Publications Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex

12/05/2026

The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
A talk by Father Sergius - the Abbot of Saint Tikhon's St Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery

An Eastern Orthodox Christian monastery and publishing house of Christian books, est. 1959 by Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

05/05/2026

The saints lived and prayed at heights most of us can barely imagine, yet their gifts weren’t meant for them alone. Within the Church, God invites every one of us into the company of these holy Fathers, to be shaped by their words and carried by their prayers.

This book follows that stream of grace. Drawing on the writings of Saint Sophrony, Archimandrite Zacharias guides us into one of the most intimate mysteries of the Christian life: how we, as human beings, stand before God in prayer.

🎧 Available as audiobook, ebook, paperback or in a beautiful hardback clothbound format.

22/04/2026

A simple exterior, holding something quietly beautiful within.
The Orthodox Liturgy and the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete, lovingly wrapped — with care and beauty in every detail.

19/04/2026

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. (John 20:28)⁣
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I do not know a Greek Christ, a Russian Christ, an English Christ... Christ for me is everything, the supra-cosmic Being.

— Excerpt, Drawings & Icon Painting from: The Face of Light (St. Sophony’s Icons of Christ) by Sister Gabriela

28/03/2026

Righteous Mother Mary, pray unto God for us: The Mother of Light that never setteth illumined and delivered thee from the darkness of the passions. Wherefore, O Mary, who dwellest in the grace of the Spirit, give light to them that faithfully do praise thee.

Righteours Mother Mary, pray unto God for us: The pious Zosimas was amazed, O Mother, behodling in thee a wonder trully strange and new. For he saw an angel clothed in flesh, and was filled with awe, praising Christ, world without end.

— Excerpt from: The Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete with the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt • Translated by Rosemary Edmonds

Book available here: https://essexmonastery.com/bookshop/the-great-canon-of-saint-andrew-of-crete/

24/03/2026

With the incarnation of the Son of God, a new time of God’s good pleasure dawned in the history of mankind. At the Annunciation, the Body of Christ, the Church, manifested itself in history for the first time. This Holy Body of the Son of God, wherein ‘dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead’ became the inheritance of ‘a chosen generation’? This inheritance and all the gifts that ensued, were made possible through the marvellous instrument of God, the Most Holy Virgin Mary. She is therefore rightly called ‘the fulness of time’ that brought the Kingdom of God down to earth.

— Excerpt from: Mariam: The Mother of the Lord and Mother of Our Life • The Garment of Humility of the Mother of God, The Pattern for Monasticism (p. 25) • Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)

🖼️ Murals by Sister Gabriela found in the book: The House of Our Father.

22/03/2026

Today the Holy Gospel reminds us that without fasting and prayer we are not able to be delivered from the demonic pestilence of sin.

Our immaculate Church also tells us that the fruit of her crucified life are the Saints. A perfect example is Saint John of the Ladder, who teaches us that when we till our heart with the plough of the Cross and guard it with vigilance, we find the Paradise of God within us.

His teaching has a vision which is similar to a submarine, into which not a drop of water can enter. According to this teaching, guarding the mind and the heart from every alien thought or sinful image preserves the benefit of our struggle to attain salvation, which we undertake at all times, but more especially during this period of Holy Lent.

The great Apostle Paul encourages us to not be ‘ignorant of the devices of the enemy’ (2 Cor. 2:11), but with vigilance to hold our every thought captive ‘to the obedience of Christ’
(2 Cor. 10:5).

— Excerpt from: The Eternal ‘Today’ (p. 115) • Archimadrite Zacharias

19/03/2026

O Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world: Take from me the heavy yoke of sin, and of Thy mercy grant me tears of repentance.

I fall prostrate before Thee, O Jesus. I have sinned in Thy sight: Have mercy upon me. Take from me the heavy yoke of sin, and of Thy mercy grant me tears of repentance.

