Things To Look Forward To In 2026

Dear Readers:

Christ is Born!

As 2025 comes to a close and with 2026 drawing near, I wanted to bring to your attention some of the things I have been working on and will be working on in the new year.

First I wanted to update everyone on the present and future of each of my thirteen websites that currently make up as a whole the Mystagogy Resource Center. Some I have only sparsely worked on this past year, but will focus on them more in the new year. I especially want to focus on making the many thousands of pages of material on each site more accessible and easier to reference specific articles, which is an enormous and time-consuming task but necessary.

1. Honey and Hemlock

I established this website to focus mainly on subjects dealing with the arts and culture, among other such relevant topics. Not only do I plan on posting more here, but my primary focus is to fix up this website, with its 656 posts as of right now, and categorize them better.

2. Orthodox Youth Resources

This website of 128 current posts was created to address topics dealing specifically with young people that are not addressed elsewhere on my other sites and can be useful not only to Orthodox youth, but also to anyone who works in youth ministry or even just parents and teachers in general. There is a lot of material I have for this website which I will focus more on posting, but again this website needs to be more accessible and better categorized in 2026.

3. Orthodoxy and World Religions

This past year I gathered a lot of material on various world religions and the topic of religion in general for this site of what is now 132 posts. Currently my focus has been on translating a Russian text titled "The Christian Commandment of Love Is a 'New' Commandment," which shows how the topic of love as taught by Christ is radically different from any teaching about love in any other previous religion or philosophy. After I finish this, I will focus on publishing more and categorizing better.

4. Bio-Orthodoxy

At 397 current posts, this website also needs to be better categorized and fixed up. The purpose of this site is to focus on scientific issues, including those issues related to Christianity, and right now I am translating a text by St. Luke the Surgeon of Crimea titled "Science and Religion." Next I will be translating a series of homilies by St. Neophytos the Recluse on the first few chapters of Genesis.

5. Daimonologia

Unfortunately this website has 673 posts, and I haven't even begun to categorize them, except for some Resource Pages, so there is a lot of work to be done here in 2026. Daimonologia focuses more on darker subjects of culture and thought, and is shaping up to become a very comprehensive Demonology. Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko wrote a lot on this subject in the 19th century, especially exploring the topic of poltergeists, so I am in the process of translating what he wrote. He also wrote an Angelology, but I will probably translate that for my main page. In 2026 one of my goals is to also translate the short stories of Alexandros Papadiamantis that deal with "paranormal" subjects.

6. Eschatologia

This website also lacks any categorization, despite having 308 posts, making anything to find here a burdensome task. My hope is to rectify this in 2026. So if you are interested in a topic dealing with life after death, the end times, biblical prophecies and modern day trends in these subjects, you should find it much more easier in the coming months to find the topic you are looking for.

7. New Myriobiblon

Book reviews are the sole topic of this website, practically on any subject. Sometimes I offer my own book reviews, and will eventually focus more on that, but currently I either translate interesting book reviews or I gather book reviews that I think are interesting or important, such as, for example, all the book reviews written by Fr. George Florovsky. These also need to be categorized and more accessible in 2026, though I have only posted 41 book reviews so far.

8. Erotapokriseis

I always thought it would be important to have a website devoted only to questions and answers, so this is it. Up to now I have given brief answers to 214 questions, but I decided to change my approach to how I do this. The reason for this change is because the questions I started getting focused only on controversial topics, and I am not interested in solely addressing controversial topics. For this reason in 2026 I will continue to do the question and answer format, but I will translate texts, both ancient and modern, all Orthodox, where the question and answer format was used. Perhaps every once in a while I will address some questions posed to me, but I haven't decided yet. And yes, this site desperately needs categorization for easier referencing.

9. Know Thyself

I have only posted less than 20 posts here, so it is severely under developed, considering the wealth of material I have on the subject of morals and ethics, which this site is devoted to. There will be an increase of posts to this site in 2026.

10. Salvation of Sinners

My original idea for this website has changed, so in 2026 I will figure out what to replace this with and change the name. I have a few ideas floating in my head. Right now I am leaning towards the topics of heresies and apologetics. I tend to avoid posting on these subjects because they seem out of place on my other sites, so instead of continuing to sit on the rich treasure of material I have on these topics, it may be the right time to bring them out. Another idea I had was a website dedicated solely to historical subjects, or even one dedicated to philosophical subjects. I will be making my decision in early 2026.

11. Praxis and Theoria

Another website I have neglected was originally created to post my own random thoughts and experiences, however because I am usually occupied with my other more important websites and this one is last in my priorities, I hardly post here. My intention for this website in 2026 is to post at least two thoughts and experiences from my own personal life once a week, or maybe once every two weeks. I don't like talking about myself, but I think its important when publishing the material of so many others that I have some personal connection to my writing, to bring something out from within instead of always internalizing what is not my own. I probably won't be advertising what I write here on social media, so you will have to check in for updates. I will post it in my daily newsletter, which requires a paid subscription.

