and dignity, nor does it attain the lowest standards…
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On the Occasion of the New Case (the Diocese of Sweden):
I apologize first to you, faithful and worshippers, for the stumbling blocks that we, the priestly body, cause you, for not a month passes without stumbling blocks for you, and the distortion of the image of the Church before the foreign nations, because of some case and the manner of handling it. Grieve over us…
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Why Did God Allow the Killing of the Children of Bethlehem?
Religious discourse, through its interpretation of Gospel and non-Gospel events, constitutes an important factor in the formation of individual behavior, and it is reflected in the way a person discusses, deals with, and analyzes the issues and events in his life. For example: after the birth of Jesus, Herod killed thousands of children in Bethlehem,…
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“The Acceptable Year of the Lord / 2024”
We look out upon the new year, carrying to it many tragedies, frustrations, despair, wars, and pains. We have lost the meaning of the Christianity to which we belong, so that all of time has come to mean nothing but the succession of numbers. Metropolitan Paul Yazigi says “the Christianity to which we belong is…
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No Compassion for the Heretics?
Yesterday I read many posts and comments about the assault on Metropolitan Mar Mari Emmanuel. One of the posts that spread on some pages of Orthodox / by Orthodox people says: ” no compassion for the heretics” I will shed light on this phrase from several angles: First: for one who understands only the language…
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Great and Holy Friday, or the Sad Friday
The Easterners (the Byzantines) call the Friday “Great,” while the Westerners (the Maronites, for example) call it “Sad.” So we chant the blessings of the Resurrection today and wear white, while the Western Church considers these days a period of mourning, and childish annual quarrels occur over who is right, as is our custom in…
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The Holy Light and Populist Faith
Every year on the great and blessed Holy Saturday a flood of light emerges from the Holy Sepulcher (the tomb of the Lord Christ), and this event raises many questions, especially when the talk turns to saying that the Resurrection is realized at the flood of light. Consequently two problems arise for us: the first…
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The New Heresy
The Orthodox world today suffers from numerous divisions on the ecclesiastical level, for you see the various schisms and quarrels plainly and without concealment, affecting our internal community and our dealings with both the Christian and the non-Christian world. And on the other hand there is no longer a unified Orthodox vision of the world,…
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Prayer
“Pray without ceasing.” What is prayer? Prayer, for us, is the state through which man passes over to God, and through which God looks down upon us. In its act, as Metropolitan Paul Yazigi says, it is a sense of God’s presence at every moment, in every sphere of our lives. Prayer brings us into…
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Constantinople and Byzantine Glories
The idea of Constantinople and the glories of Byzantium still lingers in the minds of some Christians, and today they see, in the attempt to convert the Church of Hagia Sophia into a mosque and to hold prayers in it, an offense to Christianity and to its civilization, as though the face of Christianity were…