On Palm Sunday (St. Chrysostomos of Smyrna)

On Palm Sunday

By the Holy Hieromartyr Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Smyrna

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel” (John 12:13).

Truly a royal feast do we celebrate today; a royal visitation do we receive, and all things must be prepared in a royal manner, for where there is the presence of a king, there also preparation, order, and reception must be worthy both of the greatness of the feast and of the high dignity of the royal visitor.

To such a magnificent — indeed, one might say, God-fitting — preparation and reception, we are called from the depths of the ages by the ancient voices of the Prophets, which are also repeated by the innocent children, who, holding palm branches in their hands, today receive the coming King of the New Jerusalem, crying aloud and saying: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, your King comes, meek and bringing salvation.” And, raising their voices still more, they cry out: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.”

The Prophets call us to see what they desired to see and did not see, to hear what they longed to hear and did not hear — to behold that salvation and grace have appeared, that the King has come, and that the Conqueror of death is present.

Homily for Palm Sunday - The Entry of the Lord Into Jerusalem (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for Palm Sunday 

The Entry of the Lord Into Jerusalem 

On the Fulfillment of the Prophecies Concerning Christ and on Spiritual Blindness

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

“And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written: ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt’” (John 12:14–15).

Beloved faithful,

If we read in the Holy and Divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, we find that all the prophecies that were spoken about our Savior Jesus Christ — who, in the fullness of time, came to the human race — were fulfilled with great wonder in their time. Thus we see that the holy prophets, through revelation from the Holy Spirit, foretold thousands of years in advance that our Savior Jesus Christ would be born according to the flesh from the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15); that He would be born from the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:17–18); that He would be of the lineage of David according to the flesh (Isaiah 9:6).

Likewise, for the day of this great and most radiant feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, we see fulfilled the prophecy of the Holy Prophet Zechariah, who said: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).

Homily for the Lord's Entry Into Jerusalem (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Lord's Entry Into Jerusalem 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

I congratulate you all on the feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem! On Palm Sunday! On the Sunday of Branches! Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us to meet the Lord, who is going to His voluntary sufferings for our salvation — to conquer death by death, to grant us incorruption, to deliver us from the terrible pit in the valley of death in which there is no water. Into this pit the souls of all people were to be cast, and the Lord leads us out from there to the ever-radiant heights of the heavenly plains. The Lord comes today so that we may blossom in soul. In our hands are red willow branches, reminding us of the blood of Jesus Christ; their blossoms remind us of the flowering of our souls through the blood of the Lord. The palm branches, with which the inhabitants of the city greeted Christ, are also a symbol of the Entry of the Lord Jesus; they symbolize God’s victory over death and corruption, victory over human sin, over the rebellion of the human race, which was not suppressed but healed by the Blood of the Lord.

That we, as Scripture says, may become flourishing: “And your bones shall flourish like young greenery” (Isaiah 66:14).

Homily for Palm Sunday (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for Palm Sunday 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

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

Today one sister, to whom I did not allow to come to the church because of illness, said to me: “Today the service is so good.”

There is no bad service. All are good, for no service is ever repeated; each is unique. True, in our time we ourselves often make them similar to one another, omitting certain parts and inserting entirely inappropriate concert-style hymns.

What, then, does today’s divine service give us? Today we have come not only to stand with candles and willow branches. We have come to meet the Lord — but not as the Jewish children met Him, who cried out to Him: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest” (Matt. 21:9). For we know what they did not know.

Homily on Palm Sunday (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

Homily on Palm Sunday*  

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

“Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany… There they made Him a supper” (John 12:1–2).

Two circumstances from the life of the Lord are brought to our remembrance today by the Gospel reading. One of them is the humble, peaceful supper of the Lord among His most devoted friends; the other is the triumphant entry of the Lord into Jerusalem.

However different these descriptions may be in their setting, they depict one and the same thing: the expression of honor, love, and devotion to the Lord. A lesson is given to the Christian, that he may serve the Lord in a twofold manner: one is the hidden good of our heart, the pure impulse of the soul toward works of mercy, love, and heartfelt devotion; the other is social virtue, that is, visible deeds of common benefit, so that they may shine before people and bring about the triumph of good in the world. A Christian must not live only in the vanity of the world, in this whirl of everyday life, in these petty pursuits and aims of selfishness and sensuality, in this malice of the present day. There is another, higher realm, to which he should at least at times ascend and find rest for his soul: this is the realm of a heart warmed by the holy feeling of love for God, by the labor of good deeds, by the spirit of the purest prayer.

