The Resurrection of Christ Opened the Way for Our Own Resurrection Introduction The center of the Christian faith is not an idea, a moral teaching, or a form of religious consolation. The center of the faith is an event: Christ rose from the dead. If Christ did not rise, then, as the Apostle Paul teaches, the preaching is empty, faith is empty, hope is vain, and salvation is ineffective. But if Christ truly rose, then death has lost the final word, Hades has been shattered, c

Introduction: Fasting as a path of freedom, not as a “diet” The Church’s fasting—and especially the fasting of Great Lent—does not belong to the category of “religious habits,” nor to a moralistic program of self-improvement. It is ascetical pedagogy, a therapeutic exercise of the soul and of the whole human person, an ecclesial journey of repentance and participation in the Pascha of Christ. When fasting is lived in the Orthodox way, it does not humiliate the body, it does n

How Knowledge of the Self Leads to Knowledge of the Creator Introduction The ancient Delphic maxim “Know thyself” is one of the deepest and most enduring exhortations of Greek thought. Although it was born in a pre-Christian context, the Christian tradition adopted it, purified it, and raised it to a higher spiritual level. “Know thyself” is not merely a philosophical virtue, but a fundamental prerequisite for salvation. The Fathers of the Church, undertaking a spiritual int