I woke up this morning with a song that I kept singing quietly all morning: Κράτησα τη ζωή μου κράτησα τη ζωή μου ταξιδεύοντας ανάμεσα στα κίτρινα δέντρα κατά το πλάγιασμα της βροχής σε σιωπηλές πλαγιές φορτωμένες με τα φύλλα της οξιάς, καμιά φωτιά στην κορυφή τους˙ βραδιάζει. The very first line is the hardest to translate, for me at …
The Next American Orthodox Saint?
Did you know that there are American Orthodox saints? We already have quite a few that have been canonized by the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and I pray that this simple Eskimo woman of Alaska will be the next one. She died in 1979, and there is a push for the OCA to officially …
Deep theology = Deep ecology
In Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It we read this fascinating bit of dialogue between a father and a son: Then [my father] told me, “In the part I was reading it says the Word was in the beginning, and that’s right. I used to think water was first, but if you listen carefully …
Solidarity and love
Excellent commentary in the Guardian newspaper in the aftermath of the Brussels terrorist attacks. The key paragraph is near the end: The biggest nightmare for Isis was how some European countries, such as Germany, welcomed Syrian refugees with open arms. The solidarity shown by thousands of citizens from Greece to Sweden harmed Isis. It cannot …
#JeSuisBruxelles
This is the most used hashtag today in Twitter space, and it's the title of this short blog post. The Guardian newspaper published a selection of artistic responses to today's terrorist attack in Brussels. They all have one thing in common: lamentation. It is indeed a day to lament the divisive and destructive urge in …
The evils of rigidity
As the world is once again shocked by another brutal terrorist attack - this time in Brussels - I want to quote some words written by the late, great French theologian and philosopher, Jacques Ellul (1912-94), in his book Living Faith. He wrote of the connection between rigidity and violence, and thus the two faces of violence …
Restoration every Sunday
Today, the first Sunday of Lent, is our annual commemoration of the Restoration of Icons in the year 843 after a century of iconoclasm in the Byzantine world. Once a year we commemorate this event. But every Sunday, at every Liturgy, we celebrate the restoration of the most important icon - namely every Christian …
Before Lent, a Party!
My hometown Patra is famous for two reasons, maybe three. It’s where the Greek Revolution officially began on 25 March 1821. But today it is most famous for its annual Carnival, Καρναβάλι, the best in Greece and one of the best in the world. It is almost as old as the Greek Revolution and …
The luminous eye of compassion
The key word in today’s Gospel reading is “see” - When did we see you…? is the question repeated by both sets of people! Compassion is all about seeing. That’s the message today. Notice in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite saw the wounded man and passed on the …
Ancient Answers 