Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
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And to her also occurred what we read today in the Gospel passage appointed for her commemoration day; about what will happen when the end of time approaches: There will be wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, people will rise up against people, nations against nations; hatred will possess thousands of people…
We must know that we are not the offshoot of an institution or tradition coming from outside. We are not the last memory of a historical period that our neighbors regard with antipathy. Certainly, they do not like some things about us, just as we do not like some things about them. As the Antiochene See strives towards its original roots, we shall move towards resolving these matters. To the Orthodox person we say “You are Orthodox because you are here in your faith. You represent no more than an upright, correct faith. You do not represent a nation, people, or state, nor do you represent merely a set of customs. You do not derive your Orthodoxy from anyone, even if sometimes you pray in various languages. Any language may be sanctified if the divine word is translated into it.”
Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim passed away Wednesday morning at a Beirut hospital after suffering a stroke a day earlier. He was 92.
Like the festival of the Nativity of the Mother of God, that of Her Presentation in the Temple was created by the Tradition of the Church, which made use of the apocrypha in order to emphasize—this time in the person of the chosen Virgin consecrating Herself :to the service of God—“the fulfillment of the economy of the Creator”.
St. Gregory Palamas, St. John of Kronstadt, Deacon Giorgi Maximov
If a tree is known by its fruit, and a good tree bears good fruit (cf. Mt. 7:17; Lk. 6:44), then is not the Mother of Goodness Itself, She who bore the Eternal Beauty, incomparably more excellent than every good, whether in this world or the world above? Therefore, the coeternal and identical Image of goodness, Preeternal, transcending all being, He Who is the preexisting and good Word of the Father, moved by His unutterable love for mankind and compassion for us, put on our image, that He might reclaim for Himself our nature which had been dragged down to uttermost Hades, so as to renew this corrupted nature and raise it to the heights of Heaven.
