St. John Climacus is honored by the Church as a great ascetic and as the author of a remarkable work entitled, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, and therefore he has been named “Climacus,” or “of the Ladder.”...

We are constantly betraying the Gospel commandments, reckoning them as nothing, but for some reason thinking that were some special trial to befall our lot – such as that which befell the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia – that we would show...

Great Lent and Pascha are the brightest and most instructive times in the Orthodox Calendar. That season began with Forgiveness Sunday (6 March), when we mutually asked and received forgiveness of one another.  It is a season filled with...

The essence of Great Lent, which lasts six weeks and which leads us to Passion Week and to the Feast of Feasts, Pascha, can best be characterized as “sweet sorrow.”  During this time period, which is sorrowful and at the same time exalted,...