Some were incorruptible and others were fragrant), all raised their hands, unable to explain them scientifically!

 If someone asks you:

How is it proven that Orthodoxy is the only true faith, answer him that:

 

a) The Holy Light is given miraculously,

Only to the Orthodox

And to no heterodox or non-Orthodox!

 

b) Only the Orthodox Priest

Casts out demons from a demonized person!

To heterodox and non-Orthodox clergy, the demon is indifferent.

 

c) Only the tomb of Christ is empty. No other tomb of a religious leader

Is empty..

The empty tomb of Christ is indeed a proof of the Resurrection

And of our correct Faith.

 

d) Only in Orthodoxy do you encounter countless Holy relics.

All the doctors in the world, who examined Holy relics

(Some were incorruptible and others were fragrant), all raised their hands, unable to explain them scientifically!

 

e) Only in Orthodoxy,

You will encounter countless miracles.

From the Virgin Mary and from countless Saints.

And countless miraculous icons.

 

f) Only the Orthodox Priest, by reading a special prayer, sanctifies the water

And makes it a Sanctification.

In fact, sanctification never spoils the water, no matter how many centuries pass!

 

g) Only Orthodoxy has millions of Witnesses.

Preacher Dimitrios Panagopoulos +

"The Liturgy is like an engagement for us..."

 The Liturgy is like an engagement for us. Just as you wear an engagement ring, which signifies a promise of marriage, so too does the Liturgy signify that I am united with Christ, who promises me that, if I remain faithful, He will certainly bring me into the Kingdom of Heaven.

We live in this paradise on earth.

Here, then, my beloved, this great truth is fulfilled.

Here, when we celebrate the Liturgy, the entire Church of Christ is present.

We are united with Christ and become one body with Him.

Just as, if you take a white cloth and place a very powerful lamp behind it, it becomes a luminous screen, so too are we absorbed by the rays of Christ and made Christ-like.

We become the temple of Christ, we become members of Christ, we become Christ-like, and He is our head. Head, “Christ is the head of the church,” means the source, the origin. When you are thirsty, you go to the fountain to quench your thirst.

Christ is the one who quenches our thirsty hearts. Our members, our flesh, and our bones become the members, flesh, and bones of Christ. We live the life of Christ, and Christ takes on our own life.

Just as the bread we place in the holy bread box is one, just as the bread we place on the holy Table is one, just as Christ is one, so too do we become one with Christ and with one another; we become one Christ.

What, then, happens when we celebrate the Divine Liturgy? We hold a banquet, a supper. We invite as our fellow guests the saints of our Church; we invite our departed father, our grandfather, our great-grandfather, our beloved ones who have passed away; we invite the angels.

And Christ Himself comes and offers us His body and His blood. This means, “Having commemorated all the saints, we offer ourselves, one another, and our entire lives to Christ our God.”

Having brought all the saints here and entrusted ourselves to them, having implored them and made them our helpers, we now give ourselves to Christ.

Elder Emilianos of Simonopetra

I won't tell you how to love.

 I won't tell you how to love.

I'll tell you how I don't love anymore.

I don't love waiting for a response as if it were proof.

I don't love looking at the clock lest you be late in feeling what I feel.

I don't love keeping score: who said "I love you" first, who stayed the longest, who cried the deepest.

I don't love as a transaction: I give you tenderness, you give me attention.

I don't love as a bargain: if you change, I change too.

I don't love as a court: with witnesses, accusations, evidence and convictions.

I don't love out of fear of losing you.

I don't love out of lack, to fill gaps that only I know where they hurt.

I don't love to prove to anyone (neither you nor me) that I'm worth it.

I don't love with conditions.

I don't love by saying "if you love me, I will...".

I don't love by asking for proof of love, because whoever asks for proof has already lost the point.

I don't love because it's the way it should be.

I don't love because I'm afraid of loneliness.

I don't love because everyone loves.

I don't love because I read in a poem what love is like.

And now that I've told you all this,

I'll find you doing exactly the opposite.

You'll find me doing the opposite too.

And I won't say it's wrong.

I'll say: "This is also a path."

I'll say: "Next time, maybe differently."

I'll say: "Welcome to the experiment. Here we don't give answers, here we live them."

As you said:

to find fellow passengers who are still wondering.

Not teachers. Not therapists.

People who also got a little lost, to find their own map.

And you know what?

Maybe love is nothing we say.

Maybe it's the moment we say "I don't know" and that's enough.

Are you still here?

Great.

This is a start.

