The Holy Monastery of Saint Marina in Andros

The Monastery of Saint Marina is located opposite Apoikia of Andros, where comes the famous water Sariza, and dates from 1325 A.D.

Saint Marina had revealed herself to an ascetic elder and indicated to him to find her icon which was hidden in a slit of a rock. Emperor Emmanuel II Komnenos in turn financed the erection of this Holy Monastery.

During the 16th century, the Monastery burned down three times by pirates, losing its old glamour, and in 1743 there were only five monks. Then Saint Marina brought to the Monastery the Hieromonk Sophronios, who sold his property in the Peloponnese and fully refurbished the Monastery and converted it to a female convent in 1746. This brought many women from Andros to dedicate their lives as monastics, and eventually 100 nuns lived at the Monastery.

Following the Greek War of Revolution, Orthodoxy in Greece suffered under the Protestant Bavarocratia of Otto. Under the Bavarians 417 monasteries in Greece were forced to close in 1833. Saint Marina Monastery was among these, and closed in 1833. The holy icon of Saint Marina was purchased by the Emberikou family to preserve it. They placed it in a church dedicated to the Panagia, and there it remained safe for 146 years. Meanwhile, the Monastery was fully destroyed during this period.

One and a half century passed, and in 1975, the Metropolitan of Syros, Tinos, and Andros Dorotheos, passing through the ruins of the Monastery, asked with pain of heart that his Deacon Kyprianos rebuild the Monastery. Kyprianos denied the request because he had other plans, but that night he received a visit from Saint Marina, who appeared in his dreams and said: "I am Marina, and I with my two sisters Paraskevi and Katherine live in the Monastery. Because of the decree of Otto we were cast out and live a little above the Monastery and we will come again to live here. Me, you will see every day. Together we will struggle and rebuild the Monastery. Receive then the command of your Master. You listening Kypriane!"

So Fr. Kyprianos worked hard for five years and rebuilt the Monastery. In 1976 the wonderworking icon of Saint Marina returned to the Monastery. In the same Monastery is a wonderworking icon of the Panagia which miraculously brings back to life dead flowers during the first fifteen days of August. A similar miracle takes place at the Monastery of St. Nicholas, also in Andros.

The Monastery has now become famous, and Saint Marina has performed many miracles, revealing her presence and love.

Read also: Astonishing Contemporary Miracles of Saint Marina on the Island of Andros

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Questions On Financial Matters

By St. John the Prophet

Question 672: If one has debtors who are wealthy, should one demand interest from these people? And if they are poor, should one take back the capital?

Response: It is written of the righteous: "They do not lend their money with interest" (Ps. 15:5). This means that we may receive the capital. Now, if some of them are unable to pay them back, it has also been written about them: "When your friends are in poverty, do not distress them by making demands on them" (Sir. 31:31).

Question 673: What happens if both he and I are poor? Am I committing sin by demanding what I need?

Response: No, you are not committing sin. However, it is good not to distress one's brother, as much as this is possible, if he is too poor to repay us.

Question 726: Someone owes me money, and unless I ignore this a little, we shall never come to have peace. What do you order me to do?

Response: Whoever seeks peace is not deprived of God's peace. "Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much" (Lk. 16:10); and: "Mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13). Therefore, unless a person despises the needs of the world, that person does not attain to the peace of Christ. "The one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). For this is our prayer: that God may grant us peace, so that we may complete the work of God, as the most holy Guest-Master of the entire Church bore witness.

Question 744: My thought suggests to me that my material resources are tight and that I cannot feed myself or my household, and this causes me sorrow. What does this mean?

Response: This sorrow is human; for, if we had hope in God, he would provide for us as he wants. "Therefore, cast your concern upon the Lord" (1 Pet. 5:7), and he is able to take care of you and your own without sorrow and affliction. Say to him: "Your will be done" (Mt. 6:10 and 26:42), and he will not allow you to grieve or be afflicted. May the Lord have mercy upon you and protect you with his right hand. Amen.

Question 750: If I settle an account and afterward discover that I tricked my brother without wanting to, what should I do?

Response: If the amount is large, then return it to him. If it is small, then examine your thought carefully, asking - from the contrary perspective - what you would do if you were tricked by him and were about to receive the amount; if you find that you would indeed want to receive it, then you too should return it. If you would not receive it, then neither should you give it, unless the person was extremely poor; for in this case, a small amount would make a difference. In this case, you should give him what is fair.

