Sick Catechists: A Concern In Catechism

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

In the recent gathering of Hierarchs of the Church of Greece (02/21/2013), His Eminence Metropolitan Paul of Sisanion and Siatista suggested the theme "Concerns In Catechism" with knowledge and arguments, in a lovely and nice way.

Catechism is an important work of the Church that takes place prior to Baptism as well as after. It is an initiation into the life of the Church and pursues the development of the spiritual life, so that a person reaches "unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13), ie deification. The work of Catechism deals with all ages, young and old, men and women, the wise and the illiterate. Essentially Catechism is the pastoring of the Church.

Saint Marina As A Role Model For Young Women

Saint Marina the Great Martyr (Feast Day - July 17)

Marina was born in Southern Anatolia, specifically from Pisidia in Antioch, at the end of the third century during the reign of Claudius II (268-270). She was the only daughter of noble pagan parents.

When she was five years old her mother died (some sources say she died shortly after childbirth), and since her father, Aidesios, was too busy carrying out his duties as a pagan priest to care for her properly, he turned her care over to a woman who happened to be a Christian.

This nanny lived in a small town about fifteen miles from where Marina was born. Away from her father’s idols and blasphemous practices her nanny taught her about the Christian Faith. As Marina increased in age, more so did she advance in knowledge, understanding, and compassion. Her faith in the Living God was so great that she desired the difficult path of Martyrdom. She told her father that she wished to become a Christian and to never marry so as to live a life of virginity. Her father despised her for her faith and disowned her as his daughter.

The Youth and the Parish

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

Within the Church and in the space of the Parish, the youth, even if they have been let down by society and their family, are able to find an authentic community in Christ, and the interest of a real father. Of course, in the Church there can also be errors and fall short of what should be expected, but ultimately that which has value is that the Church is not an organization, but a divine-human organism, since it is the Body of Christ. We know very well that the wounds of the Cross on the resurrected Body of Christ are signs of its glory. By these wounds the Apostle Thomas beheld the Divinity of Christ, according to Saint Gregory Palamas.