12. Orthodox Christianity Then and Now

This was my original main page, which I decided to retire and make into an archive a few years ago when it reached over 16,000 posts. This will remain an archive, but it still needs a lot of work to become an effective archive. Categorization is essential for more than 16,000 posts, and to do so the right way will require hundreds of hours. Many pages also need to be edited since it was reformatted, and I wouldn't mind deleting a few hundred irrelevant posts I made early on when I was less focused and more random in my posts.

13. Mystagogy Resource Center

This is my current main page, and where I have consistently posted daily. Since January 2023 I have made 2,429 posts, and there are many thousands to go. I won't even get into all the things I am doing and will be doing in 2026 for this website, there is just so much, and there isn't enough space right now to get into it. I will save it for a future date. And yes, this needs to be categorized too. 

Besides these thirteen websites, I also plan on opening a bookstore where I will not only publish some books I have worked on over the years, but where I will offer every month a new booklet. In December I am offering a booklet I translated by Fr. George Florovsky, titled "Did Christ Live? Historical Evidence of Christ". This booklet is $20. If you have already ordered, it will be mailed this week. I will also offer some of my previous booklets for sale again. My next booklet will be available some time in January. 

If anyone donates $60 a year or $5 a month (Paypal or Patreon) you will also be enrolled in receiving my daily newsletter, which will start having some exclusive content. If anyone subscribes $25 a month or more, you will qualify to receive my monthly booklet, but you have to inform me you want the monthly booklet. My free weekly newsletter will resume beginning in January, which you can sign up for from this website.

The only reason I am able to offer what I offer free of charge, despite the enormous amount of work and time it takes, is because those of you who have benefited in some way from this ministry want to see it continue and thrive. For that I am grateful and hope that you can continue supporting the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center in 2026. 

A blessed new year to all!

John Sanidopoulos.

 

The Meaning of Christmas and Its Obscuration (Fr. George Metallinos)

The Meaning of Christmas and Its Obscuration 

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

With His incarnation and His birth, the God-man Jesus Christ fulfills the purpose of the creation of man: the manifestation of the God-man in history, the union of the created creature with the Uncreated Creator. The purpose of the Incarnation is the deification (theosis) of man.

“Man becomes God, so that Adam may attain God.” (Christmas troparion).

“He became man so that we might be deified” (Saint Athanasios the Great).

“For God became man and man became God” (Saint John Chrysostom).

Within the logic of a moralist, the term “that we might be deified,” which Fathers such as Saint Athanasios use, is a scandal. For this reason they speak of a so-called “moral deification.” This is because they fear accepting that through deification there occurs, “by grace,” what the Triune God is “by nature” (uncreated, without beginning, immortal).

2012 Pastoral Encyclical for Christmas (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Pastoral Encyclical

Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Christmas 2012

Beloved brethren,

We glorify God and thank Him for His great gift: that He loved the world — especially mankind — and revealed this love abundantly. The Son and Word of God, with the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, became man; He assumed our human nature and deified it, without departing from His divinity. We also glorify God and the Church, which has filled our lives with these divine gifts — that is, the feasts of the Nativity of Christ, the Circumcision of Christ, and the Holy Theophany, the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan. In these days we will once again experience the great love of God toward all of us, provided that we possess the necessary conditions to understand it.

Homily on the Occasion of the First Official Celebration of Saint Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos

Homily by Archimandrite Philippos Chamargias,
Protosyncellus of the Holy Metropolis of Messinia,
on the Occasion of the First Official Celebration of Saint Chrysostomos,
Missionary to Africa, Native of Messinia

(Delivered on December 29, 2025)

Our Holy Church has a feast every day; each day she honors and celebrates a saint. In the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, we encounter thousands of saints of our faith.

Among them, like a star, there now shines in the firmament of our Church the saint honored today — Saint Chrysostomos, the Missionary to Africa, our compatriot and now a co-patron of this local community of Vasilitsi. But before we refer to the personality of the Saint, let us first see what the word Saint means.

A Saint means one who is pure — pure from every stain of sin.

Saints have come from every social class: men, women, and children. Saints were not only hierarchs, hieromonks, and clergy; every person has the possibility of participation in holiness.

After all, this is the purpose of our life: holiness through the Holy Spirit. When someone acquires the Holy Spirit, he becomes a saint and fulfills his destiny on earth. Christ Himself commanded: “Be holy, for I am holy,” which means: strive in your life to become saints, just as I am holy, I who created you.