Question 756: If one is buying or selling something, is it a sin to agree on a price, which is higher or lower?

Response: If there is no constraint but the matter is handled in freedom, then it is not a sin to give and take according to the agreed price. However, if one knows that one has gained more, then one should return the amount of one's own accord; for, one will be doing something good and will also be pleasing the other person.

When one agrees on a price with someone that is under one's authority, then one should also examine whether the agreement was made by force; for this is a sin. Rather, one should reassure the other person, by saying: "Brother, I shall not grieve if you do not do as I say; nor shall I offer you more. Therefore, do as you please and as you want."

From The Letters of Saints Barsanuphios and John; translated by John Chryssavgis.

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Space Exploration and Religious Observance

Rebecca J. Rosen

July 16, 2012

The Atlantic

Before the launch this weekend of three human beings into the ether of space around the Earth, before they boarded their Soyuz spacecraft, and before the rockets were fired, precautions were taken. Not the humdrum checklists and redundancies of space exploration -- assessing the weather, the equipment, the math -- but a preparation with a more mystical dimension: the blessing, by a Russian Orthodox priest, of the spacecraft, as it sat on the launchpad on the Kazakh steppe.

The scene, as shown in NASA photographs such as the one above, presents a tableau that seems incongruent, but may just be fitting.

The discordance is obvious: Here we are, on the brink of a new expedition to space, a frontier of human exploration and research that is the capstone of our scientific achievement. "The idea of traveling to other celestial bodies reflects to the highest degree the independence and agility of the human mind. It lends ultimate dignity to man's technical and scientific endeavors," the rocket scientist Krafft Arnold Ehricke once said. "Above all, it touches on the philosophy of his very existence." His secular existence.

And yet here is a priest, outfitted in the finery of a centuries-old church, shaking holy water over the engines, invoking God's protection for a journey to near-earth orbit. That these two spheres of human creation co-exist is remarkable. That they interact, space agencies courting the sanction of Russian Orthodox Christianity, is strange.

For reasons both straightforward and opaque, the secular, scientific work of space exploration cannot shake religion, and over the last few decades of human space travel, astronauts of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith have taken their religious beliefs into orbit, praying out of duty, in awe, and for their safe return.

Read the rest of this article, titled "Communion on the Moon: The Religious Experience in Space", here.

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Russian Church Opens Mission in Pakistan

July 16, 2012

Interfax

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) has founded a mission in Pakistan.

"The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia now has an active mission in Pakistan with 174 members. The community is growing steadily and attracting the attention of enquirers and seekers," Metropolitan Hilarion, the First Hierarch of ROCOR said in a statement posted on its website.

The faithful are worshipping out in the open or in whatever space is available. The mission is thus in need of a place to worship and land has been donated by a mamber of community for a future church building.

The Metropolitan hopes to build a church and an orphanage in the city of Sargodha.

"When built, this will be the first Russian Orthodox Church in the Indian subcontinent and will serve as a fortress for Orthodox spirituality and guidance to worshippers and a protection to the many unfortunate children in Pakistan," the statement said.

Metropolitan Hilarion added that the budget is quite low and affordable. He asked for assistance for the mission.

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Righteous Chrysanthi of Andros (+ 1992)

By Mother Nectaria McLees

Almost completely unknown outside Andros, and there only to a few, Righteous Chrysanthi was both an enigma and a blessing to those who knew her. Of these we can count only a handful of villagers and the monks of St Nicholas Monastery who visited her lonely monastery above Batsi. Abbott Dorotheos was for some years her confessor. Chrysanthi had no family and had gone, perhaps as a young girl, to live in a monastery in Siseroes. She was never officially tonsured but had been blessed, like a novice, to wear black and live and work alongside the nuns. She was a bright, pious girl and in 1943, when the local bishop began making innovations in traditional church practices, she fearlessly disputed them with him. Although young, she was a staunch defender of everything handed down to her from the holy men and women she had known, and finally the irate bishop sent her to the Monastery of the Life-Giving Spring (Zoodochos Pigis) on Andros. She was twenty-three years old and her exile lasted fifty years.

Why she didn't leave and go elsewhere is known only to God. Her life was a mystery to those around her; at times she was sage and serious, at other times almost like a fool-for-Christ in her cheerful poverty and seeming indifference to hardship. Whether she had consciously foreseen and accepted these trials early in life as God's providence for her salvation, no one is sure, but it is known that she accepted her lot uncomplainingly, and at least once was granted a vision of the Mother of God.

