Rating: 6|Votes: 2

The Church, the Authentic Interpreter of the Scriptures

Kostas Nousis

It is obvious and well enough known, in any case, that the Church preceded the Scriptures, since it already existed, living in its own Tradition, when it established the canonical books, with all that involves. What, then, are the Scriptures? To put it simply, a written part of the total God-inspired Tradition of the Church.

Rating: 5|Votes: 2

The Incarnation is the Fruit of God's Generosity

Fr. Georges Massouh

In the icon of the Nativity, we see a bull and a donkey surrounding the baby Jesus to warm Him. They symbolize the prophecy from the Old Testament, "The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider” (Isaiah 3:1). Be generous, just as God is generous. That is the feast.

Rating: 6.7|Votes: 12

The Veneration of the Theotokos According to the Bible

Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie)

We Orthodox Christians honor the Theotokos Mary more than all the saints and angels of heaven for she was found worthy to give birth to Christ, the Savior of the world by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. The honor we render to the Mother of the Lord is exceptional, most honorable and most revered, for she is not only "a friend of His,” as are the other saints, but she is Most Holy (Panagia) above all the saints and all the angels.

The Christian Monotheism of the Second Temple

Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon

The apostolic word to the world contained a principled premise: the light of God was all one; the redeeming God was also the creating God. When the Christians assembled to pray, then, at the arrest of Peter and John, they first invoked God as Creator. Jesus was not just any sort of Messiah. He was anointed by Israel’s God, the Creator and Ruler of everyone and everything.

Rating: 4|Votes: 7

On the Knowability of God in the Cappadocians and St. John Chrysostom

Jesse Dominick

But the uniqueness of the Orthodox Church is precisely that it alone among the Christian confessions refuses to reduce the perfection of Christ, and what it means to be perfect in Christ. The martyric spirit of the martyrs themselves and the monastics after them is not driven and sustained by a wise teacher, but rather by the God Who is Life and Who offers that Life to us through His salvific economy in His Church.