What Is Religious Fanaticism?

By Fr. Dimitri Dudko

Religious fanaticism is a narrowness of vision, a blind confidence that you're right, an unwillingness to listen to someone else's opinion, impatience with others. If we don't fight religious fanaticism, it will grow into such a defect that it becomes a delusion, and this is a terrible thing. At the base of delusion lies inordinate pride, and (as we know), God opposes those who are proud (Jam. 4:6). Deliverance from delusion requires means which not all people possess. We must fight religious fanaticism, and our battle will be successful only when we depend not only on our own powers, but turn to humility and to the help of God. This will put us on guard against delusion.

Prophets and Prophecy in the Church

The following homily was delivered on October 19, 2014 for the feast of the Prophet Joel in the Cathedral of the Holy Protection in Edessa, at the request of Metropolitan Joel of Edessa.

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

On this occasion [the feast of the Prophet Joel] he [Metropolitan Joel of Edessa] asked me to say a few constructive and supplicatory words, therefore in obedience I wanted to speak on the Prophet Joel and prophecy in the Orthodox Church and in our Orthodox tradition. Essentially I will speak about the theology of prophecy and generally the great value had by the Prophets in both the Old and New Testaments.

The first point is that when one reads, my beloved brethren, the Old Testament, especially the lives of the Prophets, one will find that the Prophets were not just some thinkers, they were not just some theologians, as we now call them, nor were they philosophers. Because there is a huge difference between a Prophet and a philosopher. Philosophers think and attempt to discover God, while Prophets had an experience of God and God revealed Himself to them. Prophets, and this is very important, have encountered the living God, the pre-incarnate Word of the Old Testament, namely the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Yahweh before the incarnation. They saw Him and they communicated with Him. They acquired a participation in the pre-incarnate Word and through Him with God the Holy Trinity. If we read the books of the Prophets, especially the first chapter of each to see how they begin, we will see this reality.

Mint, Anise and the Phanouropita

By Fr. Demetrios Bokou

Christ once stigmatized many things of the behavior of the Scribes and Pharisees. Among other things, He mentioned that they dealt diligently and meticulously with totally secondary matters, while they were completely indifferent to the most important and basic matters requested by God.

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices -- mint, anise and cumin. But you have neglected the weightier matters of the law -- justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former" (Matt. 23:23).

Your whole attention, He says, is given to contributing a tenth (or tithe) of the mint, anise and cumin to the Temple, while to the heavier matters of the law -- justice, love and honesty that makes you trustworthy, you give no interest! However, it is with the latter that you should primarily occupy yourselves, without neglecting of course the minor matters.

Religion and Life

By Professor Panagiotis Asimakopoulos

In school we learned that the word "and" connects similar things. Wrong!

Usually people use it to reveal dichotomies which they strive to balance.

"You and I," "body and soul," "God and man."

As a child I remember people asking to choose between two things: Religion or life? They would "help" make the choice as follows:

"Do you laugh? Do you go out? Do you wear make-up? Do you listen to music? Do you dress this way? Do you depart from what is acceptable? Then you are not a good Christian. God does not love you. You sadden God. God is angry. Therefore, choose."

A Homily for Meatfare Sunday: The Love the Lord Seeks on Judgement Day (Fr. George Metallinos)

Meatfare Sunday: Love, Yes, But What Kind of Love?

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

1. In today's Gospel reading we are reminded of a great truth. Last Sunday, the sacred Gospel spoke to us about the goodness of God the Father, who awaits the return of that which He fashioned. But this should not lead us to forget His justice. God is not only a loving Father, but also a just Judge.

"Neither is His mercy without judgement, nor His judgement without mercy," says Basil the Great. The Gospels tell us that He will judge the world, and not arbitrarily, but according to our works. Today's reading, therefore, brings us before the event of the Judgement. And we say "event" because this global Judgement is for our Faith an eschatological certainty and reality, which is acknowledged by our Creed as part of our ecclesiastical Faith: "And He will come again to judge the living and the dead...."

We are called, therefore, today to realize three things:

Christ Was Born Not to Establish a New Religion

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos

of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

My beloved brethren,

 

Again the love and mercy of God has made us worthy to celebrate the great feast of Christmas, the Birth of Jesus Christ as man. He who was born as God before the ages from the Father, and was born without seed in time from the Panagia as man. Two births, in eternity and in time, which have become the cause of our own regeneration. This is why the sacred hymnographers of our Church, and also all the Holy Fathers, hymn and glorify the God-man Christ, who regenerated man and renewed all of creation, giving to both man and all of creation another perspective and meaning.

"Religious People Are Dangerous ... God Protect Us From Them"

By His Eminence Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

Love does not fit into the molds of logic. Love is more than logic. So is the love of God. The love of God is beyond the reason of people. For this reason we cannot judge with reasonable criteria people who love God. For this reason the saints moved according to a logic of their own. They had another logic, not the logic of people. Because their logic was the logic of love. And the Church does not teach us to be good people, no, since this is natural, but if we do not become good people what do we become? This is kindergarten stuff. The Church teaches us to love Christ, that is, to love the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.