The Monastery, sitting atop a hill half-way between the coastal villages of Batsi and Gavrion, is an old, huge stone foundation, which throughout the period of this story housed only a handful of nuns (all of whom have now reposed). In the winter, fierce, wrenching winds blow through the monastery, and in summer the heat scorches the barren hilltop to a dull brown. For the five decades Chrysanthi lived here she endured much from the other sisters, both because of her status as an exile and because she was simply different- she lived a life apart from theirs.

Normal, even kindly women in their own way, the evil one incited the sisters to an intense dislike of the girl that continued throughout her life. Her first abbess at Zoodochos Pigis loved her like a daughter, but after her repose Chrysanthi was treated as an outcast. She did not sleep with the handful of other sisters, who themselves lived very simply, but in an unheated store-room with a dilapidated wooden floor in a ruined part of the monastery.

Her room, when the author saw it about six weeks after her death, was filled with rubble piled five feet high like a barricade: bits of wood, oil cans, rags, and pieces of broken furniture.

A further room was full of gunny sacks. In one far corner were some paper icons on the wall, and a pile of cloth and cardboard on the floor where she slept. It was difficult to make one's way through the rubbish.

She spent much time outdoors in the hills and in the small chapels dotting the island. The other sisters' aversion for her was so strong that they would not allow her into the monastery church, and even in winter she was forced to stand outside during services. The monks of St Nicholas however told me that she would often slip quietly into the back of the narthex, listening intently and crossing herself with great vigor when the saints were mentioned.

Not only was she not allowed in church, but the sisters would not let her eat with them. After their own meals were finished she would creep into the kitchen and take a little of what was left over. Even in the bitter winter cold she was not permitted to warm herself in the heated living quarters but would kindle a small fire in the unused, centuries-old kitchen off the courtyard. When the sisters discovered her there, they put out the fire and drove her away.

Why the other nuns acted like this is unknown, and certainly not typical. Most likely they had come to the isolated monastery as uneducated girls from surrounding villages, and after the first abbess reposed simply lacked competent leadership. They are perhaps more to be pitied than condemned - the succeeding abbess was not well-trained enough herself to give them a proper formation, and they did not have a resident spiritual father. Fallen nature took its course, and Chrysanthi, as both an outsider and a disgraced 'exile' became a scapegoat for the sisters' irritations. In other ways the nuns were quite normal.The author met several of them after Chrysanthis' repose, and found them welcoming and hospitable.

When the old nuns were no longer able to take care of the monastery business, Abbott Dorotheos began to come each month to help assist them in business matters and hear confessions. Although he admonished the nuns about their attitude towards Chrysanthi, they were simply too entrenched to change. When he heard confessions, Chrysanthi would wait quietly in a corner of the courtyard until the other three sisters finished. Only after they were gone would she slip in to speak to him. Abbott Dorotheos says she had an acute mind, and would talk to him in great detail about the needs of the monastery, as if she herself was the abbess. Excluded as she was from the society of the other sisters, he never understood how she knew much more than they did about monastery business.

Sometimes she predicted what would happen if a certain course was followed, and she was always right. She never complained about how she was treated, and seemed to have fully accepted the cross of her life, neither shrinking from it, nor being beaten down by it. She never expressed a desire to leave. Chrysanthi was unfailingly cheerful, and always the first at the gate to welcome guests, with whom she would warmly chat until the other sisters arrived and sent her away. Father Vlasseou, one of the young monks of St Nicholas Monastery who often accompanied the abbott, used to sit with her in the courtyard during fine weather, where she would speak to him of God, the saints and spiritual life. He remembers her as being unlike anyone he ever met, and says that there was an otherworldliness about her that he found indescribable.

Once, when Abbott Dorotheos was at the convent he told the nuns of the centuries-old tradition that on the feast of Theophany, all of the salt water in the sea turns sweet. On Old-Calendar Theophany the nuns went down to the shore, with Chrysanthi following behind. They all took a cup of the salt water, but three tonsured nuns couldn't drink theirs- it was salt as usual, only Chrysanthi's was sweet, and she drank several cups, exclaiming, "It's sweet, it's sweet."

Three days before her death on St Spyridon's Day in 1992, the Mother of God appeared to Chrysanthi while she was praying and said, "There is no abbess here. I am the abbess. Have patience for a little longer and I will come and take you, and then you can rest". Chrysanthi was extraordinarily happy and told the other sisters what she had seen. They accused her of inventing it to annoy the abbess, and treated her particularly roughly for the next few days. On the third day as she tried to make her way back across the courtyard against a savagely bitter wind, she became too weak to go on. Slipping into an empty room a few doors from her own, she quietly died.

