Rating: 10|Votes: 4

The Fast, the Violin, and the Jackhammer

Valery Dukhanin

The fast is not a diet or temporary vegetarianism. The fast is first of all a spiritual activity by which we attempt to bring our soul and flesh into submission. Fasting teaches us to control our nature, rule over desires that arise, and through this, to achieve the most difficult victory—victory over our own selves.

Rating: 10|Votes: 1

A Meditation on the Canon of St. Andrew

Fr. Robert M. Arida

The Canon of St. Andrew is interwoven with two complementary strands. There is first the historical strand, in which St. Andrew skillfully uses the history of salvation as the foundation for his hymn of repentance. It is the loving and compassionate God, who reveals himself through his saving acts and who calls the listener to repentance.

Rating: 6,8|Votes: 5

On the Value of the Psalms

From St. Basil’s homily on Psalm 1

St. Basil the Great

Therefore, He devised for us these harmonious melodies of the psalms, that they who are children in age, or even those who are youthful in disposition, might to all appearances chant, but in reality, become trained in soul.

Rating: 6|Votes: 3

Sermon before the Fast

The fact is of real value only when it stems from a pure heart; when one is ready to deny wealth, and stand above money; when one is ready to give alms to the poor; when one has love and affection, not only for one's own children, but also for the orphans and the poor. One manifests real fasting when he is ready to deprive himself of food, in order that the hungry and destitute might be fed. One really fasts when he maintains his equilibrium under all stress, never allowing himself to lose his temper and explode like a volcano, destroying everyone around him.

Rating: 9|Votes: 1

Sermon on the Gospel of the Sunday of Zacchaeus

Fr. Panagiotes Carras

Who knows what was going on in his heart. Maybe he had reached a point in his life where all of a sudden he had become tired of exploiting people, tired of taking advantage of them, tired of listening to poor women cry as he took their money or food. Because this was what he had done. He went into people's homes and took their flour, oil, or whatever else they had. Many times he literally took food out of the mouths of children who were fatherless.