Free Republic 1st Qtr 2024 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $73,883
91%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 91%!! Thank you everyone!! God bless.

Articles Posted by Kolokotronis

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • PAT. OF ALEXANDRIA CALLS UPON ALL LOCAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES TO PARTICIPATE IN PAN-ORTHODOX COUNCIL

    06/15/2016 4:03:56 AM PDT · by Kolokotronis · 6 replies
    Paroslavie ^ | June 14, 2016
    Theodoros II, the Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, appealed to all Local Orthodox Churches to participate in the Pan-Orthodox Council on Crete, reports Sedmitsa.ru, with reference to Romfea. In an interview given to radio station 98.4, Patriarch Theodoros regarded as an historical Church Council that which is to take place in June 2016 on the island of Crete. The Alexandrian Patriarch stated that “the Orthodox Church should be far from political, national, and racial affiliations. “It’s impossible to imagine that it would be possible in the last minutes to not come to the Church Council, in line with personal...
  • The Paschal homily of St John Chrysostomos (Archbishop of Constantinople)

    05/01/2016 4:01:41 AM PDT · by Kolokotronis · 17 replies
    http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/sermon.htm ^ | 4th Century AD | +John Chrysostomos
    If any be a devout lover of God, let him partake with gladness from this fair and radiant feast. If any be a faithful servant, let him enter rejoicing into the joy of his Lord. If any have wearied himself with fasting, let him now enjoy his reward. If any have laboured from the first hour, let him receive today his rightful due. If any have come after the third, let him celebrate the feast with thankfulness. If any have come after the sixth, let him not be in doubt, for he will suffer no loss. If any have delayed...
  • 1st, 2nd & 3rd Stasis of the Lamentations for Great and Holy Friday

    04/29/2016 8:14:51 AM PDT · by Kolokotronis · 6 replies
    This will be chanted tonight across the Orthodox World. I expect all Orthodox Christians will agree that tonight's service is the most emotionally gut wrenching of the year. These chants are the lamentations of the Most Holy Theotokos at the crucifixion, death and entombment of her Son. Imagine what it must have been like for her! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttXyYzXKLUQ
  • Homily On Christmas Morning

    12/25/2015 8:20:33 AM PST · by Kolokotronis · 17 replies
    Patheos ^ | St. John Chrysostom
    BEHOLD a new and wondrous mystery. My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but chanting full forth a heavenly hymn. The Angels sing. The Archangels blend their voice in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt His glory. All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth, and man in heaven. He Who is above, now for our redemption dwells here below; and he that was lowly is by divine mercy raised. Bethlehem this day resembles heaven; hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices; and in place...
  • THE HUNDRED THOUSAND MARTYRS OF TBILISI (†1227)

    11/14/2015 4:39:48 AM PST · by Kolokotronis · 21 replies
    Paroslavie.ru ^ | November 14, 2007 | Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze
    In 1227 Sultan Jalal al-Din of Khwarazm and his army of Turkmen attacked Georgia. On the first day of the battle the Georgian army valorously warded off the invaders as they were approaching Tbilisi. That night, however, a group of Persians who were living in Tbilisi secretly opened the gates and summoned the enemy army into the city. According to one manuscript in which this most terrible day in Georgian history was described: “Words are powerless to convey the destruction that the enemy wrought: tearing infants from their mothers’ breasts, they beat their heads against the bridge, watching as their...
  • Feast of St. John Chrysostomos, Archbishop of Constantinople

    Synaxarion: This greatest and most beloved of all Christian orators was born in Antioch the Great in the year 344 or 347; his pious parents were called Secundus and Anthusa. After his mother was widowed at the age of twenty, she devoted herself to bringing up John and his elder sister in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. John received his literary training under Anthragathius the philosopher, and Libanius the sophist, who was the greatest Greek scholar and rhetorician of his day. Libanius was a pagan, and when asked before his death whom he wished to have for his...
  • Why Orthodox Men Love Church

    06/13/2015 5:42:16 AM PDT · by Kolokotronis · 44 replies
    Journey to Orthodoxy ^ | October 28, 2010 | Frederica Matthewes-Green
    In a time when churches of every description are faced with Vanishing Male Syndrome, men are showing up at Eastern Orthodox churches in numbers that, if not numerically impressive, are proportionately intriguing. This may be the only church which attracts and holds men in numbers equal to women. As Leon Podles wrote in his 1999 book, “The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity,” “The Orthodox are the only Christians who write basso profundo church music, or need to.” Rather than guess why this is, I emailed a hundred Orthodox men, most of whom joined the Church as adults. What do...
  • The Brutal Nazi Massacre of a Cretan Village in Pictures