Abbott Dorotheos was called, but when he came to say the first prayers for the departed, the sisters insisted he should not pray for her in church, but outside in the courtyard. Even after her death they spoke badly of Chrysanthi, and Father Dorotheos, angered by their callousness, told them, "She was the best of you all". He read the prayers over her body in church, and the next day she was wrapped in a blanket and buried. There was no coffin.

On the ninth day after her repose, Father Vlasseou, accompanied Fr. Dorotheos to serve the pannikhida (prayers for the dead) at her grave. He relates that the bitterly cold wind was blowing so fiercely they could scarcely stand upright as they made their way up the hill. As they came within a few feet of Chrysanthi's grave, however, the wind stopped completely, and although they could hear it blowing all about them, around her grave it was still, and even warm. The candles stayed alight, and when they finished singing the pannikhida they turned to incense the other graves-but as soon as they stepped outside the shelter of Chrysanthi's grave, the wind hit them again with full force.

The author was present for prayers on the fortieth day after Chrysanthi's repose, and as we were sitting over coffee, one of the old nuns looked out of the window and began crying, "I see her, I see her, there's Chrysanthi". The abbott smiled and told her gently to sit down: "Chrysanthi is no longer with us". But she kept insisting, "Don't you see her? She is right there walking on the hill!".

Righteous Chrysanthi, pray to God for us!.

From Evlogeite, A Pilgrim's Guide to Greece, p. 96-100.

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Scenic St. Nicholas Chapel at Georgioupolis, Crete

This extraordinary little chapel, located about 100 meters into the sea, serves as divine protection for those who sail out into the blue waters of the Sea of Crete. St. Nicholas Chapel is situated on a small rock formation off the western end of the popular eight kilometer long beachfront of Georgioupolis on the Greek island of Crete. The chapel is dedicated to St. Nicholas because he is the patron saint of sailors, protecting village fishermen, and this chapel also serves as a place for families to pray for their safe return. Though Georgioupolis was a fishing village up till 1990, today it mainly serves as a popular holiday destination. This chapel is also popular for wedding ceremonies.

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On Concealing the Truth Partially

By St. John the Prophet

Question 758: If I do something against my brother and he grieves upon hearing about it, is it perhaps a good thing to hide the truth from him in order to stop the grief? Or is it better to admit my fault and ask for forgiveness?

Response: If he has clearly learned about it, and you know that the matter will be examined and revealed, then tell him the truth and ask for his forgiveness. For lying will only further provoke him. However, if he has not learned about it and will not examine the matter, then it is not improper to keep silent and not give occasion to grief.

For when the Prophet Samuel was sent to anoint David as king, he was also going to offer sacrifice to God. Yet, because he was afraid lest Saul learn about this, God said to him: "Take a heifer with you; and if the king asks you: 'Why did you come here?' tell him: 'I have come to sacrifice to the Lord'" (1 Sam. 16:2). In this way, by concealing one thing, which brought the wrath of the king, he only revealed the other.

You too, then, should be silent about that which causes grief, and the problem will pass.

From The Letters of Saints Barsanuphios and John; translated by John Chryssavgis.

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The Canonization of St. Sophia of Kleisoura (photos)

On July 1, 2012 Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew arrived at the Holy Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Kleisoura to officially list St. Sophia of Kleisoura (1887 - 1974) among the saints of the Orthodox Church.

The canonization and lighting of the unwaning flame took place at the tomb of the Saint, which was consecrated, amidst other hierarchs, clergy and hundreds of faithful. They then proceeded to the Katholikon of the Monastery where a Doxology took place.

The abbess of the Monastery, Ephraimia, gifted the Ecumenical Patriarch with an icon of the Saint, and the Ecumenical Patriarch in return gifted the Monastery with an oil lamp.

Patriarch Bartholomew ended the ceremony by venerating the place of asceticism of St. Sophia inside the monastery, where she reposed.

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The Five Ascetic Martyrs of Leipsoi

Little information has survived regarding the five ascetic martyrs of the island of Leipsoi who have recently been canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The information we do have come from the records of the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on the island of Patmos as well as local tradition.

