“Remember thy First Love”

Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou) 

Book Review Professor of Theology at the University of Thessaloniki Georgios I. Mantzaridis

Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou, Publisher: Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist 2010 - ISBN: 1874679738.

Elder Sophrony: Every Divine Liturgy is a Theophany

We Orthodox live Christ within the Divine Liturgy, or rather Christ lives within us during the Divine Liturgy.

The Divine Liturgy is a work of God. We say: “Time is a creation of the Lord”. Among other things it means now is the time for God to act.

Christ liturgizes, we live with Christ. The Divine Liturgy is the way we know God and the way God becomes known to us.

Christ celebrated the Divine Liturgy once and this passed into eternity.

His divinized human nature came to the Divine Liturgy. We know Christ specifically in the Divine Liturgy.

The Divine Liturgy we celebrate is the same Divine Liturgy which was done by Christ on Great Thursday in the Mystical Supper. The 14th through the 16th chapters of the Gospel according to John is one Divine Liturgy.

Klaus Kenneth talks about Elder Sophrony Klaus Kenneth, author and musician, in his interview in Pemptousia talks about his acquaintance with the Elder Sophrony of Essex (1896-1993)

Klaus Kenneth talks about Elder Sophrony

Klaus Kenneth, author and musician, in his interview in Pemptousia talks about his acquaintance with the Elder Sophrony of Essex (1896-1993)

The Orthodox Understanding of Salvation

by Dr Christopher Veniamin

Dr Christopher Veniamin just published his essay on the

Orthodox understanding of salvation in the teaching of

St Silouan the Athonite and Elder Sophrony of Essex.

It is available in digital form in Kindle format.

This is a very important subject and Dr Veniamin manages 

to explain theological concepts with ease. He writes,

"There are, described in this passage, four stages of love, the

fourth and highest of which is that which is attested to by the

penetration of Divine Grace into the body, into the very marrow

of a person's being. And this is identified by Saint Silouan as the 

highest state of holiness. 'He who feels grace in both soul and

body is a perfect man, and if he preserves this grace, his body

is sanctified and his bones will make holy relics.'

As with Christ's voluntary death, in which it was not possible for

the Body of the Logos of Life to see corruption, and which was 

thus raised together with His human soul on the third day, so too

will it be with the bodies of those saints which have known great

grace in this life, and who have been able to preserve it. They too,

even after death, are not separated from the grace and love of 

God, neither in soul nor in body, and hence their bodies are 

revealed as holy relics." Kindle location 226 of 341.