After seventy years of life, one becomes unbeknown to this world...About his sicknesses, he would say: "If a man does not arrive at this point of decline with sickness, he could not comprehend the meaning.

Father George Metallinos examines the historical course and the significance of the religious-political entity named "Unia", that is, of the Papist communities in the Orthodox regions of Eastern Europe and the Middle East - mainly during the past four centuries - who have deceptively been observing the Orthodox liturgical rubric (sacred services, language, vestments, etc.), but have acknowledged primacy and infallibility in the person of the Pope of Rome.

The Orthodox Christian believer knows that man after the Fall ceased to offer creation up to God as a doxology, i.e., to practice his priestly duties vis-a-vis creation; it was he who led creation into servitude to corruption. Within the Church, however, he acquires the experience of freedom from this servitude.

The entire world is God's creation and therefore it is by nature good; evil does not have an ontological existence. Natural evil is the result of discord which was created after man's fall; even death is a means of educating man in order to lead him back to communion with God. Moral evil, sin, does not have its cause in man's nature, but in man's disposition.

The Lord instituted the Mystery (Sacrament) of Repentance/Confession after His Resurrection, when, having appeared to His Disciples who, except for Saint Thomas, were gathered together, He solemnly said to them: "Peace be unto you...And when He had said this, He breathed to them, and saith unto them: Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained" (St. John 2);21-23).  

A young man who had become a monk at the Holy Mountain after first becoming involved in Hindu Yoga (you should know that there are approximately 500 Hindu heresies in Greece), described to me what experiences they strive for in there. Whenever they desired to see light, they would rub their eyes until they could see little stars. Whenever the desired to hear unusual sounds they applied some sort of pressure on their ears so that they could create sounds.