On Cremation of the Dead (St. Paisios the Athonite)

Saint Paisios the Athonite said the following about cremation: 

 

Someone came here, a University professor, and he told me that they are seriously considering burning the bones of the dead, because there is no room.

"Look," I said to him, "why isn't there room? Thessaloniki has so many forests! The whole of Chortiatis! Fill a cemetery, after 3-4 years, you make another one further down. Why have they filled the mountains everywhere with apartment buildings?"

He also told me that it is from a hygiene point of view! What do you mean from the point of view of hygiene, while you have polluted the whole world, you have polluted the sea in Thessaloniki and elsewhere, while the bones are washed and cleaned! Have a little respect. But they want to degrade people, to make them worth nothing, to tear them from their roots, from their ancestors, from their tradition, to leave them alone and desolate, to destroy their memory, their connection with their predecessors, with the values and life of their ancestors, in order to then do whatever they want with various theories that pull them here and there. They go to spread atheism. Someone has died? Oh well, they're gone!

The Sin of War - Our Only Enemy Is Death

By Protopresbyter Fr. Thomas Bambinis

The Sin of War

War is a great temptation for the consciences of the faithful. It extinguishes love. They identify it with selfishness, at best they subjugate it to national selfishness. Of course, the battles that take place in defensive wars are not only inevitable, they are also just, but even in these just wars, all the darkness of people is easily manifested, as well as, of course, all of the brilliant greatness of those who struggle on behalf of the just, the sacred and the freedom of their people with selflessness and self-denial, without obvious hatred for the aggressors.

War and the Orthodox Church (George Mantzarides)

By George Mantzarides,
Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the 

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

War, as an armed and bloody conflict of organized groups, is one of the most serious and distressing problems of man, especially in our time. The experience of the two world wars, the endless series of military engagements that followed them, but also the existence of terrifying means of destruction, which can wipe out hundreds of times not only the human race, but also every trace of civilization from the face of the earth, is enough to reveal the magnitude of the problem.

Heraclitus argued that war was the "father of all." This view remains with small variations strong to this day. Many even observe that peace is a form of war, waged with politics or economics. On the contrary, for the Church the "Father of all" is not war, but the God of peace (2 Cor. 13:11). And the coming of God into the world is a gospel of peace (Luke 2:14).

The Burning Issue of Euthanasia

By Archdeacon Raphael Misiaoulis
of the Sacred Metropolis of Tamasos and Oreinis

This past year, and not only, we have seen in the media the issue of euthanasia being discussed by various people and whether a dialogue should be opened on this issue.

Euthanasia as a subject is not easily accessible and this is because both as a concept and much more its transformation into action, leads the individual to dilemmas and controversial situations.

The term "euthanasia" is a term that is purely related to medical science and refers to the cessation of life through the help of a doctor, in order to redeem the person suffering from the pain of their illness and to reach a calm end.

On the contrary, in ancient times, as already mentioned, euthanasia was the good and calm death or the glorious death on the battlefield.

Thoughts on World Contraception Day (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Unfortunately we live in a secular society, even if it is called and self-described as Christian. And of course this Christianity is also secularized.

Within this perspective is the disregard of the daily Christian feasts, in which our Saints are featured by the Church, who are models for our lives and for holiness, and there are other holidays that refer to human life, and in fact to events that are not inspired by the commandments of Christ.

Among the many celebrated world days is "World Contraception Day".* People have established a world day, in which the contraception of the child will be "celebrated", that is, the human desire to feel pleasure, but without the birth of children, which is the continuation of life.