Orthodox Christianity teaches that there are three pathways that lead to God and a personal relationship with Him: The Bible, Prayer and Fasting. The how and why of these three pathways will be discussed.
Orthodox Christianity teaches that there are three pathways that lead to God and a personal relationship with Him: The Bible, Prayer and Fasting. The how and why of these three pathways will be discussed.
It's not up to private interpretation yet to be read subjectively ? The Eunuch asks for a teacher. Yet not all who cry 'Lord, Lord…' can necessarily teach, regardless of how learned they imagine themselves to be or that they wear clerical garb. "The Kingdom of God is within' I believe Orthodoxy believes this ? God places 'eternity' in the heart' – Ecclesiastes. How can anyone have a relationship with God in and through Christ when those in the 'church' may not give proper teaching or guidance – which does happen. I'd sooner be a Mormon than a mindless Moron. We are commanded to seek God with all we are and love the neighbour as the self. In this all the law and prophets.
Good lecture, very edifying!
PRAYER.
It is truly proper to glorify You, O Theotokos, the Ever blessed, immaculate and the Mother of God. More honourable than the Cherubim and beyond compare, more glorious than the Seraphim, who a Virgin gave birth to God the Word, You, truly the Theotokos, we magnify.
Father, I much appreciate your teaching and regularly watch your sermons.
However I would say on a practical line it is possible to live as a vegetarian or even a vegan healthy with some thought and planing to have a wide range of vegetables, nuts and pulse so that all the trace elements needed for a healthy life. In fact among vegetarians and vegans there is the same weight issues and nutrition issues as any other group.
Who is the God of the Orthodox Church and Do you Believe in Trinity if you do provide me the Verses and i will convert to Orthodoxy.
Dear Father, thank you for this very helpful series! You make a statement around 15:30 minutes in about no "hidden messages" in the Scriptures, and I believe I understand and take your point in context, but if not clarified elsewhere in this talk (or others of your talks) might be a bit misleading for some inquirers. Obviously, from the very verse you quote alluding to the sign of Jonah, the NT reveals a deeper, hidden (except from those in the Church) typological meaning to many of the texts of the OT. Also, if I understand this correctly, the "apocalyptic" literature in the Bible, like the book of Revelation, does intentionally "hide" the real meaning of its message behind highly figurative and symbolic language and narratives, which would have been understood by its original recipients, but which are not easily interpreted outside that context. As you pointed out earlier, this is why we don't read Revelation publicly in the Liturgy of the Church. Presbytera Jeannie Constantinou has some excellent teaching material on this subject. Forgive me, if you cover this later in your talk–I just wanted to make this observation while it was on my mind.
Father, hello. Could you please try to answer a question that I am having a difficult time understanding…it concerns the will of God and prayer. I read the Gospels often (I'm Greek-Orthodox) and various books on the lives of Saints. I seem to find a contradiction of some sort to the following: In the Gospel according to St Matthew, for example, we are told, "Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find; Knock and it will be given to you." Whereas, on the other hand, we are told that God knows all our needs and wants even before we are aware of them, and that we are to ask only to understand and do the will of God. For instance, one of my favorite saints is St John of Krontandt, and in the book, My Life in Christ, he repeatedly states that we are to ask what we want from God and how important that is. Again, in the Gospels, I also find that we are told that Jesus tells us to ask from Him what we want, just as he asked the blind man what he wanted from Jesus, and the man responded.So please clarify, what is the right way to pray? I feel i'm just very repetitive with my prayer request, but I also pray to learn and accept the will of God. I be believe He has done many things for me, and I'm grateful. I just feel like the basic things I;ve been praying for (like finding a good spouse, having children, understanding what my God-given talents and how to use them) have not been fulfilled. Could you please enlighten me as to what I may be doing wrong? Thank you.
Thank you Father! I enjoyed this one hour lecture.
always this "the church defined the bible" etc. The Apostles gave to the bishops they appointed what to read what to rely on to establish or defend doctrine. The canon we have now is shown in the Muratorian Fragment and in St. Irenaeus "Against Heresies" and the council definitions later were simply excluding upstart works like the Shepherd of HErmas (which retained an influence anyway) and settle the dispuite about a couple of epistles and Revelation (Montanist abuse of this had got Revelation a bad reputation).
Thank you Father. Your internet ministry has been a great resource for me…. a newcomer to Orthodoxy.
father can you please tell me the Bible you refernce in your videos and sermons that has both modern greek and koine greek. thank you for your videos. they have changed my life
this was pretty informational
😉 thanks
Wonderful teaching. I am an Anglican in the UK and find your videos very helpful. Thank you.
Check out the Orthodox Study Bible from the App Store. It is very convenient, especially the one year plan to read the whole bible in one year. I'm on day 266, I'll be done Easter 2018. I even I understand the Old Testament due to the Holy Fathers commentaries with the touch of a little button. It's lighting up my life. Hope you give it a try. Download it from the AppStore for $9.99 on all you electronics. I read it on my iPad and my iPhone. May God bless and keep you all in his loving care.☦️
You lost my interest when you put science ahead of the Biblical account of Creation. Evolutionary theory and Scripture do not mix. One must be correct. We are not descended from an allegory, but from Adam and Eve, literal persons, and the only way to know how sin came into the world is to allow God's entire account of His Creation to supersede what science thinks is true. Science has been known to be flawed. God's word is holy and perfect.
I can’t wait to get my Gospel of St John explanation by the Blessed Theophylact!
Thanks, there is no orthodox ministry where i live so this is very helpful
Thank you
The Masoretic text is not a translation. It is from a different family of manuscripts than the family of manuscripts the Septuagint had been translated from, but still not a translation. During the 2nd temple period there were 3 families of manuscripts and when one was in doubt they would defer to the majority (2:1). Words like "Almah" from Isaiah 7:14 (הָעַלְמָה) are disputed about the meaning as to "virgin," in the Septuagint, or simply "young woman" in Jewish translations like Art Scroll or the JPS Tanack, but in the family the Septuagint was translated from it was also probably "Almah." Pre Christian Jewish translators that translated the Septuagint just interpreted the word as virgin where post first century Jewish translators into other languages no longer viewed the term as being an acceptable translation into virgin. The meaning of Hebrew words is often context dependent, so that makes the translation an even more complicated issue. That is all different though that to insinuate that the Masorites deliberately altered the Hebrew bible to suit their theology. They might have perverted the meaning of words, but its far less likely that they altered the text itself.
Why are you wearing the Roman collar?
What bibles in Greek (both original and modern) do you recommend? Preferably with English as well!