The New Testament presupposes the stream of Jewish worship and prayer. The Gospel of Luke records exquisite prayers by the Virgin Mary ( Lk. 1.46–55 ), the priest Zechariah ( Lk. 1.68–79 ), and the elder Simeon ( Lk. 2.29–32 ). Jesus himself, cir­cumcised on the eighth day and presented at the Temple on the fortieth, grew up in the tradition of Jewish prayer and piety with frequent appearances at the Temple and the synagogue. He not only gave instruc­tions on prayer but also practiced heartfelt prayer, seeking solitude in the hills where he could pray all night, not least before making important decisions ( Мк. 1.35 ; Lk. 6.12 ). The personal depth of Jesus’ prayers to God the Father breaks forth in dramatic moments of joyful confession ( Мт. 11.25 ), the giving of the Lord’s Prayer ( Мт. 6.5–13 ), the high priestly prayer to the Father ( Jn. 17 ), and the agony at Gethsemane ( Мк. 14.33–5 ), all of which exemplify the intimate relationship with God as a personal and loving Father which Jesus lived and taught. While the early church inherited much of the Jewish tradition of prayer, it gradually moved away from the Temple worship and cultic practices such as animal sacrifices, circumcision, and kosher foods, regarded as no longer compatible with the gospel. Instead, the church focused on its own rites of baptism, the Mystical Supper or Eucharist, and other rites that gradually developed into a whole tradition of worship continuously elaborated in content and structure. St. Paul, large sec­tions of whose letters read like prayers, is a primary figure of the Christian renewal of prayer and worship in trinitarian forms based on the view that each baptized Chris­tian is a living sacrifice to God ( Rom. 6.4, 13; 12.1 ) and the church is the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit ( 1Сог. 3.16–17; 12.12–27 ). Stirring echoes of early Christian prayers and aspects of wor­ship, replete with Old Testament language, frequently occur in the Book of Revelation, where the eschatological drama of salvation itself is recounted from the perspective of the worship of God (Rev. 4.4–11; 5.8–14; 7.9–12; 11.15–18; 12.10–12; 15.3–4; 19.1–8).

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Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy DECR chairman’s message of greetings to the 24th International Academic Conference on Gospel and Mission According to St. Paul Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, sent a message of greetings to Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veroia, Naousa and Campania and to the organizers and participants in the 24 th International Academic Conference on Gospel and Mission According to St. Paul, which took place on June 26-29, 2018, in Veria, Greece, The message, read out at the opening of the forum by Archbishop Tikhon of Podolsk, administrator of the Diocese of Berlin and Germany, states:   Your Eminence Panteleimon, Your Eminences, Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters in the Lord: With a blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, I am glad to convey His Holiness’s greetings to the organizers and participants in the academic conference held annually in old Veria, which was illuminated by the light of the Gospel of Christ also through the evangelical efforts of the holy first-hierarchical apostle Paul. For almost a quarter of a century now that the annual conference considers important topics of Christian life in the light of the teaching and ministry of the Apostle of the Gentiles, who laboured more abundantly than they all (1 Cor. 15:10), in the preaching of Christ. The Pauline God-inspired epistles, which preserve the precious testimonies of his missionary feat with all its inherent hardships and troubles, are for us a very precious guidance in fulfilling the commandments of Christ: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Mt. 28:19-20), The call contained in these words means that mission is inherent in the very nature of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, which accomplishes in history the economy of our salvation, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16).

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The Ascension. Giotto, c.1305, Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy      Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession (Heb. 4:14). Let us follow along now mentally, brethren, with the sacred writers, depicting the path of our Lord Jesus Christ’s Ascension into Heaven, in the glory of His Father. This path, ending with His Ascension to the Father (Jn. 20:17) and His receiving of the Heavenly glory which He had in His Divinity before the world was (Jn. 17:5), commenced with His sufferings. Ascending up far above all heavens, our Lord had to descend first into the lower parts of the earth (Eph. 4:9-10) to disappear into the bowels of the earth, into the depths of the abyss, and be cut off from the land of the living that, having made Himself an offering of propitiation (Is. 53:8-10) for the sins of man, He could present Himself as our High Priest, able to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Heb. 4:15). And we see how this bearer of man’s sin, forsaken among the dead and reduced into the dust of earth (Ps. 88:5, 21:15), is the Victor over hell and death , and binds the strong man, that is, the devil (Mt. 12:29). He Who cometh from Edom … glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength (Is. 63:1), and ascended on high , receives rather the spoils of human souls saved by Him (Ps. 68:18), as the King of glory, entering through the gates of Heaven itself, to appear there as the Forerunner and Intercessor for us (Ps. 23:7-10; Heb. 6:20, 12:23-24). If, brethren, such is the path of the Ascension of Christ Himself into His glory (Lk. 24:26)—that is, a path of suffering and death—then can our path be otherwise? If He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn. 14:6), then how can we come to God the Father, if not by imitating our Lord Jesus Christ (Jn. 13:15)? If our Lord Jesus Christ sits on the right hand of God, then set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth , for if we have died with Him, then, according to the apostle, our lives must now be hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:1-3). Let us mortify our earthly passions and thoughts (Col. 3:5) in order to have our citizenship in Heaven (Phil. 3:20), and with our purified minds to follow Christ, the Lord of our lives, Who has ascended into Heaven and is drawing us there where He is. Let us prepare our minds with contemplation and prayer for that spiritual joy with which the apostles were filled as they stood watching Christ as He ascended from Earth to Heaven, and afterwards returned to Jerusalem with great joy (Lk. 24:52; Acts 1:10-12).

