What the Spirit of His Dead Aunt Said to Saint Iakovos Tsalikes

Saint Iakovos Tsalikes said:

"Since I was a child, I go to the cemetery every day and think about death. All my relatives have died. Anyway, I commemorate an aunt of mine. I saw the aunt and she told me:

'Ah, my nephew Iakovos, thank you for what you are sending me. You send me a lot, but you know there are other people who are unfortunate and hungry and have no one in the world to think of them, to care for them.'

Feigning Demonic Possession For Profit

In Canon 60 of the Penthekte Synod in Constantinople which was held in 692, we read the following:

 

Since the Apostle exclaims that he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him, it is clear that he who is intimate with His enemy becomes one by his affinity with him. Therefore, those who pretend they are possessed by a devil and by their depravity of manners feign to manifest their form and appearance; it seems good by all means that they should be punished and that they should be subjected to afflictions and hardships of the same kind as those to which they who are truly demonically possessed are justly subjected with the intent of delivering them from the energies of the devil.

 

G.K. Chesterton's Defense of Scary Stories from a Christian Perspective

G.K. Chesterton was a mystery writer, literary critic, and revered Catholic theologian. On October 16th 1909, he wrote an article for The Daily News titled "The Nightmare", which is a work of literary criticism regarding why scary stories are so delightful, but also their potential dangers. Unlike later reactionary Christians, Chesterton is fully on board with the telling and enjoying of scary stories, so long as we remember that they are nothing more than "toys".

Many Christians believe scary stories are evil in themselves, because they associate anything scary with what they interpret as bad feelings as opposed to what they interpret is good, but there is no such thing as an evil story, unless the person hearing the story is evil and when hearing it abandons any sense of Christian hope that lies in his heart. A story changes perspective depending on one's beliefs and disposition, and when a true Christian hears a scary story it will always be with a Christian perspective, and as long as the temptation to judge it as merely evil or demonic is avoided, it can be beneficial if the story contains even a kernel of benefit, and usually scary stories do (for example, in scary stories evil is usually viewed as bad and the audience is usually encouraged to root for the good). It is the same as reading the Bible, where one's interpretation of it first and foremost depends on their personal beliefs and disposition - to some it can inspire piety and holiness while to others it could inspire unimaginable horrors, rebellion and even murder.

You can read "The Nightmare" here, though he does touch more on this subject in other writings of his as well. Below is an excerpt:

The Georgian Orthodox Church Issues a Bizarre Statement on Halloween

UOP Flyer: Halloween – Pagan-Satanist “Holiday”

In 2008, several young Georgians organized an open air Halloween party in downtown Tbilisi. Hundreds attended and a special performance was staged. Everything was going well until a different group of people appeared. Several men lead by a bishop got on the stage, destroyed the DJ equipment and got in a fight with attendees. Later on police intervened and the event was over. Check out a video story by Internews Georgia (here) that contains footage from the party.

The group that crashed the party proclaimed itself as the Union of Orthodox Parents (UOP) and since then they refused to allow any kind of celebration of Halloween in Georgia. According to the Union, it was a party of drug-addicted satanists and these kind of events are bad for Georgia, as if Halloween is what made them alleged drug-addicted satanists.

The Kursi Monastery Where Jesus Healed the Gadarene Demoniacs at the Sea of Galilee

Kursi (Κυρσοί) is located near the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee on the bank of a wadi, Nahal Samakh, descending from the Golan Heights. It is an archaeological site containing the ruins of a Byzantine monastery and identified by tradition as the site where Jesus cast out demons from two men which then went on to possess local pigs which cast themselves into the sea (Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 8:28–34, Luke 8:26-39). The events take place in the land of either the Gerasenes, Gadarenes or Gergesenes (Mark 5:1, Matthew 8:28, Luke 8:26). Part of the archaeological site is now an Israeli national park. Kursi takes its name from the Talmudic site. A marble slab with Aramaic text discovered in December 2015 seems to indicate that the settlement had, as of ca. 500 AD, a Jewish or Judeo-Christian population.