Let us explain both events described in the Holy Gospel in order to draw instruction for ourselves.

Homily Two for Palm Sunday (St. John of Kronstadt)

  

Homily Two for Palm Sunday

By St. John of Kronstadt

(Delivered on April 10, 1905)

“Praise Him together, peoples and nations: for the King of the angels has now mounted upon a colt, and He comes of His own will to go to the Cross to strike down the enemies, as One mighty. Therefore the children also, with branches, cry out a hymn: glory to You who have come, O Victor; glory to You, O Savior Christ; glory to You, the Blessed One, our only God” (Palm Sunday, sessional hymn after the 2nd Kathisma).

Today the Church celebrates the solemn entry of the Lord Jesus Christ, seated upon a young colt, unaccustomed to bearing burdens, into Jerusalem — a city full of anxiety and turmoil, long preparing to put to death the Benefactor and great Wonderworker. His solemn reception, unforeseen and unexpected by His enemies — the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees — stirred in them extreme envy and further intensified the hostility hidden in their hearts, and led them to the firm decision to kill Him, especially when the innocent children, moved by the Holy Spirit, loudly cried out to Him: Hosanna (salvation) (Matt. 21:9).

Holy Martyrs Claudius, Diodoros, Victor, Victorinus, Papias, Sarapinos and Nikephoros in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Holy Martyrs were from Corinth and were arrested during the reign of Decius (249–251), because they boldly confessed their faith in Christ. They were brought before the proconsul Tertius, who was governor of Greece. The ruler subjected these athletes of the faith to dreadful tortures, and all of them received the crown of martyrdom. Saint Victorinus, Saint Victor, and Saint Nikephoros were thrown beneath a large cylindrical stone which crushed them. The executioners cut off the hands and feet of Saint Claudius, the head of Saint Sarapinos (or Serapion), and threw Saint Diodoros into a red-hot furnace, while Saint Papias was drowned in the sea. It is possible that they are the same martyrs as those commemorated on January 31. 

These Holy Martyrs may be unknown to most of the faithful, yet they are nonetheless characterized by our Church, through its Hymnographer, as “Great Martyrs” (Sticheron at Vespers). And this is because, for the sake of their faith, they endured every kind of torture that the demon-driven heart of their persecutors could devise: “the piercing of their eyes, the cutting off of their fingers, the slashing of their sides, their hanging, the crushing of their bones, their dismemberment by the sword” (Sticheron at Vespers). In reality, their martyrdom was for them also “an imitation of the holy Passion of Christ Himself” (Sticheron at Vespers, Ode 9), which means that the poetic cause of all they endured was their love for Him (Ode 3). For this reason, Saint Joseph the Hymnographer notes the result of this grace-filled state, as a continuation of the redemption brought by the Crucifixion of the Lord: “You dissolved all the schemes of the evil devil” (Ode 3), while “you shone like stars by the grace of the Holy Spirit beyond gold” (Ode 3).

Prologue in Sermons: April 5

 

Sorrows Are Beneficial for a Christian

April 5

(A word about a woman who prayed to God, to whom no misfortune had come.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Why is it, brothers, that in times of sorrow we for the most part lose heart, give ourselves over to despondency, and let our hands fall? It is because we do not understand that sorrows also serve for our salvation and for our blessedness, if they are endured with hope in God, with devotion to Him, and with humility. Look at the example of the saints of God. Since they knew well that sorrows are necessary and beneficial for the salvation of the soul, not only did they not lose heart when they were in sorrows, but even when they did not have them, one could say, they themselves sought them out, looked for them, and asked God for them.

Blessed Is He Who Comes - Palm Sunday (Photios Kontoglou)

Blessed Is He Who Comes - Palm Sunday 

By Photios Kontoglou

What noise and turmoil is heard again around us! The world, like a stormy sea, groans and rages — with revelries, with sleepless nights, with wicked feasts where people dance and get drunk, devouring one another with their eyes, celebrating without fear of God, “clouds without water, driven about by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 12–14).

Just as sin raged shamelessly in the time of Christ, so it rages now, “feasting without fear;” so now its storm surrounds, just as then, the few who walk, sorrowful and silent, behind Christ who goes to be crucified. And He turns and says to them: “Do not fear, little flock!” “Do not be afraid, My little flock, My few sheep, surrounded by wolves who howl day and night!”

Who are these few who follow the poor little donkey? They are the “weary and burdened,” to whom the One riding on the donkey said: “Come to Me, and I will give you rest!”