265. Heaven, Part Three – the Holy Mountain and the Garden, from “Hymns on Paradise” by Saint Ephraim the Syrian

Christ has ascended! “When You had fulfilled the dispensation for our sake, and united earth to heaven: You ascended in glory, O Christ our God, not being parted from those who love You, but remaining with them and crying: “I am with you and no one will be against you!” (Tone Six This series of Posts […]

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261. Three Startling Newly-Revealed Martyrs

And we do mean newly-revealed. At least by my (old man’s) standards. from Greek City Times It began in the year 1959, on the Greek island of Lesvos (also known as Mytilene). The Martyr Raphael appeared in a dream to the priest of the village of Thermi, identified himself, then began to tell him his story […]

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224. Saint Nicholas does something completely “off the wall”

  Well, actually it was entirely on the wall! More on this later. Saint Nicholas  This Sunday December 6 is the feast of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia. Why December 6? Because that is the day he died, his “birthday” into Heaven. This seems the right time to finish the story of how Saint […]

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222. My First Trip to Greece – Part Two: How I fell in love with Orthodoxy. Saint Nicholas makes his first move.

Image compliments of St Isaac’s Skete: skete.com A week on the Island of Paros The Conference ended and with my wife’s leave, bless her heart again, I had something I had long wanted: time to bum around on a Greek island. I felt prepared. I had learned enough Greek to get by. “Yes” in Greek […]

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138. Why do we honor the Mother of God? Because the Bible says so! – Part One

The Virgin Mary…? Those of you who were raised Orthodox or Roman Catholic cannot imagine how hard it was for most of us former Protestants to accept the Mother of God. I know, because when we try to describe it, you just look at us with puzzled looks on your faces! Most icons with permission […]

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