Righteous Aaron, Brother of Moses the God-Seer

Righteous Aaron (Feast Day - March 12)

The Holy High Priest Aaron was the elder brother of the Holy Prophet Moses. He was appointed by God to serve as the spokesman of Moses before the people of Israel, and also before Pharaoh, in Egypt. Afterwards, in the wilderness, he was called to the ministry of the high priesthood, as narrated in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers in the in the Old Testament. The name Aaron means "enlightened."

The Theotokos as the Living Table

By Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria

"Your womb became a Heavenly Table, bearing the Heavenly Bread - Christ our God. Whoever eats of Him shall not die, O Birth-giver of God, according to the word of the Nourisher of all."1

Blessing the person of the Most Holy Theotokos, which captivates and simultaneously moves the hearts of all of us, especially every Friday night during the joyous Service of Salutations, the God-bearer John of Damascus, repeating the Creed of our Orthodox Church, tells us that the Panagia is the peak and completion of the entire Old Testament. All of the foreshadowings refer to her. The prototypes and prophecies of the Holy Prophets are revealed in her.

Prophet Moses Resource Page

Verses

Neither from a rock, nor the hinder parts,

Do you now see Moses, but you behold God in His entirety.

The Holy Prophet and Lawgiver Moses the God-seer

Holy Prophet Moses as a Model for our Lives

September: Day 4: Teaching 3: Holy Prophet Moses

 

September: Day 4: Teaching 4: The Burning Bush Icon of the Mother of God 

A Homily on the Meekness of Moses

St. Gregory of Nyssa on Emulating the Fortuitous Birth of Moses 

Moses and the Vision of God 

 

Christmas and Moses 

 

The Rod of Moses in Constantinople 

 

The Consecration of the First Church Dedicated to the Prophet Moses in Greece 

 

The Unburnt Bush Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos  

 

Climbing Mount Sinai

 

Pilgrimage to the Holy Peak of Mount Sinai

 

The Real Mount Sinai Is Where It Has Always Been 

 

The Chapel of the Burning Bush at Mount Sinai

 

The Foreshadowing of the Cross in the Old Testament According to St. Kosmas the Melodist 

 

An Old Testament Analogy of Great Lent (Metr. Nicholas of Mesogaia) 

 

Transfiguration of Christ Resource Page

Did Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi Support Abortion?

By John Sanidopoulos

In early 2014 there circulated on various Greek websites an alleged recording of Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi (+ July 1, 2009), which scandalized many because he seems to support abortions of the fetus in the first trimester. Soon after the fathers of Vatopaidi Monastery issued a response to these accusations, saying that such teachings were never heard by them coming from Elder Joseph, and that in fact he spoke against abortion, supporting the possibility that the recording may be a fake. Thinking at the time that this response was sufficient, I translated and published it and put the issue to rest.

The Theotokos as the Ark Gilt by the Spirit

By Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria

The person of the Most Holy Theotokos brings back once again our reverence, our thoughts and our heart into the wonderful Service of the Salutations, which is partially chanted every Friday night of Holy and Great Lent, and completely on the Friday of the Fifth Week of the Fast. We have this reverence for the person of the Panagia because she is an exquisite, otherworldly and heavenly spectacle, the "awe-inspiring message and report",1 according to the phrase of Saint Joseph the Hymnographer.

An Old Testament Analogy of Great Lent (Metr. Nicholas of Mesogaia)

By Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaia and Lavriotiki

Great Lent, my beloved brethren, begins today and will be completed in forty days on the Friday of Lazarus. As our Church introduces us to this blessed arena of spiritual struggles and virtues, whose main weapon is the weapon of fasting, together with the accompanying weapons of almsgiving, prayer, personal struggle and the mysteries, it is an opportunity to deepen a little the way we will emerge from this struggle, to complete productively, creatively and spiritually the journey of the forty days that stretch before us.

This journey has an analogy in the treasures of the Old Testament. The analogy is the journey of the people of Israel from Egypt to the Land of Promise, with one difference: it did not take place over the course of forty days but forty years. That journey, as recorded in the Book of Exodus and completed in the Book of Joshua the son of Nun, lasted forty years.

The Holy Prophet and Lawgiver Moses the God-seer

Holy Prophet Moses (Feast Day - September 4)

Verses

Neither from a rock, nor the hinder parts,

Do you now see Moses, but you behold God in His entirety.

Moses was born in Egypt of the tribe of Levi at the time the Hebrews were still in bondage, and when Pharaoh had given orders to kill all their male children because he feared the increase and growing prosperity of the Jews, whom his predecessor, out of gratitude to Joseph, had welcomed into Egypt. The mother of Moses could not bring herself to give him over to death, and put him in a basket beside the River Nile, trusting that God would take care of him. Pharaoh's daughter found him and called his name Moses, which means "saved from the waters". She brought him up as her own son, so that he soon came to possess all the knowledge and wisdom of the Egyptians.

When he was forty years old, Moses slew an Egyptian whom he found beating a Hebrew and had to flee to Midian. There he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. She bore him a son whom he called Gershom, which means "I am a stranger in a strange land." Such was Moses in exile, far from his own people, leading the flocks of his father-in-law through the wilderness of desert and mountain, and so preparing to become the shepherd of the spiritual flock of the Lord, as he purified his heart and nous by prayer and constant contemplation upon the marvelous works of God.

Moses and the Vision of God

By Professor Georgie I. Mantzaridis

The vision of God is presented in the Holy Scriptures in two different forms which appear to be mutually exclusive. Some passages characterize the vision of God as an impossibility. In the book of Exodus, for example, God tells Moses: “You cannot see My face; for no man can see My face and live,”[1] while the psalmist notes that God “made darkness His hiding place.”[2] In the New Testament, the Apostle and Evangelist John writes: “No one has ever seen God”[3], And the Apostle Paul adds that God is He “whom no one has ever seen or can see”[4].

The Sayings of Abba Lot

"If you will, you can become all flame." - Abba Joseph spoken to Abba Lot

Abba Lot was an early desert father who reposed in peace. He is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on October 22nd. The following sayings are attributed to him in the Paradise of the Fathers:

Lot was a simple Coptic monk, a disciple of Joseph of Panephysis and a friend of Arsenius. He lived as a solitary at Arsinoe near Abba Anthony. Like the majority of the Copts he was opposed to the teaching of Origen.

1. One of the old men came to Abba Lot's dwelling, near to the little marsh of Arsinoe and he asked for a cell, which Abba Lot gave him. Now the old man was ill and Abba Lot took care of him. When anyone came to see Abba Lot, he made him visit the sick old man also. But the sick man began to quote the words of Origen to the visitors. This made Abba Lot anxious and he said to himself, 'The Fathers must not think that we are like that too.' However, he was afraid to drive him away because of the commandment. So Abba Lot got up and went to Abba Arsenius and told him about the old man. Abba Arsenius said to him, 'Do not drive him away, but say to him: look, eat that which comes from God and drink as much as you like, only do not make such remarks any more. If he wants to, he will correct himself. If he does not want to change his ways, he will ask to leave this place of his own accord. Thus his departure will not come from you.' Abba Lot went away and did this. When the old man heard these word he did not want to change, but he began to ask him, 'For the Lord's sake, send me away from here, for I can no longer bear the desert.' So he got up and left, accompanied to the door with love.