Prologue in Sermons: December 5

 

Love Is Above Fasting

December 5 

 

(Hospitality is Considered by God to be Higher Than a Life of Fasting and Solitude)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

No matter how good the various virtues by which a person pleases God, love conquers all. It's certainly good to pray, fast, not judge, be humble, and adorn oneself with other Christian virtues; but to love God above all else and to express this love in love for one's neighbors is above and beyond all else. Here, for example, is how this last point was vividly demonstrated, so to speak, during a meeting between two saints.

Saint John of Damascus in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

There are mainly three points around which the grace-filled pen of the Holy Hymnographer Stephen the Sabbaite moves in order to praise the great Father and Hymnographer of the Church, John of Damascus. First, his struggle against heresy — against all those of corrupt dogma who distorted the Orthodox faith, both concerning the Holy Trinity and concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, the vast hymnographic corpus of his poems, through which, beyond the Holy Trinity and the Lord, the Most Holy Theotokos (who, by her command, activated his hymnographic gift) and all the Saints of the Church are glorified. Third, the fundamental presupposition for the existence of the Saint’s entire work and his entire contribution to the Church — especially the very existence of the gift of God that he himself was: his inner, vigilant, watchful struggle, expressed through his whole ascetic effort and discipline.

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

 

 

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

I congratulate you all on the feast day of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara! The life of Saint Barbara is an absolutely stunning account, revealing one side of the Christian faith. When we read the lines of the life of the Great Martyr Barbara, we see that Christianity is an entirely different reality, one that is infinitely more important than anything else. Moreover, in reading Barbara's life, we see that sometimes there is a conflict between what seems to be the highest in this earthly life and the Christian life. Many people in our country, when embracing Christianity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, thought that Christianity was simply about morality. But reading Barbara's life, we see that Christianity is a completely new life that divides all of humanity, even irrespective of familial ties. Saint Barbara was the daughter of the fierce pagan Dioscorus, who, upon receiving a prophecy that his daughter would become a Christian, confined her in a tall tower so that she would be isolated and no one could visit her.

December: Day 4: Teaching 4: Holy Great Martyr Barbara

December: Day 4: Teaching 4:
Holy Great Martyr Barbara
 
(Nature is the Great Book of God, Understandable Even to the Illiterate)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the feast of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara, who came to know the one true God from the study of nature and as a result rejected idols and accepted the Christian faith, for which she suffered as a martyr, it would be appropriate, my beloved brethren, to talk with you about how nature is truly a great book of God, understandable even to the illiterate, clearly and loudly speaking about God.

December: Day 4: Teaching 2: Saint John of Damascus

December: Day 4: Teaching 2:
Saint John of Damascus
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. We Must Acquire Spiritual Knowledge, and 
b. Use It For the Glory of God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Venerable John of Damascus, who is celebrated today, received an excellent education under the guidance of the learned monk Kosmas and, having become governor of the city of Damascus after the death of his father, he used all his knowledge for the glory of God — in defense of the truth of icon veneration, contested by iconoclast heretics, in expounding the dogmas of the Christian faith, and in composing those wondrously beautiful church hymns that are sung today in all Orthodox churches of the world and which were composed in great numbers by Saint John of Damascus. Having died as a priest in the Lavra of Saint Savvas near Jerusalem in 776, Saint John of Damascus, in addition to remarkable knowledge in all areas of human knowledge, and especially in the spiritual sciences, and amazing gifts in composing church hymns, showed in his life wonderful examples of renunciation of worldly glory and wealth, obedience to the will of his mentor, a simple elder, amazing humility and ardent love for God and neighbors.