God’s Gifts

Introduction
Preface
1. Theology of the Gift
1. Meaning or the Gift
2. The Creation, the Incarnation and the Family as Gifts from God
3. The Gift as a Cross and the Cross of the Gift
2. The Theological Thunderstorm in the Book of Job
1. Introduction
2. Content of the Book
3. Messages in the Book
4. Three Kinds of Theology
5. Some Extracts from the Book
6. Conclusions
3. The Mystery of the Divine Eucharist in Apostolic Times
1. The Last Supper according to the First Three Evangelists
2. The Link between Holy Communion and the Entire Theology of the Church, according to St John the Theologian
a) The Washing of Feet and the Last Supper
b) Christ's Teaching at the Last Supper
c) Christ's High-Priestly Prayer
d) The Link between Light, Communion between Christians, and Holy Communion
e) The Eschatological Divine Eucharist
3. The Divine Eucharist in the First Church Community in Jerusalem, according to the Acts of the Apostles
4. The Charismatic Church of Corinth
a) Celebrating the Divine Eucharist and Preconditions for Taking Part
b) Determining the Typikon for Spiritual Gifts at the Divine Eucharist
Conclusion
4. Christian Asceticism in Everyday Life
1. The Maccabean Youths
2. "By Common Acknowledgement Pious Reason is Absolute Ruler of the Passions."
3. Dealing with Thoughts, according to Fr Paisios
4. Discussion after the Talk
a) Spiritual Watcfulness
b) Finding Suitable Spiritual Fathers
c) Noetic Prayer
d) Elder Sophrony's Teaching on Prayer and the Inverted Pyramid
e) Fr John Romanides on Thoughts and Noetic Prayer
5. "He who is Holy, Let him Be Sanctified still"
1. "He who is Holy"
2. "Let him Be Sanctified still"
3. Manifestations of Sanctity
4. Contemporary Saints
6. The Spiritual Transcendence of Contemporary Problems
1. The Terms Transcendence, Transcendentalism and Transcendental Principle
2. Three Current Issues that Influence the Realm of the Church
a) Relativism
b) Contemporary Scientific Findings
c) Human Rights
3. The Christian Approach to Contemporary Problems
a) In Prison in Philippi
b) Messages from St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians
7. "The Spiritual and Heaven-Scaling Ladder"
1. Introductory Remarks
2. The Steps of the Heaven-Scaling Ladder
a) Setting out to Ascend the Mountain of the Lord
b) Different Stages of the Heavenly Ascent
c) The End of the Heaven-Scaling Ladder
8. Participation in the Mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ according to St Maximus the Confessor
1. St Maximus the Confessor's Teaching on Curing Human Beings
2. Christ's Cross and Ressurection in our Life
a) Christ's Last Passover
b) The Alliance between Pilate, Herod and the Jews
c) The Inscription in Three Languages on the Cross
d) Christ's Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection
e) The Lord's Tomb
f) Pascha, the Passing over of the Word into the Nous
Conclusion
9. The Pastoral Ministry according to St Nektarios Bishop of Pentapolis
1. Qualities Required of Shepherds of the Church
a) "Religious Qualities"
b) "Natural and Acquired Intellectual Qualities"
c) "Physical Qualities"
2. Pastoral Ministry to Nuns
10. Metropolitan Sebastian of Dryinoupolis, as I knew him
1. Diocesan Preacher in the Holy Metropolis of Ioannina
2. Metropolitan of Dryinoupolis, Pogoniani and Konitsa
3. The Brotherly Love between my two Spiritual Fathers
4. Fr Sebastian as an Orthodox Patriot
11. The Ever-Blessed Metropolitan Nektarios of Petra
1. The Autobiography of the Metropolitan of Blessed Memory
2. Our Correspondence during his Illness
12. Fr Moses of the Holy Mountain as a Traditional Theologian, from his Unpublished Letters
1. "A Hazy Newfangled Theology"
2. "Genuine Theological Message"
3. "The Saving Orthodox Tradition"
4. "The Thinking of the New Holy Fathers"
5. "Purification, Illumination and Deification"
6. "Splendid Hierarch of the Church of Greece"
7. "Hesychast of the Holy Mountain and a Great Empirical Theologian of the Twentieth Century"
8. "Truly Great Theologian"
9. "Unsullied Orthodox Ethos"
13. Sotiris Tattis, First Chanter
1. My Recollections of Sotiris Tattis
2. The Ten Commandments of the Church's Unwritten Typikon for Chanters
3. Chanting in Church according to St Paisios
14. Charilaos Taliadoros and "Sacred Psalmody"
15. "A Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity"
1. The Author's Biographical Details
2. The Revelation of Christ
3. Becoming a Protestant
4. His Journey to the Orthodox Church
5. The Meaning of Salvation
a) Sin - Forgiveness
b) Ancestral Sin
c) Man's Salvation
d) Heaven and Hell
Conclusion
16. A Significant Encounter with Three Blessed People in Crete
1. Eldress Galatia
2. Fr Theodoros, Hermit and Cave-Dweller
3. Elder Anastasios of Koudoumas