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Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Metropolitan Hilarion: to repent means to change your way of life On January 17, 2021, the 32th Sunday after Pentecost, before the feast of the Theophany, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations (DECR), celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the church of Our Lady the Joy to All the Afflicted-in-Bolshaya-Ordynka in Moscow. The archpastor was assisted by the clergy of the church. After the Prayer of Fervent Supplication, prayerful petitions were lifted up about the threat of the spreading coronavirus infection. Then Metropolitan Hilarion lifted up the prayer read during the spread of an evil epidemic. After the service, His Eminence Hilarion addressed himself to the faithful with a homily: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! On the Sunday before the Theophany day we hear the Gospel’s story about John the Baptist. We read it in the very beginning of the Gospel of Mark, which begins with the words: ‘The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…’ (Mk.1:1), and then follows the story of John the Baptist. Why was the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is, the good news brought to the earth by the Saviour, the Son of God and God Incarnate, to begin not with His preaching but with the preaching of another man? Why were the words, ‘repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Mt. 2:1) were not pronounced for the first time by the Lord Jesus Christ, who began His preaching with them, but by John the Baptist? Because God was pleased to send John the Baptist as a messenger to the people of Israel in order to prepare them for welcoming the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. ‘John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins’ (Mk. 1:4). John the Baptist said to people, ‘I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire’ (Mt. 3:11). And people hearkened to his words, some with curiosity, others with fear, still others with bewilderment. They did not know Who John the Baptist was speaking about until – as we hear from the Gospel of John – he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’ (Jn. 1:29).

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On the Saints of the Old Testament St. Gregory Palamas Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. David indicates that our Lord Jesus Christ has no genealogy with regard to His divinity (Ps. 110:4), Isaiah says the same (Isa. 53:8), and later so does the apostle (Heb. 7:3). How can the descent be traced of Him “who is in the beginning, and is with God, and is God, and is the Word and Son of God” (cf. Jn. 1:1-2, 18)? He does not have a Father who was before Him, and shares with His Father “a name which is above every name” and all speech (Phil. 2:9). For the most part, genealogies are traced back through different surnames; but there is no surname for God (cf. Gen. 32:29), and whatever may be said of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are one and do not differ in any respect. Impossible to recount is Christ’s descent according to His divinity, but His ancestry according to His human nature can be traced, since He who deigned to become Son of Man in order to save mankind was the offspring of men. And it is this genealogy of His that two of the evangelists, Matthew and Luke, recorded. But although Matthew, in the passage from his Gospel read today, begins with those born first, he makes no mention of anyone born before Abraham He traces the line down from Abraham until he reaches Joseph to whom, by divine dispensation, the Virgin Mother of God was betrothed (Matt. 1:1-16), being of the same tribe and homeland as him, that her own stock may be shown from this to be in no way inferior. Luke, by contrast, begins not with the earliest forebears but the most recent, and working his way back from Joseph the Betrothed, does not stop at Abraham, nor, having included Abraham’s predecessors, does he end with Adam, but lists God among Christ’s human forebears (Lk. 3:23-38); wishing to show, in my opinion, that from the beginning man was not just a creation of God, but also a son in the Spirit, which was given to him at the same time as his soul, through God’s quickening breath (Gen. 2:7). It was granted to him as a pledge that, if, waiting patiently for it, he kept the commandment, he would be able to share through the same Spirit in a more perfect union with God, by which he would live forever with Him and obtain immortality.