    05/21/2015 8:13:40 AM PDT · by Kolokotronis · 44 replies
    The Pappas Post ^ | May 28, 2014 | Gregory Pappas
    On June 2, 1941 a brutal massacre took place in the village of Kondomari, just west of the city of Hania. The Battle of Crete had just completed and the Allied forces surrendered the island to the invading Nazis. Despite the outcome, the battle changed the course of World War II history and was epic on so many levels, including the fierce resistance that the Nazis encountered from the local Cretan population. The Nazis were dumbfounded by the resistance, never having experienced such ferocious fighting from civilians anywhere else in Europe. As retribution for so many German losses, General Kurt...
  • Why Pope Francis is not a Communist

    07/05/2014 5:53:22 AM PDT · by Kolokotronis · 64 replies
    Aleitia.org ^ | March 7, 2014 | Mark Gordon
    "I say only that the Communists have stolen the flag,” Francis responded. “The flag of the poor is Christian. Poverty is at the heart of the Gospel. The poor are at the heart of the Gospel. Take Matthew 25, the protocol over which we shall be judged: ‘I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was in prison, I was sick, naked.’ Or look at the Beatitudes, another flag. The communists say that this is communist. Yeah, right, 20 centuries later.” The Holy Father concluded with a joke: “So you could say when you speak to them: ‘But you are Christians.’”...
  • Lazarus Saturday (Orthodox/Latin Caucus)

    04/16/2011 5:11:27 PM PDT · by Kolokotronis · 7 replies
    Synaxarion: Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, the friends of the Lord Jesus, had given Him hospitality and served Him many times (Luke 10:38-4z; John 12:2-3). They were from Bethany, a village of Judea. This village is situated in the eastern parts by the foothills of the Mount of Olives, about two Roman miles from Jerusalem. When Lazarus - whose name is a Hellenized form of "Eleazar," which means "God has helped," became ill some days before the saving Passion, his sisters had this report taken to our Saviour, Who was then in Galilee. Nonetheless, He tarried yet...
  • St. Andrew of Crete, Great Canon of Repentance - Tuesday's portion (Orthodox/Latin Caucus)

    03/08/2011 4:20:19 PM PST · by Kolokotronis · 3 replies
    Monachos.net ^ | 7th century | St. Andrew of Crete
    Tone Six Ode 1. Eirmos: He is my Helper and Protector, and has become my salvation. This is my God and I will glorify Him My father's God and I will exalt Him. For gloriously has He been glorified. (Exodus 15:2, 1; Psalm 117:14) Refrain: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me. Troparia: I have willfully incurred the guilt of Cain's murder, since by invigorating my flesh I am the murderer of my soul's awareness, and have warred against it by my evil deeds. (Genesis 4:8) I have not resembled Abel's righteousness, O Jesus. I have never...
  • The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete (Monday's portion) [Orth/Cath Caucus]

    03/07/2011 3:42:26 PM PST · by Kolokotronis · 10 replies
    Monachos.net ^ | 7th century | St. Andrew of Crete
    Tone Six Ode 1. Eirmos: He is my Helper and Protector, and has become my salvation. This is my God and I will glorify Him. My father's God and I will exalt Him. For gloriously has He been glorified. (Exodus 15:2,1; Psalm 117:14) Refrain: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me. Troparia: Where shall I begin to lament the deeds of my wretched life? What first-fruit shall I offer, O Christ, for my present lamentation? But in Thy compassion grant me release from my falls. Come, wretched soul, with your flesh, confess to the Creator of all....
  • Aghni Parthene " O Pure Virgin" (Orthodox/Catholic Caucus)

    02/28/2011 4:52:30 PM PST · by Kolokotronis · 16 replies
    St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church ^ | Late 19th century | +Nektarios of Aegina
    O pure and virgin Lady,/ O spotless Theotokos: Rejoice, O unwedded Bride! O Virgin Queen and Mother/ O dewey fleece most sacred:/ Rejoice, O unwedded Bride! O height transcending heaven above/ O beam of light most radiant:/ Rejoice, O unwedded Bride! O joy of chaste and virgin maids/ surpassing all the angels:/ Rejoice, O unwedded Bride! O brilliant light of heaven above/ most clear and most radiant: / Rejoice, O unwedded Bride! Commanding chief of heaven above/ O holiest of holies/ Rejoice, O unwedded Bride! O ever-virgin Mary/ O Mistress of creation:/ Rejoice, O unwedded Bride! O Bride all-pure and...
  • Egypt's President Needs to Ensure Egyptian Christians' Safety