Leipsoi is an island south of Samos and to the north of Leros in Greece. In 1088 A.D. this island was given to St. Christodoulos together with the island of Patmos by Emperor Alexios Komnenos. In 1550 the first ascetics came to the island to live the monastic life from Patmos. They landed in the bay which they named Koimisis and there built a church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos (Koimisis tis Theotokou), named after the holy icon they brought with them. To live and to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, they dug a well which they called "Holy Water" and cultivated wheat and vines for the bread and wine of the Eucharist. They also planted olive trees in order to extract the oil for the lighting of the oil lamps. Over time this Hermitage of the Dormition attracted other monastics, even a few Kollyvades from Mount Athos. For this reason a second Hermitage was built nearby (about 800 meters away) dedicated to the Annunciation of the Theotokos. In the 15th and 16th century five of these monks who settled in Leipsoi were killed by pirates or Turks. They were:

In 1558 Monk Neophytos of Amorgos was killed by the Turks.

In 1561 Monk Jonah of Leros was killed. He also is commemorated on February 28th.

In 1609 Monk Neophytos the Fazos was killed by pirates with an axe hammer. He also is commemorated on December 8th.

In 1635 Monk Jonah of Nysiros was killed by Pekir Pasha in the month of April by scourging.

In 1696 Monk Parthenios of Philipopolis was killed when a spear pierced his neck.

The Service to these Saints was written by the hymnographer Haralambos Bousias and information about them was gathered by Archimandrite Nikephoros Koumoundouros in 1999. Their holy relics rest today on the island of Leipsoi.

In 2002 these five ascetic martyrs were canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, to be commemorated by all Orthodox Christians on the first Sunday after the 10th of July.

Απολυτίκιον Ήχος πλ. α'. Τον συνάναρχον Λόγον.

Την εν χρόνοις ποικίλοις πεντάδα ένθεον οσιοάθλων πατέρων εν τη Λειψώ, ιεροίς αγωνίσμασιν αθλήσασαν τιμήσωμεν, συν Νεοφύτω, Ιωνά, άλλω θείω Ιωνά, Παρθένιον και φωσφόρον ευχής, Νεόφυτον, φάρον, αυτών λιτάς απεκδεχόμενοι.

Κοντάκιον Ήχος πλ. δ'. Τη Υπερμάχω.

Λειψώ την νήσον, θεοφόροι, ηγιάσατε ιδρώτων όμβροις και αιμάτων ταις εκχύσεσι ταις υμών, οσιομάρτυρες τροπαιούχοι, Ιωνά συν Νεοφύτων ζεύγοι έμφρονι και συν άλλω Ιωνά, κλεινέ Παρθένιε, ανακράζοντες. Χαίροις, γέρας πεντάριθμον.

Μεγαλυνάριον

Χαίροις, των αγίων Λειψώ πεντάς, οσιομαρτύρων, ω Νεόφυτε, Ιωνά, συν τω Νεοφύτω και Ιωνά τω άλλω, Παρθένιε παμμάκαρ, πίστεως μάργαρα.

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The Miracle of St. Barbara in Polydendri, Attica on July 15, 1917

According to witness testimony of those who live in the village of Polydendri in Attica, which were compiled by the parish priest there in 1986, in 1917 an epidemic struck the village, as well as a great blessing. Many became sick that year and eight died, with others on the verge of death. Two of those who died were from the village of Grammatiko, which was in east Attica, so it was theorized that the epidemic originated there. Everyone panicked. Many took to the mountains. Officers quarantined homes and the surrounding roads in which the sick were found. Some guarded the wells and fountains of the center to prevent the sick from contaminating the water. The unfortunate sick would have to go to a tank outside the village to get water. The church would not allow to be read the funeral service for the dead, however the parish priest of the village, Papa-Yiannis Tsakos, did perform funerals privately. One elder gentleman stated: "One of the dead I dragged from the house to the church, at night, and we buried him. After I took his cloak I slept, but did not catch the illness." Over the graves they would spread lime to prevent the epidemic from spreading.

In this atmosphere of panic and despair, according to Anna Vasilakou who was ten years old at the time, Panagiotis Spyridon Sotirchos had a vision at the iconostasis of the church of St. Barbara, who told him: "Come and get me so that I can chase away the sickness." Then Papa-Yianni with the commissioners of the church went to Aigaleo, to the Church of St. Barbara, and from there brought by car the wonderworking icon of the Saint to the intersection of the village.

There the Christians received her with emotion, reverence and tears, and the whole road was covered with laurels. They fell before the icon crying: "Help us St. Barbara! Chase away the sickness!" They then processed the icon around the village, and the great miracle occurred. The epidemic ceased! Not only did not another get sick, but all the sick became well.