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Archive Metropolitan Eugene of Tallinn is forced to leave Estonia 6 February 2024 year 11:29 On February 5, 2024, the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board formally notified Metropolitan Eugene of Tallinn and All Estonia that his request to renew his temporary residence permit had been denied, website of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate  reports. The official notification was handed over to Metropolitan Eugene on the Church Administration premises: Tallinn, Pikk Street 64/1-4. His Eminence will leave Estonia on February 6. Prior to his departure, the Primate of the Estonian Orthodox Church addressed his flock. The text of his message is given below. “Right Reverend archpastors, all-honourable fathers, dear brothers and sisters, “Christ is Risen! “Saint Paul teaches us Christians to react good-naturedly to everything that happens to us. He writes, Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess 5:16-18). The source of our joy and placidity is not worldly success or our achievements, but our faith. Through the Cross joy has come into all the world. And, as Christ says, no one will take your joy from you (Jn 16:22). So, I would like to call upon you to be good-natured and joyful in spirit and thank God for everything, as this is what our Lord expects of us. “Indeed, plentiful are things we ought to thank God for! Much has happened over the past few days. For the first time in 34 years, an episcopal consecration took place in the Estonian land in our Church; the Synod held its meeting this week; the Council was convened. Over the past six months, two deacons were ordained. Youth, cultural and educational meetings are held. And, above all, divine services and sacraments are celebrated in our churches! It is very important for us to remember that and give thanks to our Lord God for everything! I urge all of you to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:3). “It is our hope that with God’s help the church life will keep following its course. There are two auxiliary bishops in Estonia who with my blessing may fully exercise the powers of the Primate of our Church. As for me, I stay in contact and, though remotely, continue to take care of the Church entrusted to me. “May our All-Merciful Lord help us follow the path of Christ’s commandments and draw nearer to His Heavenly Kingdom! “Christ is in our midst! “May the blessing of God be always with you!” Patriarchia.ru/ DECR Communication Service Календарь ← 7 December 2023 year

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Epiphany SOURCE: The Orthodox Church in America Mosaics of the Cathedral of St. Mark, XIII century, Venice      The sixth of January is the feast of the Epiphany. Originally it was the one Christian feast of the “shining forth” of God to the world in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth. It included the celebration of Christ’s birth, the adoration of the Wisemen, and all of the childhood events of Christ such as his circumcision and presentation to the temple as well as his baptism by John in the Jordan. There seems to be little doubt that this feast, like Easter and Pentecost, was understood as the fulfillment of a previous Jewish festival, in this case the Feast of Lights. Epiphany means shining forth or manifestation. The feast is often called, as it is in the Orthodox service books, Theophany, which means the shining forth and manifestation of God. The emphasis in the present day celebration is on the appearance of Jesus as the human Messiah of Israel and the divine Son of God, One of the Holy Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Thus, in the baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus identifies himself with sinners as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29), the “Beloved” of the Father whose messianic task it is to redeem men from their sins ( Lk 3:21, Mk 1:35 ). And he is revealed as well as One of the Divine Trinity, testified to by the voice of the Father, and by the Spirit in the form of a dove. This is the central epiphany glorified in the main hymns of the feast: When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan the worship of the Trinity was made manifest! For the voice of the Father bare witness to Thee, calling Thee his Beloved Son. And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the truthfulness of his Word. O Christ our God, who hast revealed Thyself and hast enlightened the world, glory to Thee (Troparion). Today Thou hast appeared to the universe, end Thy Light, O Lord, has shone on us, who with understanding praise Thee: Thou hast come and revealed Thyself, O Light Unapproachable! (Kontakion).

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John Anthony McGuckin Charity JUSTIN M. LASSER The Orthodox response to poverty is manifested in a variety of ways. Charity (eleemosyne, almsgiving) in the form of a “coin in the coffer” represents but one of the church’s responses. The Orthodox Church inherited the Old Testament’s witness to God’s defense of the poor and disenfranchised. One of the earliest testimo­nies given by the Lord of Christ is his reading from the Book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives” ( Lk. 4.18–19 ). The terms of the first apostolic mission ordained by Jesus instructed them to go through the towns of Galilee carrying nothing for the journey but trusting in the hospitality of those sympathetic to their cause. If a house received them, they were to eat whatever was put before them and heal the sick among them and proclaim that the Kingdom of God had come near ( Мт. 10.5–14 ; Мк. 6.6–13 ; Lk. 9.1–6 ). In this early period the apostles did not donate money to the poor but offered an exchange. The apostles would heal the sick and pro­claim the kingdom, and their hosts would provide a meal, “for laborers deserve their food” ( Мт. 10 .10b). In this sign of the “healing exchange” the Kingdom of God was made manifest. The gospels also speak of the Lord insti­tuting a common purse among the disciples out of which poor relief was dis­bursed ( Jn. 12.5–6; 13.29 ). However, he strictly instructed that when one offered charitable assistance, one was to do it qui­etly ( Мт. 6.1–4 ). This apostolic model of forgiving indebtedness and sharing the wherewithal to have enough to eat daily is also reflected in the prayer that Jesus taught the church. There the faithful beseech the common Father to grant them daily bread and to forgive the debts (opheleimata) that drive a person into pov­erty, just as those who hold accounts against debtors also forgive them. The symbol of shared meal in the Orthodox Church thus not only represents the kingdom, it manifests it. In the Lord’s Prayer the faithful are not taught to operate on the basis of “charitable giving,” but on a more substan­tive and radical concept of debt alleviation. Almsgiving, in this sense, is a more tempo­rary measure. It does not correct injustices, merely alleviates the pain associated with them. Hospitality is also one of the church’s primary forms of active charity. Hospitality permeates many of the teachings of Christ, as in Luke 14.13–14: “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”

