Prologue in Sermons: May 18

 

A Means for Successful Struggle Against Evil Thoughts and the Passions

May 18

(A Word of Saint Ephraim, on how one ought with every diligence to honor the holy books.) 
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The word of God says that the imagination of the heart of man is evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21). And truly, nothing persecutes us throughout life so much as evil thoughts. You may intend even a good deed, yet something unclean will unfailingly attach itself to it. You stand at prayer, and even there sometimes you will not be freed from temptations of thought; they speak about God, about faith, about eternal salvation, and even there wicked questions and thoughts contrary to the teaching of the faith begin to present themselves to our mind. In general, it is difficult even to say how much evil we think in life, and how much sinful and impure matter nests within the soul.

And meanwhile, one cannot remain indifferent to all this impure and sinful matter; for the word of God says that an unrighteous thought is an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 15:26), and that nothing unclean shall enter into the Kingdom of God (Rev. 21:27). Therefore sinful thoughts are not insignificant; therefore the Lord will judge us also for them; therefore we too must struggle against them unceasingly, with all the powers of our soul. And for successful struggle one must know the means that are trustworthy in battle. What then are these means? Saint Ephraim says concerning this the following:

Synaxis of the Holy Hierarchs of Kythrea

In 2018, the 17th of May, the feast day of Saint Athanasios of Chytri, the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus established also the Synaxis of all the Holy Bishops of Kythrea (ancient Chytri) to be honored together.

For the first Bishop of Chytri (today known as Kythrea), Saint Pappos the Confessor, there is no information concerning his place of origin. He was ordained bishop in 309 A.D. He is characterized as a confessor, because he was persecuted and tortured during the persecutions, from which he survived. He enjoyed great respect among the other bishops and the flock, because of his life and his age. For this reason, in 367 A.D., after the repose of the Bishop of Salamis (Constantia), that is, the Archbishop of Cyprus, the Bishops of Cyprus ask Saint Pappos, being already a bishop for 58 years, to propose the new archbishop.

Saint Pappos withdraws, prays fervently, and a heavenly voice reveals to him what he must do. Thus, accompanied by three bishops and two deacons, he goes to the marketplace of Salamis, where he finds the monk Epiphanios buying grapes, accompanied by 2 other monks. Epiphanios was from Palestine, became a monk in Egypt, founded a Monastery in Palestine, and came to Cyprus, where he visited Saint Hilarion the Great, who was practicing asceticism near the village of Episkopi of Paphos. Epiphanios was preparing to depart from Cyprus.

Homily for the Sunday of the Blind Man (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Sunday of the Blind Man

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

“Blinded in the eyes of my soul, I come to You, O Christ, like the man blind from birth, crying to You in repentance: You are the Most Radiant Light of those in darkness.” (Kontakion, Tone 4)

The Holy Church, celebrating the healing of the man blind from birth, assigns to this celebration one of the Sunday days of the most important part of the ecclesiastical year — Holy Pentecost — thereby indicating that the question of spiritual blindness is the fundamental question of our life. For we live in the world created by God, and our life is subject to those laws which the Lord established for the universe created by Him.

But the Lord is not only the Lawgiver of the Universe, but also the Source and Giver of life, because He gives to everything in the world “life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25). And He Himself is Life. “In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men” (John 1:4). Therefore, if we wish to know God, then the path to such knowledge is possible for us precisely through life, as through that which was created by God.

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Blind Man (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Blind Man 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). 

- The answer of the blind man, who received sight by the command of Christ God, to the Pharisees. -

The present Sunday, beloved brothers and sisters, is called in the Church tradition the Sunday of the Blind Man, because today it is appointed to read from the Gospel of John the sacred account concerning the miraculous healing by Jesus Christ of a man blind from birth. The miracle of healing took place thus: the Lord spat on the ground, made clay from the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said to him: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam," which means: sent. He went and washed, and came back seeing (John 9:6–7). Some of the eyewitnesses of this most glorious miracle glorified the Lord and believed in Him; among those who believed was first of all the former blind man himself, while others, especially the Pharisees, hated Jesus Christ even more, slandering Him, as though He performed miracles by demonic power, although a demon never yet healed a single person from blindness, nor can it; for his dominion is for a time the dominion of death and evil, and not the dominion of life and mercy.

Holy Apostles Andronikos and Junia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. This Apostle of the Lord, after traversing as though having wings the whole inhabited world, uprooted from the foundations every delusion by his preaching concerning Christ, having also as follower of him the all-wondrous Junia, who had already been deadened to the world and lived only for Christ. The result of their activity was that they drew many people to the knowledge of God, thus causing the destruction of the idol temples. Wherever they went they built divine churches, drove away unclean spirits from people, and healed incurable sufferings. In the end, as human beings, they departed from this life. These apostles the Apostle Paul remembers in the Epistle to the Romans. "Greet," he says, "Andronikos and Junia my kinsmen, who also before me became Christians."