The Nativity of Christ: Homily 6: On the Words of the Kontakion of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ (Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko)

1. The Feasts of the Lord

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko 

I. The Nativity of Christ

Homily No. 6: On the Words of the Kontakion of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ

Today the Virgin gives birth to Him who is above all being,
and the earth offers a cave to Him whom no one can approach.
Angels with shepherds give glory,
and magi journey with a star,
for to us there has been born
a little Child, God before the ages.

I

Here is one of the church hymns for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, composed by the divinely enlightened reader of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Saint Romanos. It briefly yet clearly presents the story of Christ's Nativity — stating who is born today and from whom, where He is born and for what purpose, and how the newborn was greeted by heaven and earth, by angels and humans.

The Cave That Sheltered the Divine Infant in Ancient Babylon of Egypt

By John Fourtounas

When King Herod learned from the Magi that Christ had been born, he asked them, once they found Him, to inform him so that he might supposedly go and worship Him. In reality, however, he wished to destroy Him.

For this reason, an angel warned Joseph to take the Child and His Mother and depart for Egypt, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says, “Out of Egypt I have called My Son” (Matthew 2:15).

Indeed, when Herod saw that he had been mocked by the Magi, he ordered that all the male children two years old and under be put to death in the city of Bethlehem and in all the surrounding regions (Gospel of Matthew 2:13–18).

Meanwhile, the betrothed Joseph, together with the Divine Child and His Mother, was already journeying toward the land of Egypt by way of Gaza. He passed through the region of Mount Pelusium, east of today’s city of Port Said, and entered the land of the Nile.

Saint Anysia of Thessaloniki Resource Page

St. Anysia of Thessaloniki (Feast Day - December 30)

 

Verses

 

Mortally stabbed on the right side,

The side Adam conceived Anysia.

On the thirtieth the side of Anysia was stabbed with a sword. 

 

Synaxarion of Saint Anysia of Thessaloniki 

 

Saint Anysia the Virgin-Martyr of Thessaloniki

 

December: Day 30: Teaching 1: Holy Martyr Anysia

 

December: Day 30: Teaching 2: Holy Martyr Anysia 

 

Saint Anysia of Thessaloniki in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

The Discovery of the Relics of Saint Anysia of Thessaloniki in 1980

 

 

Saint Anysia of Thessaloniki in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Anysia lived during the reign of Maximian. She was from Thessaloniki, and her parents, who were devout and faithful to Christ, possessed considerable wealth. When they departed this life, the Saint lived alone, pleasing God through her way of life and her deeds. Once, as she was going to church according to her custom, she was stopped by a pagan soldier, who forcibly dragged her toward the altars of the idols and urged her to offer sacrifices to demons. But because Anysia confessed her faith in Christ, the soldier became enraged (for the Holy Martyr blew upon him and spat in his face), and with his sword he pierced her side. Thus the Venerable Martyr received her blessed end.

The city of Thessaloniki boasts not only of its patron saint, the Great Martyr and Myrrhgusher Saint Demetrios, not only of its second patron, the great Father and Ecumenical Teacher Saint Gregory Palamas, but also of the Holy Martyr Anysia, whose venerable relic rests in the Church of Saint Demetrios. According to Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer, Thessaloniki boasts of the Saint’s swaddling clothes and her struggles, while the triumphant Church possesses her spirit and rejoices in it — meaning that Saint Anysia is a source of joy for the entire Church, both on earth and in heaven.

December: Day 30: Teaching 2: Holy Martyr Anysia

 

December: Day 30: Teaching 2:
Holy Martyr Anysia
 
(On the Spiritual Joy of a Christian During His Life and at Death)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the feast day of the Holy Martyr Anysia, who voluntarily, out of love for God and her neighbors, renounced wealth and all earthly pleasures, dedicating herself to serving all the poor and unfortunate, and yet was truly happy in the Christian sense of the word due to the spiritual joy she experienced in her heart, it is fitting to speak with you, beloved brethren, about the spiritual joy of a Christian during his life and at death. Without a doubt, a Christian has an inexhaustible source of spiritual joy, which has nothing in common with earthly, worldly joy, which for the vast majority of people is inextricably linked with wealth, honors, and various worldly pleasures, often vain and even impure. A Christian's spiritual joy comes from the grace of the Holy Spirit, communicated through fervent prayer, the Mysteries of the Church, and a pious life in the spirit of Christian faith, hope, and love for God and neighbor. No sorrows or calamities, persecutions, sufferings, or even death itself can take away that gracious consolation of Christ, of which the Apostle Paul speaks: "As the sufferings of Christ abound, so our consolation also abounds through Christ" (2 Cor. 1:5). Not only is the natural man, who does not accept what is of the Spirit of God, incapable of understanding the greatness of spiritual joy, but even spiritual people, who have experienced its effects themselves, have difficulty finding the words to explain it to the ignorant.