Holy Trinity Panagia Grigoroussa Greek Orthodox Church

Holy Trinity Panagia Grigoroussa Greek Orthodox Church Parish Priest,The Very Rev. Fr. George Tolias. ph. +1647.893.3111
Fr. George email

Light of Light, The Orthodox Truth The Holy Spirit in Orthodox Theology The Holy Spirit in The Orthodox Theology is und...
06/01/2026

Light of Light, The Orthodox Truth
The Holy Spirit in Orthodox Theology

The Holy Spirit in The Orthodox Theology
is understood as the Third Person of the Holy Trinity — fully God, eternal, uncreated, worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son.
The Orthodox Church confesses in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed:
“And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified…”
This teaching was defended especially by:
Saint Basil the Great ,
Saint Gregory the Theologian,
Saint Gregory of Nyssa and
Saint Athanasius the Great.
The Holy Spirit Is Fully God
The Orthodox Church rejects the ancient heresy of the Pneumatomachians (“fighters against the Spirit”), who claimed the Holy Spirit was a creature.
The Fathers taught that:
the Spirit sanctifies,
gives life,
reveals God,
dwells in the saints,
and performs divine actions.
Therefore He cannot be a created being.
Saint Basil writes that the Holy Spirit is:
inseparable from the Father and the Son,
sharing the same divine essence,
and worthy of the same worship.
The Spirit Proceeds from the Father.
One of the distinctive Orthodox teachings is that the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father alone.
Christ says in John 15:26:
“the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father…”
The Orthodox Church therefore rejects the later Western addition of the Filioque (“and the Son”) to the Creed.
The Father is understood as:
the sole source (arche) within the Trinity,
eternally begetting the Son,
and eternally causing the procession of the Holy Spirit.
This preserves the monarchy of the Father within Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church
In Orthodox spirituality, the Holy Spirit is not an abstract theological idea. The Spirit:
sanctifies the Church,
acts in the Mysteries (Sacraments),
illumines Scripture,
transforms the believer,
and leads humanity to theosis (union with God by grace).
The entire life of the Church is Pentecostal.
At every Divine Liturgy, the priest invokes the Holy Spirit in the Epiclesis: that the bread and wine may become the Body and Blood of Christ.
Pentecost
The feast of Pentecost is the great revelation of the Holy Spirit to the Church.
In Orthodox understanding:
Pentecost is not merely a past event,
but the continual life of the Church in the Spirit.
The descent of the Spirit upon the Apostles fulfilled Christ’s promise that the Comforter would come.
The Holy Spirit and Theosis
A central Orthodox teaching is that salvation is participation in the divine life by grace.
The Holy Spirit:
purifies,
illumines,
and deifies the believer.
As Saint Seraphim of Sarov famously taught:
“The true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.”

Light of Light, The Orthodox Truth Saint Macrina Tje ElderMacrina, grandmother of St. Basil the GreatSt. Macrina the El...
05/30/2026

Light of Light, The Orthodox Truth
Saint Macrina Tje Elder

Macrina, grandmother of St. Basil the GreatSt. Macrina the Elder was the matriarch of a famously faithful family—her son and four of her grandchildren were named saints.

Two of these grandsons helped shape the faith that we proclaim today—Basil the Great, a doctor of the Church, and his brother, Gregory of Nyssa, who helped the Church better articulate her understanding of the Trinity. Both of these men played crucial roles in formulating the Nicene Creed that Cathol

still recite every Sunday at Mass. Macrina raised both of these men and their influential younger sister, Macrina the Younger. She gave all these great saints their first religious instruction as children.

During a persecution of Christians, Macrina was forced to flee with her husband to safety. They left their home and hid in the woods for seven years. They were often hungry and had to live off of the land and whatever animals they could hunt. Not long after they were finally allowed to go home, another round of persecution took effect, and their possessions were confiscated.