The Resurrection of Christ, the Defeat of Death

 The Resurrection of Christ, the Defeat of Death

By Archpriest Fr. George Metallinos, Adjunct Professor at the School of Theology, University of Athens

The greatest event in history: The Resurrection of Christ is the greatest event in history. It is what distinguishes Christianity from any other religion. Other religions have mortal leaders, whereas the head of the Church is the Risen Christ. “The Resurrection of Christ” signifies the deification and resurrection of human nature and the hope of the deification and resurrection of our own being. Since the remedy has been found, there is hope for life.

Through the Resurrection of Christ, life and death take on a new meaning. Life means communion with God. Death is no longer the end of this present life, but man’s separation from Christ. The separation of the soul from the body is not death, but a temporary sleep.

The Resurrection of Christ vindicates His uniqueness and exclusivity as Savior, capable of truly giving life, of infusing His Life—which overcomes death—into our mortal lives. One Christ, one Resurrection, and one possibility of salvation and deification. That is why our hope for overcoming the dead ends that suffocate our lives is directed toward Christ. Toward the Christ of the Saints, the Christ of History.

The distorted “Christ” of heresies or the “relativized” Christ of the religious syncretism of New Age pan-religion constitutes a rejection of the true Christ and of the Salvation offered by Him. The Christ of our Saints is the Christ of History as well, and He excludes any confusion of His person with whatever redemptive substitutes are invented to mislead the masses. For only in this way can delusion sustain the deception, facilitating the domination of antichrist forces (which may have even infiltrated the Church) that, while they spread death, appear as “angels of light” and “ministers of righteousness” .

Through the experience of our Saints, we realize that there are no more tragic existences than those of the “hopeless” —hope of resurrection—viewing biological death as destruction and the end. Unfortunately, science also succumbs to this tragedy, desperately seeking methods to prolong life and spreading the illusion of overcoming natural death. Equally tragic, however, are those —even Christians—who are trapped in the confines of millenarian visions of universal prosperity and immanent eschatology, losing sight of the true meaning of the Resurrection and sacrificing the transcendent to the immanent and the eternal to the transitory.

The Resurrection of Christ, as the resurrection of humanity and of all creation, acquires meaning only within the framework of Patristic soteriology. That is, through the crucifixion and resurrection with Christ. This is how Hellenism has experienced the Resurrection throughout its historical course. Faithful to the Resurrection of Christ, Orthodoxy has been characterized as the “Church of the Resurrection,” because it builds its entire historical presence upon it, instilling in the consciousness of its peoples the hope of the Resurrection, something that is evident in its cultural continuity. Among them, the Greek people learned to dispel the darkness of their bondage in the Light of the Resurrection, as during the Ottoman occupation, when, upon hearing “Christ is Risen,” they could not help but add: “and Greece is risen!” And this for four hundred years….

It is within this symbolic context that the hopeful invitation “Come, receive the Light!” is voiced. It is the invitation to the uncreated Light of the Resurrection, which is received by those who have purified their hearts of evil and passions. Without the “purification” of the heart—that is, repentance—no one can partake of the Resurrected Light. Repentance is the overcoming of sin, the cause of all our death. This is what the monastic saying, which sounds strange to the uninitiated, constantly reminds us: “Well, if you die before you die, you won’t die when you die!” Christ is Risen!!

There are many witnesses to the Savior’s Resurrection.

 “There are many witnesses to the Savior’s Resurrection. The night and the light of the full moon, for it was the sixteenth night and the moon was full. The tombstone that received the Lord beneath its canopy and the carved rock that will stand opposite and will expose the Jews, for he saw the Lord. The stone they rolled in front of the tomb back then, which remains there to this day, bears witness to the Resurrection. The Angels of God who were present also bore witness to the Resurrection of the Only-Begotten. Peter, John, Thomas, and all the other Apostles, some of whom ran to the tomb and saw the burial cloths, with which they had previously wrapped Him, were found inside the tomb after the Resurrection, while others touched His hands and His feet (cf. Luke 24:39) and saw the marks of the nails (cf. John 20:25). But all of them received the saving breath and were empowered to forgive sins through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the women who held His feet when He appeared to them, who experienced the magnitude of the earthquake and saw the radiance of the Angel who was present there, they too are witnesses of the Resurrection. But also the shrouds he was wearing (cf. Luke 24:12), which he left there when he rose, are witnesses to the Resurrection. The soldiers and the silver coins that were given. This place, which one can still see today, and this holy church, which was built through the Christian goodwill of that most worthy Basil and which, as you see it now, has been so wonderfully adorned”

(Saint Cyril of Jerusalem)