    01/08/2011 3:41:20 AM PST · by Kolokotronis · 15 replies
    Ethics Daily.com ^ | January 4, 2011 | Ayman Ibrahim
    On the first day of 2011 shortly after midnight, as Coptic Christian worshipers left a New Year's Eve service in a church in Alexandria in northern Egypt, a bomb exploded outside the church killing at least 21 Christians and injuring 97. This illustrates a new wave of sectarian violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt. A slogan written on a car at the site stated, "More is yet to come" – a message to warn the Copts of what the future holds for them in Muslim-majority Egypt. Coptic Christians in Egypt make up about 12 percent of Egypt's 80 million people....
  • Feast of the The Conception by St. Anna of the Most Holy Theotokos December 9th

    12/09/2010 4:28:11 AM PST · by Kolokotronis · 14 replies · 1+ views
    Synaxarion: According to the ancient tradition of the Church, since Saint Anna, the Ancestor of God, was barren, she and her husband Joachim remained without children until old age. Therefore, sorrowing over their childlessness, they besought God with a promise that, if He were to grant them the fruit of the womb, they would offer their offspring to Him as a gift. And God, hearkening to their supplication, informed them through an Angel concerning the birth of the Virgin. And thus, through God's promise, Anna conceived according to the laws of nature, and was deemed worthy to become the...
  • On The Wire

    11/11/2010 4:02:41 AM PST · by Kolokotronis · 7 replies
    Old Poetry ^ | 1916 | Robert W. Service
    O God, take the sun from the sky! It's burning me, scorching me up. God, can't You hear my cry? Water! A poor, little cup! It's laughing, the cursed sun! See how it swells and swells Fierce as a hundred hells! God, will it never have done? It's searing the flesh on my bones; It's beating with hammers red My eyeballs into my head; It's parching my very moans. See! It's the size of the sky, And the sky is a torrent of fire, Foaming on me as I lie Here on the wire . . . the wire....
  • The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross September 14 [Orthodox/Latin Caucus]

    Synaxarion: Saint Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, when she was already advanced in years, undertook, in her great piety, the hardships of a journey to Jerusalem in search of the cross, about the year 325. A temple to Aphrodite had been raised up by the Emperor Hadrian upon Golgotha, to defile and cover with oblivion the place where the saving Passion had been suffered. The venerable Helen had the statue of Aphrodite destroyed, and the earth removed, revealing the Tomb of our Lord, and three crosses. Of these, it was believed that one must be that of...
  • Feast of St. Euphrosynos the Cook, September 11

    09/11/2010 5:40:44 AM PDT · by Kolokotronis · 6 replies · 1+ views
    Troparion - Tone 4 You lived in great humility, In labors of asceticism and in purity of soul, O righteous Euphrosynos, By a mystical vision you demonstrated the Heavenly joy which you had found. Therefore make us worthy to be partakers of your intercessions. Synaxarion Saint Euphrosynus the Cook was from one of the Palestinian monasteries, and his obedience was to work in the kitchen as a cook. Toiling away for the brethren, St Euphrosynus did not absent himself from thought about God, but rather dwelt in prayer and fasting. He remembered always that obedience is the first duty of...
  • The Holy & Righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna; September 9

    Synaxarion: Today, the day following the Nativity of the most holy Theotokos, we celebrate the synaxis of Saints Joachim and Anna, honouring them as her parents. Apolytikion in the Second Tone As we celebrate the memory of Thy righteous ancestors, O Lord, through them we beseech Thee to save our souls. Kontakion in the Second Tone Now Anna is glad, for from the bonds of barrenness hath she been released; and nourishing the all-pure one, she doth summon all together, that they might praise Him Who from her womb hath bestowed upon mortal men the only pure Mother who...
  • The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary [Ecumenical] September 8

    Synaxarion: According to the ancient tradition of the Church, the Theotokos was born of barren and aged parents, Joachim and Anna, about the year 16 or 17 before the birth of Christ. Joachim was descended from the royal line of David, of the tribe of Judah. Anna was of the priestly tribe of Levi, a daughter of the priest Matthan and Mary, his wife. Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone Your birth, O Theotokos, brought joy to the whole world, for from you dawned the sun of righteousness, Christ our God. Freeing us from the curse, He gave us His...