The Mystagogy Resource Center Now Has a Bookstore

Dear Readers:

As some of you may have noticed, yesterday, January 7th, on the feast the Synaxis of Saint John the Baptist, my patron saint and in honor of my Name Day, I launched a bookstore to serve the needs of the Mystagogy Resource Center. I called it Apollos Bookstore after one of the Seventy Apostles, Saint Apollos, whose ministry is explained in Acts 18:24-28. 

In Acts 18 we read how Apollos was an Alexandrian Jew who was "an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures." We also read that he "had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord." What connects Apollos with John the Baptist is that we are informed how when Aquila and Priscilla heard him preaching to the Jews in Ephesus, he had only up until that time known about the baptism of John the Baptist, which was a baptism of repentance, which means that he had not yet known of the baptism of the Holy Spirit through Jesus. After being instructed by Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos went to Corinth, and having received the Holy Spirit, "he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ." When the Apostle Paul afterwards arrived in Ephesus, he found there twelve Jews who had been baptized by Apollos with the baptism of John the Baptist, and had never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Paul therefore instructed them and baptized them in the name of Jesus so that they could receive the Holy Spirit through Paul laying his hands on them.

I named the bookstore after Apollos and placed his icon as its logo because he is a model for any Orthodox Christian ministry and a model for each individual Orthodox Christian striving to educate themselves and others into the unfathomable depths and mysteries of the gospel.

Initially my goal is to publish a new unique booklet on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, and eventually I will be publishing books. Every booklet will be priced at $20 which will cover all expenses and help support the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center. My hope is that these will be an added incentive to support my work.

You can view the new bookstore by clicking on one of the banners on this site or at this link. For now I only have three booklets which I previously offered. You can purchase through Paypal, Venmo or any other major credit card. The covers of the books currently on display are temporary and will be replaced with the right covers soon.

Thank you for all your support and a Blessed New Year to all,

John Sanidopoulos

  

 

Homily on the Day of Theophany (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

Homily on the Day of Theophany

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

(Delivered on January 6, 1915)*

Let us, dear ones, transport ourselves in thought to that sacred place where the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ took place. And behold, before our gaze there appears a profoundly instructive, wondrous scene, full of divine majesty — the event at the Jordan. When Jesus Christ had reached the age of thirty, He came to the Jordan, where John was baptizing the people, and said that He too had come to be baptized. God revealed to John who it was that had come to him, and he cried out: “I need to be baptized by You” (Matt. 3:14). But Jesus answered: “Do not hinder Me, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill the will of God.” At these words He went down into the water, and when He was immersed, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, and there was heard: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).

Prologue in Sermons: January 10

In Support of the Shelter for Destitute Girls

January 10

(A Discourse from the Life of Saint Markianos, How He Took Off his Garment and Gave It To a Poor Man)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

One of the works of bodily mercy is to clothe the naked, or those who lack what is necessary and proper clothing. How precious this good deed is in the eyes of God is evident already from this alone: the Lord refers it to Himself, and at the Last Judgment He will say to those who clothed the naked, “I was naked and you clothed Me” (Matt. 25:36), and He will call them into His Kingdom with the words: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). But even apart from this it is clear that this is especially pleasing to God, because even in this life He sometimes wondrously glorifies merciful people who do not spare, for the poor, clothing necessary for themselves, as though as a pledge of the future reward promised by Him in the kingdom of glory.

January: Day 9: Teaching 2: Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow

 

January: Day 9: Teaching 2:
Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow
 
(Cherish the Truth)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, whose memory we celebrate today, came from the noble boyar family of the Kolychevs. He was born in Moscow in 1507 and in the world bore the name Theodore. His parents were distinguished by piety and compassion for the unfortunate; these good qualities they succeeded in instilling in their son, who even in his youth was marked by a religious disposition of soul. At first Theodore lived at the court of the Grand Prince Vasily Ivanovich, but after his death, in his thirtieth year of life, he resolved to leave the world and secretly, in simple peasant clothing, departed from Moscow for the Solovetsky Monastery. For a year and a half Theodore carried out various heavy obediences in the monastery: he chopped wood, dug the garden soil, worked at the mill and at fishing. Tonsured with the name Philip, nine years after entering the monastery he was unanimously elected by all the monks to be abbot.

