Worship and Liturgy

The Eucharist is the crowning achievement of the well-known liturgical scholar, Alexander Schmemann. It reflects his entire life experience and thoughts on the Divine Liturgy, the Church's central act of self-realization.

In the first few centuries of Christianity, thousands of believers left the cities for the desert, in order to seek a purer spirituality than they could... More

Translated by Fr. Contos and edited by Fr. Kezios, this text contains all of the services celebrated during Holy Week The Greek text is a careful... More

"O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me". This prayer has been on the lips of Christians since the time of the Desert Fathers. What is its history? How do we make it our own prayer? This booklet traces the development of the Jesus Prayer through the early centuries of the Church, and follows its progression through Mount Athos, the teachings of St Gregory Palamas and others, and discusses its modern revival in the 19th and 20th centuries. Concludes with a brief discussion of how this prayer can be appropriated by the individual believer today.

Within these pages a younger generation of Orthodox scholars in America takes up the perennial task of transmitting the meaning of Christianity to a particular time and culture. This collection of twelve essays, as the title Thinking Through Faith implies, is the result of six years of reflective conversation and collaboration regarding core beliefs of the Orthodox faith, tenets that the authors present from fresh perspectives that appeal to reason and spiritual sensibilities alike.

Eastern and Western Christians share a rich spiritual heritage in the Hours of Prayer—the brief services of praise and psalmody that mark the... More

In this study of the Orthodox understanding of Christian initiation, the rites of baptism and chrismation, Fr. Schmemann invites us to "rediscover" baptism.

John Thomas’ intimate work documents the Sacred Holy Week services of the Orthodox Church. The journey climaxes into the most hopeful day of all Christianity – Easter commonly referred to as “Pascha”. Each day of Holy Week captures both the community’s prayerful participation and the spirituality of each service as experienced by the faithful worldwide.

Compilers include Saint Symeon the Metaphrastes, Agapios the Cretan, Nikodemos the Hagiorite, Efthymios Zigabenos, Dositheos of Jerusalem, Church Fathers, and Athonite writers; also cited are Ecclesiastical Histories, together with Neon Paradeison, Neon Thesavron, Neon Eklogion, Neon Martyrologion, and Ephraim.

Compilers include Saint Symeon the Metaphrastes, Agapios the Cretan, Nikodemos the Hagiorite, Efthymios Zigabenos, Dositheos of Jerusalem, Church Fathers, and Athonite writers; also cited are Ecclesiastical Histories, together with Neon Paradeison, Neon Thesavron, Neon Eklogion, Neon Martyrologion, and Ephraim.