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Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopolis and Preveza (March 3, 1933–June 23, 2012) is a well-known hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. In 1959 he graduated from the theological department of Athens University. He was ordained a deacon and then priest, preached in the Messina metropolitanate, and served as secretary of the Synodal representation. On March 1, 1980 he was consecrated a bishop with the rank of metropolitan of Nikopolis and Preveza. He participated as chairman of the Church of Greece’s work on the Inter-Orthodox preparatory commission for one of the Pan-Orthodox pre-council meetings on December 11–16, 2009. He is the author of ecclesiastical works entitled, The Fifth Ecumenical Council (which received an award from the Athens Academy of Sciences), The Mark of Antichrist in Orthodox Tradition, and How did I come to know Christ? The following sermon was given by Metropolitan Meletios on the Gospel reading (Mt. 4:12–17) on the Sunday after Theophany, January 14, 2007. Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopolis      Are we spiritually close to Him? We have celebrated the great feast of the Theophany . Christ came to us, having become a man, walked in the world and arrived at the Jordan, where He was baptized for our sake, for the sake of our salvation. St. John the Forerunner saw Him, recognized Him, gave Him honor, worshipped Him, glorified Him, and said to the people that He is the One , which taketh away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29). This is the Kingdom of God. For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matt. 4:17). The Kingdom of Heaven has become closer to us. Stretch forth your hands that you might touch Him. Open your eyes that you might see Him. Clear your ears that you might hear Him. God came into the world to reign. To reign where? In us! In our minds and hearts. And if He does not reign in us—in our minds and hearts—then He will not reign “outside” of us either, and our works will not be pure, they will not become the works of God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is close to us. It should be spiritually close to us! But we have to understand: Are we spiritually close to Christ, or far away from Him? We repeat: spiritually close to Him. A person can be in the Church without being spiritually close to Christ. He can even receive the Body and Blood of the Lord, but still not become close to Christ.

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On Magic and Occultism Elder Cleopa (Ilie) of Sihastria Monastery, Romania. Inquirer: I know that many people, in pain caused by the death of their beloved relatives, take recourse to spiritualism, fortunetelling, occultism, or even aim at conversing with their dead relatives. Why doesn " t the Church allow this? Elder Cleopa: In both Holy Scripture and throughout the writings of the Holy Fathers there are a host of testimonies clearly showing that God punishes those that become involved with occultism and necromancy (seeking to speak with the dead). Our Saviour teaches us that Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed (Jn. 20:29). The Apostle Paul shows us who believe in Christ that we must seek after the power of faith and not the perception of our material eyes, saying, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). The prowling demons, however, instruct certain men not to be satisfied with the teaching of the Saviour and of His Apostle—to walk with trust in the faith of Christ—but rather to seek by every means to view with their sensible eyes that which is accessible only to the eyes of faith. The man who resorts to black magic and necromancy is an enemy of God, disobedient to His commandments, not content with the salvatory lessons God teaches him through the Scriptures, but rather, prompted by the demons in this illegitimate work, he seeks to investigate things rationally. And so, believing in these fantasies, he withdraws from God and the teaching of our Church. Those who concern themselves with this and call upon the spirits of the dead, bring in as support the example of Saul who sought from the sorceress the invocation of the soul of Samuel (1 Sam. 28). Those who have fallen into this delusion of Saul should know from his punishment that they are culpable before God. For, because of this very transgression, Saul lost his kingdom and his life and was punished by God to be killed with his own sword. The punishment of Saul for his unlawful conversing with the dead is related in Holy Scripture thus: So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse (1 Chr. 10:13–14).

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