Prologue in Sermons: January 9

For Those Who Love the Monastic Life

January 9

(Commemoration of our Holy Father Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, the Wonderworker)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

There are many who desire to become monks, but unfortunately, few among them understand what true monasticism should consist of and know how to prepare themselves for it. Such people, for example, fall into the following error regarding monasticism: they think that life as a monk is easy and pleasant, and that in monasteries one only needs to pray to God and do nothing else. And this error alone leads them to the saddest of things. Having entered a monastery, with their idea of doing nothing there, they become the most pitiful monks and serve only as a mockery and a stumbling block to both the monks living with them and laypeople alike. Is this good? As you can see, it is very bad. What is to be done? Yes, we will do this: we will point out to everyone who desires monasticism, but does not understand its essence, for the first time at least one example of how true servants of God prepared for monasticism and how they behaved after accepting it.

Oration on Holy Theophany (St. Proclus of Constantinople)

Oration on Holy Theophany

By Saint Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople

Christ appeared in the world and adorned the joyless world with boundless gladness. He took upon Himself the sin of the world and forever trampled down the enemy of the world. He sanctified the springs of the waters and enlightened the souls of human beings. Wonders were mingled with even greater wonders. 

Today, from the joy brought by our Savior Christ, land and sea were set apart, and from end to end the world was filled with gladness. 

Today’s feast reveals greater miracles than those of the night of the Nativity. For on that night only the earth rejoiced, as it bore upon itself, in the embrace of the manger, the Almighty God. 

Today, however, as we celebrate Theophany, the sea rejoices as well, for through the Jordan it too takes part in the blessing of sanctification.

Our Venerable Father George the Chozebite in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable George was from Cyprus, and his parents were pious Christians. His elder brother, named Heracleides, while their parents were still alive, went to the Holy Land to venerate the holy places, and there he desired to remain as a monk in the Lavra of Kalamon, near the present-day Monastery of Saint Gerasimos of the Jordan. George remained with his parents until they departed this life, after which his uncle took him, together with his inheritance. This uncle had an only daughter and wished to make George his son-in-law. George, however, did not wish to marry and left to go to his other uncle, who was abbot of a monastery. But since the first uncle pressured his brother, the abbot, to allow George to leave the monastery, George departed from there as well and went to his brother Heracleides at the Lavra of Kalamon. Because of his young age, however, his brother led him to the Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos, called Chozeba, which lies in a desolate and wild ravine — where the cave is located in which the Prophet Elijah took refuge when he was pursued by the kings of Israel, Ahab and Jezebel — and which is near the ancient Roman road leading from Jerusalem to Jericho. There George became a monk and lived a strict ascetic monastic life. The fame of his virtue was great, and his holy works instructed many. Finally, he peacefully surrendered his holy soul to God.

Holy Hieromartyr Isidore of Estonia

 

By Lampros K. Skontzos

The Church of Christ is founded upon the confession of Her Saints and watered with the blood of the millions of Martyrs who did not submit to the godless powers of the world, but offered their lives for the saving truth of the Orthodox Faith.

Among them are also Martyrs who were not put to death by pagans, but by the hands of heretics who bore the name of Christ.

To this host belongs the Holy Hieromartyr Isidore of Estonia together with the seventy-two fellow Martyrs who suffered with him, victims of the murderous frenzy of the papal Uniates.

Saint Isidore lived in the fifteenth century and was from Estonia. He was a devout Orthodox presbyter of the parish of Yuryev in Livonia (in today’s Latvia–Estonia region) and was deeply devoted to the one saving Orthodox Faith.

His ministry, however, coincided with particularly grievous times, when the papal Uniates unleashed harsh persecutions against the Orthodox who refused to submit to Papal authority.

Prologue in Sermons: January 8

To Monks Who Love to Move from Place to Place

January 8

(Commemoration of our Venerable Father Elias the Hermit)*

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some lazy monks say: “How bored I am! If only I were now in such-and-such a monastery, if I were here or there, then I would be refreshed and would become a completely different person.” How should we regard the above words and desires of these monks? We must regard them in this way: these monks, seeking — perhaps without even noticing it — worldly amusements, first forget God; second, from forgetting God they fall into sloth; third, they come under the power of fleshly lust; and fourth, they lose the fear of God. All this we shall now attempt to explain.