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 reformated, 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. The reason I am offering these is because I need the money to put in all the hours it takes to do what I do. I work a full-time job besides this to support myself, and I usually don't sleep much to get all the work done, so the more my readers support what I do, the more time I can put into what I do here.

I must admit, I get exhausted thinking how much work needs to be done, but this is because a lot of work has already been done, so I look forward to doing more.  

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 offer what I offer free of charge, despite the enormous amount of work and time it takes, is because those of you who have benefitted 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.

 

Why Did God Become Man? (Fr. George Metallinos)

Why Did God Become Man? 

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

Wearied by the many celebrations that have degenerated into the mere formal fulfillment of social conventions, modern man approaches Christmas as well without any inner engagement. Most people — even those who are otherwise religious — see Christmas as a large family celebration that offers an opportunity for the scattered family to gather again around the Christ of the manger and the Christmas tree, which has also been taken out of storage to decorate a corner of our home for a few days. Yet today each of us is called to pose the question to himself: What does Christmas mean to me? This is the personalization of the broader question: “Why did God become man?” — a question that has occupied the greatest minds in history.

The Nativity of Christ: Homily 5: On the Ecclesiastical Hymn "Christ is Born, Glorify Him" (Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko)

 

1. The Feasts of the Lord

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko 

I. The Nativity of Christ

Homily No. 5: On the Ecclesiastical Hymn "Christ is Born, Glorify Him; Christ from Heaven, Meet Him; Christ on Earth, Be Exalted"

I. Today — on the day of the festive commemoration of the Nativity of Christ the Savior — let us converse, brethren, about that ecclesiastical hymn with which the Holy Church began to resound in our ears several weeks before the feast itself, as if preparing us for it — the hymn with which the sacred ministers of the Church will come to you and into your homes, like angelic heralds, proclaiming the great day of the Savior’s birth and at the same time teaching how this most illustrious day ought to be observed. Let us therefore delve into every wise word of this wondrous ecclesiastical hymn — lofty in spirit, deep in feeling, and edifying in meaning.

Massacre of the Holy Infants in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The principal problem posed by the present day — the commemoration of the infants slaughtered by Herod — is the blatant injustice that was committed then, a fact that leads to the ever-relevant and never fully acceptable to human reason problem of theodicy: why did infants and young children, before they even began their lives, lose them — and in such a tragic manner? And where is the justice of God? How did the just God tolerate such an injustice? Does it not then appear that God is absent, or at least hidden, while the devil, with his instruments such as Herod, appears to be sovereign? And on the basis of reflection on the injustice that occurred then, human thought extends across the entire course of human history, recording similar — and perhaps even harsher — events: the enslavement of entire peoples, famines, wars, the degradation of human beings, destitution, unemployment, poverty. In all these cases, the dominant question is: why? And how does God tolerate such conditions?

Prologue in Sermons: December 29

To Restless People Who Love Quarrels

December 29
 
(The Discourse of Saint Antiochus on Contentiousness)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Unfortunately, there are people who cannot get along with anyone and everywhere bring quarrels and hostility with them. Whatever you speak to them about, they will never agree with anything; for them, everyone is bad, black is always white, and white, on the contrary, seems black to them. These are the most unbearable people. Giving no peace to others, they themselves live as if in hell; and to them one may rightly apply the words of Scripture: “Their tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of life, and is itself set on fire by Gehenna… It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:6, 8). What can be said to such people, and how can they be corrected?

Homily Three on the Sunday After the Nativity of Christ (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three on the Sunday After the Nativity of Christ

By St. John of Kronstadt

"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save 

that which was lost" (Luke 19:10)

Finally, we have reached the feast of the Nativity of Christ and we have bowed down to the eternal Child with the Most Pure Ever-Virgin, His Mother, and we have sung with the Church of God's extreme compassion and condescension towards us, for the Son of God became the Son of man in order to save perishing man.

But we have not yet accomplished a great deed merely by bowing before the divine Infant, for many of us have worshiped only with our bodies, and worship with the body without worship of the spirit is a sacrifice far from pleasing to God; it is the Church, not us, that has truly sung of His ineffable goodness and condescension toward humanity: we have been only listeners. I want to ask you and myself: are we doing anything in response to such unspeakable condescension of the Son of God toward us? For such an extreme and astonishing self-emptying of the Son of God for the salvation of perishing humanity demands, my brothers, urgent and intensified efforts from us in the work of salvation. 

 

Sunday After Christmas: Faith and Love (Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi)

Sunday After Christmas: 
Faith and Love 

By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi

Today we celebrate Saint Joseph the Betrothed, David the King, and James the Brother of God, who indeed were related to Christ, since Christ, as man, descends from them, and they belong to the choir of the forefathers. In particular, Saint Joseph the Betrothed — who was also the guardian of the Virgin and contributed so greatly to the mystery of the divine economy. These Saints “were justified by faith.”

In the days of our Lord’s presence, these faithful people were tested far more strictly than the people of the Old Testament; for while they were expecting the Messiah, they were expecting something different from what they actually saw. They did not expect to see a simple infant held by a young mother — poor, despised, without any support or human assistance. They never expected to see such paradoxical things. For, expecting the Messiah “from the root of Jesse and from the loins of David,” they anticipated a king with authority and aspirations of dominion, with material and worldly splendor. That is why, when they began to understand somewhat that Christ was the Messiah, they ran to make Him king — and He withdrew from them.

Homily on the Immaculate and Divine Nativity of Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ (St. Neophytos the Recluse)

Homily on the Immaculate and Divine Nativity of Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ 

(For the Sunday After Christmas)

By St. Neophytos the Recluse

We all know, of course, we know that this visible sun sends forth its light to the whole inhabited world, “and there is no one who can hide from its warmth,” nor from its most radiant brilliance. Yet many times its shining rays are covered by clouds and mist, or by the foliage of trees; and yet again, the breath of a wind disperses that cloudy covering and the mist, allowing the luminous rays to spread clearly throughout all creation.

But the Sun before the sun, the intelligible “Sun of Righteousness,” who was born today from the “swift cloud,” from the light-bearing, sunlike, and all-pure womb in a wondrous manner, is covered by the “form of a servant,” by infant swaddling clothes, and by the poor cave — and, according to the divine economy, by certain other things as well, which symbolize poverty and humility.

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet and King David (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet and King David 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Congratulations on the feast day of Christ's ancestor in the flesh, King David! King David is an amazing biblical figure who had an incredible thirst for God.

Remember how he says in the Psalms: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God! My soul thirsts for God, the living God: when shall I come and appear before God!” (Ps. 41:2-3).

This thirst always filled him. In his life, preserved for us in the First and Second Books of Samuel, we see a remarkable episode. King David had already been anointed king, but had not yet ascended the throne, continuing to serve the illegitimate King Saul, under whom he suffered persecution. His hometown of Bethlehem had been captured by the Philistines. And one day, King David turned to his servants: "Who will bring me water from the well that is before the gate of Bethlehem?" Three of his brave friends agreed, fought through the enemy troops, and brought him water from the well. And when they gave him the water, he said he could not drink it, for it was the blood of his friends, who were ready to lay down their lives for him. And so he offered it as a sacrifice to God.