Orthodox City Hermit

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Andrei Rublev’s Troitsa

Dear brothers and sisters, I am sure all/ most of you are familiar with Andrei Rublev’s Troitsa (Russian for Triune or Trinity). I have studied this icon in the past, this Trinitarian interpretation of Gen. 18:1-16, the episode in which “three men” visit Abraham and Sarah and promise them a son. Last week, however, I listened to a homily on Pentecost and the Holy Trinity in connection with this…

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Faith and Healing: Miracles at the Mikrokastro Monastery

Holy Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Mikrokastro: a beacon of faith and tradition, offering spiritual guidance, hospitality, and hope to the faithful from all over the world. It remains a living centre of Orthodox Christianity, linking past and present through devotion and heritage. In the past, I have written several blog posts about this monastery and its blessed synodeia. This…

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BRIGHT WEEK MONASTERY MIRACLES

Conversion miracles, War/ Persecution miracles, Secret Christians We visited a monastery, where a young British man who wanted to become a catechumen “accidentally” met a British Orthodox priest who was visiting the same morning and “happened” to be a parish priest very near this young man’s hometown. Last but not least, they had booked the same return flight to the UK that Saturday! So, this…

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Pilgrimage to Georgia – Day 2: Mtskheta and Jvari

Pilgrimage to Georgia – Day 2: Mtskheta and Jvari With God’s help, our group continues the pilgrimage to Georgia. The day began with a journey to the ancient capital of Mtskheta, a place sanctified by centuries of Christian witness and home to several of the most revered holy sites in the country. 1. Svetitskhoveli Cathedral – The Life-Giving Pillar The group first visited Svetitskhoveli…

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Pilgrimage to Georgia -- Day 1: Tbilisi

Christ is Risen! With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Silouan Oner, a group of 29 pilgrims from St George’s Cathedral, together with brothers and sisters from other Orthodox parishes in the UK, began a six day pilgrimage to Georgia, one of the most ancient Orthodox Christian lands. The group departed London on the evening of 30 April and arrived in Tbilisi in the early hours of Friday…

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TOUCHING HOLINESS

Christ is Risen! My recent five-day “pilgrimage“ to Thessaloniki was filled with blessings and holy encounters with friends on earth and friends in heaven. These meetings have brought me spiritual refreshment and renewed energy. Visits to monasteries, all-night vigils, meals with Orthodox families — such spiritual nourishment and Greek hospitality provide an excellent sufficiency for soul and…

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The Beauty of “Wasting” Our Time

My husband thinks I’m wasting my time! Every Wednesday morning, I drive to the Galini Nursing Home. I don’t have any people there; in fact, I didn’t know a soul when all this started. I just go there, sit in the common area, and knit. I’ve been doing this for four years. I’m 71 years old, a retired teacher, and time is the only thing I have in abundance. At first, the nurses were concerned.…

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Embrace Great Lent: 55 Maxims for Spiritual Renewal

Dear brothers and sisters, I wish you all a blessed Great Lent! This 40-Day Fast is considered in Orthodox tradition, “the tithe of the year”, a spiritual offering of roughly 10% of our time (40 days plus Holy Week) to God, intended for intense spiritual renewal, prayer and fasting. It acts as a reminder that all time, all possessions and all gifts belong to God, encouraging us to reorient our…

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Confronting Demons: An Encounter with Elder Gregory

From a speech by the blessed Elder Gregory, my first spiritual father, from the Holy Hermitage of the Holy Forerunner. In the photograph above, he is on the right, at the monastery of the Holy Forerunner, together with St. Paisios in the middle and Mother Euphemia on the left. “I will mention an incident that made an impression on me. Here, when I was hearing confessions, a Mother came with her…

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A Sack of Potatoes

One Saturday morning, a very young woman dressed in black came to the church of Saint Constantine in Glyfada, where we were at the time, holding her two young children in her arms. A 5-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. She had lost her husband, who was also very young, and with him she lost the land beneath her feet. She had come to confess to Fr. Constantine, and she had brought her children…

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"On this day, the celestials join with the terrestrials"

Dear brothers and sisters, a blessed Theophany in our hearts! Today, I attended the church services at the Ascension Church, a church dating back in 1894, in the area of the “castles” or “countrysides” in the city of Thessaloniki. Throughout the long services, I was deeply moved and felt many times “the celestial joining the terrestrials”. To begin with, I suddenly recalled, most vividly, dear…

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Christmas (I)

Image by Linda Richardson Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Christ is born. Glorify Him. May we too mystically return to our ‘country’, our ‘normal’ lives, after these Twelve Days, by “another way” (cf. Matthew 2:12), like the Magi, radically changed in our hearts! Because there is another way for each one of us. Not the way of the world, not the way of death, not the way of mundane life, of…

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The Christmas of a Lonely Woman

* By St. Nikolai Velimirovich. Dedicated to all those struggling, especially during this holiday season, with sadness, loneliness, and depression. * A blessed feast, dear brothers and sisters. “The sacrifices of God is a broken and contrite heart. 11 of the 12 Apostles were martyrs, each facing a commission and personal struggle. It is not a coincidence that we celebrate St. Stephen in two…

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DUSK IN THE QUEEN OF CITIES

The sun is racing to hide behind the aged Theodosian walls and reign in full purple over the vast Thracian plain. The guided tour program has ended and pilgrims have scattered in groups at the market for shopping and dinner. Our company – seven souls – is walking through old Constantinople, searching for some relics of the Byzantine Queen of Cities in the modern city of 15 millions. Tonight, the…

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Memory Eternal, dearest Father

+ Father Gregorios, 19 November, 2019 — 6th year Memorial service “Love in Christ is a sacrificial Love, a self-sacrificing, self-denying Love, Agape. You sacrifice everything for the person you love, “your neighbour”. By “our neighbour”, we mean every person as God’s Image, even our enemy. By “love” we do not mean that we should do whatever the other person wants us to do, but to love him with…

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Should I Confess the same sin again?

This profoundly moving and thought provoking homily is by Father Anastasios, the spiritual father of dear friends, a Father who is hearing Confessions all the time, from morning to night, and from night to morning. Indeed, our thoughts, the logismoi that surround us, especially concerning certain acts, even after they have been forgiven, are  symptoms of our fallen  state and marred image. Indeed…

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SLICES OF WARM BREAD 

A spiritual Father’s diary “Someone recently described Thessaloniki as like a dry cake. I’m not sure about this simile. I would prefer to describe it in terms of warm slices of bread. Exchanging a cold, windy, wet Manchester of 13C for a calm, warm late evening 25C, Thessaloniki was indeed a taster of what was to come. Having navigated the vicissitudes of the roaming signal with a friendly…

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