Spirituality

Romanian Archbishop in UK calls Triodion season a “school of repentance and humility”

In a pastoral message issued at the beginning of the Triodion period, Archbishop Atanasie of Great Britain and Northern Ireland said that this liturgical season is “a true school of repentance and humility, a school of prayer, and also a school of spiritual asceticism, which reopens for us the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven.”…

Feb 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Orthodox Christians to begin Great Lent on Feb. 23 as Pascha falls on April 12

In about a month, on February 23, Orthodox Christians will enter Great Lent, also known as the Great Fast. The Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord (Holy Pascha) will be celebrated on April 12 this year. On February 1, the liturgical season of the Triodion begins, including three preparatory weeks for Great Lent, followed…

Jan 22, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Digital Matericon: Women Saints of January (II)

This second January instalment of Digital Matericon continues our monthly series dedicated to the women saints commemorated in the Orthodox calendar. Because January contains an especially rich number of holy women—martyrs, monastics, ascetics, mothers, confessors, and “fools for Christ”—the month is presented in two parts, allowing each figure to be remembered with due attention. In…

Jan 21, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

St Vladimir’s Seminary in New York launches fundraiser to publish Stăniloae’s Palamas volume in English

St Vladimir’s Seminary in New York has launched a fundraising campaign to publish, for the first time in English, the volume The Life and Teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas, written by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae. Those who wish to support the publication financially can donate through a fundraising platform hosted on the institute’s website. Funds raised…

Jan 20, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

UK Romanian priest calls for dialogue between theology and psychology in addressing mental health

“A spiritual father needs to distinguish between a mental disorder and a spiritual disturbance,” Father Justin Mihoc said in an interview for the Hristocentric project, underlining the need for dialogue between theology and psychology in contemporary society. Father Justin Mihoc is the parish priest of the Romanian community in Durham, in northern England. He is…

Jan 15, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Digital Matericon: Women Saints of January (I)

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has declared the year 2026 the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women in the Church calendar. Accordingly, we invite you to discover each month the faces of holy women—mothers, wives, nuns, and martyrs—who are models of the Christian life from all ages. Saint Emilia, mother of Saint…

Jan 8, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Time is a life between ‘Passing’ and ‘Coming’: Banat Metropolitan reflects on youth in God’s Kingdom

Metropolitan Ioan of Banat told worshippers gathered at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Timisoara on New Year’s Eve that time is like a life lived between two verbs: “to pass” — which denotes biological ageing and the sombre perception of years slipping away — and “to come”, a verb referring to the way a person responds…

Jan 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Bishop Ioan Casian hails man–woman complementarity as God-given path to human fulfilment

In his New Year message, Bishop Ioan Casian of Canada wrote about the idea of renewal and about the family as a place of spiritual and communal renewal. His message opens with a quotation from St Paul the Apostle: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed…

Jan 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

UK’s Romanian Orthodox Archbishop Atanasie calls for spiritual vigilance at start of New Year

“This passage between years is also a time of watchfulness. We are not called to judge our lives with harsh severity—which leads to discouragement—but to place them before God with sincerity,” noted Archbishop Atanasie of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a message marking the turn of the year. “The year now drawing to a…

Jan 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Whoever receives Christ receives the courage to love: Archbishop Atanasie’s first Christmas pastoral letter

“Whoever receives Christ receives the courage to love, to forgive, and to live without fear. In Him, fear is transformed into trust, and loneliness into a sacred encounter,” noted His Eminence Archbishop Atanasie in his first pastoral letter for the feast of the Nativity since his enthronement as shepherd of Orthodox Romanians in Great Britain…

Dec 22, 2025Aurelian Iftimiu

Romanian Bishop warns technology threatens young people’s freedom

“Purity of heart is difficult to preserve in this world — but not impossible,” said Bishop Damaschin of Dorna, Assistant Bishop of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuți, in an interview with Lumina Newspaper about the challenges facing young people in contemporary society. He stressed that, despite the overwhelming flood of digital stimuli and temptations…

Dec 4, 2025Aurelian Iftimiu