Saint John the Damascene: On the Chaste Couple Joachim and Anna
Anna was to be the mother of the Virgin Mother of God, and hence nature did not dare to anticipate the flowering of grace. Thus nature remained sterile, until grace produced its fruit. For she who was to be born had to be a first born daughter, since she would be the mother of the first-born of all creation, in whom all things are held together. Joachim and Anna, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.
August 31: The Holy Belt of the Most Holy Theotokos
According to Sacred Tradition and the history of our Church, after three days from the burial of the Most Holy Theotokos, Thomas, along with the rest of the Holy Apostles, opened up her grave and didn’t find her body. The Most Holy Theotokos revealed herself to Thomas and handed her holy belt to him as a proof of her bodily transportation to the heavens.
The Witness of the Most Holy Theotokos
On this day of our commemoration of the Feast of the Dormition, our hearts are filled with hope as we reflect on the holy repose and miraculous translation of the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary. We have hope in Christ our Lord because the Theotokos offers us a superb witness of His power. Certainly, her calling to bear the Son of God was unique, but in all aspects of her life and death she offered a beautiful example of how the power and grace of God can transform us from death to life.
The Most Exciting Person in History
Indeed the Panagia has a uniqueness. First, she is the greatest benefactor of mankind. Through her our Lord the God-man took human nature and made it possible for every person to have communion with Him. Second, she is the closest creature to God with the greatest boldness before Him, “for the prayer of a Mother avails much to the good will of the Master”. Third, she is the nearest to each of us individually. She is closer to us than our closest relatives, closer to us even than our guardian angel, and she is more of a mom than our mother.
August: The month of the Most Holy Theotokos
Our Mother, the Church, is again inviting us to celebrate the Dormition of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and Mother of our God. Events relating to the lives of the Saints are a cause for joy, sacred contemplation, and opportunities for prayer and the worship of God glorified in Trinity. The month of August is a remarkable one for the Orthodox Church, for during this month we celebrate two great and historic events.
On the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary
The two articles that follow below, «On the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary» and «On the ancestral sin of the holy and ever virgin Mary», are the chapters 50 and 51 of the Treasury of Orthodoxy of Bishop Theophilos of Campania (1749 1795). We place them here at this time so that we may be go deeper into the Mystery of the Theotokos and the Incarnation of the Son of God which constitute the Chapter of our Salvation.
The Holy Icon of Panagia of the Akathist
One of the most treasured and revered Icons of Mount Athos is that of Panagia of the Akathist Hymn or Salutations of the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou. It is the oldest Icon chronologically of all of the others of Mount Athos. It is made of beeswax and mastich, a product derived from tree sap along […]
The Story of the Miraculous Icon of the Virgin Known as “Paramithia” (Comfort, Consolation) at the Holy Mountain Monastery of Vatopedi
In olden times there came once to the Holy Mountain a band or pirates to enter into and loot one of the wealthiest monasteries of the Holy Mountain, the Monastery of Vatopedi. They arrived in the evening and hid in the bushes around the monastery so that they could enter as soon as the gates […]
The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple
When the Most-holy Virgin Mary reached the age of three, her holy parents Joachim and Anna took her from Nazareth to Jerusalem to dedicate her to the service of God according to their earlier promise. It was a three-day journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem but, traveling to do a God-pleasing work, this journey was not […]
The Story of the Miraculous Icon of the Virgin Mary known as “Ktitorissa” at Vatopedi Monastery
About the year 910 AD an army of countless Arabs from Syria conquered Crete and Sicily and all the Greek Islands. Some of them came to the Monastery of Vatopedi, on the eastern coast of the Holy Mountain (Mt.Athos) to raid it. When the Caretaker of the holy Altar (Vimataris) saw them coming, he […]