Since then, out of gratitude, the villagers of Polydendri established a feast to commemorate this miracle of St. Barbara. An icon of St. Barbara was commissioned for the village, and she is celebrated every July 15th.

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Sunday of the Holy and God-bearing Fathers

On the Sunday that falls from the 13th to the 19th of the present month of July, we chant the Service to the Holy and God-bearing Fathers who came together in the Seven Ecumenical Councils.

Originally this Sunday commemorated only the Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council which took place in 451 A.D., yet at some point it came to encompass the Seven Ecumenical Councils, that is:

A) The First Ecumenical Council, of the 318 Fathers who assembled in Nicaea in 325 to condemn Arius, who denied that the Son of God is consubstantial with the Father; the Fathers of the First Council also ordained that the whole Church should celebrate Pascha according to the same reckoning;

B) The Second Ecumenical Council, of the 150 Fathers who assembled in Constantinople in 381 to condemn Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who denied the Divinity of the Holy Spirit;

C) The Third Ecumenical Council, of the 200 Fathers who assembled in Ephesus in 431, to condemn Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who called Christ a mere man and not God incarnate;

D) The Fourth Ecumenical Council, of the 630 who assembled in Chalcedon in 451, to condemn Eutyches, who taught that there was only one nature, the divine, in Christ after the Incarnation, and Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who illegally received Eutyches back into communion and deposed Saint Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had excommunicated Eutyches;

E) The Fifth Ecumenical Council in 535, of the 165 who assembled in Constantinople for the second time to condemn Origen and Theodore of Mopsuestia, the teacher of Nestorius;

F) The Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680, of the 170 who assembled in Constantinople for the third time, to condemn the Monothelite heresy, which taught that there is in Christ but one will, the divine;

G) The Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787, of the 350 who assembled in Nicaea for the second time to condemn Iconoclasm.

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

You are greatly glorified, O Christ our God, who established our Fathers as luminaries upon the earth, and through them led us all to the true Faith. O Most compassionate, glory to You.

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On Leaving Church Early

By St. John the Prophet

Question 736: If one enters the church during the time of liturgy and leaves before the end, is this a sin?

Response: What is perfect and pleasing to God is for the person entering the church to hear the Scriptures and remain in the liturgy until the very end. For unless there is good reason, one should not leave before the end; for this is scornful. If some need presents itself, then that person has permission to leave early. However, even then, such a person should not justify oneself, but ask forgiveness from God, saying: "Master, forgive me; for, I was not able to stay."

From The Letters of Saints Barsanuphios and John; translated by John Chryssavgis.

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The Eucharist as a 'Continuous' Sacrifice in the New Testament

The King James Version of Hebrews 10:12 and 10:14 reads as follows:

"But He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God."

"For by one offering He had perfected forever them that are sanctified."

The Greek word here translated in the KJV as well as other English versions of the Bible as "forever" is the word "διηνεκες", which denotes something to be "continuous" or "perpetual". In fact, never does the word διηνεκες mean "forever". Hence, the passages above are mistranslated in English versions of the New Testament, including Roman Catholic translations.

Protestant translators mistranslate this text to fit their soteriology. They believe that the one sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is sufficient without need of partaking of the Eucharist, which many believe to be a mere remembrance of the crucifixion without any real transformation taking place. However, Orthodox Christians believe what Holy Scripture truly teaches, that the sacrifice offered once on the Cross by the Lamb of God is continuously repeated on the sacrificial altars of Orthodox churches through the mysterious transformation of the bread and wine into the very Body and Blood of Christ, through the invocation of the Holy Spirit by the priest sacrificing. That Christ Himself affirms that this sacrifice ought to be done continuously, we read in John 6:53: "Verily verily I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." In the Greek this sentence implies a continuous action. This illuminates Hebrews 10:14 as well, which should say: "For by one offering He hath perfected them continuously that are sanctified." In other words, the sanctification due to the sacrifice on the Cross is continued by the repeated sacrifice that takes place through the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Read also: The Lord's Supper as Sacrifice in the New Testament

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The Church of St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite in Karyes

One year ago today, 14 July 2011, the groundbreaking for the Church of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite on the site of the Cell of the Skourtaion took place in Karyes.

As is known, St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite lived in the Cell of St. George, also known as Skourtaion, and reposed here in the year 1809.

Today, one year later, work continues building the church, as the photographs show.

Source

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