Despite all these trials and tribulations, Macrina lived a long life and died around the year 340. She is a patron saint of widows and those facing poverty.

St. Macrina the Elder, grandmother who raised a great family for the Church—pray for us!

Light of Light The Orthodox Truth Saint John the Russian Μay 27☦️🙏☦️🙏☦️Saint John the Russian was a humble Russian Ortho...
05/27/2026

Light of Light The Orthodox Truth

Saint John the Russian
Μay 27
☦️🙏☦️🙏☦️
Saint John the Russian was a humble Russian Orthodox soldier born around 1690 in what is now Ukraine or southern Russia. During the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, he was captured by the Turks and sold into slavery to a Turkish officer in Cappadocia, in Asia Minor.
Although he endured hardship, humiliation, and pressure to abandon his Christian faith, Saint John remained steadfast in his love for Christ. He lived in a stable beside the animals, praying constantly, fasting, and serving his master with humility and kindness. His holy life and patience impressed both Christians and Muslims alike.
God granted him the gift of miracles even during his lifetime. One well-known miracle occurred when he mysteriously brought a plate of pilaf to his master, who was far away in Mecca, proving that God had glorified His faithful servant.
Saint John fell asleep in the Lord around 1730. His body was later found incorrupt, a sign of God’s grace. After the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s, his holy relics were transferred to the village of Prokopi on the island of Euboea (Evia), Greece, where they remain today and continue to work many miracles for the faithful.
His feast day is celebrated on May 27 in the Orthodox Church. ☦️🙏

Light of Light The Orthodox. Truth The Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council THE A***N HERECYThe heresiarch Ar...
05/24/2026

Light of Light The Orthodox. Truth

The Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

THE A***N HERECY

The heresiarch Arius was a Libyan by race and a protopresbyter of the Church of Alexandria. In 315, he began to blaspheme against the Son and Word of God, saying that He is not true God, consubstantial with the Father, but is rather a work and creation, alien to the essence and glory of the Father, and that there was a time when He was not. This frightful blasphemy shook the faithful of Alexandria. Alexander, his Archbishop, after trying in vain to correct him through admonitions, cut him off from communion and finally in a local council deposed him in the year 321. Yet neither did the blasphemer wish to be corrected, nor did he cease sowing the deadly tares of his heretical teachings; but writing to the bishops of other cities, Arius and his followers requested that his doctrine be examined, and if it were unsound, that the correct teaching be declared to him. By this means, his heresy became universally known and won many supporters, so that the whole Church was soon in an uproar. Therefore, moved by divine zeal, the first Christian Sovereign, Saint Constantine the Great, the equal to the Apostles, summoned the renowned First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, a city of Bithynia. It was there that the shepherds and teachers of the Church of Christ gathered from all regions in the year 325. All of them, with one mouth and one voice, declared that the Son and Word of God is one in essence with the Father, true God of true God, and they composed the holy Symbol of Faith up to the seventh article (since the remainder, beginning with "And in the Holy Spirit," was completed by the Second Ecumenical Council). Thus they anathematized the impious Arius of evil belief and those of like mind with him, and cut them off as rotten members from the whole body of the faithful. Therefore, recognizing the divine Fathers as heralds of the Faith after the divine Apostles, the Church of Christ has appointed this present Sunday for their annual commemoration, in thanksgiving and unto the glory of God, unto their praise and honour, and unto the strengthening of the true Faith.

