FOREWORD

«Although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the significance of the Tradition is one and the same. But as the sun, that creation of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the Truth shineth everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the Truth. Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master); nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the Tradition. For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it».

Saint Irenaeus of Lyon

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«What makes man an Orthodox is not only the persistence on the external aspects of Tradition, but the experience of its inner life, which is the ascetic method - purification, illumination and theosis. This method, these stages of spiritual life are the foundation of the dogmas, the basis of ecclesiastical art, but also the creative cause of the ethos and customs of our people, because this theology saturated our forefathers prior to our westernization. For this reason we must struggle to keep this inner aspect of tradition, the method of Orthodox piety, through which we are healed. Then we are really zealots of patristic traditions. For, even if we have good intentions, outside this ascetic therapeutic method we run the risk of becoming enemies and adversaries of Orthodoxy».

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos