Postcards from Greece

Fr. Peter discusses the virtue and vice of silence.

Fr. Peter speaks on the 'PNEVMA of PYTHON at St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside, California.

Fr. Peter answers questions about Elder Paisios at St. John the Wonderworker Orthodox Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

Fr. Peter speaks at St. John the Wonderworker Orthodox Church in Atlanta, Georgia, about the life and ministry of Elder Paisios of Mount Athos. Click here to see a video of the talk.

Fr. Peter announces a number of talks he will be giving during a prolonged stay in the U.S. this spring, most of which have to do with the book The Life of Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain.

Fr. Peter reminds us of the essentials and the criterion of salvation; neither a moral life, nor a "religious life," nor love of "man" will save us. Rather, salvation comes to those who love the Truth and give their life for Him.

What is the Orthodox response to the new "citizen card" and the events and developments surrounding it? How should we live and what should be our stance vis-a-vis these "signs of the times"? It is an issue of personal religious freedom of conscience and a matter of confessing the Faith and the name of Christ. Listen as Fr. Peter relates the major points from a speech recently given to a large gathering in Thessaloniki by an Elder from Mount Athos, who is also one of the twenty abbots on Athos.

Fourteen Bishops are dead set against it. The Holy Synod is suspicious and has grave reservations. The Holy Mountain of Athos urges the government to cease and desist and encourages the faithful to refuse it. What is happening in Greece? Listen as Fr. Peter explains to us why so many Greek citizens are up in arms, calling for resistance to tyranny and vigilance before "the signs of the times."

Fr. Peter continues his series on life in Greece with a brief description of the major events and important traditions and customs that take place in his mountain village Petrokerasa.

In this postcard, Fr. Peter stops to examine the previous Sunday's gospel, through which the Church is preparing us to accept the glory of the Lord, His crucifixion, by directing us to divest ourselves of the desire to seek worldly glory. Fr. Peter explains how worldliness, worldly glory, or secularization, is the spirit of the evil one, of the Antichrist, and our mortal enemy as Christians, who want to be glorified with the Lord. He also touches upon our freedom in Christ, the wrong teaching of predestination, those who have true authority in the Church, and more.