Message for the Beginning of the School Year for Elementary Students
My beloved students,
With the beginning of the school year, I feel the need as the Metropolitan of this Sacred Metropolis to communicate with you to wish you to have health of body and soul to meet the demands of your education.
You have understood by now that you live your lives between the family and the school, the society and the Church. You were born and grew up in a small family and there you got to know the first impressions of your life.
However, one cannot isolate themselves only in their family, so at the same time you live your life in society, with your association with other children and with your recreation, as you also live your life in the space of the Church and the space of the School.
In the family you learned to speak your language, but later you will have to learn to write, to read, to record your thoughts, to learn about the world you are in and even how to treat others. All this is taught to you by your parents and your teachers.
It is a great blessing that there are schools with teachers and their entire organization, because not only do you learn the knowledge that is necessary for your life, but you also learn how to live in society, how to behave and how to deal with problems where you will find yourself later in life.
It is very important to learn how to read, how to communicate and talk with people and God. It is important to learn how to love and how to be free, how to develop biologically, psychologically, socially and spiritually, how to make real friends and how to enjoy life without feeling hopeless.
And this year you are given the opportunity to benefit from your teachers, who as your second parents have the knowledge and experience of life, so that you become successful in life. However, you must do this with joy, with love, with optimism. I wish God to help you in this new course of yours, this new journey of knowledge.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish a happy new year to your teachers and your parents, who have taken on the responsibility of educating you to become good members of society in whatever position you are called to serve.
Happy and blessed new year to everyone, with health, love and joy.
With the beginning of the school year, I feel the need as the Metropolitan of this Sacred Metropolis to communicate with you to wish you to have health of body and soul to meet the demands of your education.
You have understood by now that you live your lives between the family and the school, the society and the Church. You were born and grew up in a small family and there you got to know the first impressions of your life.
However, one cannot isolate themselves only in their family, so at the same time you live your life in society, with your association with other children and with your recreation, as you also live your life in the space of the Church and the space of the School.
In the family you learned to speak your language, but later you will have to learn to write, to read, to record your thoughts, to learn about the world you are in and even how to treat others. All this is taught to you by your parents and your teachers.
It is a great blessing that there are schools with teachers and their entire organization, because not only do you learn the knowledge that is necessary for your life, but you also learn how to live in society, how to behave and how to deal with problems where you will find yourself later in life.
It is very important to learn how to read, how to communicate and talk with people and God. It is important to learn how to love and how to be free, how to develop biologically, psychologically, socially and spiritually, how to make real friends and how to enjoy life without feeling hopeless.
And this year you are given the opportunity to benefit from your teachers, who as your second parents have the knowledge and experience of life, so that you become successful in life. However, you must do this with joy, with love, with optimism. I wish God to help you in this new course of yours, this new journey of knowledge.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish a happy new year to your teachers and your parents, who have taken on the responsibility of educating you to become good members of society in whatever position you are called to serve.
Happy and blessed new year to everyone, with health, love and joy.
The Metropolitan
+ Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
+ Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
Message for the Beginning of the School Year for Middle School and High School Students
My beloved students,
At the beginning of the new school year, as the Metropolitan of this Sacred Metropolis, I feel the need to communicate with you on this day of the beginning of the new school year and to wish you health and inspiration in your work this year.
People constantly seek knowledge, they want to increase in knowledge, because knowledge gives them the possibility to communicate with the environment and at the same time to feel inner fulfillment, well-being and security.
When I speak of knowledge, I do not mean only scientific knowledge, but also existential, social and spiritual knowledge. Man is not only a calculating being, but he also has a need for love, for living communication, for finding meaning in life, he has a need for God. It is a multi-level knowledge, which meets three different ways of life, which must cooperate with each other.
The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard says that there are three ways of life. The first way is the aesthetic one, which is determined by the senses, by pleasure. The second way of life is the ethical one which is inspired by duty, the precise sense of time and the necessity to make correct decisions. And the third way of life is the religious one, which consists in our positioning before God. The educated, integrated person must hold these three ways of life in interdependence and interaction.
This is primarily done by inspiration. Inspiration is defined as "the special psychosomatic and spiritual state that leads to original intellectual creation". Also, inspiration makes a person love what he does, to love knowledge, communication with people, life, as inspired artists, painters, poets, writers do, who live continuously with the object they work on.
Today is the first day at school, which begins a new period of travel within diverse intellectual, psychological, spiritual knowledge and I hope you have inspiration, the inspiration of the artist and the poet. May God empower you to enjoy your life, but also the age you have, which will not return again. So always be happy, enjoy what you have.
Also, I would like to wish a happy new year to all your teachers, and your parents who help you in your spiritual development.
Happy and blessed new year to everyone, with health, love and joy.
At the beginning of the new school year, as the Metropolitan of this Sacred Metropolis, I feel the need to communicate with you on this day of the beginning of the new school year and to wish you health and inspiration in your work this year.
People constantly seek knowledge, they want to increase in knowledge, because knowledge gives them the possibility to communicate with the environment and at the same time to feel inner fulfillment, well-being and security.
When I speak of knowledge, I do not mean only scientific knowledge, but also existential, social and spiritual knowledge. Man is not only a calculating being, but he also has a need for love, for living communication, for finding meaning in life, he has a need for God. It is a multi-level knowledge, which meets three different ways of life, which must cooperate with each other.
The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard says that there are three ways of life. The first way is the aesthetic one, which is determined by the senses, by pleasure. The second way of life is the ethical one which is inspired by duty, the precise sense of time and the necessity to make correct decisions. And the third way of life is the religious one, which consists in our positioning before God. The educated, integrated person must hold these three ways of life in interdependence and interaction.
This is primarily done by inspiration. Inspiration is defined as "the special psychosomatic and spiritual state that leads to original intellectual creation". Also, inspiration makes a person love what he does, to love knowledge, communication with people, life, as inspired artists, painters, poets, writers do, who live continuously with the object they work on.
Today is the first day at school, which begins a new period of travel within diverse intellectual, psychological, spiritual knowledge and I hope you have inspiration, the inspiration of the artist and the poet. May God empower you to enjoy your life, but also the age you have, which will not return again. So always be happy, enjoy what you have.
Also, I would like to wish a happy new year to all your teachers, and your parents who help you in your spiritual development.
Happy and blessed new year to everyone, with health, love and joy.
The Metropolitan
+ Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
+ Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
