Greek Eggplant Dip (for a blessed fasting)

Fasting during Great Lent

Fasting during Great Lent

During Great Lent, the Orthodox fast is not simply about food it is about discipline, humility and drawing closer to God.

Traditionally, the Church guides us to abstain from meat, dairy, eggs and fish with a backbone throughout Lent.

Olive oil and wine are traditionally avoided on weekdays (Monday–Friday), and permitted on Saturdays and Sundays, as weekends are seen as days of joy and resurrection.

Shellfish, legumes, vegetables, fruits and grains are allowed, making the fast simple, nourishing and deeply rooted in our heritage.

Fasting is not meant to harm the body, but to strengthen the soul. Each person should fast according to their health and with the guidance of their priest.

May this Lent bring clarity, strength and spiritual growth.

"Live in God, in the moment.”

"Live in God, in the moment.”

The devil appeared to three monks and said to them: if I gave you power to change something from the past, what would you change?

The first of them, with great apostolic fervor, replied: "I would prevent you from making Adam and Eve fall into sin so that humanity could not turn away from God."

The second, a man full of mercy, said to him: "I would keep you far from God so that you condemn yourself eternally.”

The third of them was the simplest and, instead of responding to the tempter, he got on his knees, made the sign of the cross and prayed saying: "Lord, free me from the temptation of what could be and was not".

The devil, giving a raucous cry and shuddering with pain, vanished.

The other two, surprised, said to him: "Brother, why have you responded like this?"

He replied: 

"First: we mustnever dialogue with the devil. 

Second: Nobody in the world has the power to change the past. 

Third: Satan's interest was not to prove our virtue, but to trap us in the past, so that we neglect the present, the only time God gives us His grace and we can cooperate with Him to fulfill His will."

Of all the demons, the one that catches the most men and prevents them from being happy is that of "What could have been and was not".

The past is left to the mercy of God and the future to his Providence. Only the present is in our hands. "Live in God, in the moment.”

The Supplication Canon to Panagia

 

 The Supplication Canon to Panagia, known in Greek as the Paraklesis Service, chanted by members of the Greek Orthodox Christian Society Ladies Kyklo Group.

0:00 Psalm 142

1:20 God is the Lord

3:40 Psalm 50

5:30 Ode 1, Ode 3

10:23 A Fervant Prayer

11:13 Ode 4, Ode 5, Ode 6

17:04 Kontakion 2nd Tone

18:19 From the Years of my Youth

20:49 Glory, Theotokia

23:27 Ode 7, Ode 8, Ode 9

28:55 Truely you are worthy

32:50 Trisagion, Troparia Plagal 2nd Tone

32:52 All Those Do You Shelter

38:35 O You Apostles

It's a blessing!

A prayer of peace

A prayer of peace

Many of us often mistake our own will for the Will of God. In our prayers, we insist on having things our way, forgetting that, in doing so, we, the humble, are trying to instruct the All-Wise God.

But so often, what we desire is not what God really desires for us.

That’s why I hope we learn to truly long for God’s will to be done in our lives.

He alone knows which trials will lead to our sanctification, and which blessings will give us the strength we need.

It's a beautiful thing to make this simple yet powerful prayer part of our daily lives, a prayer that can calm the soul and align our hearts with His purpose:

"Oh Lord my God, may your Will become the desire of my heart!"

Amen.

AFTER LIFE

AFTER LIFE

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

-Saint Demetrios and the olives-

-Saint Demetrios and the olives-

"This is the reason, we have the Saints in our house, for the difficult times …”

“Once there was a man without faith who had a faithful wife, nonetheless. His wife was talking to him about faith, but he would not listen. One day they were gathering olives in the fields but the night came and they had not taken them back home yet, so they had to leave them outside. The husband said:

-We should not leave them outside, they will get stolen. 

-“God will protect them”. His wife told him

-“What are you talking about… If we do not take care of them…no God will…how can you believe in God…?”

-“God will protect them since we cannot carry them now…”

How Panagia Prousiotissa stopped the spreading of the Spanish flu miraculously.

How Panagia Prousiotissa stopped the spreading of the Spanish flu miraculously.

On the 9th day following the Dormition of our Most Holy Theotokos, we celebrate the feast of a spectacular miracle working icon, Panagia Prousiotissa. 

The vast miracles which have been attributed to this icon have brought healing and salvation to the millions of faithful who beseech our Panagia with faith and reverence. While Her countless miracles are all awe inspiring, there is one miracle in particular which is directly relevant to the trying and difficult times we are living today.

The beatitudes of Saint Paisios the Athonite

The beatitudes of Saint Paisios the Athonite

Saint Paisios wrote these beatitudes "as does the madman who writes his outbursts on the wall with charcoal." The reason for the initial craziness was five letters, one after the other, from various parts of Greece on a variety of subjects. While the events described were great blessings of God, those who wrote to St Paisios had fallen into despair because they dealt with them in a worldly way. "After replying accordingly to their letters, I took the pencil like a madman, as I have said, and wrote this epistle."

The Song of Hagia Sophia

The  Song of Hagia Sophia 

(The lament of the Hellenic people, which is full of hope, after the Fall of Constantinople 1453)

God sounds out, the earth sounds out, the heavens sound out.

And the Hagia Sophia also sounds out, the great monastery,

With four hundred sounding-boards and sixty-two bells,

For each bell a priest, for each priest a deacon.

A prophecy of St Paisios