Enter not into judgement with me, weighing my deeds, examining my words, and discerning my desires. Rather of Thy bounty heeding not my wrong-doing, Save me, O God All-Powerful.

Time is it for repentance: to Thee I come, my Creator. Take from me the heavy yoke of sin, and of Thy mercy grant me tears of repentance.

I have wasted the substance of my soul with riotous living, O Saviour. I am empty of godly fruits; but hungry I cry: O merciful Father, be swift, and have compassion on me.

— Excerpt from: The Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete • Troparia: Thursday in the First Week of Lent (p. 89-91) • Translated by Rosemary Edmonds

Purchase book at: essexmonastery.com

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14/03/2026

The mystery of the Cross is incomprehensible to the earthly mind, which considers it ‘foolishness and weakness’. It appears in the form of a paradox, as something contrary to our desires and supposed ‘personality’. We seek joy and salvation, and the Lord commends a cross. The nature we have inherited carries within it the deadly virus of sin and is flooded by dispositions and passions not consonant with the All-Holy God, the slain Lamb. God endeavours to refashion our corrupt nature unto deification by offering us a helping hand to uproot the passions so that nothing remains in us that hinders our union with Him.

Our cross requires us to oppose our nature, into which death has entered, with all our strength. It demands us to strive to cast out the law of sin from our hearts and all that is not in accord with the Lamb of God, or betrays the love of the Father. We deliver to death the ‘carnal mind’, the ‘law of sin’, so that we may live for God, or rather that Christ may live in us.

We cannot invent our personal cross, because without the Lord’s help, we are extremely weak, unable to suffer even the slightest hardship. Our cross is the cross that God has provided for our perfection and salvation. The Lord foresees our disposition and readiness to take up the cross and accordingly grants His grace. In every crucifixion and temptation, He makes the way of escape, victorious for all eternity.

When we accept every kind of difficulty as a God-given cross, we transform our cross into the Cross of Christ, which conveys the grace and indestructible power of the Resurrection. The Cross of Christ was the commandment of the Heavenly Father; it was a cross of obedience and therefore it carried the blessing of the Father and the Holy Spirit. When we accept the cross of His Providence, from wherever it may come, we receive the incorruptible consolation of Christ, which saves and sanctifies.

Our cross consists of our struggle against the sin that ‘so easily besets us’. It is our battlefield, filled with all the sorrows, infirmities, persecutions, failures and tragedies of this life, which we are resolved to go through without a murmur, continually confessing that God remains

10/03/2026

Where shall I begin to lament the deeds of my wretched life? What shall be, O Christ, the first notes of this hymn of sorrow? But in that thou art merciful, grant me remission of my sins.

Come, wretched soul, clothed in thy flesh, confess to the Maker of all things. Cast away thy former iniquities, and bring unto God tears of repentance.

I rivalled Adam the first-created in transgression, and know myself dispossessed of God, of the everlasting Kingdom and all its delights, because of my sins.

Woe unto me, unhappy soul, why wouldst thou resemble unto the first Eve? Thou didst look upon evil, and were grievously wounded. Thou didst touch the tree and boldly taste of the food of folly.

In stead of Eve of the flesh, an Eve of the mind hath arisen in me - sensual thoughts seemingly agreeable yet ever bitter to the taste.

Adam was justly sent forth from Eden, O Saviour, because he disobeyed Thy one commandment. What then shall I suffer that ever transgress the words of eternal life?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost: O Trinity which art above all substance, worshipped in One: Take from me my heavy yoke of sin, and in that thou are loving-kind, grant me tears of contrition.

Now, and for ever world without end: Amen: Mother of God, hope and mediator for them that hymn thee: Take from me my heavy yoke of sin, and, O Virgin undefiled, accept me who repent.

— Excerpt from: The Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete • Troparia (p. 9-11) • Translated by Rosemary Edmonds

Purchase book at: essexmonastery.com

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