2. The kinship of the Apostle Paul toward the apostles celebrated today, Andronikos and Junia, as also their before-him entry into the Church as members of Christ, is among the points which the Holy Hymnographer Joseph strongly touches upon, because he sees them being projected by Paul himself as proofs of the important position of these in the Church. The Apostle Paul, that is, by mentioning particularly Saints Andronikos and Junia in the Epistle to the Romans, shows that these are apostles who hold official position in the Church. “As distinguished indeed among the Apostles the blessed Paul proclaims you in the Church, O blessed ones” (Ode 5). “As kinsman of Paul and as having become before him a disciple, together with him now we honor you, having gathered in faith, O Andronikos” (Ode 5).

Prologue in Sermons: May 17

The Guardian Angels Depart From Us When We Remain In Sins

May 17

(A discourse on how one ought to stand in church with fear and trembling.) 
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

By His ineffable mercy, the Lord granted to each of us a Guardian Angel. The Guardian Angels, by the will of God, remain with us, teach us good, and turn us away from evil. But here is the question: do they always remain with us? Do they ever depart from us? Do they leave us at some time? What shall we say to this?

The Church discourse says: “To every believer an Angel comes, if only we ourselves do not drive him away from us by evil deeds. As smoke drives away bees and the stench drives away doves, so also our foul-smelling sin drives away from us our Guardian Angel. Therefore, says the word of God, ‘He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.’”

Venerable Theodore the Sanctified in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Venerable Theodore the Sanctified, who flourished during the times of the emperor Julian the Apostate (361–363 A.D.), was from Egypt and was born to wealthy parents. At a young age he followed Venerable Pachomios in the Thebaid of Egypt and entered under his spiritual guidance, while he became one of his most beloved disciples. A faithful imitator of his teacher in the monastic life, he succeeded him after his repose in the abbacy of the Monastery. For the purity of his life and his holiness he was endowed by God with the grace of wonderworking. And because of his perfect purity of soul and body he received the title "Sanctified." Venerable Theodore reposed in peace in 367 A.D.

2. The origin of Venerable Theodore from Egypt becomes the first occasion for the ecclesiastical poet in order to bring forth the change that the Lord Jesus Christ brought into the world. Already he notes that the great Saint of today, as also all the saints of God before and after him in Egypt, were predestined by Christ to become saints, after long ago He descended into Egypt and, foreseeing as God their response to His calling, He called them and saved them and glorified them, according to the word of the Apostle Paul (Rom. 8). “Making the clouds His ascent as Master, having before descended into Egypt on a light cloud, He predestined the elect who shone forth, those being caught up in clouds as God-minded ones, among whom is Theodore the Sanctified, our Father” (Vespers Sticheron).

Saint Theodore the Sanctified Resource Page

Venerable Theodore the Sanctified (Feast Day - May 16)

Verses

You are shown forth as a divine gift, Theodore,A

Among the Saints, O sanctified Saint.
On the sixteenth Theodore flew away from the earth.

 

Saint Theodore the Sanctified, Disciple of Pachomios the Great

 

May: Day 16: Venerable Theodore the Sanctified

 

Prologue in Sermons: May 16 

 

Venerable Theodore the Sanctified in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 
 

The Manner By Which Saint Theodore the Sanctified Embraced Monasticism

 

Abba Pachomios and the Phantom

 

The Only Two Churches Dedicated to Saint Theodore the Sanctified in Greece

 

Saint Pachomios the Great Resource Page 

 

Synaxarion of our Venerable Father Baras

 

Synaxarion

By Haralambos M. Bousias

On the 16th day of this same month (May), we commemorate our Venerable Father Baras, who lived in asceticism in Constantinople.*

Verses

Baras strangely offered incense to an earthly ruler;
Now he offers incense to the King of All in the heavenly city.

He was originally from Egypt, and lived a God-loving ascetic life in the regions of the Queen of Cities together with his companions Raboulas and Patapios, with whom he came to the capital of Byzantium during the reign of Emperor Zeno. These three Fathers loved silence and solitude, yet they also avoided complete isolation as something blameworthy. Therefore they established small dwellings for their ascetic struggles: Patapios settled in the more northern area, near the seaside wall of Blachernae; Raboulas in the more southern part; and Baras midway between them. Finding an old church dedicated to the Forerunner, and being a zealous imitator of his labors, Baras made his dwelling there.

In time, many monks gathered around him, and he built a renowned monastery dedicated to the Baptist, called the Monastery of Petra. As Emperor Anastasios approached the monastery on a hunting expedition, he marveled at the Venerable one, who came out to meet him while censing, carrying burning coals in the fold of his poor and worn cloak. The emperor therefore granted him extensive lands. After living peacefully and in a God-pleasing manner, and being counted worthy of extraordinary miracles, he departed to the Lord.