Saints Constantine and Helen, Equal to the ApostlesSaint Constantine the Great was the Roman Emperor who ended the perse...
05/21/2026

Saints Constantine and Helen, Equal to the Apostles
Saint Constantine the Great was the Roman Emperor who ended the persecution of Christians and greatly advanced the Christian faith throughout the Empire. After his victory over Maxentius, he saw the sign of the Cross in the sky with the words, “In this sign, conquer,” and trusted in God’s help. In 313, he issued the Edict of Milan, granting freedom to Christians and ending the persecutions.
Constantine later moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which he rebuilt as Constantinople, the future center of Christian civilization. Seeking unity in the Church, he convened the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325, where the heresy of Arius was condemned. Though later misled by Arius’s supporters, Constantine continued to support the Church and defended its peace.
Near the end of his life, Constantine received Holy Baptism and confessed his faith in Christ before his repose in 337. The Church honors him as “Equal to the Apostles” for his immense contribution to Christianity.
Saint Helen, the mother of Constantine, was known for her deep piety, charity, and devotion to Christ. After her son became emperor, she was honored as Augusta and worked tirelessly to build churches and support Christians throughout the Empire.
Her greatest achievement was her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where, according to Holy Tradition, she discovered the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of Christ in 326. Through prayer and divine guidance, the True Cross was identified by a miraculous healing. Saint Helen then built churches at the Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem, and the Mount of Olives.
She later brought relics of the Holy Cross to Constantinople and continued her holy works until her repose at about eighty years of age. The Church honors both Saints Constantine and Helen for their role in establishing and strengthening Christianity throughout the world. ☦️🙏

The glorious Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is not a departure, but the fulfillment of God’s divine plan for the sal...
05/21/2026

The glorious Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is not a departure, but the fulfillment of God’s divine plan for the salvation of the world. Having conquered sin, death, and Hades through His Cross and Resurrection, Christ ascended into heaven in glory so that He might send the Holy Spirit upon His people. The Ascension reveals the exaltation of human nature itself, for in Christ our humanity is seated at the right hand of the Father.
The heavens prepared His throne, and the clouds became the chariot of His ascent. The angelic hosts stood in awe, beholding a human nature lifted above the ranks of angels. The Father received into eternal glory Him who eternally dwells in His bosom, while the Holy Spirit called out to the heavenly powers: “Lift up your gates, O you rulers!” The King of Glory entered triumphantly into the heavens.
Yet this mystery is not only about Christ’s glory—it is also about our hope. The Ascension assures us that humanity is no longer bound to the earth alone, but is called to communion with God. Christ ascended “where He was before,” opening the way for us to become citizens of heaven and partakers of divine grace.
Therefore the Church rejoices and cries out with the Psalmist: “Clap your hands, all you nations!” For Christ our God has ascended in glory, and through Him the gates of paradise are opened once more to mankind.

Light of Light The Orthodox Truth LEAVE-TAKING (APODOSIS) OF THE FEAST OF PASCHAOn the Wednesday of the sixth week after...
05/20/2026

Light of Light The Orthodox Truth
LEAVE-TAKING (APODOSIS) OF THE FEAST OF PASCHA
On the Wednesday of the sixth week after Pascha, we celebrate the Leave-taking (Apodosis) of the Feast of Pascha. Although most feasts have their leave-taking on the eighth day, the Leave-taking of Pascha is celebrated on the 39th day.
Therefore, before the Feast of the Ascension, which we will celebrate tomorrow, by celebrating Pascha once again, we solemnly proclaim that Pascha — the Resurrection — continues!
The Resurrection continues every time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated!
The Divine Liturgy brings to life before us once again all the stages of Christ’s life...
Let us also not forget that every time we rise above earthly things, overcome difficulties, conquer sorrows, and cross the rushing river of life, we make a wondrous “passing over” — we celebrate Pascha!
When we are found worthy to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, we celebrate Pascha!
The Resurrection continues...!!!
Christ is Risen — yesterday, today, and FOREVER! ☦️

Feast Day celebrations Poster for our Church.
05/13/2026

Feast Day celebrations Poster for our Church.

Address

54 Clinton Street
Toronto, ON
M6G2Y3

Telephone

+14165371351

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Holy Trinity Panagia Grigoroussa Greek Orthodox Church posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Place Of Worship

Send a message to Holy Trinity Panagia Grigoroussa Greek Orthodox Church:

Shortcuts

Share

Category