Happy New (Julian Calendar) Year 2012 !!!

The heart of Christian Orthodoxy today celebrates New Year's Eve in the garden of the Mother of God.

At the holy mountain Mount Athos, or Agion Oros, 2012 starts in a few hours' time!

Myself I got baptized Greek Orthodox in October in the Mediterranean Sea by Father Chrysostomos from the Koutloumousiou monastery, thus returning to my Greek roots and restoring the spiritual bond.

If the Orthodox Church is the true Church, the Metamorphosis or Transfiguration Church at Koutloumousiou, is the best Church in the world in my eyes.

Well, it is very beautiful indeed and the atmosphere and spirit there is filled with holiness.

The Orthodox Church is a balanced Church with great spiritual power both in the East and the West.

It is also only a matter of time before the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinopel again will have its rightful religious place of prominence in a more intelligent world.

The original New Testament is well preserved thanks to the Greek language.

The true Old Testament - the Septuagint LXX - which was independently and similarly written down by 72 learned Jews in Greek, more than a century before Christ, is what is quoted in the New Testament.

Some of the books pointing to Christ are like the Wisdom of Solomon unfortunately excluded from the Protestant Old Testament canon.

The Old Testament canon was undisputed for 1500 years in the Church, but during the Reformation, the Masoretic text, which was decided by non-Christian Jews a century after the resurrection of Christ, unfortunately became the Protestant Old Testament 500 years ago.

When the Church one day again will find its unity, it will as a whole have the Septuagint LXX canon as its Old Testament, and all Christians will again celebrate the New Year by withdrawing 13 days from the Gregorian calendar.

I wish all the monks at Mount Athos a blessed 2012 and wonderful celebrations of our great God Jesus Christ at the garden of the Mother of God, and that they also remember the pious lives of all great martyrs and saints of the early Christian Church.

Even if Latin one day again will be the language of common man, the Greek language will undoubtedly remain the sacred language of the Church and of worship.

Kyrie Eleison!